If you’ve done the dieting yo-yo thing you already know it goes something like this:

You decide you must lose weight.

You eat well and exercise.

You lose weight!

And then you believe you are magically cured and go back to every dirty habit you had before you lost the weight.

Guess what happens next…

You gain weight.

And then the cycle starts again.

I’m sure this isn’t news to anyone reading this but it is salient. If it weren’t, most of us wouldn’t keep following the same cycle time and time again.

So here’s why I’m mentioning it now.

I hit my goal of seeing the 150's!

As of October 27 I weigh 159 pounds. I am beyond proud of myself. That leaves another 15 pounds to slay before hitting my pre-baby #2 weight.

So seeing the 159 on my scale of course my first thought is…”I need to celebrate!”

Read the cycle written above to see where this is going.

I usually schedule one of my cheat meals (two a week) on my weigh-in day (Wednesdays) as a reward. I’ve just realized that this is a mistake.

The same day I weighed-in at 159 pounds I ate 15 Halloween chocolates.

They didn’t even taste that good (we didn’t get the good kind with Caramilk and Wunderbar – darn!)

The chocolate tasted kinda stale and flavourless and yet I kept going (and going and going).

I also had my regularly scheduled cheat meal at a restaurant with Lio (a seafood salad – not bad; garlic bread with bocconcini and sun-dried tomatoes – bad; a gigantic cookie the size of my head with a scoop of ice cream and chocolate sauce drizzled over top – REALLY BAD).

So I’ve begun to realize that rewarding myself with food may be a little counterintuitive. I’ve decided I will still engage in my cheat meals twice a week…but I think I may stop using Wednesdays as one of those days.

The lower the number on the scale gets…the more prone I will be to go CRAZY with my cheat (deep dish pizza anyone?) and wouldn’t it be stupid to gain back all the weight I just lost over the week in one day?

What a waste of waking up every morning at 5:30am, right?

Slacking Off

On the same topic I’ve also noticed that I haven’t been using my food scale as often as I should so my portions could very well be creeping up on me.

I’ve upped my daily morning snack from a short to a tall at Starbucks and justified it by saying my workouts have gotten harder (which they have…but still no excuse).

And I’m sneaking in extra little treats throughout the day (a handful of nuts, one of Sid’s cookies) more than I should.

Mind you, I still write down all of my cheats in a food journal…but writing it down doesn’t make it go away.

I’ve become like a two-year old pushing the envelope as much as I can before my parents finally send me to the naughty corner. Except instead of the naughty corner there are my maternity jeans mocking me from my closet.

I don’t want to go back there.

Please don’t make me get back into those jeans!

So like a Catholic in a confessional I have given you the straight goods on what’s happening in my life.

I’ll always be honest about my challenges and triumphs.

Let’s motivate each other.

You can follow me on Twitter @tracycityline or “LIKE” CityLine on Facebook.

Either way let’s keep in touch!

By the way, Chatelaine magazine has just launched a new website and have sweetened the pot for everyone making a healthy resolution with a contest. They are challenging all of us to make a fresh start by improving our health, home, money or love life.

You could win over $10,000 in prizes so don’t wait.

Go to www.chatelaine.com/freshstart and make your own pledge.

My pledge is up already and I’m also posting updates.

I’m losing that baby weight one pound at a time!

Come along.

Tracy