Well, whaddya know?

I have made a discovery. As I told you before, the numbers on my scale have been mercifully reducing over the past few months. I was pondering this yesterday. When we first moved, I was walking regularly, about 3 days a week, about 3 miles each time. Since the weather has turned cooler and my Aunt M has taken on a major kitchen renovation (she's my walking buddy), to call my workouts "spotty" is being extremely kind. However, Dean is much more active now, so I feel like I'm burning calories every minute I'm chasing him around or playing with toys. Since he's started solids, I've been making toddler-friendly meals and sharing them, especially on the days I'm home for lunch. Therein lies my discovery: if you eat like a toddler, you will not only be eating healthier, but you will lose weight.

Eat like a toddler, look like a hottie.

It's my new mantra. What do you think? I don't know how I'd do with WW, counting points and such. Doing a food journal has helped in the past, like when I needed to drop the 11 pounds I piled on after getting married. But portion control has never been something I was good at. Until now. I've started serving myself toddler-sized portions of the entree (in our house, that usually means some type of pasta with lean meat and as many veggies as possible crammed in--see my recipe for turkey meatballs). I've even started serving myself out of Dean's Gerber bowls. Of course, these portions don't completely fill me up, so I fill the void with salad or low-fat soups or fruit. Dean FINALLY has enough teeth to chew a ripe pear or chunks of banana, so whole fruits have taken over the dessert scene in our house. (Much healthier than our previous dessert scene, which often consisted of my latest cake creation or gummi bears.) Another thing about toddler meals: We're less inclined to put a lot of added salt, butter, sugar, etc. into our kids' food, right? Those of us with high blood pressure, like me, don't need the salt anyway, so why not follow our kids' healthy-eating lead?

I'm going to give this a try and see if it really makes the difference I think it will. If I hit upon a great recipe that's both satisfying and yummy, I'll be sure to share it. In the meantime, if YOU have any toddler-friendly recipes, please share them!

Here's to hotness.