Accountability update

Well I've survived the first 10 days of dieting/exercising/organizing my life/weaning my last baby/trying to get up at the crack of dawn...  Yeah, a lot to try and accomplish at once I guess but my hope has been that it will be kind of cyclical and that each thing will help make the other things easier to do.  For example, weaning Anabelle finally allows me to diet and will enable me to have more energy to exercise which will help me diet which will give me more energy to organize my life, oh and hopefully in the midst of all of that Anabelle starts sleeping well again which enables me to get up at the crack of dawn... whew!!  So this update may not be that interesting to the general public, but it's helping me keep track ...

DIETING: Have I mentioned I HATE dieting?  See, I'm really a big fan of all things food so the whole dieting thing kind of poses a problem.  However, a few years ago I discovered South Beach was a plan that I could do for about 2-3 weeks and get an extra few pounds off pretty easily.  I've actually never really had to diet much (even after kids- well at least the first 3) until I hit 35 and my metabolism took a hike.  That was a really depressing day.  Then I had a baby at almost 37 and well, it's been all downhill from there!  So anyway after 10 days of no sugar, no carbs (and essentially no cheats) the fact that I am still sane is a major victory.  I planned to also give up diet coke (or at least severely cut back to 1 or 2 a week) but I decided that was maybe not the best idea during the early stages of the diet especially with Jason being out of town.  Here's why...

This is what everyone else had for dessert...
(click here for this yummy recipe)

This is what I had for dessert...

I'm eating tons of veggies and I feel SO MUCH better overall.  I've lost 4 pounds- was hoping for more by this time but I'll take it.

EXERCISE:  Have exercised almost everyday but 2 in the last 10 days.  Combination of Jillian Michaels and some weight training/cardio DVD's that I have.  I never really thought exercise would be an issue as I've always loved it- the biggest thing is finding the time for it!  But a Jillian DVD is just the right length- Anabelle will stay happy in her pack -n-play for me to get a whole workout in.

ORGANIZING MY LIFE:  That's actually going very well!  I've gotten the girls chore charts organized finally which I'm thrilled about (them, not so much...).  Will post about that later because I'm very pleased with the way it's going.  I'm getting my own life organized too- time for email, time for finances, time for language study.

WEANING MY LAST BABY: (sniff, sniff)  Going well.  Only nursing first thing in the morning and right before she goes to bed.  Started out kind of shaky as she would drool all the milk out and then throw the cup but I think we are getting the hang of it, and I hope to have her fully weaned within the next two weeks.

GETTING UP AT THE CRACK OF DAWN: (Kendra, are you reading?  do you know what I was tempted to put in that phrase?)  Ok sorry.  That's going ok.  The good news is, Anabelle is finally sleeping better.  She still occasionally wakes up during the night but puts herself back to sleep.  Realistically, I probably shouldn't expect myself to be able to do this while Jason is on a 10 day trip and we've also got 2 other girls staying with us but I at least want to start moving in the right direction which I'm doing so that's good.  I still savor those early morning hours before anyone else in the house is awake and those have been hard, if not impossible to come by lately.  Little by little they are coming back though and I'm thankful for that.

My main goal in all of this if for my life and that of my family to be more glorifying to Jesus.  I'm trying to keep my expectations realistic for this phase  of my life and honestly I think that's the hardest part of the whole thing especially now that our world is so connected and there are SO MANY others out there in the blogosphere and Facebook world and Pinterest world for me to compare myself to (but that's a subject for another post...).  Anyway, my daily prayer in all of this is that my goals will be centered in Him and that I will see my progress (or lack thereof) in any given area through His eyes.

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, 

but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

Proverbs 19:21