Hope shines through

Nov 14, 2015

Life is a never ending journey, which so often feels like a never ending struggle when it comes to health and weight. You'd think with all the attention I'd given to it, that'd I'd be a guru master by now. But here I am, clocking in around 195, one year into marriage, and totally grossed out and scared by what I see in the mirror.

Numerous numerous numerous conversations with my husband over "What can we do? How can we change? How can I take care of myself?" went from dissapointment to dissapointment. Part of it is that we're still adjusting to married life, living together, eating together, budget, the whole nine yards. Part of it was work stresses. Part of it was just not wanting to be more extreme about it.

Biggest difficulties lie with dinner and exercise. Dinner is a neverending source of strife in our household. Basically, when Don told me his Ph.D. was going to take an extra year, we decided that we'd stay living in Gainesville, I'd keep commuting for an hour, and he would take over the lions share of the cooking/grocery shopping. This is somewhat against the grain for him. We had periods of success, and lots of failure, which resulted in lots of takeout. We tried e-meals, cooksmart, and a bunch of other options. We planned and replanned.

Recently, I have told him because of the numbers on the scale, that I needed to go back to eating healthy dinners pretty much at any cost. Which meant I was going to cook on my own, unless he wanted to eat what I made. When I was single and in law school, I would make tempeh burgers with steamed green beans most nights. it takes almost no preparation, and its rather healthy. it also permits long stretches without having to grocery shop. Reluctantly, Don got on board with this arrangment. It's working splendidly.

The other part is exercise. I interviewed at a job in Gainesville, which would allow me to walk or bike to work. I'm not sure if that is going to pan out. Today, we went on a walk in the neighborhood, and we walked a different way than we had before. All of a sudden, I realized that we were almost halfway to my co-workers house that I carpool with. So I think that I can walk/jog that in the mornings and still commute with my co-workers and then I will have some forced exercise. I am giddy with excitement over this possibility. I know that walking to class in law school was a huge reason why I was able to keep active. I love that I may be able to do that again.

Everything else is lovely. I am hopeful that Don will embrace this new family push toward fitness. He's been pretty receptive so far. We're talking about getting him a fitbit.

with hope,
Ann

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