Calculating your estimated energy requirements

I believe that it is useful to understand what your individual energy requirement are, you will need a calculator..
Women aged 15-22   7900Kj (1900 calories)
                    23-50   7500Kj (1800 calories)
                    51-65   7100Kj (1700 calories)

This is based on a height of 162cm for every cm you are above or below this height you need to add or substract 105Kj (25 calories)
If you have a very physical job you can add 2100Kj (i do have a list of all the occupations and the estimated energy expenditures)
If you are breastfeeding you can add 1500Kj
If you are very inactive, subtract 840Kj
Men aged 15-22  10900Kj (2600 calories) 
               23-50  9600Kj (2300 calories)
               51-65  8400Kj (2000 calories)
Follow the same steps as listed in the women for height and activity level.

To give you an idea, your breakfast and lunch should be a max of 2,000Kj, dinner a max of 3,000Kj and snacks should make up the rest. Obviously this is just a rough guide. Ofcourse none of this is helpful if you can't read a food label, or have access to nutrition data for whole foods. I will help you with this as we get further along.

This week is about establishing an exercise routine. Choose a time that works for you. What you choose in terms of an activity is upto you. For me, I'm going to Wii Fit at about 5am before the kids wake up. The Wii fit gives you a date stamp when you've exercised and I find that useful to establish a routine, plus its really fun!. I'm also going to increase my incidental exercise, for example take the stairs, park the car further away and walk instead of drive etc. I'm also going to join my kids with their daily races they have around the chook pen, usually I just watch.

With my 3rd child I would put the littlies in the double stroller, walk my oldest to school and go for a big walk (with a stop at the park for a play). As I got fitter I would do an exercise dvd when I got back as the kids would always fall asleep on the way home.

With my 1st and 2nd babies, I was a gym junkie. The kids would go in the creche and I would do a variety of activities. I was also teaching body balance (a yoga pilates class).

In the beginning, prior to kids, I would get up at 5am and either go running or use the home gym. I used to tape aerobics ozstyle and do that sometimes.

I have the most constraints on my ability to exercise than ever before, but I have determination!

Choose what works for you! Just do something that makes you puff for an hour.

Exercise has more influence over weight loss, where as food intake has more influence over health.

Just remember you will probably hate to exercise at first, but you will get hooked on the endorphins and eventually you'll look forward to it (really!)
Also don't forget to take some before photos and weigh yourself 1st thing in the morning, before you eat and preferably after you've been to the toilet.
Next post will be about next week's food intake and some info about what influences food choices.
Happy exercising!