But, we’re moving—into a 3 bedroom and I’m so excited!

It’s a leetle stressful to pack everyone into the itty bitty living space.

By the way, I liked that last commenter. I’ve seen pictures of you and you seem really thin. Our proportions do change with the childbearing, but it doesn’t look like you should lose any weight. Just my opinion!

I have no idea what you look like, but I’m sure God made you beautiful. You’ve had two children with no interruption, so expecting to look like you did before that is *unrealistic.* If you have any history of an eating disorder or body hatred in general, ask someone else’s opinion who you trust before trying to lose any weight.

That said, these are my suggestions, in no particular order:

1. Stop reading any fashion/ beauty magazines or watching TV. It’s hard to be happy with yourself when surrounded by plastic, fake people.
2. Read “The Obesity Myth.” Great book.
3. Stop drinking anything but water most of the time (even diet pop makes you fat, they say).. I dropped 5 lb when I stopped drinking cranberry juice cocktail all day long
4. Cook from scratch with real food (I think you do that a lot already)
5. Find something you like to do that’s active. Doesn’t have to be at a gym, going for a walk with the kids is good enough as long as you do it a lot.

If you do those things, regardless of what the scale says, you’ll probably be a fairly healthy individual. I think our society makes WAY too much of a big deal about numbers on the scale.

My ABC tip is this: the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD is freakishly effective. Freakishly.

I think you would love my friend Megan’s blog, if you have never seen it:
http://sortacruchy.blogspot.com/

The catches:
1) You have to get approved for a mortgage, and standards are tightening because of the current mortgage crisis
2)Once you take into account insurance, taxes, mortgage, mortgage insurance, maintenance, purchases like a lawn mower, etc, a house WILL be more expensive.
3) You have to (or, rather, probably should) have a down payment when buying but not renting,
4) Many places in the country, buying is practically always more expensive than renting, period. Where you & I live, it’s a toss up.
5) Buying’s “break-even point” is 5-7 years, so if you’re not going to be living in a place very long, buying may not be worth it.

That all said, now’s a great time to buy, if you can get approved for a mortgage. House prices are low (and dropping, so if you’re going to sell quickly, you could lose money.) and it’s a “buyer’s market”