i guess i ate a few too many funnel cakes at the fair last fall

Before I had Joshua I was still carrying an extra ten pounds from my pregnancy with Julianna.  Now I'm sixteen pounds up from that which puts me at exactly 26 pounds pre-babies.  I've been bouncing around between fifteen and twenty up from pre-Josh for several months now and I am ready to get it off, if not more.  I would love to lose a total of 32 but I would certainly be happy with just losing 16 for now.  I think I can do that by Father's Day.

I have been doing very well with eating better lately but I still struggle with trying to find time to exercise with two kiddos.  The fact that mommy always comes last has been a hard reality to face.  The exercise thing is getting a little better with the warmer weather. 

Still.  I know what I should do.  I should either use the time that Julianna is in school each day to take Josh out for a walk or run.  I have been using that time to get stuff done around the house and actually take a shower each day.  Plus Josh naps some during that time.

I also could exercise after both kids are in bed but that's usually about 9 or 9:30 and then I'm so exhausted that I can hardly even stand up, much less exercise.

I'm also thinking about eliminating soda from my diet permanently.  Anyone do this?

I've been using sparkpeople.com and I've found it to be extremely helpful at holding me accountable for "journaling" my food each day AND there is an android app that I can use on my phone.  Since I'm still breastfeeding Josh I'm trying not to cut back too much.

Something else I've been pondering is adding some kind of protein powder or something similar to my diet.  Sparkpeople lets you compare the percentage of calories of each type actually consumed in your diet with the percentage of calories of each type that you should consume.  Mine always shows that I eat too little protein and even when I try to eat protein at each meal I don't get quite enough.  That makes me wonder what else I can do to increase my protein intake.  Anyone have any suggestions?

I welcome any advice you can give me.  I'm trying.  I really am.

BTW as I type this my daughter is sitting in front of me eating a grilled cheese that Daddy made her and she just declared it "FANTASTIC!"

Maybe I should go try on my bathing suit...?