Sonia Kruger: 'My daughter is giving me love... and love handles'

My toddler is giving me love... and love handles. 

During my pregnancy with Maggie I gained around 20 kilos. This was mostly due to my addiction to all things sweet. 

Sonia Kruger and her daughter Maggie. (Image: Getty)

The fact that I was heavily pregnant through summer meant I was living on a strict diet of Paddle Pops. I wasn’t fussy - banana, chocolate, rainbow-flavoured, I just couldn’t get enough. I can actually remember eating around seven on one particular sweltering January day.  

When she was born, I thought the weight would drop off. About half of it did, but the other 10 kilos hung around until I went back to work and then slowly it came off.  

Let’s face it - baby food isn’t that exciting. I didn’t crave rusks or rice cereal, that’s for sure, but now she’s a toddler that weight is creeping back on. 

Toddlers snack. All. The. Time. I’d love to pretend I’m the perfect mum who makes sure her go-to foods are carrot sticks and slices of apple - which she loves, by the way. But she also loves Tiny Teddies, Peppa Pig ice cream and cheesy pasta.

As it turns out... so do I.

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I’m forever polishing off the peanut butter toast she doesn’t finish in the morning, or the mashed potato, broccoli and chicken sausages I make for dinner that she refuses to eat.

I mean, seriously - who doesn’t love mashed potato?

Toddlers eat constantly, and as a consequence it seems so do I.

The result? I put back on eight of the 10 kilos I worked hard so hard to shift when she was a baby.

Maggie might have the metabolic rate of a threenager, but I most certainly do not. So it’s back to the drawing board.   

LISTEN: The Honey Mums podcast covers all parenting dilemmas big and small.

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Willpower is key (I missed out on that particular genetic characteristic), so now it’s my dog Fergie who gets Maggie’s leftovers.  

This means I now have to walk Fergie more often, and that way we can both try and keep the love handles at bay.