Today I met with my personal trainer to discuss an eating plan and workouts for when I’m in the gym on my own. At the weekend I found a t-shirt of William’s that my sister bought which says ‘I’m with the milf’ and my immediate thought was ‘he can’t wear that’. Not because I don’t think it’s funny but because I don’t consider myself a milf and feel like other people would laugh at the idea that at my size I think that of myself. Sorry, this is turning it into ramble. But it made me refocus and gave new motivation to my journey to health and fitness.
With everything that has been going on, my cup was so full it felt like it’s overflowed and sprung a few leaks all in the name of survival. I’m not sure whether I let my cup stay too full too often which is why I feel like I get overfull on a regular basis, whether my life is particularly soap opera like or whether I just don’t cope very well. But then I think I’m a pretty resilient person so I tend to think it’s a mixture of the first two. But never fear because although my halo has slipped it hasn’t been trampled on and I although I have only been to the gym when I’ve had PT sessions I have been trying to keep active by dancing with little man and walking the nursery run rather than getting the bus.
I am hoping Tesco were right when they said
‘every little helps’
Sometimes you have to fail for a bit longer short term in order to long term succeed. I feel like that is how this weekend was. Last week I took some time to think about what obstacles were getting in the way of my success. There are somethings that are out of my control, work demands, William’s health, my FnotIL {tricky unmarried ‘what should I refer to him as’ moment} being rushed into hospital etc. Quite rightly there are times when situations become of higher priority than going to the gym or doing a supermarket shop. But there are things that were bothering which were within my control.
1. Disorganised eating
A lack of having healthy, easy to prepare, food at home was making us lazy with takeaway options.
- massive Ocado shop
- complete an inventory of my cupboards and freezer
- write up a menu plan
- ask advice from PT about what, when and why
2. Sleep deprivation
With all the disturbance to any assemblance of routine William started not going to sleep until 9pm and getting up at 4:30am. It was leaving less time to get anything done and when you go into a period of bad sleep without reserves it is easy to become disbondant, fed-up and, frankly, a bit bonkers very quickly!! Friday did not see me parent in the way I want to.
- in response to an SOS tweet or three a friend recommended a book called ‘Save our sleep’ by Tizzie Hall. I spent Saturday evening reading samples of several books and I’ve actually downloaded the toddler version of the book, can’t really say why I’ve taken so long to be ready to read a book about sleep training and been prepared to follow it. But until now I just don’t think I found a book that I felt fitted us.
- although this one I love {so far} I hate the section on food but maybe that is just because ‘baby led weaning’ has worked so well for us.
- we’re currently two nights in and last night he slept from 6:30pm until 7am this morning {I’ve set the radio to come on at just after 7 each day} and only one wake-up at 5:30am which he self-settled from within 20minutes. She advocates teaching them to self-sooth and not responding to every cry but what I like she that she very clearly states how you should respond to an emotional cry and not just let them ‘cry it out’.
- we haven’t chosen to remove his dummy yet, I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do for William but I’m still mentally debating it. Once we are further into the process I will try to remember to do a proper review!
3. Lacking personal space
Not having some personal space was really not helping my downward mental spiral. William was still in the nursery which is attached to our bedroom and it meant that I missed having someone to ‘hide’, having an early night. Even laundry or kitchen based activities were tricky because it was directly below William’s nursery and for some reason the floor there is much thinner than the other rooms.
- the big project for the weekend was getting William’s bedroom done to a point that he can move in. Happily this was a success!
- so far, even given the room change, new routine and the first molar cutting through, he has responded really positively. Fingerscrossed this continues but I don’t like to get over confident.
- his room still needs some decorative touches and we need to set-up the video camera and a light switch – we take a montessori approach in many ways and so have tried to design the room so that he can independently access everything, including a lower light switch.