I feel a little like my accomplishments last week were few and far between since I have far too much clean laundry sitting in baskets and I’m behind in general on cleaning. Despite that, I’m still proud of the three things I’ve made significant progress on this week: clean eating, cutting out/significantly reducing caffeine, and potty training.

Potty training is still the bane of my existence, but Micah actually pooped in the toilet on Sunday, which earned him the right to wear big boy underpants! He has a few accidents, but most were small and he stopped himself and told me about it so we were able to get to the potty pretty quickly. Between him and the dogs I’m super tired of cleaning up pee, but it’s really worth it to see how proud he is of his underpants. (Super blurry picture, sorry, but he just wouldn’t stop dancing around the minute he put them on)

I’ve been a big fan of low key food this week, mostly because caffeine withdrawal headaches are really awful. (More on that later…) I don’t usually love canned or frozen veggies, but on days when I’m tired and the kids are crazy they can be a total lifesaver. I just cook them in grass-fed butter and some spices and they actually taste good! Roasting potatoes and veggies is also an awesome time-saver because they don’t require frequent checking.

Even my special meals have been pretty low key lately. Sunday breakfast was protein pancakes (oatmeal, flaxseed, chia seeds, cinnamon, cottage cheese, and eggs) and scrambled eggs, and the kids totally loved it. It’s Conference weekend for us (which basically means instead of going to church, the leadership broadcasts from Utah and we watch it on TV) so we got to relax in our pajamas for most of the day.

The kids get bored easily with Conference, so I printed out some coloring/activity packets for them and they had a blast. Even Jonah was having fun with it! And miraculously no one colored on the walls 🙂

I’m also trying to get better about creatively using what’s in the fridge rather than looking up recipes and having to buy more stuff to cook. Last night I decided to make chicken fajitas because we had a bunch of peppers about to turn and it actually came out really good. We didn’t have tortillas, but I was fine with them just like this, and I put it over rice for the kiddos and my husband and they were pretty happy. The only thing about Mexican food is that the hubby prefers it spicy and the kids don’t, so it can be hard to find a happy medium with flavor (my husband thought it was a tiny bit bland, but the kids ate it without any complaint).

With the kids not sleeping through the night, I’ve made no secret of the fact that energy drinks have been a frequent lifesaver. It’s not ideal, but I figured it was short term and I could handle it for a little while. A few weeks ago, I was drinking my pre-workout when I started feeling kinda crappy, and I could tell that my pulse was faster than it should be. It wasn’t a huge deal, but I still decided I needed to go at least a week with no caffeine (I went nearly two!) and then limit my overall caffeine intake to make sure I’m not messing myself up.

I had the worst headaches the first week, but I upped my intake of water and vitamins and it’s helped. I also slept a LOT — accidental naps happened nearly every day, like my body was forcing me to reset. Yesterday was really the first day I started to feel really awake without any residual tiredness, and that was after the whole family took an afternoon nap together. I’m going back to using my pre-workout this week, but only for particularly strenuous workouts and I’m limiting other forms of caffeine to make sure I’m not getting too much. It’s a bit weird to remember that I’m not really young enough for my body to tolerate that kind of abuse, but probably not a bad thing.

Not to tempt Murphy’s Law, but the kids are still sleeping so I’m going to workout and get some cleaning done while I still can!

What are you proud of getting done this week?

Have you ever had any issues with caffeine consumption?