Well....I feel off the wagon about 500,000 miles ago and I'm on day 4 of picking back up to chase it down.
My last published post was over 6 years ago. I was in a good spot then but was jumping off the wagon. I had become very relaxed in what I knew worked for my body. Then I slowly one by one returned to my old habits. I began to compromise on the things I enjoyed doing and gave into lazy once again.
I could blame it on having 2 kids within a year, or having an extremely tight budget, or trying to get the kids taken care of so I can work out. But the truth is that I gave up! I quit! I let life get in the way of my self care! I put others above myself. And although there are seasons when that might need to happen in the long run you are the only one that will be around from day one to the last day of your life. No child, no parent, no job and no church will spend every moment with you. So you owe it to yourself to take care of yourself first.
Self care has been a really hard thing for me for most of my life. In fact I think I only got it right for about a year. And I think people exchange the words self care for the word selfish. But that is so wrong. Self care isn't all about the mani/pedi, shopping and over spending. Yes those things are nice and might need to be done every once in a while but that isn't self care. Self care is taking a daily look at your life and investing in the betterment of you and your mental health. Because if you try to keep running on fumes eventually you will collapse.
What self care looks like for me:
-Spend time with God (some days this is 5 minutes and others it can be over an hour)
-Eat breakfast (nothing fancy here, just make sure to do it)
-Exercise (Some days it's as simple as a walk)
-Journal writing (I find that when I can write out my thoughts and feelings then everything really isn't that overwhelming)
-Keeping a clean house (If you come over and my house is extremely messy then you know I'm not in a good place.)
- Take a bath (this is such a funny one to me, but man do I love a good soak. We no longer have a nice big tub so I don't get to do this often but one day I will again!)
Those are a few of things that help me be the best I can be. Honestly it's nothing extravagant but it recharges me.
This past year and a 1/2 has been one of the hardest for me. I went from having 2 beautiful pregnancies and babies to within 9 months experiencing 2 miscarriages. I was depressed. I added 40 lbs. to my body and became extremely addicted to sugar. I was in a deep hole and just surviving by the day to make my family run. Well that time is over and I'm ready to get moving forward.
So welcome back readers and welcome back to the journey.
