What goes up - must come down

I still remember when I announced at work I was pregnant a young girl saying she could not wait to be pregnant so she could eat everything. I reminded her that it still needs to come off again and having experienced 17kg of weight gain with my first son I can say taking it off again was not really easy or fun - especially for someone who likes food and hates to diet. Lucky I like to move, although having an ankle reconstruction has also meant that even this is not as easy as it used to be.

Baby number two arrived 6 weeks back and here I am again. Of course in the first week an initial chunk of weight comes away and having a 4kg baby helped this number to increase. However, the real work to be done soon starts to reveal itself.

First time around, I decided that I was not going to buy any clothes until the old ones fit - why buy new bigger clothes to stuff your chub into when a whole old wardrobe is boxed up waiting to be worn? So I invested $500 in 10 weeks of personal training and hard work - starting at 7 weeks post birth. My one hour training session a week killed me but I quickly progressed and the kilos dropped, the clothes started to fit, I started to feel better and fitter and happier. I had to write down what I was eating - and certainly sometimes stretched the truth by noting, for example, a cheeseburger as a cheese sandwich, but felt bad when the trainer would wonder why I wasn't losing more weight if that was what I was eating ("whoops").

And here I am again on this train ride and keen to be back to my normal self as close to my 36th birthday as possible. The longer I leave it the less it will move and this is not a good thing. Of course having two boys to co-ordinate is still something I am working on, and still having a stiff foot also limits me, as well as a sore neck and back, but with fitness comes strength and well being so I have a goal - pre-pregnancy weight by 20 February.

Clearly there is work to be done. around 11kg's to go to be exact. But one must start somewhere if a goal is to be achieved. I am tempted by the Rapid Detox which advertises that I can get rid of my muffin top in one weekend - but I am not convinced it won't come back again once I have a muffin. Thus, I plan to get a trainer early in the new year when the festive season is over but until then - my main motivation will be how uncomfortably tight my wetsuit is and not wanting to be on the beach in my tracksuit pants.

Bring on the bikini.