This had to have been the absolute slowest week of my life. So maybe I should call it “Crawling with Perseverance” or “Stumbling Around Blindly with Perseverance”. I am sure much of that had to do with it being our first week without Daddy, but man it was rough.
In terms of eating, it wasn’t too bad. The food part has always been the easiest change for me because I am passionate about eating good, quality food anyway and have never been much of a junk-food person.
I think part of the reason why the food part of the whole weight-loss equation is easier for me is simple: we have to eat anyway. It’s obviously already a part of our daily lives and with some careful planning and intentionality at the grocery store, it’s not too tough to eat healthy.
Exercise, on the other hand? Exercise is my nemesis.
I think there are two main reasons why I struggle with it – 1) time and 2) motivation. I am super motivated when it comes to healthy eating because it’s a joy to me to be able to feed my family and see the excited looks on their faces when they taste my food. It comes easy to me.
Exercise? Not so much. Unfortunately, my exercise habits are horrible. I don’t really even know if I can call them exercise habits, since they were pretty much non-existent this week.
I still struggle with finding the time and energy. My baby still does not sleep through the night, so while I may have good intentions to get up early to work-out, many mornings it just doesn’t work out that way. But then once my day is started, it’s hard to slow down enough to carve out a specific time for working out because my days are full from the time I wake up to the time my head hits the pillow. And it’s even worse now that I am doing it all on my own.
So, I have no idea what to expect on the scale tomorrow. I am just hoping that all of our good eating is enough to make up for my lack of motivation to work-out. I know I will figure it out eventually and I know it will take some time to adjust to our “new normal” with The Chick Magnet being gone, but in the meantime I am really frustrated with myself and with how my weight-loss has slowed down.
My week-in-review:
Successes:
- I only cried myself to sleep one night this week
- Ate really well this week
- I was able to get my downstairs mostly back in order so that should help since that is my workout space
Struggles:
- Getting in a structured workout.
- SLEEP-I’m desperate for it. Our youngest has gotten into the unfortunate habit of waking up in the middle of the night-and staying up for hours on end. I am not sure if this is just a reaction to not having Daddy here, or it’s his cold or what, because it is out-of-character, but MAN, it is wearing me down. (In fact, as I was typing this post, said baby woke up screaming, just over an hour after I put him down. Aye yi yi.)
- Stress and anxiety-level is at an all-time high. I know it is mostly self-induced, but I just don’t know how to get a good handle on it.
Focus for Next Week:
- Track every day on MFP
- Stay at or under my calorie goal every day this week
- Work-out at least 3 times
- Make a concerted effort to get more sleep
What about you? How did your week go? Any adjustments you need to make for next week?
What’s easier for you-eating healthy o working out?
The Chick
I don’t have kids, but everyone I’ve ever talked to said that when the baby goes down for nap, they did too. It sounds like you are very busy (with reason that’s for sure!), but maybe you should try that a couple times this week, if you can. Lack of sleep always causes me to gain because I tend to crave every food imaginable when I’m tired. Good luck, I know you can do this!!
I give you a lot of credit. On top of all this, you home school too, right? Your days and nights aren’t your own – ever. And, you are doing this alone. You deserve a medal – a big, glittery, sparkley, gold medal. Sleep is so precious. I protect my sleep and the sleep of my daughters. My youngest had been sleeping through the night since she was six months old, then we hit a road-block around her third birthday. I shortened her afternoon nap to one hour. She would be exhausted by about 7:30 pm, which became her new bedtime (rather than 8:30). That meant, my new bedtime became 8:30, 9:00 at the latest. She’s now nearly seven, and we’ve had no more problems. But, sleep is soooo important. Oh, how cranky I can become when I am sleep deprived. Plus, now that I am in my early 40s, I seem to need more sleep than my thirties. Protect your sleep and that of your little ones. Good luck.
Haha, thank you! Yes, I do homeschool. Which throws another wrench into the equation because I just can’t ignore school.
This is my first baby who has had sleeping issues. My other three were/are great sleepers so I just don’t get it. I’ve tried every trick in the book with this kiddo. It’s not usually as bad as this week has been. Usually he might wake once and nurse right back to sleep so I am only up for 10-20 minutes. But this past week he has been waking up and staying up for several hours, no matter what I do. It’s not every night thank goodness, but it’s enough to really throw me off my game.
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