Up...down... up.... down... and am I really supposed to be doing it like this??

I feel like my body is revolting.  No, well, yes, it isn't pleasant to look at but I don't mean that kind of revolting this time.  I feel like my body was perfectly happy the way it was and I'm really pissing it off with all this fitness crap.  For the last two weeks, I've been up and down 2 to 2.5 lbs and it's making me a crazy person.  See, the last time I tried to lose weight seriously, I lost 16 pounds in 6 weeks doing this:

• Cut out most sugar
• Ate smaller portions (same foods for the most part, just not as much)
• Walked every other day
• Occasionally rode a bike

Now, I'm doing this:

• Cutting out 99% of the sugar I was eating
• Not eating ANY processed food (aka nothing out of a box except Lean Cuisine)
• Eating more fruits and veggies than I have in my life and nothing but lean protein
• Consuming between 1000 & 1200 calories per day (even when I have a couple (yes a COUPLE) of baked tostitos with salsa)
• NO fast food
• NO red meat (other than a teensy piece of steak that was, I must say, HEAVENLY)
• Drinking enough water to drown a camel and not drinking any calories
• Working out at least an hour a day, 6 days a week including strength training and I sweat like a pig.  Prolly burning between 300-500 calories per workout.  (Some days I just want to walk in to the gym, smack the cute, skinny girl behind the counter, and walk out.  But I go in anyway.)

And I've lost 16 pounds in 5 weeks.  Which, comparatively, sounds fab.  16 in 5 vs. 16 in 6.  Victory!  But it doesn't feel that way.  It feels like I'm working 10 times as hard to get the same results.  I would have to be at 25 lbs lost by the end of this week to be on goal for my challenge target.  So I got to thinking....

Maybe I'm putting way too much pressure on myself for the challenge.  Honestly, other than working out for TWO hours a day, SEVEN days a week and reducing my caloric intake to that of a 2-year-old, I can't think of anything I could be doing differently.  And until I can afford a maid, a chauffer, someone to do my errands and basically handle everything in my life, that two hours isn't going to happen.  So I guess it's time to change the thought processes and stop beating myself to a pulp.

I need to focus on the life change, not the challenge.  I need to remember that it took me a long time to get this way, and it will take a long time to change it.  I don't have to be The Biggest Loser and drop 10 lbs a week in order to be successful.  If I had nothing to do with my time other than work out, I could probably do the 10 lb thing.  But I have stuff to do.  Lots of stuff.  I'm a mom and I have to work and I have to do everything to take care of my fam.  Because I'm the only one to do it.  Don't get me wrong, Kenz is a huge help!  There's just all kinds of things that the parents have to handle.  And I'm both of them.