We all remember those times as kids when we'd taken a spill on our 2-wheeler, and climbed back on to keep going. Sometimes with fear and trepidation that the pain would come again. Sometimes racing with a bloodied knee to catch up to our friends who'd sped off, unaware of our fall. Wondering, even if just for an instant, if we should just stay off the bike for good. All of those same emotions are what assail me as I "get back on the bike" of my Long Haul to Healthy...
I posted my last blog almost 3 years ago. I was one year in to my weight loss journey at that time, and I honestly can't recall why I stopped writing. I know I went on for another year of increased health and loss of inches and pounds. However, a year later, two years ago now - life happened. One of those life events (culmination of several, actually), that knocks you so far off your bike you can barely pick yourself up to walk, much less climb onto anything with wheels. I won't go into the sordid details of the stressors that came upon my family like locusts, because those things are hardly the point here. What strikes me now is how seemingly impossible it was to maintain my new healthy habits in the midst of chaos.
My 4-6 days a week in the gym fell off to nothing. My carefully planned and prepared meals gave way to processed junk, comfort foods, and bread - lots and lots of bread. (Bread love is real. And it is an addiction. Make no mistake.) For the next year, this was just life. Really, in retrospect, I had no mental or emotional space to deal with whatever I was putting in my mouth. I was just busy surviving all that life was throwing at us. Praying that God would one day soon give us the 20-20 "ah-hah" moment of whatever it was we were supposed to be learning through these trials, then I could start taking care of myself again.
After a year of roller coaster, things definitely settled down, and we did start receiving those glimpses into the calm after the storm. However, where the storm had deposited me was a whole different place than where it picked me up! I found myself smack-dab in the middle of a full-time job. I hadn't worked full time in over a decade, and I'd certainly never done it in my 40s with three kids! It has seriously taken me this past year to stop reeling and understand this way of life, much less begin to put the pieces of my health back together.
But it is time. Somehow, magically (read: God-ordained and empowered), it is time again. I have the mental space, I have the emotional freedom, I have the support network, and I have the plan. I will aim to write about the details of each of these components that I consider essential to regaining one's health and wellbeing over the coming weeks, if you'll be in it with me. The long haul, that is. The long haul to healthy.
NOTES:
For now, as way of being able to track and update you in the coming weeks, I'll tell you that in my journey to lose 100 pounds that began 4 years ago, I lost 75 in two years, then gained back 50 in the next two years (ouch, right?!). Right now, I sit at 30 pounds down, and 50-70 to go. (I am no longer set on the #100, but rather want to find myself at the happy weight my body settles at. I imagine it will be somewhere between 135-155 given why height and age.)
I started eating a diet three weeks ago after much reading, research, and counseling by a pro (Thanks, Kenny) that aims at maintaining a state of nutritional ketosis. Please note: I do not recommend starting a Keto Diet without much research and a clear understanding of what you are trying to get your body to do. I am not qualified to share more than my opinion, which I will do when I discuss my way-of-life eating plan in later blogs - this is not medical advice. Two great sites you CAN learn about it are: www.ketogains.com and www.eatingacademy.com.
Huge props and thanks to one of my biggest cheerleaders, Melissa, for keeping me accountable with love, introducing me to the keto WOE, and giving me the bump to revive my blog. You are a rock-star friend!
