The Struggle to Juggle

One of my mentors once told me that thru life we are continually juggling balls. There are five balls, four are glass and one is rubber. You can occasionally drop the rubber ball and it will almost always bounce back but if you drop the glass balls they will most likely shatter. The glass balls in life are integrity, family, friends and health. The rubber ball? work. It is critical that we try to never drop the glass balls and it is best to keep all the balls juggling. We have all heard the saying, "don't drop the ball".

As a women I feel like I am always juggling the balls and trying to do my best not to drop them. Family, work, friends, having a social life, etc. It is hard somedays. I hate it when people make excuses but I have done it in the past as well. Blaming my weight on the fact that Travis is thin and can just about eat anything or saying I don't have time to work out because I am tired or need to spend time with kids. I have blamed my weight on my genetics or because I was so busy with work and school. I was the victim. The fact of the matter is that life is hard. It is a struggle to juggle and I had dropped the ball on my health. While all the other balls were cruising in the air; my marriage, starting a family, my career, etc...all were just coasting along and I felt like I was doing great. However, the ball that I dropped was a glass one! How did I ever gain over 100 pounds? All the balls are important but when I really think about it, I think your health has to be the most important of them all. Without it, you can't really enjoy any of the others.

Not to make excuses but I do think that it is harder for women today. Most families are two income families, more women are working, more are educated and completing advanced degrees. While I think this is great, it does make it harder. I am always feeling torn. I want to be a good mom and spend the most time as possible with my kids. They are my life! Yet, I feel like I have worked so hard to get where I am in my career and I'm not totally willing to give it up and start all over. In order to create a better balance and help with the juggling, I am only returning to work 3 days a week. As far as making time to exercise, plan meals and to continue on my weight loss journey, I just have to do it. If I continued down the road I was on, obesity leads to several diseases and problems. I want to be around for my kids and not just be here but actively here. I want to run at the park with them, ride on roller coasters with them, take them swimming and dancing. I know that me getting my health back will be best for them as well as best for me.

So, I will move forward and continue the juggling act hoping to keep all my balls in the air and not allowing them to shatter. Have you thought about your glass balls? Are you keeping them all afloat? With me returning to work in 3 weeks I am concerned. I haven't been having to juggle the work ball the past 3 months. It will be another distraction from my goal but I know that if I stay organized I will be able to do it.

Good News toward the Goal!

So today I went to the doctor for my post partum check up. I was supposed to go when Reese was 6 weeks old, so I am a little behind, figuring she was 3 months old today. Oops. I was a little nervous to weigh as I knew I would be disappointed if their scale weighed me much heavier than my scale at home. It was the scale at the doctor's office that gave me my all time high weight of 252 so I was interested to see what it would say as this was going to be my true loss to date. To my surprise, I got on the scale and it said 207.5! Yippee! That means I have actually lost more than I originally thought. I am going to continue blogging and using my scale at home as it is convenient and I am still trying to meet the goal of 199 on my scale before I head back to work. It was still a great feeling though to know that really I am even closer to my goal!

Hummus Recipe

Here is a hummus recipe shared to me from my friend Amanda. I calculated it out and it is about 3 weight watcher points for 1/4 cup.

Ingredients
4 garlic cloves
2 cups canned chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)-I reduced to 2 TBSP
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
2 tablespoons water or liquid from the chickpeas
8 dashes hot sauce

Directions
Turn on the food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop the garlic down the feed tube; process until it's minced. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until the hummus is coarsely pureed. Taste, for seasoning, and serve chilled or at room temperature.

Copyright, 1999, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, All rights reserved
Show: Barefoot ContessaEpisode: The Mediterranean Feast

A week of temptation

Wow, I feel like I haven't posted in forever. What a week. We had 5 family members from Idaho here and had fun doing lots of activities and enjoying East TN. The good news is that several of the family members managed to exercise every day including walking, swimming, and some pilates type moves. The bad news is that there was a lot of food temptation and as I have said in other posts it is way easier to eat calories than to burn them. We ate out a few times and had lots of snacks and dessert around the house. While I made a few poor decisions I was pretty conscious about what I ate. The worst thing is that I didn't track my points much. I am starting today.

I do realize my weaknesses and after this week, this is what I discovered. Don't even take the first bite! Once I bit into something sinful I had no self control to stop. I would be better off to just avoid the food than to try to fool myself into believing that I can have just one bite or a small piece of something.

What I am happiest about is that even though I kind of fell of the wagon, I am ready to pick it up full speed! In years past I have always quit after a week like last week. Luckily, we only have those temptations infrequently; holidays, vacations, etc. I still feel like I can succeed and still reaching for the 199 goal! I am going to increase my exercise and water intake and log every single thing I put in my mouth. I'm a little worried about Sunday's weigh in but glad I am not gaining.

Well, we had a really fun week and so happy we got to spend some time with family. It was great for our kids to spend sometime with our Idaho family! But, now back to real life....I'll be posting again soon for a progress update. My mom is coming to visit at the very end of this month for a week; at least now I know what not to do when she is here.

Weight Watcher results: Week 7

Well, this was not the number I was hoping for. I have mixed emotions. I am glad that I lost from last week but disappointed that it wasn't more. Truthfully, last Wed I weighed and only weighed 211.2 which means I actually gained a little. I hate all the water fluctuation though. I think I do really good but the more temptation in front of me the hard it is. I am going to really have to get serious in order to make my goal of 199 by the time I go back to work. Arrggh. It is so frustrating! My biggest down fall has been that I haven't logged my food the past two days. It is a new day today though and I am back on track this week.