Hello! My name is Leah and I'm a 33 year old work-from-home mom and website developer from Minnesota. (Can you tell from the picture?) I taught Spanish in a former life and have a great interest in food -- sometimes more literary than culinary because I adore reading cookbooks. MFK Fisher is a favorite author of mine and Julia Child is my muse in the kitchen (but let no book by Martha Stewart cross my path!)

My dear little boy, Kipp, just had his first birthday on January 30. For an entire year, it was very easy to cut myself a lot of slack regarding diet and exercise. "Hey, you JUST had a baby," I'd tell myself. "If those jeans are still too tight, relax. The weight will come off. . .in time."

And, for the most part it did. I'd gained 45 pounds during my pregnancy (and I did aerobics up until I gave birth, so I figure that's the amount of fat my body just wanted to stockpile.) I had one doctor all in a tizzy because I'd gained too much weight, while another one told me I could gain all I wanted to because I'd been thin to begin with. What a sweet man. (FYI: I'd never call myself 'thin'; at my pre-pregnancy weight of 5'6 and 140 pounds, I was just normal.)

Because I breastfed, I was a calorie-burning machine. I could eat all I wanted and the weight just disappeared -- up to a point. Now my baby is practically weaned (he only nurses if he wakes in the middle of the night), and my jeans are still uncomfortably tight. I don't want to buy new clothes, so I've got to change my ways.

I'm hoping that keeping a food diary might help.

Serving healthy meals is definitely a challenge in this culture, especially in the town I live in where there are no whole foods markets. Yes, the supermarkets have fruits and vegetables, but sometimes I'm in the mood for brown basmati rice or whole wheat pasta. For healthy carbohydrates I've got to drive 30 miles to the natural foods store in the next town.

And if gathering healthy products isn't enough work, making healthy meals definitely requires time and effort. The secret is spending entire days at home, with no other errands on the agenda. I bought Annabel Karmel's book on first meals for children. It's an awesome book with great pictures. Some of the recipes are very English -- fish pie, for example, is something I don't think I'm convincing anyone in the family to eat, though Shepherd's Pie might be OK. Anyway, as I work my way through the recipes in this book, cooking healthy and creative meals for my little one, I'll let you know about the successes and the disasters.

I'll also let you know about all the times I open up a Gerber Graduates because the kitchen is a disaster, my baby is squawking for something RIGHT NOW, and opening a can and popping it in the microwave for 45 seconds takes about all my spare energy.

Besides, I like Gerber Graduates myself. Hey, I might just go on a Gerber Graduates diet for a while. Something to think about. . .

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these diary entries and that any inspiration I find I can pass along to you!