I'm going to echo the
weightlifting suggestions based on the main goals I'm hearing:
- size loss
- short turnover
- loss maintenance + pressure to look a certain way (wardrobe, sales job)
- little time available
This makes weightlifting ideal. We're in the same approximate demographic, though I haven't had kids; I had to do something similar a couple years ago. Walking is many kinds of beneficial, but unfortunately for your goals, is also what we evolved to do all day long, so we do it very efficiently: we barely sip calories to make it happen. You need strenuous work against resistance to build lean muscle mass, and the extra bulk will
stay off if you then simply maintain that muscle mass, unlike a crash diet: I bet 99% odds the issue is not that you're eating too much.
The great thing is that you only need weightlifting in little bursts that may not even add to your schedule: just
fifteen or twenty minutes, including rests, done every
other day.
Possible example: Try two minutes on, two minutes off, for the first quarter hour
of your usually-scheduled playtime, and let the kiddo set an egg or phone timer himself so he feels that great sense of power kids love when they get to tell their parents what to do. For the first two minutes he runs circles around you while you exercise, alternating with the next two minutes when you rest and play patty-cake or phone games or whatever toddlers do these days. While he circles for two minutes (how many circles can he do? can he do silly walks? how many different animal walks? can he sing a different song each time? etc.) you do a round of lifts. Next circle round, you do weighted squats (until 15 minutes have passed, or you're too tired to keep on). Just the first quarter hour of playtime, and just every other day (unless he insists otherwise, I suppose).
Be aggressive, but prudent (don't get injured!) with your weight goals; fewer, heavier, slower reps at a safely-challenging weight - maybe start with the equivalent of one-toddler-plus-ten-pounds, half in each hand - is more effective than lots of lighter vigorous exercise for the effect you want. If you push your body to do a lot of work, it will quickly try to build lean mass, which is going to increase your resting metabolic rate a ton - literally you'll lose weight while you sleep. If you have no weights, start with two one-gallon milk jugs of water. Add a handful or two of pebbles or play sand each on-day to increase weight. Challenge the kid to find
pebbles pirate treasure for you (it's not child labor if it's a game!)
You'll want to keep your other good diet habits, but I tend to agree that single meals per day raise odds of slowing your metabolism and making your body want to hunker down and prevent changes. For many people nibbling periodically through the day on (portioned) high-protein, high-fat foods plus your stash of vegetables at meals (brushed in olive oil, broiled, & lemon-peppered is always a flavorful winner) will keep your body relaxed about the easy availability of food, instead of trying to store up reserves because you're hungry. Cut out sweetness if you can - as stated above, even noncaloric sweeteners trick your brain into releasing insulin, stevia specifically included. And as the ever-wise Malkynn points out - bloat and inflammation are real; don't get discouraged when you clean out the sweet stuff in your diet and your initially-brilliant progress seems to stall, because once you have some spare muscle accumulating that progress will snowball like beautiful compounding interest.
Lastly: don't let the scale tell you about your progress, let a camera, or a measuring tape, or the clothes. You may not lose much weight - muscle weighs more - but you will lose
inches, and that wardrobe will fit comfortably again. And you'll never have to be that mom who grunts that their kid is "getting so heavy!"