Birthdays Are My Enemy!

Ok so not birthdays, just birthday cakes.

Oh and graduation cakes, going way cakes, congratulations cakes, wedding cakes, bridal shower cakes, baby shower cakes.

OK OK so maybe cakes are the enemy!?!

But that is just too hard to admit.

They look so good and they taste even better! I should know because right now I have a 1/4 sheet cake in my kitchen.

I would love to tell you that I have been exercising great self-control. I would love to tell you that I have only had one piece or even two......but I can't. In the past three days, I have consumed more cake then any normal person should.

I would love to blame my husband for sabotaging my diet, but is it really his fault he had a birthday??

Changes

Things are constantly changing.

Recently my work schedule changed. I still work third shift, but I now come in an hour earlier. Also I just got promoted to full time....YEAH!! This means my eating schedule is so messed up. I now get hungry in the middle of the night and still want to eat three meals during the day. I have tried saving my snacks for while I'm at work but so far.....not really helping!

Another big change is that every six weeks my sleep schedule has to change. This causes major problems in......you guessed it my appetite.

If I ever lose this weight it will be nothing short of a miracle!

Good News!

In spite of my extreme slacking off in exercising and my continuing to drink soft drinks and iced coffee......

I lost 5 pounds!!!

Self Esteem

I used to have a lot of self esteem. I never doubted that I was funny, outgoing, and lets not forget beautiful.

Then I had kids.

Now I am extremely overweight, sleep deprived, and stressed to the max.

Is it really a surprise that now I have no self esteem?

Slacking

It is pretty obvious that I have been slacking lately.

I did not start counting calories and I only truly exercised 2 days.

As far as caffeine goes, you already know that didn't even last one day. Going cold turkey on caffeine is not going to work. The main reason is the withdrawal. It is no joke!! The other reason is that I work third shift. If I don't sleep good during the day, I am used to using caffeine to help keep me up....especially on the way home.

I think that me for, getting rid of the caffeine is going to be a long process. I am giving myself a month to be completely caffeine free. Here is the plan. Right now, I drink two or three 20 oz caffeine drinks a day. So step one is going to be limiting my caffeine to one 20 oz soda or coffee a day. Step two is going to be drinking the 20 oz in phases.

On week one, I am going to drink 8 oz when I wake up, 8oz while I am at work, and 4 oz on my way home from work.

On week two of limiting caffeine I am going to drink 16 oz of caffeine drinks a day.....6 oz when I wake up, 6 oz while I am at work and 3 oz on my way home from work.

On week three, I am only drink 16 oz every other day using the same spacing method.

On week four, I am going to be really brave and only drink 16 oz every third or fourth day, again using the same spacing method.

Now I just need some way to force myself to exercise. I am seriously thinking about some sort of reward system.

Hey, if it works with kids, it has to work with adults too. Right?

Cutting Out Caffeine Round 1

Picture me getting two kids up and ready for school, cooking breakfast, packing lunches, getting hubby up and off to work...all without my morning Dr Pepper.

Sounds easy enough, right?

The problem is this pesky little thing called REALITY.

Reality hit right around lunch when I started to get a headache from caffeine withdrawal and asprin didn't help. This also happened to be the time that I was picking the kids up from school and they were happy and hyper. They each wanted to tell me about their day at school and I wanted to listen....I really did....but they were being so loud and I could feel the blood pumping through every vein my head.

I was getting ready to turn into an evil witch.

To save the life of my kids, I caved in and drank a soft drink.

My So-Called Program

I am going to weigh in weekly. This means I will be here every Sunday at 7 am. to share the great news.

I am going to start out by going cold turkey on the three C's.......Caffeine, Candy, and Chocolate. This one is going to be the hardest......so let's see how long it lasts.

I am going to exercise for at least 30 minutes EVERY day.  This does not include chasing around or playing with the kids. This is 30 minutes of moderate to intense exercising......this is also my new "Me" time, where I can focus on me.

Using lots of different websites, I have come to the conclusion that I need to eat a maximum of 1300 calories a day. It seems like a lot of calories, so this part should be easy.  

Wait! I am married to a chef!

Can I have more calories????  PLEASE!?!?!?!

Ok Ok, enough begging. But seriously this is going to be HARD!

I am going to start tracking my calories and exercising by using Spark People, Lose it, Jillian Michaels App on my iPhone, and I may try a few more out as I go. After I see the differences between them, I am going to pick the one I like best and stick with it.

I am sure I will need motivation along the way. For that I am going to find a lot of motivational sayings, stories, and prayers. But for those really horrible trying days where I just want to give up, my hubby and the kids will be my motivation. I know with them I can get through anything.

I am absolutely positive that by the time I lose this weight my hubby will have had to pick my fat ass up off the floor on multiple occasions. I am sure he can't wait!