Happy Mother's Day

Day 7 - Sunday.  Rest day.  Mother's Day.

After being so extra active yesterday (tennis and bike riding), I felt very good about my rest day today and happy it coincided with Mother's Day.  Later this evening I will go for a walk to stretch my legs, just so I have some body movement before the day is over.  I spent a lot of time sitting, resting in good company both with my in-laws and then my parents and sister, as well as my husband and kids.  It was a lovely day and the weather was perfect for sitting outside.

I've come to the end of my first week and have to say, I am hooked.  It was very hard to make some of the changes that I have, but also very rewarding.  My energy has increased a lot.  Surprisingly so.  I don't feel as bloated.  I am connecting more with my body.  I have eaten great meals with a variety of flavors and textures.  I've tried new things and felt nurtured and well nourished.  This morning, when I put on my jean capris I felt smaller in my waist.  I still have far to go but I feel encouraged that I will get there this time.  This way.

I'm not going to lie, I am nervous about my Week 1 weigh in tomorrow morning. I almost want to postpone it a week to really give my body a chance to adjust.  I fear that although I am doing everything I know I should be, that I may have gained a bit of weight on the scale due to the increased muscle work.  I fear that I will feel discouraged if that is the case.  And trust myself less.

I would like to leave the scale out of it.  I would like to just feel better in my body and be happy with that.  However, the scale is the measurement of my weight, therefore, it is a necessary component of  this journey.  I will weigh myself once a week, on Monday morning and share it in my post that day.

Today is a day to honor our Mothers.  It is also a day to honor ourselves, if we are mothers.  I thought back to the difficulties I faced during my pregnancies and deliveries.  Both C-sections.  Both times I had pre-eclamsia.  Both of my kids needed to be born early due to the severity of my illness, my son 4 weeks, my daughter 6 weeks.  Thankfully, both of my babies were born healthy and strong.

But I was thinking most specifically about my stomach.  My stomach was so bruised after my daughter was born it looked like someone beat me with a ball bat, repeatedly.  My c-section scar wouldn't close and needed to be flushed out several times a day by my husband to keep it from getting infected.  It was painful.  It was stressful for him to have to do something that hurt me when I had been through so much already, but we got through it.

My body is so resilient.  It has been through so much.  I may not be the size and weight that I would like to be right now, but I do feel thankful that I am as healthy as I am.  I feel thankful that I can walk and even run, in small spurts.  That I can ride my bike and play tennis.  That I can jump (very carefully!) on my daughter's trampoline.  I may not be an athlete, but I can be active.

This Mediterranean diet experiment is about taking the best care of my body that I can.  It is about building muscles, losing fat, getting strong and feeling healthy.  It is not about depriving myself, starving myself or beating myself up.  That won't work for me.  Tending to myself the way I would my children, with lots of tender, loving care.  That sounds better.

To all the moms out there (and especially mine), I wish you a Happy Mother's Day!

Until next time... Be well!
~Tracy







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Back to Basics

Image
Day 37 - Tuesday.  There was a full moon last Friday, so the waning moon is still quite large and bright in the sky.  It is beautiful.... except when it is shining into my bedroom so brightly that it disrupts my sleep.  We recently took down our bedroom curtains to paint and the rods never made it back up yet.  Today it is at the top of my priority list when my husband gets home from work. I am an introvert.  I don't concentrate well when there is too much chaos or people in and out of my work space.  Right now my living room is full of teenage boy/man energy, as my son's friend spent the night and they sacked out on the couches.  I am wearing my headphones as I write, so I can listen to the sound of soothing water bubbling instead of hearing them and all of their sleep breathing. Yesterday everything took its toll on me and I climbed into my bed and put my eye mask and ear phones on, before pulling a pillow over my head and calling a time out.  I stayed there, falling in
Read more

Anxiety is Sneaky! (But Strive on Heedfully)

Image
Day 24 - "Strive on heedfully and be ever mindful to see the world as it truly exists, without envy, without judgment, without hatred... to do this, one must know oneself intimately to understand the source of happiness or unhappiness that exists within" .  - Siddartha/Budda. This was a quote given to me by a gentleman who came to pick up Chinese Food at the restaurant where I worked, when I was fifteen years old.  I never knew what made him express that to me.  I often wondered over the years if some angelic force whispered for him to share it with me.  I think I still have the original writing somewhere in a dusty box, but it doesn't matter because the words became etched to memory long ago. Yesterday, I had planned on attending that Gentle Yoga class that I raved about last week.  I was truly looking forward to it and then suddenly, 90 minutes before class would've started, I had this "episode".  It was as if someone pulled the battery out of my
Read more

Watermelon Icy

Image
Day 27 - Saturday.  This morning, after taking my daughter to get her sports physical for school, I took her bathing suit shopping.  She is 12.  That is stressful enough for a mom, but I decided maybe I should try a few two piece suits on myself, while we were there.  We left with a very cute bathing suit, age appropriate, bikini-style for my smiling daughter and a pack of gum to soothe myself from all of the trauma that occurred in my dressing room.  My husband later asked me about it and I said, "of this we shall not speak". So recently, I honestly can't remember if I saw this on facebook, read it somewhere or watched a video - I have the feeling someone was talking to me about it, but for some reason it is wiped clean from my memory.  So, if anyone knows who to give proper credit to for this idea, please post a comment and I will certainly do so! The directions for this watermelon icy are so easy and uses only one ingredient - watermelon.  It said to cut th
Read more