The last half of May came with a lot of ups and downs in several aspects of my life. I found out at the end of April that the company I’ve been at for the last 2.5 years is losing the contract to provide care for clients I work with at the end of June, so I began looking for a new job. A few weeks ago, I accepted a job offer to be a Donor Tech at The Community Blood Center. This new job not only comes with a pay increase and affordable benefits but it also has daytime hours. I gave notice to both of my employers, and working only one job means weekends off. For the first time in three years, I’ve had the opportunity to have a social life. Unfortunately that social freedom has come with eating junk food, going out to the bars, and has led to a gain on the scale. The entire time I’ve been conscious of the choices I’ve made and that they’re poor choices in terms of physical health. That being said, I think it’s been important for my mental health to starting being less of a hermit and expanding my teeny-tiny social circle.
May also meant attending my brother’s wedding which was followed less than a week later by a very unexpected funeral. I haven’t had a real conversation with my brother, or most of my extended family, in over 5 years. For various reasons, I have very little desire to renew my relationship with many of them, but I attended the wedding out of a sense of obligation. I brought a friend with me, but through no fault of his own, his presence did very little to help ease the uncomfortable feeling and we left shortly after dinner. The following week, I found out that my “cousin’s” mom, who had been visiting from Germany, passed away unexpectedly. Because I had only met her once at the wedding a few days earlier, her passing wasn’t emotional for me in the sense of having been close to her; however, the suddenness of her passing came with a lot of painful reminders. My dad passed away at the age of 55 in February of 2011 after his recovery from bladder cancer took a quick turn for the worse. While talking to my aunt at the funeral, I was also reminded of my uncle’s sudden passing in 2006 after a heart attack he had while working at the high school myself and my cousins attended.
Reflecting back on all the memories, I’ve hit a breaking point. I’ve always been the strong one for everyone else, but now it’s time that I start being strong for myself.
I’m going to take these last few days of May to be easy on myself in terms of diet and exercise. Not only do I need the time off for a mental and emotional reset, but I also need to reset my sleep schedule to switch from working 3rd shift to working 1st shift. I have big plans to make June a great month. My new job starts at 8am on Monday the 2nd, and I’m super stoked about it. In addition to the workouts with my Herbalife family on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I’ll be starting with a personal trainer Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning the second week of June. Schedule allowing, I’ll be taking some yoga and Pilates classes at the local Y, as well.
After I get weighed, measured, and fat scanned by my wonderful Herbalife coach, Jennifer, one of my goals for the month will be to not get on the scale again for a full 4 weeks. Since I’ll be adding in quite a bit of additional strength training, I don’t want the number on the scale to discourage me while my body adjusts to its new routine. Cardio is still a struggle for me since I don’t enjoy it, so I’m going to challenge myself to 30 minutes of more intense cardio at least four days a week. Other goals will be similar to the past months: meeting my water, calorie, and protein intake needs for each day, extremely limiting any eating out and junk food, and getting enough sleep, which will hopefully be a lot easier with this new job.
30 to Life 