No More Excuses

Here's yesterday's reverb, because Josh's parents got us a Kinect for Christmas and last night was more about competition than getting caught up on blogging.  Tonight he's at community group and I'm at home with a teething baby who is (gratefully) sleeping now. 

Beyond avoidance. What should you have done this year but didn't because you were too scared, worried, unsure, busy or otherwise deterred from doing? (Bonus: Will you do it?)

Okay, so I sort of hate what I'm going to write about, because I think it sounds shallow, or maybe vain.  But, it's honest, so here it is.  In 2010 I didn't apply myself with any sort of regularity to getting rid of the excess weight I've gained between a couple of years of working full-time in a very emotionally draining setting and that which came from having a baby.  I avoided working out early in 2010 because I was quite pregnant and swollen and afraid that being on my feet more than was absolutely necessary would push me into mandated bed-rest.  Then, when Liam was around 8 weeks old I jumped back into exercising and started having lots of supply issues in my efforts to feed him.  No need for details on the internet, but over the next couple of months I went to great lengths to try to feed my baby as naturally as possible, in spite of lots of issues with that endeavor.  I had to work so hard to maintain my meager milk supply, I decided to just forget about working out until Liam was 6 months old, which was my breastfeeding goal.  I didn't want to make things harder on myself, and I was doing so much that was feeding related, I really didn't have time to work out, anyway. 

After the 6 month mark I started exercising again, and cutting calories, but unfortunately this turning point came about 2 weeks before the start of the holiday season, so it has been hard to develop any kind of regular schedule, or to use constraint in unnecessary food intake.  I'm not too worried about the baby weight - I have hardly any of that left - but I am a little nervous about the other pounds that had accumulated over the year before I got pregnant.  Prior to the last couple of years, I never had any trouble losing weight.  I'd just make some small changes and in no time at all I would have lost whatever amount it was I was hoping to.  I'm not sure what combination of factors has contributed to this being different lately: getting older and metabolism slowing, having a much busier schedule, working as a therapist, being less disciplined than I used to be, etc.  Whatever it is, I know there are lots of 28 year old women who have babies and busy lives and are able to maintain a healthy weight without making their lives all about how they look.  In 2011, I'd like to be one of those women.