Perhaps it was the emotional stress of the past few months, or a hormonal shift which I am quite sure occurred (I am nursing my little guy till his second birthday but my body’s reproductive rhythms are back in full swing, I see this as a mixed message which most certainly must have some hormonal wackiness involved), or just the cumulative result of chocolate and pastry indulgences…but there is no arguing with the little digital display on our bathroom scale. For the past month, every time I stand on that thing, I brace myself. Because every time, the number is higher. Oh drag!

As far as I can tell, there is not much to be done about this in the next few months. I’m in the midst of a big professional project which will be unveiled as soon as we get it together (yep, that’s right, more squeezing of productive moments into our already-maxed-out-lives). And I have a little pet theory that getting too obsessive about diets when lactating has an adverse effect on milk production. I have come to accept the notion that the lactating-mama-body keeps a little extra on hand for emergencies.

I do plan to up my vegetable intake, and increase my calorie-burning activities. But I am also hatching a plan for the months following my baby’s transition to little boy (read: stops nursing). It dawned on me last week, that the keys to making my plan a success are getting really enthusiastic about it, and a big part of that is making plans in advance so that over the next few months my eyes are continually trained on the prize of weight loss and giving my body a chance to revel in itself apart from anybody else.

Here’s the simple plan: in the months of July and August, I will not consume any products with cow’s milk (best to get those milk hormones out of my system, even if they are a cow’s, heaven knows that I don’t need any more baby fat), sugar (excluding chocolate, and honey is permitted – I have quite the sweet tooth and I’ll probably be going through oxytocin and prolactin withdrawals), nor wheat (just because it seems like a nice way to give my digestion a break). It bears mentioning that, I don’t really consume alcohol with the exception of my daily kombucha. If I were a drinker, I’d cut that out too.

And my plan for sticking with my plan is to gather quite an arsenal of recipes so that I am never without ideas of tasty things to eat. July and August are ideal months to do something like this anyway on account of the farmers’ market abundance, but getting excited about what I’m going to prepare via recipes will seal the deal. The recipes will serve as my jump boards. The produce and the actual preparation will feed my creativity.

And, with any luck…all these plans will get me fitting back into the majority of my wardrobe (did I mention that I have exactly on pair of pants that fits me right now?!)

I started a pintrest board to keep track of all my recipes. Someday I’ll figure out how to display a little “follow me” sort of button. And on that topic, I also started a twitter account for keeping track of those quick ah ha moments that I have now and again without weaving them into a whole post. So, I’ll probably get a button for that too. Someday… For now my flubbits and I are headed back to work.