Journey Back to Half of Me: Life Happens...

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans..."

I allowed myself to become busy the past week and a half. I was doing so good, working out everyday, and eating decently healthy. Then mom and dad went on vacation, Shelby was working, and my sister was busy. So...there went all of my options on who would watch Lenae while I went to collect my 1.5 hours of sanity for the day. I know...it's somewhat of an excuse, but in every mother's defense, there comes a point where you start to feel guilty for pawning off your children constantly. And add on the fact that my husband works at night(police officer) and sometimes works ungodly long shifts that are as unpredictable as the mood of my toddler. It can sometimes be more of a struggle to find a babysitter to go workout for an hour, than to just say uncle and plop back down on the couch. If anyone without children is still shouting the word "EXCUSE" at the screen, then I will try as hard as I can to keep my mouth closed in a few years if you find yourself in this predicament. I would feel incredibly horrible picking up the phone and saying to a friend, or non immediate family member, "Can I pawn off Lenae on you, even though you are probably incredibly busy yourself, so that I can go and get my 1.5 hours of "Joelle time" in today? Oh what's that? You haven't had any you time either...well maybe you can after you watch my child." See where I'm going with that? Okay...sorry. Soapbox. Off. So I think for the sake of my own conscience, and for some much needed one on one quality time with my missy, we needed that week and a half off. We also made some time for us this weekend. In his line of work, after he gets home he wants to stay home. (I do too, mostly). Can you blame him though? Everytime he leaves the house it is always a constant work opportunity or reminder of what happened last night at work. So we went to the lake, hung out with some pretty awesome friends, stayed out WAY too late(normal hours for him), and slept in the next day. It was incredible. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. So I guess I'm starting to L.I.V.E. BUT I did still run and lift at least 3 times during that period. I am considering it a break because it wasn't a consistent schedule of workouts. I started back in last night running 2 miles, and was going to lift weights, but again Shelby needed me home so that we could go run a couple of pressing errands.

This comes to my inexplainable fear of stepping on my scale. Since I began this a few months ago, this morning was the first time I was ever really scared to see what number would be staring back at me. You want to know what? I didn't lose, or gain.(I'm still not comfortable making the actual number public yet...but when I am you will know) Why was I scared? Because I didn't drink my normal amount of water everyday(I still drank at least 64 oz/day), and I didn't eat as carefully(but have payed much better attention to portion sizes). The daycare kids and I have been going on a walk every other morning too, which includes me pushing a stroller with 1 arm, and pulling a wagon that has 2 toddlers in it with the other arm. So I think I have figured out a good start at maintaining, which will be vitally as important when I reach my goal of weight loss.

And I know that in today's society, people want proof. People want side by side pictures of before and after to know that the way someone is going about losing weight is actually working. Well be patient, I am working on that. We are having family pictures done sometime in the very near future, so I will put up the last set of pics that Lenae and I had done a few months ago, and the new ones. But for right now, you will just have to settle for a pretty cute couple of pictures of myself and the oh so colorful personality of my 1 1/2 yr old child. Seriously...she is a complete replica of Shelby and I both, just put together. Now for those of you who know us, that is completely terrifying. :)