It is CRAZY how normal I felt this week. I had patience for my kids, less frustration with my husband, and I felt happy. Not only did I avoid bad days, I can't think of any bad moments! Recognizing the difference between this week and last week, made me realize how bad it really had been. Again, our lives weren't awful. We weren't miserable, but our home was not often a place where we all felt good and felt love toward one another. For two months I had tried to overcome that place I found myself in, but I knew that I couldn't do it all on my own.
As a personal trainer and a wellness coordinator, I worked with a lot of middle-aged women. So many of them fought weight gain and struggled with getting the weight back off. They had to work so much harder than they did when they were younger and more than most men their same age. (It stinks, but it's true). I attributed a lot of these struggles to possible hormones changes. Although all the textbooks say that it's about calories in vs. calories out, that's not often the case. Hormones play a big part in metabolism and a lot of women cannot control that. I now recognize how much hormones can affect your emotions, no matter how much effort you put into trying to control them.
After all is said and done, I am so excited to get back to feeling like myself.
Two HUGE milestones:
I went for a RUN this week! Well, it was a walk/ run/ walk/ run, but it felt so good! Ryan and I took the double and single strollers together so we could run with all three kids. I was actually surprised how "easy" it was considering I have run twice in the past 3 months. I walked first to warm up my knee, then ran for a while. I walked down hills because downhill running is harder on the patellar tendon (where I have the tendinitis). My goal is to go for a couple of walk/runs this week and work my way back towards a half marathon, but not too quickly.
I weighed myself. As I have mentioned, I have decided not to weigh myself regularly because I started to look at that too much as my success or failure. I wanted to focus more on other goals that I can directly control. However, my clothes were fitting much looser, so I was curious. I was 162! That's about 8 pounds less than the last time I weighed myself! It just goes to show that you don't need to use the scale to motivate your progress. I still don't think I will weigh myself again for a while (I hid my scale back under the sheets in my linen closet), but it's nice to know that I only have about 12-15 pounds left to get to my pre-pregnancy weight! And let's be honest, five of those are in my bra. :)
I tried to focus on all of my goals again this week, and it didn't work. I have decided that I feel much more successful when I only focus on two or three goals than when I have twelve like I attempted this past week. I did fairly well with half of the them: sleep, exercise, one daily treat. However, the others that I haven't worked on as long like one-on-one time with my family were definitely not habitual yet.
This week I want to focus on the
one-one-one family time (one daily meaningful effort/ moment with each child and husband)
personal prayer (morning and evening)
scripture study (Book of Mormon and Old Testament study)
When I look at the priorities I should be making in my life, those are the top three and they definitely lacked this week. I know that I will still make time for exercise and eating healthy, so I need to put my efforts towards those things that matter. Keeping a daily checklist of those goals help me stay on track.
And since every post needs a picture- this is a highlight of my week. Bunk beds= three kids in one room. The joys of living in SoCal (a two-bedroom house) we have more family bonding time, right? I love my kids. Those faces really are why I am working on being a happier, healthier momma.
You are amazing! You are an inspiration to so many♡♡♡♡♡
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