.......Call Me Crazy.......

I set goals for July - Lose 5 pounds and get my house more organized, clear of clutter.

And I officially did both! I started out at 148 pounds and today I weigh 140.6 for a loss of 7.4 pounds. I definitely made up for my tiny loss in June. I started 30 Day Shred a few days ago and I am excited to see how it changes my body. Hopefully I can keep up with it and do it 30 days straight.

My house has been cleared of a ton of toys and junk that was just hanging around. I feel like a huge weight hs been lifted off my shoulders. I can even keep up with the dishes and laundry! There is still work to be done but I no longer feel like the walls are closing in.

Some of you may have read my topic about my kids snacking the other day. Basically wondering if my kids snack too often and if they are eating the correct balance of foods. The more I thought about everything the more I realized my concern was more with my childrens weight. Until the past 5 months our eating habits as a family were not wonderful. Dinner always had a veggie and the kids got fruit every day. But my husband and I both are very guilty ov letting our kids overeat...REALLY overeat. And I can't blame them for wanting to snack so often now. Their little tummies are used to eating more than they needed. I have failed my children nutritionally.

It wouldnt be so bad if my daughter ws not overweight. Not by a huge amount  but enough it is notice. She is teased sometime. I never wanted that for her. I was always big, always teased. I never wanted my child to be faced with the heartache I went through. 

Obviously we never set out for  this to happen but we fed our kids the way we were raised. And if they said they were hungry we fed them, even if we knew they should be full because of just eating a good meal. We just never had it in us to make them stop. And the foods we gave them were a lot of junk. And treats that should be once maybe twice a week happend much more. No excuses there. 

But now we have to make changes. We will have set times for snacking (trying to allow fruit or veggie any time they asked resulted in eating every half hour to hour- too much freedom?) And those snacks are all healthy, with a treat on occasion. Eating has been improving for all for several months and we are stepping up those efforts.

Activity will be increasing as well. No more lazy summer days. No more letting my antisocial tendencies and depression keep them from the park. Tv time is being cut way down. 

I refuse to let my kids go through their childhood as un healthy and unhappy as I was. 

**Thank you all for reading. I had to get this out and there are just a lot of people I cannot talk to about this in my life**

This week MFP reset my cals to 1200. I have been starving most days and thinking I needed to up my calories. Seeing as I have been suddenly losing a lot of weight this week makes me think that I am right. At the same time though this is the week before my wonder monthly visitor. I am always hungier then. So I really started think and reminded me of a post about someones research and own experiment showing that a womans body needs more calories because more are burnt during this time.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/246100-tom-experiment-preliminary-results

In this case raising calories during this time has helped her to continue to lose weight even through her monthly cycle, before it would stall. This makes perfect sense to me. Others have since tried and found success  as well. So I am deciding that it is certainly worth a try. During the week before I will add 200 cal. per day,but only eat them if I am hungry and try to stick to healthier options.

If it works then great but if not then life will go on. This whole process is different for everyone, and it changes along the way. What worked at almost 200 may not work in the 140s. I am the first to amit I am not fond of change, I like to stick with what I know. Hence being the "big girl" all my life. But change is needed sometimes so I am going to give it a shot. So far the changes in the past 5 months have been amazing and well worth it.

I am setting a lot of goals for myslef in July. Both on my weightloss journey and my general life. June sucked as far as my loss, barely 2 pounds. I WILL lose 5 pounds in July. I have to be on track with exercise and eating. I am determined to be in the 130s by the end of summer.

As far as my daily life I have to get more organized. I realized that one reason vacation was relaxing was because our rental house was so clean. There was no clutter. Came home to way too many toys, papers, decorative bits just too much stuff. Within days I was feeling tense again. So I am clearing my house out of everything that is not used/played with. I am determined to have less clutter.

Hopefully I can do it all.