"You look great... for having ten kids."

That's what they say. And don't get me wrong, it feels good and I take it as a compliment.

But what I really want them to say is, "You look great!"

So I've started a new weight loss program called Take Shape For Life. Without giving too many details today, as I plan on writing an in-depth post on this later this week, I'm learning why I am so fat.

Here's what I've learned: That I've been regularly consuming between 3000 and 4000 calories PER DAY. In order to maintain a healthy weight level while breastfeeding, I, according to my BMI, should be consuming about 1800 to 2000 calories per day.

NO WONDER I'M SO DANG FAT!

I've also realized that "picking" is a major source of calories for me. Did the twins leave some oven-baked macaroni on their plates? I'll just help myself to some of that. Did someone leave a spoon in the pb jar? What harm could a spoonful or 2 of peanut butter do? The 15-year-old girl baking a batch of cookies? I'll just have a handful of chocolate chips, or three.

NOT GOOD!

Did you know that 9 tortilla chips have about 140 calories? 9 CHIPS! So when you go to a Mexican restaurant and eat a bowl of chips with salsa even before the meal comes, you've already eaten the equivalent in calories of what you should eat for your entire meal! And then you eat your meal on top of that! ARGGHHHH!

So everyone knows how to count calories, right? Easy, you just look on the back of the box, or can, or bag, and it says right on there. But what if you are making a recipe from scratch? Are you supposed to take the calorie count of each ingredient, multiply it times the amount used, divide by the number of servings, carry the one, and so on and so forth, for every recipe you make? Now that would be a challenge.

To solve this problem, I went to nutritiondata.com. I've mentioned this wonderful site on my blog before, but the tools offered here are so applicable to what I'm trying to do now, I'm mentioning it again.

So I have a favorite recipe called Baked Macaroni and Cheese. I posted it on my blog HERE, and I made it yesterday for the fam. It certainly isn't one of the most nutritious meals out there, except for the sparse whole wheat bread crunchy topping, but it's cheap, easy, and delicious.

Because I've chosen to report what I eat everyday to my health coach, along with its calorie count, I needed to figure out how many calories a serving of this deliciousness has. So I went to nutritiondata.com, logged in, input the recipe values and serving size, and wha-la, I now know that each serving contains 334 calories! The charts are HERE if you wanna see.

If you want to start counting calories, I highly recommend this site for recipes you use often. Plus, if you home school or want to give your kids some extracurricular learning, have them enter in a recipe. It's a great story problem tool which involves converting measurements, multiplying, dividing and critical thinking.

So far I've been on my new weight-loss plan for a little over a week and have lost 3 pounds. Doesn't sound like much, but as a nursing mama, it's not recommended that I lose more than 2 pounds per week, so I'm right on target. If you're not a nursing mama, and you would like to lose weight fast, WITHOUT counting calories, like my health coach, Dr. Hickerson,...

...who has lost about 60 pounds in four months, visit her personal Take Shape for Life website and check it out! If you're a nursing mom like me, she's got a special program just for you, too. You're going to love it!

(And as per the new FTC blogging regs, I need to tell you that if you join the Take Shape For life program by clicking the above link, I get a little something special, especially since my health coach is also my SISTER!)

My favorite thing about this program is that it's coach-based. There is nothing that motivates me more than knowing I am going to be reporting everything I consume to my sister at the end of each day, and that if I do poorly, she is going to yell at me, literally. However, if she becomes YOUR health coach, I'm sure she'll be much nicer to you. And the great part? She doesn't charge for her time. She'll even send you a graph of your progress at the end of the week, because she is a scientist by trade, and that's what she likes to do, make graphs just for fun. 

So, wish me luck, and maybe, just one day soon, someone will say to me, out of the blue, "You look great!"

Thanks for listening!