New Mind Set

I think I've found a different mind set the last few days/weeks. I feel like I'm semi-plateaued and quite honestly it's not sitting well with me. I check my weight frequently through out the week because it helps keep me on track. It's the right thing for me to do.

As I've seen myself bounce up and down from week to week, it's frustrating. But I think I've deduced a few things that are going to help me in the future.

1. Calories/Calorie Counting - As a good friend pointed out, you "think" you can stay on budget with your calories after a while of logging them. So you go at it without logging them. You come to realize your either overeating or under eating. I fall into both categories. Not any more. I HAVE to log my calories. It is the only sure fire method for me to ensure that I'm maintaining just the right amount of calories to keep the weight coming off.

2. Calories, Part II - I've found that I'm supposedly supposed to consume 2,030 calories per day to ensure a 1 to 2 pound loss per week. Well, there are a few other factors that play into this figure that I don't believe are truly being accounted for. For starters I'm still breastfeeding, that alone allows me 300-500 extra calories while nursing. So THAT number isn't accounted for in the 2,030. Therefore I have been severely under-eating. What's worse is I had been trying to stick to a lower 1,800 calories. Can you say insufficient? No wonder I've been having sleep issues and feeling hungry at weird hours. So I now resolve to eat NO LESS than 2,030 calories per day and I'm going to try to stay under 2,300, just to be on the safe side. I've given it a trial run and seriously have noticed an improvement with the added calories to my diet.

3. Sleep - There is NEVER enough time in the day, especially with little ones. So I am the type of Mom who stays up all hours of the night to accomplish what I can't while the littles are up. From laundry to dishes to couponing. It's taking a serious toll on my body. My sleep schedule has been wacky since lil man was born, partially due to my hubby's grave yard shift. I just can't seem to get adjusted back to the right hours. I am going to give it my best shot to correct this. I've proven to myself time and time again that no less than a 6 hours stretch of sleep shows my weight dropping. Now I'm currently working on getting all the rest I need, but it's during the wrong time of day. Recently lil man decided to break through two new teeth and started wakings at 3am just so he can nurse back to sleep. I seriously hope he gets over this soon, cause it's literally killing me. So, again, sleep is a major issue I have to work on.

4. Food Schedule - I'm a planner by nature. Due to my wacky hours there's no way I can maintain a strict "schedule" when it comes to eating. HOWEVER, I am going to do my darnedest to fix the sleep issue so that I'm not eating late at night and in the wee hours of the morning. It has.to.stop. I'm not quite sure my game plan here, but I know that until I fix the sleep issue I have to at least give myself a cut off time at night so I'm not eating past XX hour.

5. Exercise - I was doing great. Getting out, walking, jogging (barely), and riding my bike with the kids in tow. Then *poof* it got cold again. Then it warmed up and I just gave up. I have to make time for this, some way some how. I have to find a way to burn off some calories that doesn't involve folding laundry, doing dishes, or scrubbing the bathrooms. I'm not saying those are bad ways of burning calories. I'm just saying I need a new outlet. Particularly one that doesn't rely on the lovely KC weather or a gym membership.

Well, it's getting late and I can't think of the other things I wanted to point out, but at least I got that off my chest. This morning (noon) I checked in on the scale and voila...254.2. That's below my pre-pregnancy weight!!!! Also, it leaves me one pound away from finishing a quarter of my goal weight!!! I'm really hoping that all my new found insight helps me get moving toward my goal again. Not only for my health's sake, but because we have a wedding to attend in June and quite honestly I'd like to lose another five or ten pounds before then.

Any advice? Shoot it at me, cause I'm all ears. :)

ETA: Oh and for the record, I'm super pissed!!! A dang bird swooped down and took off with the majority of my cucumber plant, simply leaving the stem. I called the greenhouse and she told me I'd have to replace it since there are no leaves left. I also need to find a way to put netting over the deck so the birds can't get to the smaller plants and strip them. Ain't that a crock? So now I'm debating if I want to drive back to the nursery for another cucumber plant or forget it this year. It's still early, so I may get one. I am super excited though because we have baby cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, chiles, and bell peppers growing. Guess I need to take some more pics huh?