I'm Back- April 2013 Resolution, a bit delayed

So this year I've decided to do monthly resolutions instead of vague general "for the year" resolutions.  A lot of them are little things, and a lot of them aren't even begun until the middle of the month.  But I figure that's better than nothing.  I've struggled with a good April resolution until this morning... "I should get back into my blog!"  So here I am.  April resolution begun...  hopefully 3 posts per week, starting today.

I have an overall theme for 2013... Get My Life Back Together.  After the birth our our dear sweet Aaron last year, my life kind of fell apart.  And by kind of, I mean, COMPLETELY.  Between his nonstop crying for the first 4 months (thank you silent reflux), his constant need to be held by me, his terrible night sleeping (he's still up 2 times a night FYI, but it is faaaar better than it was 3 months ago), and his general unhappy disposition, I just didn't have much in me beyond meeting the basics:  feeding my family and keeping the house from completely falling apart.  But I decided once the New Year hit that I needed to quit with the excuses and start functioning like an actual responsible adult again.  It probably helps that Aaron has suddenly turned into a happy baby.  Okay, it helps TREMENDOUSLY.  Anyway, so Project Life Back to Normal is underway.  Here's a brief overview.

January... This sounds terrible, but hear me out.  My January resolution was to actually start feeding Aaron solid food.  He was 8 months old in January.  I waited until 6 months to attempt solids, he just didn't like them.  At all.  It made meal times stressful and miserable.  After dealing with Dylan's extreme picky eating, I just couldn't handle the struggle again. I'd already decided not to make homemade baby food since that was probably the biggest waste of time when Dylan was a baby, so I least I saved myself that frustration.  So I kind of took a hiatus.  I'd try every once and a while, but we just never got anywhere.  Then I started hearing from other people that their babies didn't really start eating until they could feed themselves table food (which I totally understand, pureed baby food is GROSS).  And I thought to myself "I bet that's what Aaron is waiting for."  Guess what?  It was.  Once he was able to pick up and chew soft bit of actual food, he was fine.  Better than fine even, that kid eats anything and everything if he can chew it (most meat is still a little tough, but he tries!)  So in January I started sitting him down for actual meals on a regular basis.  I give him little bits of whatever we're eating, and he pretty much stuffs them in his face...  black beans, grated cheese, strawberries, blueberries, ORANGES (his current fave), peas, sweet potatoes, slow cooked beef, roasted chicken, curries!, you name it, he eats it.  I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to start refusing food, but so far, we're good.  It's SOOOO nice, especially since Dylan still doesn't really eat well (he eats healthy, just not much quantity, which is a different kind of stress since he's a little bit of a lightweight).  Only food issue we have with Aaron is that since he doesn't like purees, and won't eat the iron fortified baby cereal (I still try) he's got an iron deficiency.  But I give him vitamins for that and so hopefully he'll be back to a healthy range at his next appointment (at which he'll be one... ONE!  I'm about to be the mom of a 5 year old and a 1 year old...  WHAT?!?!?!?!?)

February... I got Aaron's eating under way, now it was time to address my eating habits.  Here's what they were at the beginning of February...  I EAT EVERYTHING ALL DAY.  It's because I'm still breastfeeding so my body needs the extra calories, that's why I'm hungry nonstop.  Except no, at some point I need to be responsible and start eating like a healthy person.  So I made one small change.  A salad at lunch.  I can eat everything else as normal, but I should just have a salad at lunch.  My mom made me a really good one when I had lunch there one day...  avacado and oranges.  So I started making that everyday.  I keep lettuce in the fridge, already washed, so it's easy to assemble.  And that was a great start.  I immediately noticed a difference (huh?  my weight is finally moving in the right direction again) so I started making other little changes.  No more whipped cream on my coffee every morning.  Uh, yeah, I was doing that.  It's just SOOOO good.  LIke, one of my favorite things in the world to eat good.  But not healthy.  So I stopped.  And it continued to snowball... smaller portions, better decisions, less snacking.  Good eating as much as possible, with a few little indulgences here and there.  Because I am a believer in regular small indulgences... they just got smaller and less frequent.  So now that I am eating healthier we come to March.

March.... Start running again!  Wahoo!  I have been looking forward to this goal for a LONG time.  I looooved running for that one summer I did it way back when.  There were a lot of reasons for stopping (which I won't go into), but once Aaron was born I was ready to dive back in.  It took longer than I wanted, but if I kept waiting until the ideal schedule to start I'd never make it.  So I decided to just run twice a week for 30 minutes on our treadmill while Aaron was napping.  It was tough when I started because I was SOOOOOOO out of shape.  Like crazy out of shape.  But I've been keeping with it and am slowly getting back into the groove of things.  I also added a weekend outside run now that the weather is nice.  I have to keep my expectations for results low, because part of me thinks I should still be able to run 8 miles no problem, but my body is DONE after 2.  So at this point my only goal for each run is to "Put on my shoes and move for 30 mins" even if I just walk slowly.  Typically once the shoes are on though I manage a decent routine.  Plus a slow, short run is better than no run at all.  This past Sunday I managed a 2.5 mile run around the neighborhood in just over 30 mins (no walking!).  The last half mile killed me, but I felt great otherwise.  That's some pretty good progress in a short time. In May I plan on running a 5k.  I'm super excited.  

Also, just this morning when I weighed myself I was FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY officially at my pre-Aaron weight.  Thank you February and March.

Which brings us to April.  The return of the blog.  Here we go...