It happened again. After I tipped the scales at 200 pounds with my first child, I swore I would never weigh that much again. I easily kept that promise with my second pregnancy, starting at my ideal weight, but my third pregnancy was a different story.

Two years after giving birth to my second child, I found out I was pregnant. I weighed 165 pounds – 30 pounds more than my ideal weight. During the pregnancy, I packed on my usual 40-ish pounds. I started thinking about weight loss on the car ride home from the hospital. It’s taken two months for me to get serious.

This is my journey. You are welcome to come along. I promise you that I am not a fitness fanatic. After three kids, my zest for exercise – other than carrying car seats and chasing toddlers – has considerably waned. I do not have a gym membership and my childfree time is nearly non-existent. As far as food is concerned, I am not iron-willed. Too many cookies and a freezer full of frozen treats are right down the hall. I don’t want to diet or sweat myself into oblivion. What I really want is to feel good about myself and to set a strong example for my children. Here’s how I plan to do it:

With the help of childbirth and breastfeeding, I now weigh 180 pounds. I want to lose 40 of them.

Since I don’t have much time to myself, I will have to lose this weight with the kids in tow. Right now, the baby is too small to be comfortable in the jogging stroller. Until she is able to ride while I walk, my husband and I have agreed on 30 minutes, every evening. I plan to use this time rotating through several exercise videos that I have collected over the years.

During the bulk of my day, when I am alone with the kids, I plan to make better eating choices – eat more fruits, vegetables and protein, less processed carbohydrates and sugars. I also can squeeze out five minutes of time, here or there, to get in some activity. While it might sound strange, I’ll do little things like squats while I’m folding laundry, and I can stretch or do push ups and sit-ups when the baby dozes off.

That’s the plan – simple enough. It only requires 30 minutes of dependence on someone else. The rest is up to me.