Finding motivation while exhausted

Gretegettingfit

Just wondering if anyone else struggles with this or has any tips/suggestions on how to deal with this. I'm a sahm with a 4 yo and and a 1 yo with a dh who works 6 days a week and is gone from about 7am-7pm. My 4 yo is extremely active and rambunctious but the real problem is that my 1 yo is not te best sleeper. Most nights, I get about 4- 5 hours of sleep, and that's not consecutive! It's all broken up. Needless to say, I'm usually beyond exhausted. If it weren't for coffee, I don't know what I'd do!

Anyway, now that my lo is weaned, I'm starting to get serious about eating right and moving more. The summer before I got pregnant with my second, I'd load up my toddler in the jogging stroller and walk for 1-2 miles every day. I counted calories and lost about 25 lbs. Now, my 4 yo is way to big for a stroller, so walking for any kind of exercise during the day is out. I do have the perfect time after my 1 yo goes to bed (7:30) where I can walk on my own, but I'm usually so exhausted by that point that I can barely move, let alone walk. It's so hard to force your body to move when all it craves is sleep.

I'm trying to keep my eating under control. I'm not counting out calories yet, but have eliminated snacks and junk and am focusing on eating only when hungry and much, much smaller portions. I measure stuff out, like yogurt and cereal, etc, so I keep the correct portion size and have stopped nighttime snacking (this was my biggest problem). Some days it's just so hard to keep caring or stay on point with the eating when I'm so tired.

How do you keep moving and stay focused when you're so tired? Any tips?