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Day 5 {Whole30}

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This Whole30 deal makes you do some strange things:

  • Kraft stood over the peanut butter jar smelling it for like 10 seconds this morning
  • I have this overwhelming urge to have a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios
  • As I was serving the kids rice, I got a few grains on my finger and immediately put them in my mouth, then ran to the trash to spit them out. Two grains of rice, folks. #totallyunnecessary

We’re officially Whole30 crazy.

Breakfast: [not pictured]

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Lunch:

  • Skillet Eggs
  • 1/2 an Apple with Almond Butter
  • 2-3 slices of turkey (Our grocery store makes in-house real slices of turkey off of a turkey breast. So good and the turkey (not the ham, boo) is Whole30 compliant #awesomesauce)
  • Handful of Almonds
  • Small Banana

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Dinner:

  • Apple Cider Pulled Pork (Which really should be called shredded pork because pulled pork implies saucy deliciousness and this has no sauce. Trust me, I’m a Texan.) – This was really good.  I’d say if I had thrown in chipotle peppers while it was cooking it would taste just like The Pioneer Woman’s recipe that uses Dr. Pepper and brown sugar.
  • Carrot Sticks
  • Sautéed Cruciferous Mix with Garlic – not my favorite, but Kraft liked it
  • 1/2 an Avocado
  • Grapes

How we felt today:

Just yesterday I uttered the famous last words, “This isn’t so bad. We haven’t really had the symptoms that the Whole30 timeline said. Maybe we were eating better than we thought.”

Ha.

I’ve been hungry all day. Kraft was fine. But the funniest part is that right in the afternoon I totally hit a wall. I could have curled up in the speech therapist’s office I was waiting in and fallen asleep. When I got home, I started putting away laundry but ended up face down on the carpet in my kids’ room dozing off. Lina ran into the room to do something and jumped and screamed because Mama was on the floor fully stretched out.

The general progression of feelings on this program is “Hangover” –> “Kill All the Things” –> “Just Want to Nap”. I skipped the hangover part. I tend towards being grumpy most days so “Kill All the Things” didn’t really phase me. I was thrown headlong into NAP. Now. Nap now. Do it. Don’t think. Do it. Nap. NOW.

Here’s hoping tomorrow brings some more energy and satiety.

 

Day 4 {Whole30}

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No, chitchat today. You need to go to Nom Nom Paleo and make her Asian Meatballs. By all means, stop reading now so you can go straight to the store and buy the ingredients. No judgment here. I did only find the Red Boat Fish Sauce (affiliate link) at Whole Foods and not at HEB. I see that you can order on Amazon but then you have to wait two whole days to make this. Seriously, they are the most delicious thing ever. This was the conversation at dinner tonight:

Our oldest kiddo: “Mom, I think these are so good that God would like them.”

Kraft: “Do you think God would say, ‘Oh my Me, those are good!'”

It was really nice to find such a good recipe. Not that the food we’ve been eating has been bad, it’s just nice to find a solid comfort food that is Whole30 compliant.

Breakfast: [no picture]

  • BLT Breakfast Salad which I decided I’m never going to make for breakfast again. It would make a better lunch. No one has time to chew that much and that long in the morning.

wp-1464143056782.jpgLunch:

Ain’t nobody got time to take pictures of dinner when it’s so good. This is, however, a picture of the lunchbox container I’m sending with O tomorrow. She asked me to pack it for her.

Dinner:

How We Felt:

Kraft has been dragging. We’re not sure if it’s because of the “hangover” effect of the Whole30 or just the fact that we suck at going to sleep at a decent time. I’m feeling fine. This is the first day that I’m feeling hungry now right before bed but I’m just drinking a La Croix and hoping that satisfies me.

Day 3 {Whole30}

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Today I finally came to terms with the fact that I insanely overbought greens from Trader Joe’s. I’d never shopped there before as they are relatively new to this area but I read post after post of Whole30 peeps raving about how easy their prepackaged salad mixes are. I was sold.wp-1464056326227.jpg Not sure what possessed me but this is what I have currently in our fridge plus we just finished 2 heads of romaine lettuce and a box of spinach. The drawer on the right has everything with a sell by date of 5/26. It’s not looking promising that we’ll be able to eat it all. I’ll have to give some to neighbors or maybe freeze? Hmm.

I will say my biggest fear starting the Whole30 was running out of food that is compliant. With 5 kiddos, it’s not easy to pop over to the grocery store so if we’re out of Whole30 food, hello water and lime. That being the driving force in my mind, when I was at Trader Joe’s I just started compulsively throwing multiple bags of anything that resembled a green in my cart with my 3 year old asking with each throw, “What IS that, Mama???”

I got their Cruciferous (there I go with that word again) mix, Power to the Greens mix, Broccoli Slaw mix, Cabbage mix, and Riced Cauliflower. If I stop posting it’s because we somehow managed to eat all of this before it expired and turned into kale.

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Breakfast:

  • Skillet Eggs – This took 10 minutes to make and was delicious. Oh, and don’t worry overmuch about the pea tendril and leek thing. I just used plain ol’ white onions and plain spinach and it was still great.
  • 1/2 an Apple with Almond Butter

wp-1464056352957.jpgLunch: (Meal prep earlier in week was clutch, all this was already made)

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Dinner:

  • Zoodles with Creamy Avocado Sauce (made sauce without the garlic because apparently Kraft’s a vampire and has something against raw garlic)
  • Whole Roasted Chicken – shredded
  • Roasted Sweet Potato with coconut oil and cinnamon

How We Felt:

Fine. Other than the hand wringing about the underground greens selling ring we’re going to have to start.

 

Day 2 {Whole30}

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Today, after Mass, we swung by Whole Foods to pick up a few of the weird ingredients that I need for the week:

  • Coconut Aminos,
  • Red Boat Fish Sauce,
  • Avocado Oil Mayo, and
  • Sugar-free bacon. That’s right, sugar-free bacon. (It’s bacon, not a stick of gum, Whole30.)

There we were circling the meat department and we just couldn’t find it. I had just sat through an entire Kerbey Lane breakfast watching my kiddos eat bacon as if it were manna from heaven so I really wanted bacon. This forced me to go up to the meat counter and say, “I hate myself for asking this, but do you have sugar-free bacon?” Thankfully, he didn’t make fun of me and showed me right to it. From Pederson Farms if you’re wondering. Hallelujah.

Breakfast : Kerbey Lane – Harvest Omelette without cheese, home fries, and fruit. I love me some eggs and ketchup (don’t judge) but ketchup is a no-go during a Whole30.image

Lunch: Zucchini Noodle Bowl – this was strangely good

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Dinner:

  • Sheet Pan Fajitas over romaine lettuce,
  • Mexican Cauliflower Rice (which doesn’t taste like rice but, when you eat it combined with all the other flavors on the plate, tasted pretty decent, which was very surprising)
  • 1/2 an avocado

How I felt:

I felt fine today. It is strange to find out that I love eating so much because of all the stuff we can’t have. Like I could have definitely eaten my omelette much quicker had I had ketchup or if it had queso but not having those things really made me slow down my eating. Same thing with the fajitas. I didn’t eat as much as I would have because we couldn’t eat tortillas so I ate slower and got full faster.

Also, I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Kraft is still getting hungry between meals but I’m guessing it’s because he isn’t really drinking coffee which is his usual go-to between meals. He did try it today with coconut milk but it wasn’t his favorite. He did like the milk cold from the fridge as opposed to it warm from the pantry when we opened the can.

Onward.

Day 1 of Our Whole30

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We are doing the Whole30 (I’m still not cool enough to know whether I have to put “the Whole30” or “a Whole30”, or just Whole30. I am, however, cool enough to know that there is no space between Whole and 30, thankyouverymuch). It was a pretty sudden decision which was good because given more time to think about it, I would have put more energy in planning cinnamon rolls and doughnuts pre-Whole30 as opposed to planning Whole30 food.

Why are we doing this?:

I’ve been pretty actively trying to lose weight since December. I started being more conscientious of my eating and working out 3 times a week. Then in March I really fell in love with our YMCA and started going to classes 6 days a week. And you know what? Nada. I haven’t seen one change. Sure, I rock at squats but my clothes don’t fit any differently and I haven’t lost a single pound. I’m not that upset about it, because I love it and it is total stress relief but it got me wondering why the heck my body isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing.

I realized we probably don’t eat as well as I think we do and maybe my body really just needs a reboot. And if you know me, nothing halfway for this gal. So I figured we’d do this crazy Whole30. Even if it is total bunk, we’re just eating a lot of vegetables and forming better eating habits which can’t be bad for us.

And Kraft’s doing it because I make his food. Ha. And because he wants to be supportive. At least that’s what I read into his shrug when I asked him if he wanted to do this with me. 🙂

So, here we go.

wp-1463883911133.jpgBreakfast:

  • Cruciferous Salad with prosciutto and tomatoes, avocado, and soft-boiled egg (this recipe makes more dressing than you’ll need so don’t just dump it all in like I did)
  • Cherry Limeade Smoothie
  • We can assume hot tea for me and coffee for Kraft at every breakfast

Lunch: [not pictured]

  • Tuna Salad (The trick to my mom’s uh-mazing tuna salad recipe is you add diced jalapeño. Do it. Your mouth will thank you, I promise) on romaine lettuce
  • Mashed Sweet Potato and Applesauce

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Dinner:

Post-dinner:

  • LaCroix Cran-Rasberry. Most delicious sparkling water I’ve ever had. Even better than Dr. Pepper. (No, it’s not, don’t believe that. Are you crazy? I’m just trying to trick myself. 30 days is a long time people. But it is really, really good.)

Prep for this week:

  • For pre-workout meals this week I boiled a dozen eggs so we can eat an egg and 1/2 an avocado.
  • For post-workout, I made a double batch of Chicken and Veggie Frittata.
  • Zoodles for a meal tomorrow and Monday.
  • Roasted 8 sweet potatoes (put straight on a sheet tray lined with foil for 45-60 minutes at 400°)
  • 4lbs of carrots cut into carrot sticks
  • Turned half of the sweet potatoes I roasted into Sweet Potato and Applesauce Mash

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How we felt:

Whole30 has a hilarious timeline of how you should be feeling as the days go by so I thought it’d be good to jot down how we felt each day to see if it corresponds. I got a headache around lunchtime but it was gone by dinner time.

Breakfast was way too much food. It took me like an hour to chew through that salad and I was full halfway through but I still ate the whole thing because no snacking allowed. I love snacking. I’m very good at snacking. Especially hiding-in-the-pantry-snacking so my kids don’t tackle me and rip the food out of my hands.

I stayed pretty full all day but I definitely felt deprived. I didn’t want to chew salad, I wanted to chew, well, anything else really.

Kraft got pretty hangry between breakfast and lunch and he is really not liking his coffee black.

Meal prep was a lot of work, but I’m hoping I’ll be happy I did it later in the week.

Who the hell am I? Seriously? Even my phone doesn’t know me. Almost every word I’ve typed in this post has been autocorrected because when do I ever say spiralized or Cruciferous. My phone is like, “Hmm. I think you meant leftover Halloween candy or pizza and beer.”

Go big or go home, amiright?

Top 4 Misadventures in Traveling

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Most people that go to Notre Dame study abroad. Something like 85% of people. I was that homebody 15%. I always tell people that going to Notre Dame was my studying abroad. Seriously. I loved it and really came into my own and met some of the most amazing friends a person could ask for, but all of it was SO foreign to me. The culture, the tradition, even the way people lived their faith. So, so different. Thank God.

And thank God that I never wanted to travel internationally because I was horrible at traveling. H-0-R-R-I-B-L-E.  Here are my top 4 most memorable moments of traveling:

4. Needing a police escort.late

3. Coming home my sophomore year, I knew the lay of the land a little better. Instead of the bus shuttle, I was taking the train that took me all the way to downtown Chicago where I just had to climb some stairs to catch the El that would take me all the way to O’Hare. Easy peasy. I knew I had to cut down on luggage so I opted for a backpack, small carry-on and a duffle bag. I know! At the time I considered that packing light. What I failed to realize is that the duffle bag was approximately the size of a body bag and I filled it so it was just as heavy as one. Don’t even get me started on the fact that I decided to only bring luggage that had to be carried and absolutely nothing that had wheels. Hello, McFly!

I got off the train in Chicago and faced going up stairs to get to the street level and then getting up another huge flight of stairs to get to the El. And it was rush hour so the streets and the stairwells were packed. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Thankfully people always helped and gave me a hand with my bodybag, I mean, duffle bag by grabbing the other end and we would carry it up together. I had so much luggage, I couldn’t fit through the turnstiles to get on the train. I had to get the attention of the MTA worker behind the glass and have them open the handicap entrance for me. Ugh. I was so dumb. Once I somehow got to O’Hare and checked my luggage, I plunked down on a seat at my gate and it took at least an hour for my arms to stop shaking because my muscles had never exerted themselves that much in their whole lives!

2. My junior year came around and I vowed to never overpack ever again. I packed a medium-sized rolling luggage that was small enough that I could check and a backpack. I thought I was so brilliant. I caught everything in time. I caught the train just fine; I got to O’Hare with more than enough time. I stopped and ate a magically delicious breakfast burrito. I found my gate, saw the city was Houston, and it had a flight number that matched my ticket. Perfect. I sat down and looked at my watch. My flight wasn’t leaving for another hour and a half. I thought I was sitting pretty.

“I totally have this whole travel thing figured out. You know what, I’m so early, I think I’ll take a little nap. So I positioned my luggage in front of me and put my head on it to doze off for a bit.”

But I didn’t just catch some zzzs. I went comatose. I passed out. I woke up an hour later frantic thinking I had missed my plane. I checked my watch. Oh, thank God, still half an hour until boarding. Then I started to look around. Everyone that was sitting around me was different than the people that were around me when I fell asleep. I checked my watch again. No, I should be leaving in 30 minutes. Then I looked at the gate and Houston was not on there anymore. Oh no! They must have changed the gate. No problem, I still have time to ask what the new gate is and run over to it. So I grabbed my stuff and went up the the gate attendant.

“Hi, I’m on the Houston flight, can you tell me the new gate for departure.”

“Miss, that flight left half an hour ago. You missed it.”

“No, it says right here on my ticket, the flight leaves at 4pm and it’s only 3:3o.”

“No, mam, it is 4:30pm.”

Doh. [face palm]

I had completely forgotten to take into account that South Bend, Indiana used to not observe Daylight Savings Time. South Bend. That jerk.

1. Finally we arrive at senior year. There is no way I am making any mistakes. None whatsoever. I’m packing a small rolling carry-on and a backpack. That’s it. Of course, being senior year, my procrastinating had reached its peak. During those finals before Christmas break I had managed to pump out a 15 page paper in 5 hours and it was my capstone paper for my Peace Studies Minor. I say that only so you can imagine how much sleep I had gotten. The night before my flight I had set out a few things but was so exhausted I decided to wake up early to pack. A friend was going to pick me up and drive me to the train. I slept right on through all 3 alarms I had set and all 10 of my friend’s phone calls telling me he was downstairs. I finally woke up when he was knocking on my door. Shit! (I’m pretty sure I screamed that when I woke up and saw what time it was.) I opened my door and basically threw my luggage at him and told him to throw whatever he could find in there while I did my best to look somewhat presentable to travel. We jumped in his car and raced to the train. We pulled up just in time to see it pulling out of the airport. Seriously, we missed it by 1 minute tops. He, being a kind and generous man, offered to drive me to Michigan where it would make its next stop to pick up more passengers. If we could beat it there, I could still catch it and get to O’Hare. I pretended not to notice that he was driving about 95 mph. It’s a miracle we made it. Alive. Really the funnier part was that I had just become friends with this guy a few weeks before. He was probably just trying to be nice by offering me a ride to the airport and I made him pack my bag and drive me to Michigan. So embarrassing. And I really hope when I made him help me pack he didn’t pack any of my underwear or bras. That would really make this memory a lot more unbearable.

Authentic Moment #7: My Police Escort

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Running for the trainAround this time of the year I always remember all of my ridiculous travel stories flying home from college for the Christmas break. My very first time coming home for Christmas, I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I overpacked like crazy. I had a huge rolling luggage, a large duffle bag, my backpack, and a small carry-on bag. Of course this is in addition to the sweater, winter coat, scarf, hat, and mittens I was wearing because it was snowing pretty hard when I left my dorm.

The plan was to catch the shuttle that picked up at the Bookstore and ride it all the way to Midway Airport in Chicago. My dorm was on the complete opposite end of campus from the shuttle pickup. And with all the luggage it was definitely about a 30 minute walk especially in the snow. As usual, I was running late. Like very late. Like the shuttle is leaving in 15 minutes and I’m still throwing things in a bag late. I somehow made it down three flights of stairs with all that luggage and out the door. I’m hoofing it across campus as quick as I can which is still pretty slow. The luggage was so ridiculously heavy.

I was basically running as fast as I could down God Quad. I looked at my watch. The shuttle should be leaving at that very second. I kept running hoping that it was running late. I got to Main Circle which is still a pretty good distance from where I needed to be and I gave up. I couldn’t run anymore. I was exhausted from everything weighing me down. Literally.

At that moment, an angel appeared. An NDSP officer was parked at Main Circle for whatever reason. He saw me, jumped out of his SUV, grabbed all my luggage and threw it into the back and told me to jump in. He tore down the road basically flooring it the whole way as I could see the shuttle pulling out of the parking lot. Ugh, I thought, what am I going to do? I just missed the shuttle.

The officer laid on the gas even more and screeched to a halt as he cut off the shuttle which was now halfway into the main road. He got all my luggage out and stood at the shuttle doors until the driver opened the doors, loaded my luggage, and sold me a ticket. Then he drove away without even letting me say thank you.

I could feel the glares boring into my skull as I shuffled to my seat exhausted and out of breath.

Thank you, NDSP officer. Thanks for helping a so-bad-at-time-management, freshman girl get home for Christmas.

(I do wish I could say that was my only misadventure due to me being late. It soo was not.)

 

Inner Dialogue About Exercising

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workoutAfter four pregnancies and ending with twins, baby weight is a real thing. In my head I can bound up my stairs two at a time but when I try, my legs laugh at me. Or if I am chasing Olivia, she can actually outrun me because my body just won’t move quickly enough. It would be nice to be more fit. To be able to hop up on a curb just using leg muscle and not have to throw all my weight so momentum carries me.

After Teresa, I decided to really get serious about losing some weight. I got a personal trainer, started going to cardio classes, started a 10K training program and started working out on my own at home. This was my inner dialogue one night when I didn’t want to do anything:

“Damn. I missed the Piloxing class I wanted to go to tonight. Ugh. I just wanted someone to make me work hard, now I have to make myself work hard.

It’s the thought that counts. I wanted to work out but I guess not.

No, I have to work out. I skipped it yesterday. I can’t skip two days in a row.

Nah. I don’t want to. I already worked out one day this week. That’s better than the week before. Baby steps. You can’t go from zero to hero in a week.

Just get some exercise clothes on. Just do that.

Eh.

Ok, just get up off the sofa and start walking up the stairs, then you can decide.

The workout clothes I like isn’t clean. This is a sign. I shouldn’t work out.

Just put on some clothes.

Ok, I’ll just lift weights for 15 minutes. I don’t really need to get dressed for that.

Vanessa, just get dressed!

Ok, fine. *gets dressed*

Crap, isn’t it cold outside? I’m wearing shorts and a short-sleeve top. I should change.

I don’t want to change. I just won’t workout.

Vanessa, just get downstairs!

Ok, I’ll just do some planks or something.

No, get out the door. Run.

It’s 50 degrees out! I’m not going to run in these clothes.

Just get out the door!

Ok, just around the block.

Shit, it’s cold. Run faster. Get this over with faster.

Ok, this feels good, just to the pool and back.

*runs a mile* Well, my heart rate is up, I should do something else to keep burning the calories. I’ll just work arms.

*arms done* Ok, I’ll workout just until 8:15 and then I’ll stop.

*got some core exercises in and started legs* Well, I’m almost done with the whole workout, I might as well keep going. But I’ll definitely stop at 8:30.”

And then I finished a whole workout.

I’m feeling pretty darn proud of myself even if my inner dialogue was tortured and pathetic throughout the whole night. Thank you, War of Art. The whole time I kept thinking. This is resistance. This is resistance. This is resistance. I have to fight it.

It helps for me to remember back then, even when I was more fit, even when I weighed less, even when I had developed a workout routine I loved, it was still really hard to make myself workout. I still had to work past my tiredness and my desire to remain sedentary. I still had to ignore everything in my mind telling me I shouldn’t: too cold, too hot, too late, I’m too full, I’m too tired, my knees don’t feel the best, my stomach kinda hurts, it’s been a hard day. My excuses never go away, I just have to push past them.

[Also, please excuse that I thought running in 50 degree weather was too cold. Remember, we’re Texans.]

Feeling Numb

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December 9th, was the one year anniversary of the twins getting out of the NICU. Ever since having the twins I’ve been jotting down my thoughts here and there. They weren’t always coherent but they were me trying to figure out life and everything we were going through. The NICU was hard. Even if our kids were only “feeders/growers” it took me a really long time to wrap my head around the experience. And, honestly, I’m still not quite sure I’m there. Even months after we were out of there, that feeling I had in the NICU, that despair, that numbness, I just couldn’t shake it. But I want to start wading back into those memories and see if I can make some sense of them.

Here is something I wrote back in May:

It’s strange. I haven’t had a lot of breakdowns like I usually do after having a baby. It’s not bec4011925024_b84b109b43_oause I am more put together or because I’ve got the hang of this. It’s that when you’re in crisis mode, you learn to stuff your feelings back down your throat and keep them there. I think I’m still in crisis mode. I’ve always been good at it. I’ve always been able to put on my brave face and get through hard things. But in actuality, I feel very small and scared and completely wrong for the job.

Since the babies have been born, I haven’t allowed myself a space to feel much of anything. Today I started watching “Call the Midwife” and I started just bawling during it. It is easier to cry about someone else’s pain or someone else’s problem than allow yourself to deal with your own. I constantly feel so overwhelmed and so much a mess that I have been on the verge of collapse or meltdown. And once or twice it would have been just fine. I was alone, the babies were asleep. I finally had time to freak out, to cry, to let it out. And I couldn’t. I couldn’t cry. La Lupe calls it desahogandose. Why? How weird. You forget how to feel.

5 Ways to Cope With Sleep Deprivation Without Caffeine

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3075723695_81a4eded57_bFirst off, I just want to make clear my expertise on the subject. I’ll just bullet point my sleep deprivation résumé:

  • In college, homework never started before 1 am
  • Papers never started getting written before 2 am
  • Movie nights with roomies always to precedent to any schoolwork
  • Coffee makes me sick and I’ve tried many a time to make myself get used to it (ask my roomie who used to work at Starbucks).
  • My first year of teaching, getting married, and getting pregnant all happened the same year.
  • Olivia never ever slept. Ever. Never. Ever. For a solid year I took the 1-3am shift of rocking her and Kraft 3-5am.
  • Then Lina came 18 months later.
  • Then Teresa 18 months after that.
  • Then the twins 25 months after that.

You get it, I never sleep. Sometimes it’s my own fault because I just want to relish the quiet and the still for every second I can, but, mostly it’s because of the crazy life we’ve made for ourselves (which we love but it still makes us crazy). And I just can’t drink coffee. I don’t really drink soda. And, while I started drinking tea about a year ago, I usually mistakenly buy decaf tea because I hate myself and am too sleep deprived to read the dumb box when I pick it up. (Also, funny fact, I just calculated that I have been breastfeeding 40% of the last 7 years and caffeine always really negatively affected my milk production.) So while I would gladly chug any liquid that helps me stay awake, my body is not having it.

I hope my sleep CV is satisfactory to you. Here are some things I’ve learned in the last 13 years of not sleeping to help me not hate life.

1. I hate to sound like, well, what I’m about to sound like but here goes: If you decide to be alert and awake then it happens. You can give in to the grumpy and exhausted (which I do often) but you can decide to not feel like that most times. Remember this is just a season. Sleep will come again one day. Even if it seems forever off. Act like you want to feel and it usually follows.

Of course, sometimes you can’t fight it like this kid in the video. We’ve all been there. But it’s probably not all the time.

2. Don’t eat a lot of sugar. I know this seems counterintuitive because sugar is supposed to help your energy but I found that it doesn’t for me. During Lent this year we gave up sugar as a family. I have never felt so rested. I do notice when I drink a soda or eat a couple of cookies or something my body feels like it is dragging. Self-control around sweets is really hard for me so I tend to just keep them out of the house. I don’t buy sweets at the store or sodas. If I want dessert, I make myself bake it.

3. Eat well. This goes along with the sugar thing. When I get behind on meal planning and we are eating a lot of fast food, my body feels sluggish and unresponsive. More so than usual. If I don’t change my sleeping habits but I eat better, I feel like I’m sleeping better.

4. Actually sleep when you can. I’m awful at this. No matter how sleepy I am, it is so hard for me to go to sleep. I always want to check one more thing off my to-do list, or watch one more episode on Netflix, or read one more chapter. Stop it. Just go to sleep. Now. Go now.

5. I think the #1 most important thing is to manage your sleep expectations. There have been too many times that I have crawled into bed, cocooned myself in a blanket, and reached out to sleep as if it were my dying wish only to hear the door creaking open because someone just wet the bed or to hear a baby whimpering through the baby monitor. Nothing on God’s green earth will make me more mad than this very moment.

I feel like it’s similar to this commercial:

“Deep couch sitting” is telling your body that you are going to get sleep right now this very second. Don’t do that. I figured out that I have to trick myself. Really. When I go to sleep, I don’t tell myself it is to sleep. I just tell myself that I’m going to lie down and rest for a little while. If I get to sleep, fan-frickin’-tastic. Truly. The stars have aligned and the angels have sung. If not, I can’t get that mad because I was only going to rest for a bit anyway. This was a game changer for me. I still get really mad from time to time when I’m hoping to catch a few zzzs during the twins’ naptime and one of them just won’t go to sleep but, for the most part, it helps.

DISCLAIMER: This is not actually medical advice. I know people that have insomnia and other sleep disorders and this will not at all help any of that. This is just my experience and what has worked for me. You could just ignore it all. That’s cool. Or even better, just go pour yourself another cup of coffee. 🙂