You may have noticed that I haven’t posted for a few weeks. And before that, I wasn’t posting as much as I had when I started this blog months ago. I was starting to realize that my life was becoming a bit consumed by the blog since I was posting three times a week. Since I have a full time job, a side gig of safer skincare consultant, and was just finishing up my yoga teacher training program, I decided to give myself a break.
I’ve learned many things in my yoga teacher training but one thing for sure is that it is important to be present in the moments of life. Once I found myself saying, “oh crap! I forgot to take a picture of that for the blog!” or “I would go to bed but I need to write a blog post quickly” . It was starting to feel like a blog post is something I do for another “job.”
This was not my intention with the blog. My intention has always been to share my wellness journey to help others. I have enough other “jobs” at the moment that I didn’t want this to feel like one as well. So this past month, instead of focusing on writing three blog posts a week, I’ve focused on myself.
Prioritizing your own wellness is always difficult; especially as a mom.
I realized it was something I needed to do though because I had fallen into some unhealthy habits with work travel, cabin weekends, etc. On my last blog post, I committed to doing things like walking every day and keeping within my calorie goals to help lose weight and get back to a weight I feel comfortable in.
Well I am happy to report that I’ve lost close to 5 lbs during the month of June! Some of it was water weight and bloat from eating out and drinking but I’ll take what I can get 🙂 I did it mainly through calorie counting, walking, yoga and most recently through weight lifting. I definitely had my “bad” days (like when I consumed too many beers while building a lakeside patio at the cabin).
So what have I been up to that has helped me be more present and even lose some weight?
I’ve been making weekend trips to the farmers market and even bring the girls sometimes to help pick out veggies.
I’ve been going on morning walks. It is usually me and the pup but if my youngest is up early, she comes too.
I’ve been practicing yoga….at the studio, at the cabin, at the lake, in my backyard or my basement.
I celebrated my girls’ birthdays. My oldest turned 5 and my youngest is turning 2.
I’ve been at the cabin where we swim, goof around, go fishing and play outside.
I’ve been going on dates with my husband. We went out to sushi, a bar with retro games and sang karaoke. It was really fun to get out. The last time we went on a date without our kids was early April!
I’ve been meal prepping and trying new recipes that I am making up. Most recently it was a white bean and farro salad with a lemon dill dressing.
I’ve been sticking to around 1,500 calories per day…..on non-cabin or work trip days. I really tried but sticking to 1,500 calories while traveling and at the cabin is extremely difficult so I try to just not go too nuts.
I’ve been focusing on self-care by getting a pedicure and manicure and prioritizing skincare with Beautycounter’s new Countertime line. It is their brand new anti-aging line with retinatural complex (which is a formulation of bakuchiol and swiss alphine rose) that doesn’t have the same safety concerns as retinol.
Now that I spent the last month really focusing on myself, I feel that I am ready again to share my wellness journey with the world. So watch out world, I’m back and I’m more present than ever!
How do you stay present through the craziness of life?
