The family dynamic has changed.
I'm now working about 40-50 hours a week at two of the four jobs. One in the morning, and one in the late afternoon and evenings at least 3-4 days a week.
There fore the eating has to change, since I won't be home to cook most nights.
Most nights.
Soups, crock pot meals and casseroles are the order of the day, with my husband cooking once or twice a week to help me out. Good thing he can cook shoe leather and make it tender and tasty! Lucky for me we have chicken in the freezer and not shoe leather.
Breakfast usually consists of a homemade egg sandwich (500-600 calories) or two sandwich bags- one with fresh spinach and grape tomatoes (maybe 50 calories) and the other has a few slices of rotisserie chicken (about 250 calories). When I run out of the fresh stuff, i make the egg sandwiches. Both are eaten throughout the morning and not all at once, which works well for me. I'm not famished when I get home, so there's less chance of me pigging out at lunch time.
Lunch is almost always leftovers. Most are within the 500-600 calorie mark. This is more calories than I should have if I'm eating the egg sandwich for breakfast, so I try to keep it lighter on those days, but not always, and the scale shows it.
Dinners have been late eating, which isn't good for me, but it's a necessary evil. My usual eating time is between five and six, but now it's more like seven. There was a night or two when I didn't eat until after eight- That's late for someone who's up at 4:30 each morning!
One thing that has changed for the better is that our family is starting to go for walks together. Geocaching is something we dabbled in (a treasure hunt using the GPS), as well as long walks on park paths. Fall is such a beautiful time of the year, and the walks are refreshing and desperately needed to keep me active. It's also a good time to rake up leaves- another way to stay active!
This week was a challenge as I started my second job. No weight loss, but I didn't gain either!
Lessons Learned:
I can't do everything. Ask for help when work at home needs more time than I can give.
Park walks feel good and allows my brain to settle down with live conversation- it's nice to not have a screen in my face all the time!
I might have to start cooking in bulk on the days I'm not working, and freeze leftovers individually so we have a choice for lunches- and dinners when I'm late and he can't cook.
Drink more water when eating at night so I don't eat too much before bed.
Do the third job in between the first and second job, when there's a few hour lull.
It's not easy. It especially won't be easy when that fourth job kicks in! But right now I have to do what I have to do, and work things out so I'm losing weight along the way. I always did like a challenge!
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