Well hello my friends!
I’m sad to say that this little sweetie pie started preschool this week. 🙁
Oh my heart.
Ya know, I just gotta say that I am a big giant wuss when it comes to my kids “growing up and getting bigger” stuff. It absolutely slays me! Especially this little guy because he is my last little baby.
I gotta say that these past few years as I’ve watched this little baby grow into a little boy have been full of so many mixed emotions. It just kills me to know he is my last little buddy and I wish I could just freeze time and keep him mine forever.
I have cherished every moment and every stage of his babyhood. I love every sweet thing that he says, his pure innocence and all of his snuggles and hugs. He is BY FAR my snuggliest kid and I am so grateful for it!
I love that he still has baby soft skin, chubby little hands and feet and a little belly. I love that I can still see “just a little bit of baby” left in him and I just wanna soak it right up.
I know I’m a huge softie and I probably sound like a crazy lady, but it is what it is. It’s just what this mama heart feels.
I only send my kiddos to one year of preschool because I know all too well how quickly they grow up and how fast the years fly by. I like to hog them a bit and keep them as “my sidekick” for as long as I can before I have to send them off into the world. I cherish those few years when they are just home with me!
BUT, try as I may, they just keep growin’ up….and it kills me every time.
Now, I also gotta say that there are a few perks of being done having babies and having my kids grow up just a bit. At times when I’m missin’ all my babies and my heart starts to ache, I try to focus on all the perks.
Being a mom of young kiddos is the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done…and that’s actually an understatement! Before I had kids I really didn’t know it was possible to feel that tired…AND somehow survive in that crazy sleep deprived state day after day after day. So, I gotta say that I’m so happy to be done with that insane level of physical exhaustion, although the mental and emotional exhaustion that comes with teenagers is equally exhausting in a different kind of way. Oy.
But hey, I’m just happy to be able to get a little more sleep, to be able to sleep in on occasion and rest when I need to.
That is a huge perk. HUUUUUGE!
It’s also very nice and almost hard to believe that I can actually start to do stuff for myself again. I can actually sit down and read a book on occasion. I can actually have hopes, dreams and goals of my own, lol! I can actually be a bit of an individual person once again. I know that sounds funny, but it’s legit.
The life of a mother is a life of sacrifice. I’m so happy I’ve made the sacrifice and I will gladly continue to make that sacrifice, but MAN, it’s sure nice to feel like an actual human being again.
Does that even make sense? It’s hard to explain, but it’s just nice to have a tiny bit of breathing room in my life.
AND, although it rips my heart out to send my last little baby to preschool, it’s sure nice to know I will have a few moments each week while he’s gone to do what I want or need to do. Yay! I’m actually hoping to ramp my blog up a little bit and become an actual, legit, regular blogger once again!
Health and fitness is a HUGE passion of mine and this lil ol’ blog is a fun thing for me. I love sharing all of my random thoughts with all y’all…so here’s to hopin’ that I can find a bit of a schedule and consistency with blogging again. Fingers crossed!
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Well, I wanted to share a few thoughts about what I’ve been doing and learning with my healthy living lately, especially my nutrition.
K, so I’ve been talkin’ a lot about this Oxygen Challenge I’ve been doing. I’m loving it and am so glad I’m doing it. In fact, I’ve been loooooving the workouts so much! They have been so great. They’ve been hard and effective, yet they are also short and sweet. We’ve also been doing a lot of exercise moves that I’ve never done before that have kicked my butt. It’s been fun..
I’ve been so grateful that the workouts are usually only 30 minutes long and only 3-4 days a week. It allows me some space to add in some of my favorite classes too. Our coach, Jen Widerstrom, said we can add in two optional days of cardio each week, so I’ve been doing just that!
I actually started going to an awesome HIIT class on Tuesday nights again. I was going to a Pilates class that night, but I decided I needed some HIIT and more cardio in my life. I gotta say that that class is a beast! I can’t say I love it because it’s so hard, but I know it’s so good for me!
I actually really love challenging my body. In fact, during that class this week, I had a few thoughts running through my head. I thought…I’m not an old lady…yet, but I’m getting older every day! As I was jumping around, getting up and down off the floor and sweating buckets, I thought….I want to be able to do all this stuff when I’m an old lady too! I want my body to be able to support me, stay healthy and remain agile my whole life.
I’d like to think that if I use my body, strengthen my body and challenge my body, it has a lot better chance of staying strong and healthy when I’m old, right?
I’d like to think so.
So, even though that class is so hard, I love the challenge! I know it’s so good for me. I also want to lose a few pounds and I know HIIT training is awesome for fat loss…..so for now I’m going to continue to go to that class! I also occasionally go to a Boot Camp class on Thursday nights that kicks my butt too. It’s kind of like a HIIT style class as well, but it’s different every week. It’s so awesome, yet so hard too.
Definitely a love/hate relationship.
The biggest dilemma I have each week is finding that balance between challenging my body, going to ALL the classes that I love, yet still listening to my body and not running myself into the ground in the process. Ha ha. There are just SO MANY classes and workouts that I’m loving right now!!!
So, I just try to listen to my body. If my body is extra sore or I’m just draggin’ butt and feeling super tired, I don’t workout. Simple as that.
I have been trying so hard to get decent sleep every night (yay for me! If you know me, that is a HUGE win for me!) because I know if I get proper rest, I’ll have a lot better time keeping up with my workouts. I’ve definitely been feeling the benefits of getting regular and adequate rest. Woot!
I won’t go into a lot of detail, but as far as weight loss and healthy living in general goes, it is so important to listen to our bodies, care for our bodies and keep our stress levels in check. If we’re constantly running ourselves into the ground, skimping on sleep and/or over-exercising, our bodies will fall apart, not feel well, our immune systems will take a huge hit and it will be impossible to lose weight.
It is VITAL that we take the time to rest, relax, enjoy life, take it easy and manage our stress levels. Trust me, I’ve learned this the hard way…over and over again.
I think I’m finally figuring it out though. I hate to say it, but not having a little darling, sweet baby in the house and having my kiddos grow up just a bit has really helped me in this area. I’m actually able to get consistent sleep, a little time to myself and some R&R on occasion. It’s vital and has made a huge difference in my life.
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Man, I have so many random thoughts to share today!
I just wanted to tell you guys about my current mindset right now and how I’m feelin’. It’s been interesting. This Oxygen Challenge has been unlike any other I’ve done. I talked about this a little bit in my last post, but for some reason I just haven’t felt the need to go 100% crazy, be “all in” and dedicate my entire life to succeeding at this challenge!
I’ve done that many times before and always see good results because of it, BUT I’m just a little burned out with that kind of living. I’m just kind of done.
It always requires an insane amount of willpower, mental strength and freakish diligence. I definitely love a challenge, but I’m just trying to find a gentler approach this time. In the past whenever I’ve done “crazy 100% all in challenges,” when it’s over, I’m usually so tired and sick of it that I “take a break” for a while which usually ends up with me eating a bunch of crap and then struggling to find my motivation and get back to healthy living again.
So, this time around (and hopefully forever!) I’m trying to be REAL, practical and honest with myself. I’m just trying to “raise the bar” with how I normally live day after day after day. I’m trying to be more mindful, responsible and real with myself. I remind myself every day that I’m only getting older and I want to take care of my body.
Yes, I’d love to lean out, see some more muscle and have a beautiful body that I feel comfortable and confident in. That definitely motivates me, but I’m taking it a step deeper than that. I believe firmly that if I change my focus to just making consistently good, mature, practical choices for myself and make the commitment to care for my body FOR THE LONG HAUL…everything else will fall into place.
It might take me a little longer to get there and it’s definitely taking a lot of patience, but I like to think the results will last. It will just become who I am.
I’m still going to continue to set goals for myself and challenge myself, but I just want to get away from the mega high and low swings. I just want to stay consistent, steady and practical.
Sooooo, in my efforts to live this lifestyle I’ve definitely learned a few things that work for me and a few things that just haven’t.
Things that have been working for me!
- Intermittent Fasting. Oh, how I’m lovin’ this! I’ve done intermittent fasting on and off for years, but the past few months I’ve gotten more serious with it and I can definitely feel the benefits. It just helps me to eat less and majorly simplifies my life in the process! I love that I only need to think about eating and meal prepping for 6-8 hours a day. My body also feels so great as well. I’m planning on writing a whole post about this soon and I’ll go into a lot more detail. I do want to say that I know Intermittent Fasting isn’t for everyone. What works for some people, might not work for others. It’s definitely a personal thang. BUT, I’m loving it!
- Minimizing sugar in my life. Guys, I’ve learned time and time again that sugar is one of the worst things I can put in my body. I love it so much and it is SO HARD for me to stay away from it, but I know I’m so much better off without it. In the past I’ve gone completely sugar free for months at a time. I always feel so great and learn so much in the process, but I really don’t want to go that extreme again. So, I’ve just been trying to be responsible and mindful with my sugar intake. I’ve been having a little taste of things here and there, but I’ve been so careful to not overdo it. I always remind myself how sugar will wreak havoc on my body; it will give me blood sugar issues, mess with my hormones, cause me to crave MORE, zap my energy, make me not sleep as well at night, make me less sensitive to insulin and just kill my healthy living mojo all together. So, I’m really just trying to be smart and keep it a minimal part of my life.
- Getting my sleep! This one is vital for me! I’m a believer!!! Throughout the summer I was able to get eight hours of sleep most nights. I felt great and realized that my body thrived when I consistently got eight hours. Seven hours was adequate, but not quite enough. I really learned that eight hours is needed for me. So, now that school is back in session, I’ve become a sleep nazi. I’m committed to getting my kiddos in bed on time (trying to get them in bed before 9:00), so that I can still have a little down time and get the sleep that I need. I’m not perfect at it and life definitely happens and gets in the way, but I’m committed to trying my best to get my sleep every night!
- Loosely counting macros. I love macro counting and I’ve learned so much doing it. However, I never want to live every day tracking every single thing I eat. I just don’t. So, I kind of go off and on with macro counting. I like to track for a while to reteach myself how much I should eat and what things I should be eating. It’s always a good thing for me and helps me to stay motivated and committed. But, most days I just try to kind of count macros in my head. I keep a rough count of about how many calories I’m eating and try to keep the carbs, fat and protein in check. If I eat a higher fat, lower carb breakfast then I’ll try to have some more carbs and less fat for lunch, etc. As long as I stay mindful and committed, this works very well for me and is a very practical and livable way to do life.
- Exercising consistently. I am loooooving my workouts right now! I think a huge key for success with exercise is finding things you love to do. I’ve been doing do many different kinds of workouts each week that I truly look forward to each one. I love that I’m doing yoga, HIIT, weight training classes and my own weight training. It keeps it interesting. I’m loving it so much!
Things that have NOT been working for me…
- Eating too much food. Ha ha. This one should be a no brainer. About a month ago I decided to tighten up my Intermittent Fasting window a bit. I went from an eight hour eating window to a six. I actually noticed awesome results from this; more energy, deeper more refreshing sleep, better workouts, etc. However, someone told me that if you stick to a consistent intermittent fasting window, you don’t have to count calories. You can just eat as much as you like in that short window of time. At the same time, I also kept hearing people say, “If you’re trying to lose weight, you have to make sure you eat enough!” I kind of felt afraid that if I didn’t eat enough, I was going to mess up my body and my metabolism. SOOOOO, needless to say, I had a couple of weeks there where I was eating entirely too much food! Ha ha. I’m a slow learner sometimes. Sooo, I just want to make it clear that if you eat too much food, you won’t lose weight!! You DO have to make sure to eat enough though. For me, the perfect calorie range for weight loss is 1500-1800 calories. Sooooo, I’ve been trying to track a little bit closer and stay within this range.
- Carb Cycling. This one makes me sad. Over the years I’ve experimented with carb cycling several times and it just doesn’t work well for me, dang it! For those of you who don’t know what carb cycling is, it’s basically having some days where you eat lower carbs and some where you eat higher carbs. Apparently, it changes up your metabolism and keeps your body guessing. I’ve read a lot about it and it sounds like an awesome idea! However, it just seems like whenever I do it I either gain weight or just feel bloated and blah and get nowhere. Sooooo, for now I’m cutting it out. I may try it again down the road, maybe when my body is closer to my goal weight. We’ll see. I love the idea of carb cycling, but apparently it doesn’t like me. I’ve always been pretty sensitive to changes in hormones and I’m guessing it must have something to do with that. Bummer. Again, what works for some people might not work for others!
- Too much sugar. Seriously folks. I’ve found that when I eat too much sugar, it really sets my body back for a long time. I can handle a small amount here and there, but too much sugar seriously jacks with my body. It just messes up my hormones, appetite, cravings, etc. It makes it very hard to stick to healthy eating and pretty much makes it impossible to lose weight. Dang it, dang it. Interestingly enough, my body can handle other forms of junk food so much better; a burger and fries, some chips, even a little pizza. As long as I only have it on occasion, my body seems to do just fine. It doesn’t jack with my hormones and I can get right back to a healthy lifestyle very easily. So, that’s why I’ve been trying to be extra careful with the sugar!!
Well, that kind of sums up where I’m at right now. I’m definitely on a “life learning” kind of journey. It’s been good. It will be interesting to see where it takes me. I will of course keep y’all posted.
Well, I gotta hit the hay! I love you all! xoxo
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