Packing on the pounds

Before I was pregnant, I was exercising and losing weight. I felt great! But exercise came so much easier then...when I didn't have a 1 year old chasing after me. (I say chasing after me - because, since she learned to walk, that happens more often than me, chasing after her).

Now that it's been 15 months since I gave birth to Calleigh, reality is setting in. This is about the time when a mother starts feeling lumpy and dumpy. My daughter is all about skin. I'm guessing it's just her comfort thing. But she always has her hand/arm in my shirt. This makes for a lot of stretched collars accompanied by food stains, baby finger prints and drool smears. Some days I feel like a bum. Sloppy, unkempt and lumpy.

After she was born, my weight proceeded to melt off over the next 4 months. Then I went back to my old eating habits, and BAM - I gained a little unwanted weight. But, instead of being a Debbie-downer about it, I keep reminding myself that no one forced me to eat all that chocolate, cookies, chips and other horrible things for my body. I did that on my own and if I am unhappy with my weight, I've got to take responsibility for my actions and do something about it.

When you're a mom, you can either give up on doing things for yourself OR work around your child. So, I have started exercising immediately after I put my sweet baby to bed. Then, I work on some graphics jobs and crawl into bed around midnight. This might not be great for some people, but it works for me.

So, if you are struggling with something, and thinking about it just stresses you out to the point where you feel like you should just give up - think about how important it really is to you. Could you live without it? Is it vital to your sanity that you resolve it? People may think I'm crazy for asking myself questions. But that is exactly what I do. Sometimes out loud. It doesn't make me crazy. It makes me capable of handling what comes at me.