Oh man, when I think about those early days as a mom and how much I was struggling, how much I was in survival-mode, it brings tears to my eyes.  And I guess it wasn’t actually just the early days, but intermittently throughout Stevie’s little life.  I have always taken the challenges head on, but I have really felt each one to my core.  Our story is not a unique one in the fact that there are many families who have struggles with their children.  When you are in the thick of it, it’s easy to feel alone and lost. And soooooo torn down.

When you’re in survival-mode, I think the easiest thing to sacrifice is your health. I wasn’t that healthy to begin with, and there were obviously other factors that contributed to the difficulties I was feeling, but it was all topped off with eating hospital meals, eating drive-thru on the way to doctor’s appointments, eating comfort food. All the comfort food. So much comfort food!  No time for exercise or cooking, let alone just time for yourself.  Your health can quickly become secondary to your responsibilities as a parent.  Or work.  Or life in general.  I know that I put it last on the list.

At the risk of sounding preachy, something I’ve learned over the last 6 months, is that we can actually be better and give more to ourselves and to our families when we are healthy.  We can have energy.  We can have better moods.  We can feel whole again.  I’m not saying I never have hard days anymore.  Or that eating well was a magic fix for my self esteem. In fact, when asked what I like about myself, I still struggle to answer. But I’m working on it. And this plan has helped me so much with the recent stresses as a parent and a human being. I feel like I can keep up with Stevie a little more.  I think keeping sugar out of my diet has even gone so far as to help balance my hormones, so I feel a lot less like a lunatic – most of the time. When I compare my busy season in photography last year to this year, I have so much less anxiety and crying.  I show up ready to work and don’t feel so overwhelmed.

I suppose I was simply at the point where something had to give.  I was sick of feeling so exhausted all the time.  I was sick of having allergies all the time.  I was sick of my clothes feeling tight, my body aches, restless nights and all my hard work seeming pointless.  I felt like I was out of options but knew I couldn’t keep going on that way, so change was the next logical step.  And when you have been in those lows, you really start to appreciate every little positive difference that you see.

Now that my habits have improved and I found it rather simple to maintain so far, I can only wonder why it took me so long.  Maybe it’s that self-sabotage thing.  Maybe I didn’t know I could feel better. Maybe I was just comfortable. I would look at other people living in a healthy way and think “Nope.  Not for me.  I love food too much.”  Guess what?  I still love food.  A lot.  But I like feeling this way a little bit more.  Trust me, I still eat plenty, it’s just different.  And I still have my days (and sometimes weeks) where I give in to temptation and eat junk, but that’s always when my skin breaks out or my stomach hurts or my allergies come back. So in the long run, it’s easier to just stick with the program.

And if you are a person – if you’re reading this, I’m assuming you are – you should know that you deserve more too.  You deserve to feel stronger.  You deserve to feel better.  You deserve to set goals and accomplish them. Your partner and your children deserve to see a brighter side of you.  It may feel like hard work to get there, but the pay off can be so worth it.  Hey, maybe if you start now, you won’t have to look back in years to come and wonder why it took you so long.

To wrap this up, I also wanted to tell you all that I had such an amazing response to my diet plan post and I didn’t get to follow up with many of you the way I wish I could have (busy season, remember?) So I have arranged for some awesome ladies to share some information and their stories of success with my readers TOMORROW!  There are 2 time slots available to hopefully make it as convenient as possible.

MEETING 1
Topic: Health and Wellness Opportunity Meeting
Time: Oct 27, 2015 9:00 AM (GMT-7:00) Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/383337314
Or join by phone:
     +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll)
     Meeting ID: 383 337 314
International numbers available by clicking here.

MEETING 2
Topic: Health and Wellness Opportunity Meeting
Time: Oct 27, 2015 7:00 PM (GMT-7:00) Pacific Time (US and Canada) 

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/194913857
Or join by phone:
      +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll) or +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll)
       Meeting ID: 194 913 857
International numbers available by clicking here.

If I know anything about these girls, it’ll be informative and inspirational and a little bit fun, so I hope you will join in and hear what they have to say! It’s pretty simple – just access it through the Zoom app or call into the meeting on your phone to listen in.  If you have any questions during or after, please email myself or Trina Wright, and we’ll be happy to get back to you!