Everything with chopsticks

I've been thinking a lot about my diet lately.  I've been wanting to drop a few pounds for a while now.  I joke that I'm trying to lose the baby weight that I gained from my two pregnancies.  It wouldn't be so bad if my two "babies" weren't already 7 & 9 years old!  And now that I've hit the 40th birthday milestone, I think if I don't start trying something now, I can see how as the years go by, the weight will just pile on.  It seems that the difference between my pre-mom weight and my weight after I became a mom is 20lbs.  So sure, I'm a little heavier now, but my weight has been roughly the same for about 7+ years. 

My thyroid issue sure does complicate things, but I think that just means I need to work harder.  I just wish exercise wasn't so boring.  I hate the treadmill because I keep walking and I'm not going anywhere.  I don't like Zumba, and I'm very self-conscious of exercising in public, such as at the gym.  I'd take yoga, or pilates, or some other kind of class, but the ones in my area are all during my work hours.  I guess they are designed for stay-at-home-moms.

So basically, the rules I've now set myself will be to:

1. Journal every single thing I eat.  It's tedious, but making myself accountable for everything I eat has really opened my eyes.
2. Watch my portions.  I can fill half my plate with a tossed greens salad.  My grains (a garlic bread if having pasta, or typically brown rice) will take up a quarter of my plate.  The main dish will take up the remaining quarter.
3. If I want seconds, I can have another serving of the tossed greens salad.
4. Snacks are also carefully meted out and I can only snack twice per day.  That's a hard one for me as I realize that I like to snack.  I never realized how much I snacked before I began writing everything down!  I need to cut back on the processed snacks and incorporate more 'healthful' snacks like plain popcorn, fruit and veggies, nuts, cheese.
5. Eat almost everything with chopsticks.  This is a strange rule, but I've been carrying a pair of hashi wherever I go.  It's wrapped up in a nice furosiki so it doesn't get dinged up in my handbag.  Obviously, I cannot eat soup and breakfast cereal with chopsticks, but everything else, I'll take out my chopsticks to eat.  I found that it really slows me down--I used to be a really fast eater. So now, the chopsticks force me to take my time and register feeling food in my stomach. 

I do not know if I can sustain this during the upcoming holiday season, which is right around the corner.  But I figure that I can at least try this out until then.