Getting Organized

Sleep
These days it seems I don't get enough sleep Sunday - Thursday nights, but I do on the weekends. By Thursday or so, I'm ready for a nap! Over the course of a week, that doesn't add up to enough sleep. :-(

Water
With this hot weather, I'm really trying to stay hydrated, and the heat makes me thirsty, so it's pretty easy.

Eating
I was taking an exercise class yesterday and realized I'm kinda bulky. It's muscle, but I'm bigger than I want to look, and the #1 key to bulking up is to eat more than you burn off. For that reason, I need to eat less, so I'm taking advantage of the lack of appetite brought on by the heatwave and trying to really cut down. I eat balanced, healthy meals, but I just need to trim the serving sizes.

Exercise
I was going to exercise first thing, at 6:30 a.m., but I didn't sleep well, so I was going to take an exercise class at 9:00, but I had a hard time getting up after not sleeping well, so I was running late and didn't make it. Then, I was going to exercise by riding my bike to pick up Zoe, but I needed to get her quickly, so I drove. Then, I was thinking of going to the gym after dinner, but I had to help get the girls to bed and it was too late. How many times have we told ourselves the same story? I suppose most people don't have as many opportunities to exercise in one day as I have. It's pitiful when the end of the day comes and I haven't exercised and I have no good reason why not.

Tranquility
Today was a backyard pool day. I filled both of our inflatable pools, a 6'x10' rectangle and a 5' circle. I started them just 1/3 full of water, which heated quite nicely during the hot mid-day. In the afternoon, I filled them up to 2/3 full, mixing the heated water with cool, refreshing water. That's a lot of water! I also stuck our little play structure slide into a pool. Then, we had at it! First it was just me and Maya; later, a couple of her friends came over with their moms. We ate popsicles, drank mint lemonade with coconut rum and ate strawberries and little cookies. It was wonderful! I look forward to playing in the pools all this hot week.

How did I do, and how do I feel?
Today, I had a _WE_T Life.
I feel good (except for the lack of sleep and exercise) ever since I finally sorted out my desk mountain of papers. I did that last weekend and have felt better ever since. I feel less overwhelmed, mostly because, in merely sorting the papers, I realized there wasn't much that required immediate attention. The biggest sorted piles I ended up with were trash, magazines, filing, and mail to open. Most of the mail was stuff to file. There was very little To Do in that huge mountain. I recycled the trash, stacked the magazines in a magazine rack, and told myself I was going to spend 15 min/day filing papers. Now, 2 days later, my filing stack is very small; I should finish tomorrow. In addition to filing, I'm spending 15 min/day tidying up my house, and I'm making sure to wash one load of laundry and spend some time completing things in my To Do file. I just feel more clear-headed and in control. :-)

Determination

I'm determined to live the SWEET Life today. I've been keeping track, all day, on my SWEET Life Plan and will see every letter highlighted on my SWEET Life Cycle. Why the big push today? First, I went camping last weekend where two things happened: We ate a lot! Everyone brought so much food to share with everyone (there were 22 of us), and we were snacking all the time. Also, the shorts I brought in anticipation of the hot weather were uncomfortably tight in the waist, which they didn't use to be! Tight shorts on a hot day is a bad combination! In addition, it's the last week of the month and I'm not near my goal, which was the same goal as last month, which I didn't achieve either. I need to stop the negative cycle, now! I have to focus and live the SWEET Life fully and consistently to see the results I want to see. It's that simple.

Sleep: Despite a midnight interruption and two kids coming in to join us, I slept well. It was nice to be in my own bed again after two nights in a tent.

Water: I've been keeping track of each beverage I've drunk on my SWEET Life Plan, and I've drunk plenty.

Eating: After three days of camp food (i.e., too much and of varying nutritional value), I was ready to eat healthy and make sure I was eating balanced nutrition, marking off each portion on my SWEET Life Plan.

Exercise: I laid in bed this morning, awakened by my "exercise" alarm, asking myself if I needed more sleep. Eventually, I realized I was wasting my time laying in bed, awake! Either sleep, or get up! So I got up and exercised, using my new adjust-a-weight dumbbells. I'm now trying to do toning exercises on Mondays & Wednesdays and cardio on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Tranquility: There was a surprise knock on the door at 8:30 a.m. It was our babysitter! I'd forgotten that I was starting to use her every Monday morning. What a pleasant surprise! That meant I got some Tranquility this morning, not doing anything in particular, just getting organized post-camping.

How did I do, and how do I feel?
Today, I lived the SWEET Life.

I need Tranquility!

Surprisingly, I have been living the SWEET Life the past week. I say "surprisingly" because I don't feel like I've lived a balanced, healthy lifestyle:
Sleep - 5 nights last week I slept enough hours.
Water - 7 days last week I drank enough water, although I'm not sure how carefully I paid attention to it.
Eating - Also 7 out of 7 last week, supposedly.
Exercise - 5 out of 7 last week, but I'm not challenging myself enough.
Tranquility - 5 out of 7 last week
Yesterday, I had a SWEET Life.

I really miss my girls' naps. I used to be able to count on 3-4 hours of Tranquility every day while they napped. That has suddenly dropped to zero! Not even a decrease to 1-2 hours, like some other kids! Not even a later start time for the naps, like some other kids! I spent a week or two wasting a lot of time trying to get them to nap, to no avail. I'm finally accepting that they don't nap, which means I have no breaks from motherhood for 11 hours/day. That makes for a . . . really . . . long . . . day, with no Tranquility.

But, no, it's actually not even as simple as that. They're still tired, but they don't nap, so they're cranky and hit each other -- quite the opposite of Tranquility. Or, I'll take them to do something, and one will fall asleep on the way there. So, then what? Once, I laid a blanket in a shopping cart, and Zoe slept the whole time we were in the store! Then, Maya fell asleep on the way home! So, they each got their nap, but I didn't' get any Tranquility! I have a photo of them both asleep in a Costco shopping cart, another unexpected nap. Since they were both asleep, I considered going home for some Tranquility, instead of shopping. Unfortunately, food shopping was a must that day, and I had other things to do later in the day, so I had to shop then.

Their lack of naps and Maya being out of preschool mean it's really hard for me to get any Tranquility. I don't feel like I have time to think or plan, and I was really looking forward to having time to think and plan and accomplish more once I finished my ESL class. That was two weeks ago!

The one thing I'd say I've accomplished, related to Tranquility, in the past couple weeks is that I've kept my house tidier than it'd been, which makes me feel relaxed and content.

Fortunately, things are starting to improve because I've arranged for babysitting! That's really what was missing: scheduled time when both my kids would be taken care of. It used to be during Maya's preschool/Zoe's daycare, but preschool ended a few weeks ago. Last week a friend reminded me that we'd discussed a babysitting exchange, so we put it in place. Unfortunately, I spent my entire free time preparing for Maya's birthday party. I also ran into our babysitter, who reminded me that we'd discussed her babysitting the girls half-day starting in June! So that allows me to write this blog right now. I feel more relaxed just knowing I have time to think.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel is Getting Brighter!

Lately, I have not been a very good example of living the SWEET Life, but I see myself turning a corner . . . My ESL class at Chabot College ends on Tuesday, which will mean more nights at home, eating dinner with my family, making sure my girls get to bed at a decent hour, and ideally, having more time to spend with Nick!

Sleep: The last two nights I have slept well, despite whatever musical beds were being played with my daughters. But I only slept well 6 out of the last 12 nights!

Water: I haven't been drinking enough or paying enough attention to it. Some days I'll fill my pitcher, determined to drink it all, but then I'll be out of the house much of the day or something that throws off my water intake. I'm sure I'd feel better if I drank more and cleaned out my system. It's been about 10 days since I know I drank 8 cups of water in a day.

Eating: That's been a mess too. Mostly, I haven't been paying attention to what I've been eating. Also, I haven't been grocery shopping very much because I'm gone for dinner so often. The end result is that we don't have great food around the house, and I can't honestly say that I've eaten a balanced, healthy diet for the past week.

Exercise: I've been a bit sick this week, so I only exercised Monday and Tuesday. Today, I really should have, but I didn't. Surprisingly, I just bought a new pair of running shoes, which usually really motivates me to go running, but despite having them for a week, I haven't used them yet! It doesn't feel like it to me, but besides this week's illness, I had been exercising 5x/wk.

Tranquility: I don't feel like I've had much Tranquility lately. It seems that whenever I have free time, I spend it doing things that need to be done, like preparing my ESL class, rather than what I would like to do. I don't even know what I would like to do anymore! There are just so many things that I don't know where to start! I've had Tranquility 3 out of 6 days this week.

How did I do, and how do I feel?
Today, I had a S_ _ _ T Life.

I've been looking forward to finishing my ESL teaching for so long that that has been my only focus. Everything else has been put aside until after that class is over, so all free time has been devoted to doing what I can to finish the class (lesson planning, grading, thinking ahead to the final exam, etc.). I was smart enough to set aside 4 hours today to spend preparing my final exam. Nick took the girls out of the house, and I worked and worked. They actually came back, lunch in hand, after 3 1/2 hr, and I think I could have finished writing my final if I'd had that extra 1/2 hr. But it's good to know that I'm 90% finished writing it. Working, focused, for that block of time made me feel really relaxed afterwards, like I could just enjoy the rest of my Saturday with my family.

Sometimes you need a new routine

Sleep: Zoe still keeps me up most nights, as I mentioned before. But I've gotten more sleep the last 2 nights, partly because I'm not getting up to exercise at 6 a.m.

Water: Yes, I still drink enough water, but I have to focus on it these days; it's not automatic to drink enough.

Eating: I've been using my SWEET Life Plan, front and center on the fridge, which helps me focus on what I'm eating better.

Exercise: This week, I'm focusing on a new exercise routine. I'm giving up my early morning exercise in order to get more sleep because Zoe keeps me up most nights. I'm also interested in teaching group exercise classes at the gym where I work, so I'm trying to take more classes. I planned for a class every day this week, but I only went to two because Maya's been sick and stayed home from preschool (when I was going to take classes). However, I did, also, do some new exercises from Fitness magazine one day, and I biked, dragging the kids in a trailer, one day.

I'm getting into biking these days. I always feel silly when I drive 1/2 miles to Park St. to run errands. When the kids were babies I strollered over there a lot, but now that they are toddlers, they want to walk, but can't walk that far. I biked one mile to the Harbor Bay Club twice this week, with kids in tow. I feel like I just discovered it even though we've had the bike trailer for 3 years. The main problem was that the bikes were not easily accessible, and I had to drag out the trailer, put it together, etc. It would take 1/2 hr just to get set up to ride 1/2 - 1 mile to run errands. Now we have the biking stuff more easily accessible so that it's much faster to set it up and go. Unfortunately, we don't have a garage where we can simply leave the bikes & trailer all ready to go. I'm hoping the combo of biking and exercise classes will keep me motivated to exercise for the next month or so.

Tranquility: I don't feel like I've been getting a lot of tranquility lately. I have some down time, but not a lot of time where I feel very relaxed and content.

How did I do, and how do I feel?
Yesterday, I had a SWEE_ Life.
I was feeling very down and depressed last week, and this week I feel much better, more motivated, happier, etc. I still don't have enough time for the things I want to do, but I don't feel as overwhelmed.

Girls Gone Wild at Night

My life hasn’t been very SWEET lately, so I haven’t had much to blog about.

Sleep: A new trend of night terrors and waking has become a bad habit. Zoe wakes up screaming bloody murder, nightly around 12:30 a.m. It’s extremely loud, and if I let her “cry it out,” she ends up waking up Maya and Nick. Then Maya is screaming because she’s been woken up by her little sister’s screams. I thought we’d hit a turning point because Zoe started crawling out of her crib (which she’s known how to do for months but just didn’t do). I thought she’d just walk into our room during the night, which is its own problem, but is much quieter and less disruptive to me. But that only lasted about a week; she’s back to screaming again. Zoe also kicks like crazy in our bed. She’ll push herself down under the covers to the foot of the bed and then crawl back up to the head of the bed, constantly, down & up, down & up, for 2 hours! Seriously! It’s impossible to sleep with her kicking in my bed, but she’ll scream her head off and wake the family if I put her in her crib. It’s crazy.

Then there’s Maya. She regularly wakes up around 3:30 a.m. and comes to our room. At least she’s quiet; I don’t have to get out of bed, and she falls quickly back to sleep after climbing into our bed. However, that puts our queen-size bed total up to four people, including one wiggler, who, alone, is one too many people to sleep with. I often move to Maya’s, now, conveniently empty bed, where I sleep wonderfully, alone, however many hours there are left to sleep.

Yet, I have not even mentioned the difficulties we have in getting our girls to GO to bed. This problem started, as I expected, shortly after I started working 4 nights a week. I knew I would lose all control over bedtime and bedtime routines. I was, in a sense, happy to relinquish all responsibility for bedtime to my husband. However, I did not expect to come home at 10 p.m., exhausted and ready to go to sleep, and, on the contrary, find dinner dishes on the kitchen table, girls wide awake, laughing and running around, fully clothed, and without their teeth brushed! At 10 p.m.! After a couple months of becoming grumpy the instant I walked through the door to the excited greetings from my wide-awake girls, I finally had to tell Nick that it would make me . . . “less unhappy” . . . if I came home and at least the dinner table were cleared and the girls were ready for bed. Of course, what would make me HAPPY would be that the kitchen were clean and the girls were asleep, but I decided I might get better results if I asked for the minimum that would keep my mood neutral. So now, after a few months of girls gone wild at night, they are used to (1) staying up until 10-11 p.m. (they are 2 & 3 yr old!) and (2) passing out from exhaustion, with mom/dad, on our bed, which they affectionately call “snuggling.”

Well, I’m at a point where I can definitely count down the days until my Tu, Th evening ESL class ends: May 27, within this month, 3 weeks away, 7 class days left. That’s encouraging but still feels far off. Once it’s over, I’ll be home more evenings to get the girls in a “bedtime mode.” When I AM home for bedtime, it starts right ager dinner, which I make sure ends by 8:00. At 8:00 we brush teeth, put on p.j.’s, use the potty/change diapers, put away toys, and read stories, with lights out at 9:00. But then they want to “snuggle” or the aren’t tired enough to sleep because they’re used to staying up 1-2 hours longer!

The problem is that it’s really taking its toll on me. Why not on anyone else? I’m grumpy, less productive, hooked on caffeine, more emotional (for example, less patient), generally run down, and unhappy. The SWEET Life starts with Sleep, but I haven’t been getting enough for a few months now. That means I’m too tired to Exercise in the morning; too tired to pay attention to drinking enough Water or to Eating a balanced, healthy diet, and I spend what could be Tranquility time “survival napping,” which isn’t the same thing as Tranquility.

How do I get my girls to (1) go to sleep in their own beds (2) at an earlier time? And (3) sleep through the night? In their own beds?

End of Cycle Recap

The past, 4-week, SWEET Life Cycle ended Sunday. My goal was to "Be Able To see that I lived the SWEET Life 5-6 days every week." Well, I did a pretty good job of it. I did keep track every day, no days with question marks. My one weakness was that I only exercised 4 days a week instead of 5. I also wrote a few notes on it, explaining why I didn't do some things, like "chocolate, coffee" one day when I didn't eat well.

So let's see how things went today:

Sleep: I did sleep 7 hr, in Maya's bed, which was otherwise empty. However, that didn't really make up for the little sleep I'd gotten the night before.

Water: I did make sure to drink 8 cups of water today, 4 tall glasses-worth.

Eating: I cleared off the front of my freezer and prominently displayed my SWEET Life Plan so that I would remember to keep track of and check off the amounts of each food group. Yesterday, I ate no vegetables (!) so I made sure to focus on those today. I need to buy some easy to eat veggies, like baby carrots. Looking at the food groups on my Plan actually helped give me ideas for what to eat.

Exercise: I got up early and did my toning exercises at home.

Tranquility: That's right now because I didn't have tranquility all day. I set up a Skype account and want to use it to call my mom so that she can see her granddaughters and vice versa. It's too late at night to call anyone, so I'll have to try my first web cam/internet call tomorrow.

How did I do, and how do I feel?
Today, I had a SWEET Life!
It's unfortunate that I'm up so late (11:30 p.m.) because I want to get up at 6:15 to exercise, which would not give me enough exercise.

I feel motivated because I've set a new goal and really put some thought into how to achieve it. But more about that the next time. . .

All or Nothing?

Tuesday I did it all! That, unfortunately, doesn't happen very often. I usually miss something or other every day. Is that bad? Does living the SWEET Life have to be all or nothing? If I can't meet my goals of 5-6 times per week of each aspect of the SWEET Life, is it even worth putting in the effort? If I'm constantly left feeling unsatisfied and not completely successful in living the SWEET Life, what's the point? I could just live my life and feel happier, . . . fat and happier. Hmm . . .

I was thinking I need to write this blog later at night because I tend to get a little more giddy and creative when I'm a little tired. That might make my writing more interesting, because, frankly, I think it's boring.

Sleep: Last night I got enough sleep only because I slept in instead of exercising. I went to bed late and was interrupted by Zoe at 1:30.

Water: I drank a lot of water yesterday.

Eating: I ate well yesterday. Having gone to Costco to stock up helped.

Exercise: Yesterday, I was too tired to meet Lee to go to the gym in the morning (because Zoe had kept me up the night before). However, I did hop on a cardio machine for 30 min. at the gym after my shift ended there.

Tranquility: I got tranquility because both my girls napped in the afternoon.

How did I do, and how do I feel?
Yesterday, I had a _WEET Life.

1/2 Week Synopsis

I feel a light at the end of the tunnel at the moment. Of course, it will be short lived. I was so backed up with schoolwork to grade and yet another test to write that it was having an adverse effect on my SWEET Life. But I've finally gotten caught up, only to give a test (which gives me a break during class time), which I will, then, have to grade.

The first few days of the week, I was skipping one aspect of the SWEET Life daily, but a different one each day. Today, however, I've already skipped both Sleep and Exercise, both of which I've already skipped once this week.

Sleep
I slept enough Monday and Tuesday nights, but not the past 2 nights. Right now I'm ready for a big night's sleep!

Water
Somehow, I didn't drink enough water on Monday, and I don't think I have today, but I did on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, my 2-a-day caffeine drinking has become a habit. :-(

Eating
I've eaten pretty well this week, a healthy variety, but on Tuesday, due to stress, I ate a lot of chocolate.

Exercise
So far, I've only had time to exercise Tuesday and Wednesday this week, but I want to the rest of the days.

Tranquility
I have had Tranquility every day this week! Hurrah! Of all things, during a stressful time, at least I've gotten a break from it a little every day.

How did I do, and how do I feel?
This week, the past 4 days, I have had a SSWWWEEE EETTTT Life.

Weekly Recap

Sleep: Last night I slept enough. However, since my kids kept me up the first three days of last week, I only slept well 4 out of 7 days last week.

Water: I filled my pitcher with water, but didn't drink much yesterday! That's rare; I drank enough water 6 out of 7 days last week.

Eating: I've been focusing on eating better, and I did 7 out of 7 days last week!

Exercise: I was too tired to exercise, after not sleeping well, Monday and Tuesday, and I was too busy Saturday, so I only exercised 4 out of 7 days last week, but that seems to be my norm since I started teaching ESL in January.

Tranquility: I got tranquility every day last week! 7 out of 7!

How did I do, and how do I feel?
Yesterday, I had a S_EET Life.
Last week I did pretty well. The lack of sleep 3 nights in a row was out of my control and affected me the rest of the week. However, the main thing is that I'm paying more attention to living the SWEET Life. I'm also trying to get my husband to live the SWEET Life too.