The past several years I have been moving more and more to an all natural, real foods diet.  Of course, trying to avoid processed foods and cook/bake everything from scratch with the distraction of four kids and a puppy sometimes results in burning, forgetting important ingredients, doughs that have been left to rise and forgotten and then try to take over the kitchen…

That’s why it’s so funny to see some of the mistakes that even the professional bakers at King Arthur Flour have come up with.  I’m not the only one who has forgotten about the nuts I was toasting and ended up with really, really, really crispy nuts…

And then the bad night turned into a bad day which turned into another bad night which turned into a bad week.

Good times.

And then I realized.  I changed my diet.  Maybe that’s the problem.

Yes, I’m nursing my fourth child and it took me almost a week to figure out the problem, but in my defense, he was having really bad nights and I was REALLY.  FREAKING.  TIRED.

So, I went back to my normal eating habits, which are quite healthy as long as I do two things:

1. Control my sugar intake
2. Track my calories so that I don’t over eat

So instead of a one-week kick-start to my diet, I am going to post some of my favorite tips and recipes for losing weight over the next couple weeks.  Because it’s hard not to follow your own advice!

And that may have been a bit of an understatement.

I know that in time I will be able to be more consistent, but I want to start feeling better about myself now, not in time! So, while I am going to continue trying to get in my workouts as often as possible, I really need to start focusing on my diet.

Because it’s way too easy to grab a muffin or scone that I have made for the kids. Only I don’t just grab one for a snack, I grab one every time I pass through the kitchen!

Starting tomorrow, I am giving myself a one-week challenge:

• No sugar
• No grains
• No dairy (except for as little as possible in one cup of coffee a day, because really, what is the point if you can’t start your day with coffee?)

And since people have more success when they record what they eat and when they have accountability, I’ll also challenge myself to post here each day and record what I’ve eaten.

Whew.  Ok, now that I’ve said all that publicly, I guess I really have to do it!

At 12:30 I gave the kids their lunch, then went to get my new Turbo Fire dvds.

At 12:35 the baby woke up and started crying, so I soothed him back to sleep.

At 1:00 I finally took the plastic off the dvds and got out the intro.

At 1:03 the kids decided to go outside to play, so I had to tie up the puppy.

At 1:04 the puppy got into the house and I had to chase her down, catch her and tie her up.

At 1:15 I finally pushed play on the intro.

At 1:18 the baby started crying again.

At 1:45 I gave up on soothing him and nursed him back to sleep while watching the intro dvd.

At 2:10 I pushed play on the Fire 30 workout.

At 2:11 and 30 seconds the baby woke up again, and I put him in his car seat and rocked him asleep.

At 2:15 I pushed play on Fire 30 again.

At 2:23 I rocked him again.

At 2:35 I gave up on Fire 30 and just sarted Stretch 10.  The baby slept through it and has been asleep for the last hour.

It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to work out for 10 minutes and stretch for 10 minutes.

That’s a little easier than I had planned to take it when I said I was going to “ease” back into working out…

When it was time for my first baby to take a nap, the two of us would go into her peaceful room, cuddle in the chair, and rock while I softly read her a story.  After a few more minutes of snuggling in the chair while I smelled her head and enjoyed her baby scent, I laid her in her crib decorated with a handmade quilt and patted her on her back until she drifted off to sleep.

On October 13th, we welcomed baby #4, Seth Owen, into the world.  And when it’s time for him to take a nap?

Actually, I don’t know when it’s time for him to take a nap.  Usually I sit down to nurse him while my seven-year-old asks questions like, “Mommy, what is the biggest breed of dog?  I think it’s the Great Dane.  Or maybe that mountain dog.  What’s the name of that mountain dog?”  My five-year-old loudly demonstrates how Batman jumps up and down and begs to play Lego Batman on the Wii, and my three-year-old pretends to be a dog and crawls around barking and asking me to rub her tummy.  At some point during this chaos, I realize the baby has fallen asleep while eating and I have no idea how much he ate or how long he’s been asleep.  And as I lay him on the nearest available safe sleeping surface, I smell his head and realize that he is WAY overdue for a bath.

And I wouldn’t change a thing.