You can get your foot in the IRS door with a surprisingly small amount of accounting coursework. Some jobs, such as revenue officer, demand no such coursework; others require as little as six hours of accounting. So says Ellen Levine, director of the IRS career management and recruitment division in Washington, DC.

The agency is also searching beyond the college graduate job candidate pool. “We are looking for people who want to come in mid-career,” Levine confirms, “having decided that the benefits of working for the government will appeal to them. We’re talking about how it all adds up: quality of life, stability, career progression, benefits, and location.”

Balance More Than Your Budget
Levine believes that IRS employees will be able to balance their work and home lives. You’ll work 40 hours a week with no overtime–unless you opt for it. If you do work longer hours, you’re given comp time. You’ll earn 13 days of sick leave and 13 days of vacation time as a newcomer; double that if you stay 15 years. You can work part-time, or even seasonally from January to April. With on-site day care at the larger offices and flex time in virtually any office, it’s easy to see why Levine thinks IRS benefits are among the best in the accounting world.

The IRS also has a good labor record with persons of color and religious minorities. “There are lots of opportunities,” Levine says. “The government has always been in the forefront of encouraging a diverse workforce.” Whether you’re a secretary or a revenue agent, you’ll find the IRS anxious to advance your accounting knowledge. “We have a human resources investment fund that takes a percentage of the training budget and allows employees to gain mission-related education that’s not job related. If you come in as a secretary and want to become a tax specialist, you can apply for a grant to attend school and start gaining accounting competencies. Assuming you pass the course, you do not have to pay it back,” explains Levine. Last year, 2,000 of the 100,000 IRS employees took advantage of the fund.

If you’re worried about moving to Washington, DC–Surprise! Most IRS employees work well outside the Beltway, in any number of major U.S. cities.

Could You Really Work for the Man?
There are some drawbacks to working for the IRS. If you’re ever a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, you may get booed by the audience, as one IRS employee found. And you may become the target of endless cocktail party quips when people ask where you work. But it’s not all that bad, Levine insists.

“The [anti-IRS] attitude is changing because, as demographers tell us, the college students we’re looking at hiring haven’t had a lot of experience with the IRS, so they’re not coming in with preconceived notions. There might be the notion that we’re the accountants with eyeshades. If you come work for us, you’ll be dealing with large companies almost from day one after your training. The challenges and growth opportunities are so much greater here [than at other accounting firms],” says Levine.

Unlike those Big Five accounting firms, the IRS won’t constantly put you on the road. “Most of our employees work within their own commuting area, so there isn’t a lot of travel other than local travel, going to a taxpayer’s residence or place of business,” she explains. Sign up for a job in the criminal investigation arm and you’ll get to bring something to work most Big Five accountants wouldn’t dream of–a gun.

And perhaps most soothing of all, you’ll never have to worry about being merged out of a job with the IRS. This is one company that’s never going to be on anyone’s acquisition target list.

You can get your foot in the IRS door with a surprisingly small amount of accounting coursework. Some jobs, such as revenue officer, demand no such coursework; others require as little as six hours of accounting. So says Ellen Levine, director of the IRS career management and recruitment division in Washington, DC.

The agency is also searching beyond the college graduate job candidate pool. “We are looking for people who want to come in mid-career,” Levine confirms, “having decided that the benefits of working for the government will appeal to them. We’re talking about how it all adds up: quality of life, stability, career progression, benefits, and location.”

Balance More Than Your Budget
Levine believes that IRS employees will be able to balance their work and home lives. You’ll work 40 hours a week with no overtime–unless you opt for it. If you do work longer hours, you’re given comp time. You’ll earn 13 days of sick leave and 13 days of vacation time as a newcomer; double that if you stay 15 years. You can work part-time, or even seasonally from January to April. With on-site day care at the larger offices and flex time in virtually any office, it’s easy to see why Levine thinks IRS benefits are among the best in the accounting world.

The IRS also has a good labor record with persons of color and religious minorities. “There are lots of opportunities,” Levine says. “The government has always been in the forefront of encouraging a diverse workforce.” Whether you’re a secretary or a revenue agent, you’ll find the IRS anxious to advance your accounting knowledge. “We have a human resources investment fund that takes a percentage of the training budget and allows employees to gain mission-related education that’s not job related. If you come in as a secretary and want to become a tax specialist, you can apply for a grant to attend school and start gaining accounting competencies. Assuming you pass the course, you do not have to pay it back,” explains Levine. Last year, 2,000 of the 100,000 IRS employees took advantage of the fund.

If you’re worried about moving to Washington, DC–Surprise! Most IRS employees work well outside the Beltway, in any number of major U.S. cities.

Could You Really Work for the Man?
There are some drawbacks to working for the IRS. If you’re ever a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, you may get booed by the audience, as one IRS employee found. And you may become the target of endless cocktail party quips when people ask where you work. But it’s not all that bad, Levine insists.

“The [anti-IRS] attitude is changing because, as demographers tell us, the college students we’re looking at hiring haven’t had a lot of experience with the IRS, so they’re not coming in with preconceived notions. There might be the notion that we’re the accountants with eyeshades. If you come work for us, you’ll be dealing with large companies almost from day one after your training. The challenges and growth opportunities are so much greater here [than at other accounting firms],” says Levine.

Unlike those Big Five accounting firms, the IRS won’t constantly put you on the road. “Most of our employees work within their own commuting area, so there isn’t a lot of travel other than local travel, going to a taxpayer’s residence or place of business,” she explains. Sign up for a job in the criminal investigation arm and you’ll get to bring something to work most Big Five accountants wouldn’t dream of–a gun.

And perhaps most soothing of all, you’ll never have to worry about being merged out of a job with the IRS. This is one company that’s never going to be on anyone’s acquisition target list.

Whatever it is, in the last two weeks, two of my closest pals have been laid off, and that ain’t good. Both of them are in agony. More will be if things go the way they’re going. This economy is a sick little puppy, and getting sicker.

Lessons from La-La Land
Now, I, your humble servant, cannot do a damned thing about the overall economy. But I can offer a few respectful tips about how to deal with the environment of layoffs and cutbacks. For myself, I have worked in Hollywood, insecurity city, for the past quarter century and getting and losing jobs is second nature. I worked as a young man for Richard Nixon and got encouraged to leave when “Mr. N” left–just after I had bought a house I could ill afford.

So, I offer these brief pointers, for what they are worth.

1. Be not just friendly, but very, very friendly. Make sure you are the most well-liked guy or gal in the office. Life is highly personal. When bad news comes and layoffs are looming, bosses will tend to keep on those they like. Be one of them. Be a friend (not a call girl) to everyone in your line of work. The well-liked worker will be the last fired–and the first rehired.

2. Make and keep connections. Getting a job is not like applying to college. It depends mostly on connections and pals, not on test scores. Every time you make a sales call or have a negotiation, remember the names of the people you are meeting, schmooze them, keep their cards, send them occasional cheery e-mails. When the time comes that you need a job, your best friend is your Palm Pilot or wherever you keep your names. If you have stayed in touch, you will be glad, and they’ll be glad to hear from you.

3. Keep your skills at peak levels. A man or woman who is likeable and also highly productive is the ruler of this world. Even in the worst economic times, there are shortages of talented, well-educated men and women. Be one of them. Employers want employees who demonstrably add more value than they cost. That has to be you.

4. Save money. This is so vital it cannot possibly be overstated. The day your boss tells you in hushed tones you will be getting the boot can either be a day for suicidal ideation or a day for thinking about taking a trip to Maui before you begin your job search. Savings are your very best pal when you are without a job. Young people should have, at the very least, six months’ worth of after-tax earnings in highly liquid form. Middle-aged people like me should have at least two years’ worth of savings in a form that can be negotiated quickly. (Equity in a house is sort of a cheat because you have to pay it back.)

There is no substitute for this. If you are not saving enough, start right now. Today. Nothing you want to buy is as important as having adequate savings–except maybe emergency surgery. Samuel Johnson said that in times of distress, the three best things to have were, “an old dog, an old wife, and ready money.” Today, we would say ’spouse,’ but the money part is totally correct and always will be.

5. Mentally start to prepare yourself. Imagine right now while you still have your job what your first week will be like if you lose your job. Who will you call first (that’s where the ‘old spouse’ part comes in handy)? What will be your first stop after work? Who will be the first 10 people you send your resume to? How will you get to sleep without getting drunk or high? (Hint, this is where the savings part and the connections part come in.) Do the drill and train for the day of unemployment and you will be prepared.

6. Have a sense of the scale of life’s problems. Yes, it’s bad to lose your job. But there are people in South Africa with AIDS who have to scavenge at trash dumps for food. There are children without functioning hearts. There are kids whose parents beat them every night. There are people dying from cancer. Your situation is infuriating, but looked at correctly, it’s pretty modest stuff. You are healthy, in a very, very rich nation. It’s not so bad.

7. Have a modest spirit. The world does not owe you a thing. You are expected to work and show a respectful attitude towards those around you. Don’t cop any bad attitudes of superiority or imperiousness. You need work, and you need to show yourself and your colleagues that you have a decent attitude. No one wants to work around a demanding, whining jerk. Don’t be one. And look the part: don’t come in for an interview in cowboy boots or sloppy jeans. Look like you mean business, with a clean, neat wardrobe appropriate for whatever business you’re in, and with clean, wholesome breath. This sounds trivial, but it ain’t. No one wants to be around a foul smelling slob.

8. Be flexible. Have that inner attitude of the cowboy leading his cattle to water. He doesn’t cry and moan if a well is dry. He moves on to the nearest other well. He goes where he has to go to get his cattle watered. You do the same. Do you need to learn something new? Do it. Need to drive a little farther or consider moving? Why not? It beats worrying about paying the mortgage. Inner flexibility is what gets people ahead in this world.

9. Get your rest. Every single problem in life looks easier and friendlier if you get a good night’s sleep. Every task you approach with the energy of good health gets done faster, more smoothly, if you are rested. This is not a joke. How many people can say they are really well-rested? Be one of them.

10. Go easy on yourself Layoffs happen to everyone. It just happened to Al Gore. It happened to Winston Churchill many times. It’s part of life. Go on with your life knowing what has happened to you will happen to about four million others this year and about forty million in a decade. You haven’t done a thing wrong. It’s life in a free market. Go out and use that same free market to get another job and a better one at that. If you lose your job you have my permission to sulk for two days. After that, you knucklehead, get into gear.

Remember: It’s a big country and someone wants you.

Kim disagreed.

“It was a turning point for me,” says Kim, now 32. “It was one incident, but it reflected the society I was in. Girls were not expected to advance, not supposed to experience business success.” Women were naturally destined for one future, the theory went, and men another.

But she has since proven that philosophy wrong. Arriving in America at age 13 with her parents, Kim overcame potentially self-defeating language barriers to enjoy remarkable success as a top academic scholar, corporate lawyer, and public policy expert. Then, just when many would settle into the creature comforts of such a career, she risked it all to serve as a New Economy pioneer in e-commerce.

Present and Past
She is the co-founder, president, and chief customer officer of Equalfooting Technologies in Virginia. Her company evens the playing field for small businesses (both traditional and e-commerce) by providing the technology infrastructure behind purchasing, financing, and shipping operations.

An old precept still applies in today’s New Economy: People can come to America with nothing, work hard at something they love, and prosper. Indeed, what would that third-grade teacher think now, after watching a “girl” like Kim testify on e-commerce issues before the U.S. Senate, Department of Commerce, and Federal Trade Commission?

Yet there was little doubt that she could succeed here. “It was clear to me,” Kim recalls, “even in elementary school, that I would not be able to share in academic and professional success in Korea. That just wasn’t acceptable to my parents or me. I had a passion.”

Her parents–both trained lawyers–came with Kim to the suburbs of Baltimore and worked odd jobs to make ends meet: translation stints, welding crews, graveyard shifts. They saved enough to open a grocery store, but it was hardly something out of a fairy tale. The store was located in a rough section downtown, and her parents worked behind a counter protected by bulletproof glass. Kim helped whenever she could, finding a real talent for working out customer disputes. She learned English and was accepted to a Michigan boarding school.

Soon it would be Stanford, where she finished early and served as the Phi Beta Kappa graduation speaker, and Harvard Law, graduating magna cum laude after serving as editor of the Harvard Law Review for two years. But Kim never forgot her roots. Along the way, she worked for a Michigan congressman on Capitol Hill and helped deal with race-related problems. “I was motivated by racial justice issues,” she says. “I still remember being in middle school and having kids tease you because you wear different clothes and can’t speak English very well. That really sensitizes you to racial struggles.”

Into the Future
Before long, Kim began to build up top credentials in the corporate world. She served as a litigation attorney at the Washington-based firm of Williams and Connolly, then joined McKinsey and Company as an engagement manager–and member of the e-commerce leadership group. In 1999, she rolled the dice and decided to start EqualFooting.

Since then, the New Economy waters have gotten choppy, but Kim remains calm. “I have an entrepreneurial background,” she says, “with respect to my parents. They left everything they had in Korea, and ended up owning a half a dozen stores and are now retiring. I have that instinct, too. Taking risks is what makes you stronger. If we can survive this downturn, we can do anything.”

Does this self-made woman have a philosophy of career success? “Always look for new challenges. You should be satisfied in your current job, but never shut yourself off from other opportunities. Your career should be a reflection of your life–live it to the fullest, have a passion for it.”

Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals Brian Tracy, AMACOM Books $21.95 retail

What wouldn’t any of us do, especially at this time of year, to double our productivity and our time off? Author, speaker, and motivational whiz Brian Tracy says it can be done, using the “Focal Point” system–identifying “the most important thing you can do at any given time to attain maximum results in any part of your life.”

Advances in technology were supposed to afford us more time and flexibility, but many of us still find ourselves struggling to balance work, family, and most of all, our own personal fulfillment. Focal Point helps the overwhelmed and frustrated with its “Grand SLAM” formula: “Simplify” your life, “Leverage” other people, “Accelerate” your work, and “Multiply” your accomplishments.

The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back James Waldroop and Timothy Butler, Doubleday $14.95 retail

Have you ever wondered why some people (maybe even you) have all the skills and experience they need to succeed, but never seem to get to the next level? Chances are, these people are demonstrating one or more of the behaviors described by Waldroop and Butler, directors of MBA Career Development at Harvard Business School. They identify and detail critical errors, such as feeling inadequate, avoiding conflict, doing too much, and pushing too hard.

“Most people learn their greatest lessons not from their successes but from their mistakes,” says Waldroop. Fortunately, the authors also offer insight and advice on how to break and learn from these self-defeating habits.

The Quotable Businesswoman Laura Boswell, Andrews McMeel Publishing $4.95 retail

We’ve all heard Bill Gates and Donald Trump trumpet their thoughts on business. But did you know that Saturn, Southwest Airlines, and Hewlett-Packard are led by women? This book’s advice comes from the best and brightest of American businesswomen today. Successful female executives, from Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina to Avon head Andrea Jung to homemaking maven Martha Stewart, dish quotes and anecdotes about reaching goals, taking risks, and winning in the world of business–and life. Makes a great gift for female co-workers or clients, as well as your college-senior daughter or an entrepreneurial sister.

Bodacious! An AOL Insider Cracks the Code to Outrageous Success for Women Mary Foley with Martha Finney, AMACOM Books $24.00 retail

When Mary Foley began her $8-an-hour job at tiny Quantum Computer Services a decade ago, little did she know that the company would one day become media behemoth AOL, or that she would eventually become its first head of corporate training, or that she would retire a millionaire at age 33 as a result. Now Foley shares her insight into how to transform your life by being bold and audacious–bodacious!

“Those characteristics of AOL that made it the huge success story it is today were the same qualities I needed to achieve to fulfill my own potential,” says Foley. Her practical tips (Create a personal business plan; Surround yourself with upbeat, resourceful friends; Office politics aren’t pretty, but they are a good thing) help guide you. Learn to live your life the “Bodacious Way” and become a new, fulfilled you.

Jesus, Inc. - The Visionary Path: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to True Success Laurie Beth Jones, Crown Business $21.00 retail

Following up her best-selling Jesus, CEO, Laurie Beth Jones examines the hunger for meaning and spirituality among people who once pursued their careers solely for money and prestige. Whether they worked independently or for companies, millions of Americans are now trying to use their talents to benefit the world as well as themselves. Jones calls these people “spiritpreneurs” because they fully bring their souls into their workplaces. She also uses the story of Jesus as an example of the ultimate spiritpreneur, as well as the stories of other biblical figures and their successes and failures. Jesus, Inc., however, is not just for Christians, but for anyone who believes it’s possible to do well by doing good and wants to learn how to start.

How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas Joseph Collins, Stefano DeZerega, and Zahara Heckscher, Penguin Books $17.00 retail

Perhaps the events of September 11 have stirred your spirit for volunteering, or maybe you regret never following through with your post-college dream of international travel. If so, you should check out this book. Every year, more than 100,000 people contact the Peace Corps about volunteering, but only 3,000 can be placed overseas. To help these and other Americans find the volunteer opportunities that are right for them, Collins, DeZerega, and Heckscher–all founders of respected international organizations–have produced this guide. They profile over 100 organizations, discuss short-, medium-, and long-term opportunities, and offer advice on safety and fundraising. This is an indispensable guide for anyone who’s ever dreamed of living and volunteering abroad.

Here are some ways to earn some cash from home. None involve stuffing envelopes or selling Avon! By the way, stuffing envelopes and assembling products are usually scams. To check if an offer you are considering is a scam, go to the Better Business Bureau web site.

Sell Your Stuff

Many families have a yearly garage sale. While this can bring in a few hundred dollars in cash, it is very hard to rake in the dough by selling items, most priced under $5. To really earn some cash and not have the hassle of setting up tables, waiting on customers and dealing with price hagglers, consider putting your stuff for sale on Half.com or Ebay.com.

Half.com is a free way to sell your stuff. You can sell your books, music, DVD’s, electronics and more for free! I’ve found the books that sell the best are the ones that are current and in good or perfect condition. This means no highlighting or bent covers.

Ebay.com is also another option when it comes to selling your used stuff. With Ebay, there is no limit to what you can sell! An excellent reference is The Official eBay Bible

Take some time to learn about Ebay and Half.com before plunging in head first. You don’t want to price items to high or too low.

Cash For Your Opinion

It’s always great to be asked your opinion, but even better when you are paid for it! There are several dependable survey sites online, which you can earn cash. I recommend:

Greenfieldonline.com
Check daily for new surveys- they pay cash!

Vividence.com
They e-mail if you fit the profile they are seeking. If you do, they screen you with a few questions. If you match their criteria, you will take their survey and receive an Amazon gift certificate, usually about $10 value.

When you are considering joining a survey web site, be sure to decide whether you want cash for surveys or if accumulating points is good enough. I feel that earning cash is a better use of my time, than earning points.

Write Now

Writing is a great way to make some extra money. Even if you don’t have a degree in Journalism, you can be a writer! Businesses, magazines, newspapers and others are always looking for writing talent.

Here are some types of writing you can do:

An Attack on American Workers?
Tuesday, September 11, was a difficult day for everyone. In companies from coast to coast, employees crowded around televisions, radios, and computer monitors. For most of us, disbelief turned into sadness. Will the sadness turn into quiet resolve?

CareerBuilder producer Gavin Rodkey believes this is the case. He already sees solidarity growing among American workers in the wake of tragedy. “We’re pulling together,” he says, “as fellow workers, as caring people, as Americans.” Two of the jetliners, after all, crashed into the very hub of American commerce. The World Trade Center is located in the heart of the Manhattan financial district, adjacent to the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. A great many of the victims were probably office workers, sitting innocently at their desks, responding to the first e-mail of the day, milling around a water cooler or coffee pot.

Perhaps this event transcends context–we may not think of it in terms of workplace safety. Valerie Young, founder of changingcourse.com, predicts that the tragedy will still affect our future behavior at work. “The little things that used to frustrate us,” she says, “won’t seem so important now. We won’t get mired in office politics because, in the face of something this terrible, what does it really matter?”

A Range of Emotions
Because disasters affect people in different ways, many companies tried to be extremely proactive. HDVest, a investment services firm, called all of its employees together immediately for an information and support meeting. They opened a special Employee Assistance telephone line to handle calls from concerned workers. Everyone was offered time off, if they wanted to take it.

Dayna Harvey, an HR recruiter for HDVest, says that the company emphasized personnel over policy. “We took things on a case-by-case basis,” she says. “Some people were upset and needed time away, but most stayed at work and kept going. We watched the news, talked about it all day. The women here just seemed to be sad, while the men veered toward anger.

“Nobody really understands why this happened,” she adds, “We all felt so safe until that morning. Now the world seems so uncertain, and we just have to keep our minds focused on work.”

The Spirit to Move On
Valerie Young believes that we must try to restore a little order in times of chaos. “I started doing mindless little tasks,” she says, “rearranging my desk, organizing the books on my bookshelves. My friends reacted the same way; they found refuge in their work. They concentrated on the things they could control.”

Are you able to work? Have your friends and family been shocked, saddened, outraged? How has your employer dealt with the tragedy? What should companies do to help people through this troubling time?

Determining Your Priorities

Your home and career life are firmly planted. Is it fair to ask everyone to uproot their lives for the sake of your career?

Ask yourself these questions in order to gauge what is most important:

The Numbers Don’t Lie
First to cry “Overworked!” was Harvard-based economist Juliet Schor in her book The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. There she discusses how a promise made 30 years prior–that new computer technology would allow workers more free time–was broken. Schor found government survey data that proved Americans worked an average of 163 hours more in 1987 than in 1969–nearly a full work-month longer. Causes for the increase can be linked to the decline of unions, which often fought for a reduction in hours and fewer workdays, and the rise of a consumer-based society that drove individuals to work more and more to pay for their material lifestyles. Downsizing increases the workload left for remaining employees after cost-cutting, and employers prefer to pay overtime to full-time workers rather than hiring additional help.

Still, there are those who have proof to the contrary and reject the method by which Schor analyzed her findings. John P. Robinson, sociology professor and Director of the “American’s Use of Time” project at the University of Maryland, and Geoffrey Godbey, professor of leisure studies at Penn State University, co-authored Time for Life: the Surprising Way Americans Use their Time. Based on the results of Robinson’s project research, the book rejects the idea that Americans are working more and instead proves that workers have gained five extra hours of free time per week since 1965.

So, why do workers feel so overworked and pressed for time? Robinson and Godbey believe that there is a clear distinction between pace and duration of work. Speaking as a panel member on PBS’s NewsHour, Godbey offered an explanation: “The pace of life and the pace of work seem to have clearly sped up for large segments of the population. What we find is perhaps that people who are working faster believe that they’re working longer and, on average, we feel that that’s not the case.” What’s more, Americans tend to feel time-stressed when, in reality, we enjoy more leisure time than our parents did because free time comes when it is least useful. We also tend to spend extra time on repetitive activities, such as television viewing, that offer little real enjoyment or fulfillment.

A Little History
The 40-hour workweek was officially established under the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. Societal changes have altered this standard so much that it now seems to be more of a rough guide. A basic shift began after World War II, when only two-income families were able to live the American Dream. Additionally, the sheer number of activities that Americans now cram into their daily routine (recycling, regular workouts, driving kids to and from day care) would shock our forefathers. Clearly we are accomplishing more in much less time. The bottom line in the overworked/not overworked debate lies in the fact that workers can choose how to spend whatever free time they have. Individuals still decide whether to spend time with the family, perform community service, go on a nature hike, or sit in front of the almighty television.

From talking with several new thin moms, I learned their secrets to fast, safe weight loss. Here are some weight loss ideas for you to try:

Eat When You Are Hungry

You will find the first few weeks are so hectic and draining that you won’t be very hungry–or will be too busy to notice. This is a good thing! The less calories you consume, the faster the weight will come off. However, if you are nursing, it’s important to get an extra 500 good calories a day–such as from fruits and vegetables. And no, Oreos don’t count!

Drink a Lot of Water

Some women find that they retain even more water after the baby is born. While one would think drinking more water would increase water retention, actually the opposite is true. Drinking water helps to flush the excess fluid out of your body. So drink up!

Hold on to Your Wallet

Diet shakes, diet pills, gym memberships…these are a few of the purchases you can put on hold. Much of the pregnancy weight will come off by eating a healthy diet, consuming a reasonable amount of calories, and staying active. Give yourself 6 weeks before starting an exercise routine, unless your doctor otherwise gives you the okay.

Don’t Weigh Yourself

Your new baby will take up much of your time and thoughts! Unless you are really curious, put off weighing yourself for a few weeks. This will result in less pressure on you to get back to your original weight.

Return to Your Non-Maternity Wardrobe Slowly

There is no use in trying to squeeze into your old wardrobe the first day home from the hospital. Take it slow. Start out with your favorite pair of jeans, a nice sweater, an old t-shirt. As you find certain pieces of clothing fit, put them in a special place in your closet. Each day or when the mood strikes, try on another piece of clothing. Little by little, you’ll find your maternity wardrobe heading to the back of your closet!

Nine Month Photo

Finally, for an instant mood booster, pull out a photo of you, nine months pregnant. When you compare yourself from then until now, it will definitely put a smile on your face! When it comes to losing the pregnancy weight, it’s important to keep everything in perspective. It took you nine months to gain the weight, it may take a few months to lose it! You just went through nine months of pregnancy and created a wonderful new person. That is what matters most!