You know it’s bad when……

You know it’s bad when one of your children sends you a text asking why you haven’t blogged recently!! Truthfully, we have had a lot going on this week. In addition to working out and working, we adopted a new dog this week. It feels like Christmas at our house! Baby Girl (that is the name she came with, and we think it is so hysterical that we are keeping it – if you know us, you know neither Betsy nor myself would EVER name a dog “Baby Girl!”) is keeping us very busy. She is a rescue dog, and has required a lot of attention – attention we are more than happy to give her. But I have been neglecting the blog!  Anyhoo……. things continue to go well and I am pleased to report that I am wearing a pair of jeans today that I have not been able to fit in for about 2 years. They are probably out of style, but I don’t care! I am just so excited to be wearing them that style be damned! My workouts have reached the point where next week I am ready to go to the next stage – meaning, we have been working out building a muscle base so that I can begin doing “real” exercises. When I have exercised in the past, I just dove right into it, never thinking about things like “proper form” or “heart rate.” And when I did not see instant results, I quit. Time after time I repeated the pattern, getting bigger every month, and feeling worse about myself in the process. This time, it is working. I can feel and see the difference exercise is making in my life. My clothes are fitting, I am much less hungry, I am paying attention to food labels, I am not drinking alcohol nearly as much (just so you know, we went to Indochine for dinner last night and I had ONE glass of wine! I have NEVER gone to Indochine and had just one glass of wine!!), I am not eating ANY fast food, we have eliminated unhealthy food from the house so we are not even tempted, and I am drinking water….. lots of water. Another thing I have noticed is that I have so much more energy than I did in the beginning. I don’t think I have said “I am soo tired” one time in the past month, and it used to be my daily (hourly) refrain. Amazing. I am still struggling a little on the weekends – there is something about Friday night that just screams “it’s the weekend! time to blow it out!” but I am paying attention to that voice and telling it to just be quiet! I am learning that self-discipline doesn’t have to fly out the window just because the Friday 5:00 o’clock whistle blows. To be perfectly honest, it is a difficult pattern to break – for my entire adult life I have been “working for the weekend” – so weekends are meant to “have fun” and by having  fun I mean eating and drinking as much of whatever I want, and definitely not exercising in any way, shape or form. It is a new concept to me to practice mindfulness and moderation on Friday and Saturday nights! But I am embracing the journey, and I am willing to do the work I need to do to effect changes in my life. Every weekend gets a little easier. And I am giving myself permission to NOT be perfect – now that is growth!! Day 43 and counting.