Yes, their chubby cheeks are cute, and their kisses are heaven-sent, but the catastrophic messes they make, and the unpredictable tantrums they throw, can give anyone the urge to lock themselves into a room, crawl into a ball, and cry…
It’s already bad enough, you can no longer keep a single morsel of food to yourself without your child’s precious little ravenous fingers reaching up to claim whatever, fork, spoon, or snack, that was about to descend into the depths of your mouth. Let alone that their time is their time, and your time is… well of course it’s their time as well!
Parenting is hard.If you think dealing with one toddler is a strenuous task, try raising two at the exact same age. It gets tough.
It’s hard not to lose your sanity when two toddlers insist that dinner should be smeared on the walls, and floors as art, or that their diapers should be worn on their heads as hats, instead of their butts, which in just moments, inevitably creates, one really big mess.
And please, do not dare commit the heinous act, of not refilling a sippy cup within the allotted time of 60 seconds; it just may as well be,the end of the world.
Yes I know, I shouldn’t complain, because they are healthy, and happy, and as constantly growing humans, they are going through a lot.
Sure, it’s tough work being a toddler. There’s so much to see, so much learn and do; lots of teeth to grow, and different things to chew. There’s always new things to discover; even if it is that bottle of chocolate syrup, you thought, you put high enough, up… Newsflash: You didn’t.
And no one, not a single soul, desires to have their sleep blatantly interrupted, by a toddler’s,–in this case two– blood-curdling scream, at 2 in the morning, to have them only return to bed an enervating, 3 hours later…
This is Jada. Jada is 17 months old. It is currently 4 am. I am tired. She is also tired, but she insists that playing with the door, is more important than getting a good night’s sleep.
Most parents would agree that, raising children—even a single child— is often a daunting task. Parenting has it’s ups and it’s downs, and while the joys of parenthood are abundant, we understand that our precious little angels can be some of the most unpleasant creatures, that we’ve ever met.
“Embrace Uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters of our lives won’t have a title until much later.” –Bob Goff
Accepting or embracing change can be difficult, painful even. It’s the reason why we procrastinate and put off those important projects and ideas that have the potential to change our lives.
The truth is in some way, shape, or form, we are scared; scared of what change may bring, scared of the effort we may have to put in, scared to leave our comfort zone, afraid of the difficulties we may face.
Some of us are so scared of failure that we never even start down the road that could lead us to our greatest success.
Today I made a change. I left my average entry level position job as a cashier.
Although I have held this position for a year, I have grown comfortable in it, comfortable in the familiarity of it, comfortable in it’s daily repetitiveness, and the safety of my routine.
Staying would have been an easy thing to do, but taking the easy way out leaves no room for growth or change, which is a basic necessity of life. We need growth and change, or otherwise our dreams, and goals begin to die.
To be honest I’m more than scared about starting a new job, especially one I’ve never done. I’m not even sure I’m mentally prepared for it, but one thing I do know is that I have the chance to grow, and when life presents you with the opportunity you take it.
This post is a reminder to go after your goals and dreams no matter how terrifying and unreasonable they may seem. Of course there’s a 100 chances of not achieving success, but it’s a fact that you never will if you never try.
So many people struggle with losing, weight, and maintaining a healthy weight once it’s gone. I happen to be one of those people who struggle with being overweight. I have recently restarted my weight loss journey so I’ve taken the liberty to write this post to give you a few tips to help you start on your journey to a healthier happier you, with that being said here is:
How To Lose 1 Pound a Week or More
Tip Number One (How To Lose 1 Pound a Week) : Count Calories
Reducing calorie intake is one way to start seeing lower numbers on the scale. Since there are approximately 3500 calories in a pound, you would simply have to consume 3500 calories less than you’d typically consume during the week to become one pound lighter.
Keeping track of the calories you consume is the tricky part. Knowing, and keeping track of the amount of calories in everything you eat can be frustrating and tedious, which is why I recommend using my favorite calorie counting app My Net Diary. (Click here to download the app)
My Net Diary allows you track everything from Breakfast lunch, dinner, and Snacks. It’s bar code scanning feature allows you to easily input your favorite snacks or packaged food without having to type anything in.
The app allows you input the amount of exercise that you do, and how many calories you burned doing it. Another amazing perk is that My Net Diary also allows you to track the amount of water you intake and can even send you reminders, (pictured in the slide show above) which leads me into
Tip Number Two (How To Lose 1 Pound a Week) : Drink More Water.
Now this may sound like an obvious no brainer, but some people (me included) find it difficult to consume the daily recommended amount of 64 ounces of water, or more.
I struggle with this especially, drinking water can be flat, plain old boring and tasteless, but luckily for those of us who abhor the thought of drinking water there are wonderful geniuses who have created flavored water, and have even added electrolytes to them, without adding all the extra unwanted sugar and calories.
My favorite brand is Propel. There are many flavors to choose from Watermelon, lemon, black cherry, grape, and all of them taste wonderful. They are all zero calories so feel free to replace those sugary drinks and sodas and indulge in bottle after bottle to meet your water goals.
Drinking water and stay hydrating is an essential factor to weight loss, without proper hydration it’s impossible for your body to help you burn fat and build muscle. So if you didn’t think drinking water wasn’t important, think again.
Tip Number Three (How To Lose 1 Pound a Week) : Intermittent Fasting.
Intermittent fasting is loosely described as eating between specific periods of time, and not eat at all during others. For example there are 24 hours in a day, someone who is practicing intermittent fasting may only eat during an 8 hour period starting at 12pm in the afternoon. This means that he/she would have their first meal or bite to eat at 12 and would stop consuming food/meals by 8p.m.
The person would then not eat anything else again till 12 noon the next day, and this schedule or pattern of eating would repeat everyday. Most people do 6 to 8 hours of eating then spend the remainder of the time fasting.
The beauty of intermittent fasting is that you can start your eating period during whatever time of the day, as long as you confine your food intake between those 6 to 8 hours afterwards.
For the best results it’s best to choose a starting time that you feel comfortable with and stick to this time to get your body in the habit of only eating during those hours. Actively limiting your time eating throughout the day will help you to control boredom, and random snacking and over consumption of food by setting boundaries for yourself.
Side Note: (This does not mean that you get to gorge yourself with food during eating hours)
Tip Number Four (How To Lose 1 Pound a Week): Change the way You Snack.
Snacking was and still is a challenge for me. I like to munch on things that are full of sugar and salt, whether or not I’m hungry, bored lonely, or feeling blue, snacking is one of my favorite things to do.
It has also been the cause of much of my weight gain. If you are an emotional snacker like myself, don’t beat yourself up for it, things happen, life happens… but you have to remember to pick yourself back up.
There’s a saying that goes, “if you don’t start any trouble there wont be any.” I’m not sure how true that is for every case, but in the case of the way you eat or snack, you control everything that goes into your body.
In other words when you’re at the grocery store and you see that favorite tub of ice cream or that favorite box of cookies you love, resist the urge to put it in your cart. In fact close your eyes, and avoid that aisle all together, then proceed to make your way back to the produce, or nutrition aisles to find a healthier alternative.
Nip unhealthy eating in the butt. If you don’t have that box of cookies at home then you wont be able to eat the entire box, if you don’t go Dunkin Donuts you wont be tempted to add a sugary donut to whatever sugary caffeinated drink you already have.
Mind over Matter. Sometimes you have to trick yourself. It’s scientifically proven that eating makes feel calmer and happier. That’s why so many people eat when they feel down or upset. Imagine if you could trick your brain into believing that you are eating something when you’re not.
Believe it or not you can, by chewing gum. When you chew gum you go through the same motions as if you were eating actual food. You chew and while you don’t actually swallow your gum you do swallow saliva which in turn makes your brain believe you are eating something.
So the next time you think you want to snack try reaching for a piece of minty sugarless gum instead, not only will it save you all those empty calories you were about to consume, it will give your breath a minty fresh blast.
Tip Number Five (How To Lose 1 Pound a Week) : Move More.
The dreaded word, a fat person’s worst nightmare (or should I say my worst nightmare) exercise… If only there were a way to lose weight without it. But before you panic it may not be as bad as you think.
I’m not saying you have to start off running a mile but walking a mile would be a good place to start.If you could find a way to implement walking more into your daily schedule, along with the other tips mentioned in this post you should begin to see a slight improvement in your waistline.
If you have a fit watch or step counter on your phone check to see if you’re meeting your daily step goal, which should be at least 10,000 steps a day. If you conclude that you’re not meeting your step goal during your typical day, then it’s time to get to stepping and start adding more activity to your day.
If walking is not enough to get your heart pumping then take it up a notch. A 15 minute jog will strengthen your lungs, and build stamina. Even if walking or jogging doesn’t suit you, find something fun that you enjoy that also gets you moving like dancing or playing outside with your kids. Since you’re just getting started on your fitness journey your activity doesn’t need to be extreme or strenuous, but enough to burn off those excess calories.
So in review these are my five tips on how to lose 1 pound a week or more:
Count Calories
Drink More Water
Intermittent Fasting
Change the way you snack
Move More
These tips may sound simple but it may still take time for you to remember to log every item you eat or adjust your routine to add more activity, it wont be perfect at first but remember to stay consistent.
Want to share your journey with me, I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for loosing the weight drop a comment below or send me a message on IG @real.queens.killing.it.
Good luck to you on your journey!
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