Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: February 17, 2021

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews.  This week’s topic is: how I take care of my health.

You may or may not know, but I lost my husband a little over a year ago, on New Year’s Eve 2019.  He’d been diabetic for 18 years.  The diabetes led to kidney failure, which led to a transplant.  Just as we thought he was getting better, stronger, he got sick and landed in the ER.  He died a few days later from a blood clot in his lungs.  

I’m not telling you all this for sympathy, but as an explanation as to why my health has become so important to me.  I’m now solely responsible for our two girls who, thankfully, are both old enough to care for themselves at 19 and 21.  All the same, they still look to me for guidance and knowledge and if I don’t know what I’m doing, how can I help them, right?

First and foremost is nutrition.  Notice I didn’t say ‘diet’ here.  Nutrition is key.  Like Autumn Calabrese says, “You can’t out train a bad diet”.  She also says that if you aren’t begging for a rest you aren’t working hard enough and woman, we need to have a talk. Hah!  More seriously though, she’s right in regards to nutrition.  You only get back what you put in.  You put cheap gas into your car, your engine’s going to splutter, right?  Same goes for your body.  So, I try for whole foods, lots of fruits and veggies, and lean protein.  And sure, I still have a stash of  Blue Bunny mini ice cream cones in the freezer, but most of what I eat is natural and good for me.

Next comes exercise.  My go-to is my Peloton bike.  I love to ride and the instructors make you want to work your hardest.  The last six weeks, however, I’ve been focusing on a Beachbody program called 9 Week Control Freak because I needed a change.  While I haven’t lost any weight yet (I actually gained a pound, oops), I’ve dropped nearly 9 inches!  And those non-scale victories matter, too.  Plus, I have the bonus of having added a half inch onto each of my biceps so don’t make me smack you, okay?  I’ll get back on my bike in the next few weeks, as soon as I’m done with this program.  I’m ready.  I miss Cody and Matt and Ross.  

Lastly is self-care.  This is a pretty broad term and means different things to different people.  For me, it means treating myself sometimes (see above mentioned Blue Bunny mini cones), as well as stretching as often as I can.  I even went so far as to buy a massage gun recently.  Talk about self-care!  My muscles love me.  It’s more than that though, as I count meditation and yoga into this as well.  Both your mind and your body need care!  Less physical ways of caring for myself are making time to get proper sleep as well as carving out time to read or write every day.  It’s a good day when I can both read and get some words in.

Another thing Autumn likes to do is remind us that we can do hard things.  Sometimes, it’s exercise.  Sometimes, it’s facing the day.  Whatever hard thing you’re looking at, you can do it.  

Which brings me to my favorite Peloton instructor, Cody Rigsby.  He’s very quotable and says things like, “Grab a water, grab a towel, and get your life together, boo.”  But the quote I’m thinking of right now is, “You’ve done harder sh*t than ride a bike to Bieber.”  And when things get tough?  That’s one of the things that always comes to mind.  I can do hard things.  Things that are harder than riding a bike to Bieber.  What about you?