Post 10/30: Lifestyle Changes

I give up on this blogging everyday thing. I just can't do it! But I'll still keep trying to post as often as possible.

Today, I want to share about the big changes going on in our family lifestyles. We're trying to make each person a more happy, well adjusted, healthier person- even Josiah.

First off, I am weaning Josiah from bottles to sippy cups, but found that I couldn't do it without teaching him how to fall asleep without a bottle first. So, (with the help of my BBC friends) began with feeding Josiah a bottle in the living room, sitting on my lap, to break the association of a bottle with his crib. Then, I lay him down while he's awake and tired and let him cry until he falls asleep. Crying it out (CIO) did not work for us before. He doesn't do well with the frequent checks. He just gets more upset. So I have to wait it out. After he gets used to going to sleep without the bottle, then I'll switch to sippy cups. We began yesterday and so far it's not horrible. He cried for 45 mins without going to sleep at his first nap, 40 mins and then slept 20 mins on the 2nd try of his first nap, cried 30 mins and slept 1 1/2 hours on his 2nd nap, and then cried 15-20 mins and slept the rest of the night for bedtime. This morning at 5am, he had a bottle and wouldn't go back to sleep. We had to leave by 6:45 anyways to pick up my daycare client. He fell asleep in the car so I caved and gave him a bottle after we got home. We all needed a good nap. For his first nap this afternoon, though, I went back to giving him a bottle in the living room and laid him in his crib without it. He only cried for 5 mins and then fell asleep. I'm pretty proud of that! We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

Jesse and I are working on losing weight to get our healthier lifestyles. Both of us are the heaviest we've ever been and not happy with it. So, we're doing something about it. All last week I cut down my Mountain Dew intake and was trying to watch my portion sizes. Then yesterday, I found this website where I signed up for a free account. I entered in my height, weight, age, gender, and normal activity level. I was able to set up a goal of a timeline to lose so much weight. My goal is to lose 70 lbs by my anniversary next year, but I'm keeping my eyes on the small goals of 1.5 lbs a week. The site set up a goal of so many calories per day to eat and to burn to meet my weight-loss goals. I did pretty good yesterday. I did exceed my calories by 320 because I ate at Jack in the Box for breakfast before I found this website and set my goals. My little breakfast biscuit was more than half of my daily intake! And I went for a 1.75 mile walk, carrying Josiah on my back last night, coming up just 120 calories short of what I should've burned. I still burned twice as many calories as I ate, though!

I bought a scale and pedometer too, and set up a spreadsheet to track my weight-loss and inches lost around my body. I plan on having rewards for myself along the way for extra motivation. These might be getting my hair or nails done or buying a new outfit, depending on how much I do. In the end, maybe we can plan a vacation or something to reward both of us.

Jesse intends to lose 60 lbs in the same timeline, and he set up an account too, but his attitude, goals, and perspective are different than mine. He feels like it'll be easy for him to lose weight as long as he's trying. We'll see. I'm proud of my progress, though, and look forward to what's to come!