Sleepless nights

 

 

 

Sleepless Nights

By Kellijo Eccleston

 

 

     Over the past few weeks my little KaydeeJo has not wanted to sleep at night.  It all started out with her getting a cold.  Since she was congested she had a hard time sleeping and wanted me to hold her all night.    And to be honest, I wanted to hold her so that I knew she was breathing okay. I am such a worrier when my kids are sick.  Plus, I love holding and snuggling my babies while they sleep. I know that this phase in life will not last long so I am just going to soak it in.  My little lady slept against my chest for about a couple weeks. This cold just did not want to go away!  Once she finally started to feel better and could breathe better I thought that she would go back to sleep in her crib, but I was wrong!  Miss KaydeeJo still wants to sleep with me and has kept me up at night for going on three weeks now. She wants me to hold her but she soon gets uncomfortable. So I try putting her in her crib but as soon as I lie here down she just scream sand does not stop. I have very stubborn kids! And since I have never been the type of parent to just let my kids cry it out, I know it will take some time for her to adjust and  I will have to deal with more sleepless nights. So, in the meantime, I need to do whatever it takes to keep my energy up just so I can make it through the day.  Here is what I do to keep my energy levels up for when I am running on little sleep to no sleep.

    Drink water as soon as I am up for the day. While water does not give you energy it does keep you hydrated. Staying hydrated throughout the day will give you energy.  When you dehydrate yourself you start to feel very lethargic so keep that water in your system.  I always keep a water bottle with me so I have no excuses. I never use energy drinks, caffeinated drinks, or drinks that contain lots of sugar.  These will only make you crash and will not keep your energy up throughout the day.

   drink a protein shake first thing in the morning.  Getting a good breakfast is very important. It will help spike your metabolism and get you going.  Since I usually have to eat on the go a shake is perfect for me.  Stay away from breakfast that are full of sugar and have no nutritional value.  You want your food to work for you.  Make sure you are getting enough carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and vitamins.  Some other ideas for breakfast are oatmeal with fruit, yogurt and granola, and eggs with vegies.

    Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!  When I am tired the last thing that I want to do is workout but exercise does increase your energy.  Exercise increase blood flow and carries oxygen and nutrients to muscles which helps muscles to produce more energy.  

     Stay positive. When I wake up and just dwell on the fact that I got no sleep it puts me in a bad mood and I am grumpy all day.  I tend to have no patience and I snap at everyone. I not only ruin my day but everyone else’s.  If I wake up with a positive attitude and do not feel sorry for myself it just makes for a better day. Just remember that there will always be another night for sleep. I want to make each day count and I do not have time to feel sorry for myself. Life is meant to be lived.  Who cares about loss of sleep?!

Forever Evolve's 30 minute full body workout

   

     I love to workout!  I love how I feel after my workouts. I go crazy if I do not workout and when I was a trainer it was super easy to workout.  I would schedule my clients around my workouts. So I could block off two hours out of my day just to workout.  Fast forward 9 years later, I do not work at the gym anymore but I do have a job (I am a massage therapist), I am married with 4 children, and I blog.  Life is crazy busy. As soon as I get up I am on the go. I get up and get myself ready for the day, wake up my kids and get them ready,  I drop my kids off to school or at their grandparents, go to work, come home  and straighten up my house, help out with homework, cook dinner,  and get everyone ready for bed.   So when do I possible have the time or energy to workout! 

     It was hard for me to change up my workout routine after having kids and not being able to go to the gym every day.  I never worked out at home.  I just love the gym environment but I could no longer have that because my gym does not have daycare and I have looked at other gyms that do I have daycare and the prices were ridiculous.  So I had to change my ways and it was hard because I am a stubborn person that has a hard time with change.  It is something that I am working on.  

     So now the majority of the time I do workout it is at home and I have to get creative.  When I workout it is at any random time and I always have my kids around me.  So, when I am home I live in my workout clothes so when I get the chance to workout I am ready!  Lately, I have been doing fitbit challenges and since I am so competitive and hate to lose I take these challenges very seriously.  So I came up with this workout while doing a fitbit challenge. This is a simple workout to get in the day if you are just running out of time and it is prefect for anyone who is just starting to workout. The first thing that I do is run in place.  I do have a treadmill but it is easier for me to run in place so I can be with my kids and help them out. When my daughter is doing her homework I will help her but I am running in place.   Just by doing this I have increased my steps and my calves are really looking good.  But I just can't run in place I have to add a little weight training as well so I can have some muscle definition. Begin the workout by running in place for 20 minutes, not lazily either.  Make sure you are sweating! Then do 10 minutes of weight training.

For this workout you just need dumbbells and a resistant band for the squats.  I hope this will help you get in a quick workout for when time is very limited!

A Healthy New Beginning

Over all I would say that I live a healthy lifestyle.  And when I say healthy lifestyle I mean physically, nutritionally, mentally, and spiritually.  For me, this is an ever evolving process, something that I am constantly working on.  I am always trying to push myself to be a better me. If I am not making goals for myself and following through on them then I get anxiety and I just stress out. I am the type of person that  once I put my mind to accomplishing something I will work on it until its done and then I have a feeling of contentment, but it doesn’t last long because I feel like there is always something to work on to better myself.  I feel like life is an amazing journey where we are her to learn, make mistakes, grow and just try to be the best version of ourselves.  There has always been a part of me, even at a young age that just pushed me to go outside of my comfort level. The older I get the more confident I get in my own skin.  I think some things just come with age and growth. 

The moment I realized I was pregnant with my first child I knew that I wanted to learn more about nutrition.  While I was working out all of the time and felt good about myself I really didn’t know a thing about how to eat right.  It really worried me and weighed heavily on my mind and so not long after she was born I started working on my degree in nutrition and ever since then I have been changing my eating habits for the better.  While I am not perfect, nor am I trying to be perfect, I have come a long way and have learned a lot.  Being healthy is something that is very important to me and something that I am very passionate about.  I truly believe that my body is a temple and work very hard at protecting it. 

Changing eating habits is not easy. It is not something that just happens overnight. When you think about it, when you change your eating habits you are in a way changing a part of you.  A part of you that is familiar and comfortable.   There are many reasons that we eat the way that we do.  We turn to food when we are happy, sad, depressed, bored, the list can go on and on.  Food is the centerpiece for holidays, birthdays, family gatherings, and celebrations.  I get that changing your diet is hard and at times seems impossible, but with a little love for yourself and a lot of will power it can be done. 

The first thing that I did to change my eating habits was to take small steps and set goals. Don’t overwhelm yourself.  I have never heard of anyone that went from eating out all the time, eating processed foods, and consuming lots of sugar to just start eating healthy the next day and staying that way. If I give up something cold turkey, I think about it all the time and it just makes me want it even more. I used to a drink pop every day so I set my goal to quit drinking pop all of the time and to stop relying on it to get me going. In order to break this habit I started with small steps.  I started out only letting myself have it every other day, then every two and so on, until my craving went away and I didn’t rely on it anymore. When I learned about how trans fats/hydrogenated oils are bad for you I decided that was going to be my first thing to take out of my diet.  My first goal was to omit trans fats out of my diet.  At times it was frustrating because that meant I had to give up a lot of foods that I loved.  It was overwhelming because it meant that I had to start cooking meals and I really don’t like to cook.  Cooking is now growing on me but it did take some time to get there. Once I was feeling good about not eating trans fats I started omitting artificial colors and flavors from my diet.  Each time I accomplished my goal I would set another goal.  Right now I am currently working on my sugar intake and portion control.  These are hard for me because I have a huge sweet tooth and tend to go between long periods of time without eating so when I do eat I overeat. 

Please! Don’t kid yourself with Fad diets!  I don’t want to offend anyone and if you had a fad diet that you loved and it worked great! But the majorities of people fail when it comes to fad diets and gain their weight back or even gain more. I never, ever, ever, ever, diet and never will. Fad Diets tend to take away from your diet such as, carbohydrates, fats, or proteins. The recommended intake for adults is 45% to 65% of their calories from carbohydrates, 20% to 35% from fat, and 10% to 35% from protein plus, all of your vitamins and minerals. In our house we eat whole foods diet, meaning foods that come as natural as possible and are not processed.  I am not big on calorie counting and do not stress on it.  What does concern me is what I am actually putting into my body, so I always read what is in the ingredients. My diet basically consists of lean meats, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds. One of my favorite books called A Whole Foods Primer by Beatrice Tum Hunter, explains what it means to eat whole foods and gives instruction on how to eat a whole food diet. The more I read about healthy nutrition and how food can either help us or harm us, makes eating healthy easier for me.

Something that really helps is not bringing in junk food into the home. If you have junk food in the home then that is what will be eaten over anything healthy.  The rule is, if you want junk food leave your house and go get it.  There have been many times when I am bored and go through the cupboards trying to find chocolate or something unhealthy, well if it is not there I can’t eat it and most of the time I will not go out and buy it.  I have also noticed a big difference when it comes to my children. They are eating more fruits and vegetables and eat better at meal times.  At first I was a little nervous about not having graham crackers and gold fish around because I was scared of tantrums but it really wasn’t that bad.  I was actually harder for our two year old because he loved eating graham crackers before bed.  He is our pickiest eater and honestly I just wanted him to eat anything. But after a few days and a few tears he realized that we just don’t have any and he started to eat what we did have.  Now he asks for apples with peanut butter or yogurt.  He is even getting more daring and trying new foods. 

A quote from Jim Rohn that comes to mind is “If you change, everything will change.” Just imagine how you will feel about yourself if you changed your diet for the better.  Imagine the confidence you will have in yourself once you conquered your goals. Changing my diet has helped me in many ways.  I have lots of energy and get more things done. I don’t rely on caffeine to get me through the day, even if I do not get a good night’s sleep. I feel good and hardly get sick.  I have confidence in the way I look. And most importantly I know that I am being a great influence for my children.  I can already see the impact that I have on them.  They know at a young age how food affects their bodies and want to be healthy.  This change for me was hard and took time and will power but it was defiantly worth it. 

Forever Evolves Peanut Butter Banana Smackdown Shake

     The Peanut Butter Banana Smackdown is by far one of our favorite shakes at our house.  If you love peanut butter you will love this shake.  My husband is the one that came up with this shake and he also drinks it every morning.

     Shakes are perfect for our family because we are not morning people.  Both my husband  and I hit the snooze button a few times before we roll ourselves out of bed.  On the weekends we usually argue about who is getting up with the kids and who is the lucky one and gets to sleep in.

     During the week, mornings are pretty crazy.  In a short a amount of time I need to get myself ready for the day, get the kids up and feed them breakfast.  While they are eating breakfast I pack lunches and keep telling the girls to eat faster because they need to start getting dressed.  After telling them a few times to hurry, they start brushing their teeth and get dressed.  I wake the other two kids up and get them dressed.  By this time the girls are usually in a fight about something silly or upset because they can’t find any socks.  While this is going on my husband is sipping on a cup of coffee trying to make small talk and I give him a look and think to myself “are you kidding me, I am running around like a crazy lady and you are just relaxing drinking your coffee and you want to talk….Help Me!”  This is why I need a shake in the morning.  I have zero time to eat.  Shakes are full of nutrition and are very easy to make.  Plus, I just drink on the go.

     Breakfast is one by far the most important meals of the day.  The reason it is called breakfast is because we are breaking the fast.  We just spent all night sleeping and now we need to nourish our bodies so we can have energy to get going.  If I don’t eat something of great nutritional value then my whole day seems to be pretty much shot.  I have no energy, I am grumpy, and tend to crave junk food.  My best days are when I start the day off eating the most calories in the morning.  My favorite saying is “eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a peasant at dinner.”   We need more calories earlier in the day so you have energy and as they day goes on eat less calories because we tend to wind down and are not as active.

Nutritional Facts: (647 Calories)

Natural Peanut Butter:  Loaded with protein and healthy fats.  Has vitamin E, Magnesium, potassium, Vitamin B6 and phytosterols which help to lower cholesterol. 

Banana: Great source of Magnesium, Vitamin C, Potassium, Dietary Fiber, Biotin, and Copper.

Yogurt: Prebiotic, Protein, Fat, Calcium, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B12, Potassium, and Magnesium.

Whole Wheat Oats: Fiber

Flaxseed: Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Fiber, Vitamin B1 and copper. 

Ingredients:

1 small banana

4 oz. vanilla yogurt

3 Tbls. Peanut butter

½ cup oats

1 scoop of protein powder for men and ½ a scoop for women( I usually only use the protein supplement after a workout for the added protein)

2 Tbls. of flaxseed

10oz water 

How To Make:

Combine all ingredients into a blender (we love our Nutribullet) and mix until smooth.   

With any shake you can add how much of whatever ingredient you prefer.  There are times that I feel like a need more calories so I will add milk instead of water or even add more peanut butter.  Just remember that it is easy to add calories to this shake.  We have made it before and the calorie content was 1200.  This shake is also great for kids.  When I make it for the kids I just leave out the protein powder supplement. 

What’s done is done, own it, learn from it, let it go, and move along.

There are many things that come up in life unexpectedly that can just throw us off track.  Since having our little girl KaydeeJo in August 2015, my eating habits have been amazing.  I gave up pop, I was cooking our meals and we weren’t eating out, I even got rid of my candy stash that I had during my pregnancy.  Over the holidays I was really watching myself and not over eating or binge eating all of the yummy desserts.  I was feeling really good.  I was almost down to my pre-pregnancy weight with just a few pounds to go.  All my baby weight was lost with just healthy eating habits and working out maybe once a week.  Then out of no were our son Aiden just kept getting sick and after a few months of him feeling not well, I just broke down. 

It all started with Aiden getting an eye infection around Christmas time.  Our poor little man couldn’t open his eyes because they were sealed shut from all of the gunk. All he wanted to do was lie in our bed with his baby (which is what he calls his blanket) and watch his favorite show Blaze and the Monster Machines.  After about a week, his eye infection cleared up. He had a couple of good days where he was back to his normal self.  He was playing with his trucks he got for Christmas, running around, and playing with his sisters. For New Year’s Eve we went to Idaho to visit family. It was at this time that he started showing signs of a urinary tract infection or UTI. All of a sudden he didn’t want to go to the bathroom anymore. He actually held in his urine for 30 hours, he didn’t even go in his sleep!  At first we thought that he is ready to be potty-trained since he is 2 ½ years old, but then it he started to cry when he would finally did pee and the only way to get him to go to the bathroom was if I put him in the tub with warm water. We finally took him to the doctor and after getting his urine tested we found out that sure enough, he had a UTI.  Aiden was on antibiotics for 10 days. He started to act like himself again but within two days he started showing signs again of another UTI and running a fever.  Once again we took him to the doctor and got his urine tested again. This time we were prescribed a different, stronger antibiotic.  The dose was tripled and he received a shot of antibiotics in both legs to get him started right away. At this point I just feel so sad and helpless for my little guy.  I am praying that this antibiotic works. The doctor did seem to be concerned about his kidneys because boys usually don’t get UTI’s.  So know we have to get tests done on his kidneys to make sure everything is okay.  Aiden at this point wanted nothing to do with the pediatrician and just wanted to be home in our bed and watching Blaze and the Monster Machines. This seems to be his new normal just lying in bed and watching his favorite show.  Luckily, within 24 hours, Aiden started feeling better.  It stopped hurting him when he had to use the bathroom and when he did go he would grin and scream for joy “it didn’t hurt when I pee!” Everyone was so excited and happy for him every time he peed and it didn’t hurt.  It was such a celebration!  Aiden was back to running around the house, playing with his toys, and making messes.  It was nice to hear him laugh and play again.  But after a few days of having our happy little boy back, bad luck hit him once again, and he started having episodes of asthma attacks.  In just a day his attacks got so bad that the nebulizer we have did nothing for him.  It is hard to watch your child struggle to breathe, especially after what he has already been through.  So once again we find ourselves driving to the pediatrician’s office, late at night.  As soon as we pull up to the building he starts to cry.  He is just not feeling well and does not want to be at the pediatrician’s office and frankly I just don’t blame him.  But thankfully, this is a more pleasant trip. There were no shots given this time and he just needed a prescription and we were on our way home.  After one day of being on his medication Aiden is back to himself again and it is the best feeling.  Nothing is better than to see your baby smile and laugh after being in pain and in bed for the past two months.  I don’t even care about the messes he is leaving in every room, I am just glad to have our happy boy back.

                When I am under stress my healthy eating habits go right out the window.  My anxiety is usually through the roof and I cannot eat or I only crave junk food.  After Aiden was sick with his second UTI I found myself frustrated and helpless.  Life just seemed to be a bit overwhelming and it didn’t help that it was gloomy outside.  The weather actually seemed to fit my mood, grey and gloomy.  This is when I turned to pop, brownies and fast food to help me feel better. Food is just comforting and when I am feeling down an apple just does not appeal to me. There was a voice in the back of my head telling me not to give in and that you will regret it but at this point I have zero will power and I just do not care. I feel that there are times in your life when you need to have these moments.  I think that it is perfectly okay to let yourself fall apart.   If I need to, I will eat all the junk until my little heart is content and cry on the floor because I am so upset.  And after a few hours or a day of having my moment I will pick myself back up because what’s done is done, so I own it, learn from it, let it go, and move along. 

 Photos taken by Brock Best. 

 www.brockbestphotography.com