sleep / eat / move / be healthy for you

Five weeks ago, I had a revelation when I weighed myself at my mother-in-law’s house for the first time in months. I am very over my healthy, normal weight. It was good to know. I don’t have a scale at home — but when I go back to her house, I will get back on and see how I am doing.  I don’t believe weighing one’s self every day does anyone any good.  But I needed to know.

My new motivation is not: “I do not want to be the wife who lets herself go” or “I want to be healthy for your kids” — though those reasons do motivate me — instead — it is: I want to be healthy for me. I want to feel good.  Is it selfish?  Perhaps.  But I like to think that this is real motivation, it is not for anyone else.  This is for me.

I wrote about my struggles with my weight in my post “Creating a Content Closet.”  I lost ALL the weight from my first pregnancy by the time my son was 3-4 months old. It was incredible. I still ate whatever I wanted, I didn’t exercise, I was nursing, after all.

But here I am, and my second child, my sweet baby girl, is now 9 months. And I’m not getting any lighter. She is almost exclusively breast-fed — she eats little bits of food here or there, but mostly spits it out. I know she will eat in her time.  I will continue to nurse her for at least the 18 months I nursed my son.

So here are the rules for my new life. {Break-through, I know, no one has ever done this before} but these rules are vital to me.  They fit me and my needs and wants for how I want to lose weight and feel good about myself again.

And it has been five successful weeks — I am losing weight, feeling better, and it is getting easier.  I feel good.

Sleep is important

I was going to make my bed for this photo, but then I didn’t.

So, my first rule about “being healthier for me” is that I need sleep. I don’t do cry-it-out. If my baby girl needs me, I get her. Her baby time is too short to mess around with crying it out. She usually wakes up 2 times a night, sometimes 3, but more recently she is surprising me with getting up only once — there is really no rhyme or reason to it. She also likes to stay awake for 1-2 hours during one of those times — sometimes — don’t ask me why.  When she was born, I slept in her room for about 4 months — so I would not have to go up and down stairs and also to not wake my husband. I have since moved back upstairs to our much comfier king bed, and I go to her when she needs me (You can read more about our sleep routines at my post on “Why I threw out my video monitor”).

However, getting up so many times is tough — so my two sleep rules are to try to go to bed at 9:30pm and to nap when/if ever! the children sleep together.

Eating is good for you

We grilled this meal up with friends the other night — chicken with parsley pesto, grilled onions, fried potatoes, and blueberry salad.  I like to eat.

I do not limit calories. I eat.  This is the next rule: eat.  My main focus for my new life is to eat three full, real-food meals a day.  I love to eat.  Food is delicious.  And, food is good for you!

I am not out to lose a bunch of weight in an unhealthy-unsustainable way (i.e. the Adkins or some crazy cleanse). I am nursing my baby girl and she needs good, real food.  And a healthy body needs calories.  Not lack of calories.

I already don’t eat anything processed or packaged, but sometimes I would for convenience, so that is completely out.

And I already don’t eat vegetable oil (canola, soy, sunflower, etc.) because poly-unsaturated fats cause inflammation and they are incredibly toxic.

I love apple juice and grape juice, and was drinking these regularly, but this is a high-calorie, no-nutrient waste (due to the pasteurization). (Yes, even the “organic” is crap.)

And the biggest change I’ve made, and the most difficult and impactful, is cutting gluten and sugar. My son is already gluten-free, so this is not as difficult, but the SUGAR is hard for me. I love sweets — and I am an excellent baker — brownies, chocolate chip cookies — even writing those makes my mouth water. I was getting into the awful habit of making a dessert for my husband and I after dinner and the kids were down, and he would eat one or two and then I was staring at them all day, being home, and I would eat them. I confess I would eat 5 cookies at a time. I have no self-control. So therefore I cannot make them.  They cannot be in the house.

{And after five weeks — it has gotten so much easier.  The first two weeks were the hardest.  And I am over the intense sugar cravings.  Now I just need to stick to it.  Not get lazy or think I can “cheat.”}

The exceptions to my gluten/sugar free diet are if I’m out at a friend’s and they are serving something worthwhile and delicious and made-well (butter!) or if (will we ever?) I am on a hot date with my husband, I can have chocolate mousse and enjoy a very-once-in-a-while amazing treat.  {I did have a chocolate mousse for my birthday this week and it was heaven. But it won’t happen again for a long time.}

And I know that sugar is in fruit and veggies — but I have not cut either. I am eating some amazing summer fruits right now. They are delicious and they are good for me.

I make sure to drink a full glass of water after every nursing session with my baby girl.

I am trying to incorporate some of my cousin’s tips from Why French Women Don’t Get Fat, too:

1. Eat while sitting down at the table.  
2. No meals on the run.
3. Use all five senses to enjoy your food.

So, for snacks (two times a day), I eat a glass of (raw!) milk and fruit or cheese and veggies.  It is important to always have a fat and protein with your carbs. : )

Move and {shake it}

I switch off my barefoot shoes with these old running shoes every other run.  My feet are still getting stronger.

And exercise. I need to move. I need to feel strong for me. I used to run a lot (being in the Army Reserve for many years now), and though I dislike running, a two mile run does feel refreshing. I often do a couple sprints in the middle of them too. I wear my barefoot shoes and off I go. I am starting very slow (and very sore), but once my muscles heal, I run again.

I am doing the very do-able two runs a week. In the early, cool(er) mornings, around 6am, before my husband goes to work. And since it’s only two times — I can do Saturdays, when he’s home, and just one other day. I can do it. I can do it. I am working on it.

And…. in addition to these short, one at a time, runs, I am stretching! and trying to do my yoga and pilate dvds, each 1-2x a week. They are both very engaging and make me feel great, I have been doing them off and on through the winter and spring, but I wonder how much I’ll want to do them in the summer. We’ll see.

I am doing this

I share all of these (boring) details to motivate myself. If I write them down, it is even more of a commitment. It has been five (!) weeks and the gluten/sugar free diet has made the most effect. I am sleeping better, bathroom-ing it better, less grouchy, more “there” for my children, and I am slowly not thinking about those sweets. Sugar addiction is as strong. It is powerful. But I am stronger!

I typed up my plan in this cute font and put it on my refrigerator.  It reminds me why I am doing this.  It is for selfish reasons.  For me.  Of course I want to be healthy for my husband and for my children.  But this is for me.

I thought you may want to join me, so here is my chart: behealthy.pdf and my chart in an editable document: behealthy.doc.  I hope you are motivated too.