Reminder

I’ve been MIA for the last 10 days because I’ve been enjoying these four:

My nieces who are 10 and 11 flew up to stay for 9 nights!  We had a BLAST!  We did a boat rides, a water park, the Grand Ole Opry tour, Chattanooga Aquarium, a cave tour, and a children’s museum among many other things!

Andy and I treated their trip as a chance to really enjoy some of what Tennessee has to offer, and we treated this week as our vacation as well.  We had a great time.

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However, their visit served me up a big ole dish of reality.  The tours left my feet hurting.  It was a very harsh reminder (but much needed reminder) of how much weeks like this used to wear me out.  I had forgotten just how frustrating it is to be limited by your body.  To want to skip out on fun due to the fear of the walking, or the standing, or the climbing.  I am not back to where I was, but I am feeling the recent gain.  My feet were tired, my 33 pound toddler felt like 50 pounds, and I was exhausted.

Also, one of the items on our list of fun things to do was a zipline tour.  As I was reading the website I came across this “due to safety reasons, no one over 275 pounds will be permitted on the course.  You will be weighed prior to being allowed admittance.”  Now, truth be told…S was not old enough to participate and one of us had to stay behind with her and that most likely would have been me without the restriction.  Also, truth be told, it ended up pouring rain on the day we were supposed to do this so we didn’t.  However, it was an eye opener.

On Feb 1, 2011 I wrote this post:

Where does my inspiration come from?  I can tell you…that for me…it really isn’t about weight loss.  The scale alone is not enough to get me off of my tush and on my feet.  For me, exercising now is all about “later”.  Later, when I will go sledding with Baby S.  Later, when I will ride bikes with her.  Later, when I will walk to the park with her and play chase with her and walk around Disney World with her.  Later, when I will swim with her and rollerblade with her.  Later, when I will go horseback riding with her.  I am laying the foundation now so that I can be a very active participant in both my children and my husband’s lives.

I happened to reread this post this morning and it was like a flashing warning light.  One day, S will be old enough to do that zipline tour.  And what do I want?  I want ALL OF US to do it TOGETHER, as a FAMILY.  I do not want to sit on the sidelines and wait while Andy does it with the kids.

I sat down this morning and made myself a daily checklist.  It includes the following:

Exercise, Fruits, Vegetables, No Pop or Coffee Creamers, Breakfast prepared at home, No random sugar, Dinner prepared at home

As of this morning I’ve given up coffee creamers and pop.  I’ve also put “no random sugar” on here because I happen to work at an office where there is ALWAYS candy available.  ALWAYS.  And its hard to keep my hands out of it.  I’ve got 6 weeks prepped and I’m going to go back to the sticker method I’ve used in the past. Earning a sticker for completing certain things.

This is not about the scale.  I won’t be attaching a weight to this. This is about health.  And life.