The past several\u00a0months have been interesting times, to say the least. I am not complaining, because honestly, I really have nothing “real” I could possibly complain about! However, for those of you who have been following my posts and remember the one about “simplifying,” I’d love to know if that really is possible! It does seem that just when you make one decision to simplify a particular thing, something else just pops up to take its place. If you’re not careful, these little pop-ups can wreak havoc on your resolve to simplify!<\/p>\n

Thankfully, my resolve is intact! I will not give in to chaos! Just have to take things one day at a time and smash those little pop-ups like they are the moles in a whack-a-mole game! So the past several months have gone something like this:<\/p>\n

1. Move Littles to new school, much closer to home to cut down on the endless driving. Check!<\/p>\n

2. Purge closets and basement of clutter and excess. Check!<\/p>\n

3. Sit down with husband and make a 5-year plan for where we want to be financially, etc. Check!<\/p>\n

Progress, right? Simplification? Yes!<\/p>\n

So what is the latest “mole” to pop-up? Hormones! Yes, I do believe that’s it. At 44 years old, I have felt pretty good, despite the mommy-tired feeling that I think exists always with young children, and have, up until now, been able to just watch my calories for a few days to a week to get any stubborn pounds off that creep on from time to time. But about 5 months ago, I went in for a procedure to have my tubes tied, and that’s when things started to get a bit hairy. The Doctor said, “you still have your ovaries, so this really should affect your hormones,” and I was relieved to hear that!<\/p>\n

Oh, boy, was she wrong! Despite my normal calorie counting, which had always worked in the past, 12-15 pounds creeped on, or should I say just drove up in a moving semi and set up “house” in my belly area! Feeling like a bloated, beached whale, I became desperate to find out what in the world was going on! That’s when a friend suggested I may be “peri-menopausal.” Huh? But that doesn’t happen until you’re like…50 or something….right?<\/p>\n

Wrong. I started reading online. Dr. Google, as my husband likes to call it, shed some light on what exactly peri-menopause is, when it starts and what the symptoms are. I have read more stuff about peri-menopause, estrogen dominance, progesterone cream, synthetic hormone replacement, “PTLS (post-tubal ligation syndrome) – yes, there is one – and on and on, than I ever cared to. But the truth is, I…am…there. Damn that little perimenopause whack-a-mole!<\/p>\n

So ladies…if you are my age and experiencing the same thing, read up! I am now using some natural progesterone cream to balance out my hormone levels AND on a 30-day whole system cleanse to help take care of my new fatty residents, and it’s working! Down 5 pounds in a week – at least it’s finally going in the right direction! So maybe this little mole is sufficiently whacked. What will be next, I wonder?<\/p>\n

Are you experiencing the same thing? Let’s commiserate!<\/p>\n

**Disclaimer – Google is really not a doctor (duh!) and neither am I, so I recommend you also discuss your symptoms with your physician.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The past several\u00a0months have been interesting times, to say the least. I am not complaining, because honestly, I really have nothing “real” I could possibly complain about! However, for those of you who have been following my posts and remember the one about “simplifying,” I’d love to know if that really is possible! It does seem that just when you… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-mommy-challenges","post_format-post-format-gallery","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4JTq8-23","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingthelittles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}