I went awol for a couple of crazy weeks. Discouraged.

[FarmerHal]

Well I'm here. I've gained back up to 236. At least it's not 240 again But I"m discouraged. Mostly it's my own fault. DH has been travelling for his work the last 2 weeks so I am left with 2 kids by myself in a new town with little to do and no friends and bitter cold outside. We are all suffering from cabin fever for sure!
This morning has been a NoS success so far. I am DETERMINED to do this. I MUST get down to 200lbs. I have to! My joints are hurting me. When I wake up in the morning, My feet and ankles hurt under my massive weight. Ideally I would like to be 180. I think things would be good then.
I have a pendulous abdomen. I think that is partly the weight but mostly because of the last 2 pregnancies in 2 yrs with the 2 c/sections.
Here I am trying to justify everything. I think if I hadn't had these kids I wouldn't be this big but Oh well, they are beautiful and worth every pound of weight gain.

I have the treadmill so I can walk but I hate indoor exercise. I like outdoor exercise.

Anyway, so I am back and going to try harder and post for support.

[Jaxhil]

Shamrockmommy, I am sorry you are having a tough time! I can relate to the new town/no friends/cabin fever time! I have gone through this myself more than once!! And I have 4 homeschooled kids (which I bfed longterm and had 4 c-sections, so I know how hard that can be too!) and I know how cabin fever with small kids is REALLY tough..

I am needing to lose about 65 lbs myself, and I am only 5'1" (BMI is almost 40% ). I find my hips ache sometimes too, badly, and I know it's from all this excess weight! I too have a treadmill but find it boring-plus I can't use it when my youngest (3yrs old) is up because I don't want her to try to join me, LOL!

I get discouraged frequently too... maybe we could help encourage each other to get on the treadmill daily and keep up with this NOS plan (which I really love, and though I haven't managed 21 days of successes yet I know I am changing my habits for the better one day at a time.

Do NOT beat yourself up about your slip-ups-we ALL have them!!! I have consciously started to MAKE myself not do that, because I find when I am beating myself up I will inevitably make it worse by eating even more or giving up entirely, and start the whole vicious cycle again. If I, on the other hand, say to myself-"it's only one cookie (or whatever), I can stop now and it's not going to ruin me if I just jump right back on the wagon right now it'll be fine", then I feel good about all the successes that I HAVE had...well then I am (first and foremost) feeling better (instead of worse) about myself because I generally have more success than failure. And really, it does no good AT ALL to tear yourself up for your mistakes..it doesn't get you back on track, it just makes you feel like ka-ka and want to stuff yourself all the more. At least it does me! And this will get you nowhere fast!

Make time to have fun with your little ones..I know it's hard, but maybe set up some things for the older baby to do -like blocks or cars or set them in their high chair with a toy or something while you work out, or wait til nap time to get in a few minutes. I feel funny posting this because I too have a terrible time making myself stick with exercise-but really it WILL be worth it!!

I am trying to encourage myself too with this post

Anyway, I sure hope you feel better...it does get easier, with the kids and the new lonely place..get yourselves on a regular schedule if you are not already and maybe that will help a bit with the lonelies..can you get to a play group in your area? I'm sure it would help you not feel so isolated anyway!

[hollydazzle]

I've been trying to do the No S for two weeks now. I did quite well at first, but this week, I am having a hard time getting back after my S days. And I went crazy this weekend with the S too. I wish I had some good advise for you, I just wanted to tell you that you aren't alone. Let's try to get back on track today and go forward, not look back.

[florafloraflora]

Shamrockmommy, I can really sympathize with your cabin fever. I don't know how old your kids are, and I know you're probably pretty tired, but is there any way you could engage them in some active play indoors that would double as exercise for you? I know that I can't stand indoor, treadmill-type exercise, but I get a fair amount of exercise just by tossing a ball and playing tug with my dogs. Maybe you could toss a ball around, or do some kind of dance or game with your older kid, that would get your heart rate up. Just a thought.

[kccc]

"Everyday is fresh, with no mistakes in it." Anne of Green Gables



So is every PART of a day. You can start over any time.

Instead of beating yourself up, celebrate every success. At the end of each day, look for five accomplishments (no matter HOW small) in the day.

The kid thing is hard - I only have one, but know how you can lose perspective after a long day.

Can you...
- Get out SOMEWHERE? The library, a bookstore with a good kids section (our local B&N has a Thomas the Tank engine train set-up that would entertain my son for hours!), even {shudder} Chuck E Cheese. Just seeing beyond the same four walls can be SO helpful.
- Add structure to your day at home? I find that if I figure out exercise time, craft time, reading time, etc., during the day that it helps us all. Just making sure everyone gets some exercise helps! (Exercise can mean "wrassling on the floor" and "playing horsie" or anything else energetic and full of laughter.)

Good luck!

[Jaxhil]

KCCC-great advice

[FarmerHal]

Jaxhil maybe we should be noS buddies ? Check in daily w/one another?

Today has been quite successful, although I was tempted to snack (eat mindlessly from stress). I'm in the midst of potty training my 3yr old son (ack!) He's doing pretty well.

It's hard when I have to do this all by myself but then I remind myself, it could be worse.

Thanks for the support guys!!

[Jaxhil]

I would like that! I could use some support myself I need to potty-train my 3yrold too-ugh! I have 3 older boys and I found them fairly easy to train. They were all trained by my daughter's age! She is proving more difficult for me! LOL. I tell myself it's because she was born 16 weeks early that she's still not developmentally caught up yet I think it's at least partly true, hehe. Plus girls are a whole 'nother ball of wax

I didn't exercise yesterday, but I did fairly well on the eating. Only a couple of cheats. Okay, not great, but the cheats ( a little soda and popcorn) were nowhere near as bad as they've been in the past. In other words the portions were extremely (for me anyway) limited! And surprisingly, I felt satisfied with them. I still wish I hadn't cheated though!

I am going to get on my treadmill now-I find if I do it EARLY I feel MUCH better the whole day-plus it's DONE-YAAHH! I'll do at least 20 min depending on when DD awakens, that is

Have a GREAT day!!

Hilary

[FarmerHal]

Hilary, should we start a Hilary/Tiffani Check in thread on the check-in board?
Then we can check daily and see how each other is doing.

I also have AoL IM if you are interested

As for potty training. UGH. That's all I can say. DS had 3 poop accidents in a row. And not the nice tirds, but the squishy ones Ugh. I'm sure he'll get it one of these days.

I'll go ahead and start a check in thread over on teh other board.
Tiffani

[Ray E.]

I'll add my $0.02 on the potty training...we have six and the single best method for us was to remove their diapers when they were around 2.5 years old and getting them to the potty when it looked like they needed to go. Obviously, you'll be cleaning up, but within three days they were potty trained. My wifes stays at home so it seemed easy for me since I didn't have to deal with the messes!

Ray

[Kevin]

Take a walk through the posts here and you'll find lots of folks who have failed repeatedly before succeeding.

Take heart. Failure and redemption is a prevalent theme in the human story - why should you be different?

Maybe it's too hard to think about a whole week of No-S. So, just succeed tonight. Then succeed again tomorrow, between breakfast and lunch. Then just between lunch and dinner. Each success improves your success:failure ratio. Just keep improving it.

And, maybe, with little kids around that need snacks, etc., you just can't pull off three-squares yet. But if you decide this is the case, prepare yourself. Have raw vegetables to snack on, and non-caloric beverage. Do all the things you can. Could you add a fourth, small meal at a particularly difficult time of day? Or maybe start by just not snacking after dinner?

Need to exercise? Have you considered ShovelGlove, with just a broomstick to start? Or just walking? I know it's cold (even in D.C. it's in the very low teens - which almost never happens here), but it'd be good for the kids to get out in the air if you can dress them warmly.

[Jaxhil]

Sounds good, Tiffani! I'll go check in right now ... BTW, thanks for the PT advice Ray-I will have to try that -I am SICK of diapers!!