Where's my Damn Wagon...

Okay, so I KINDA fell off the wagon.  I did but I didn't.  I'll explain...

Thing is, I did P90X... up until the last 4 weeks and things started to crash.  Not life events of any kind this time around-- in fact, things were looking up there!  What did happen was the kids got back in school and that extra one hour of walking 5 days a week crept in and, for all the vigorous exercise, I was ill-prepared for the addition.

So I learned pretty quickly that I needed more water and more food, so low calorie was out if I wanted to finish the program.  Or so I thought.  It seemed as if my body went into a really stubborn state of low energy and painful twinges.  So I gave it its way and struggled to motivate myself to pick up that week for 3 weeks.  I was only getting in the first half of the week before I was forced to go into recovery mode.

I know that part of the problem is that I was not feeding the muscle.  However, I also don't want any more gains.  I had the feeling that it was time to focus on Cardio.  Except my trial with Turbofire didn't hit the spot either.  Mostly I just felt like I was flailing around uncoordinated and if I was worried about injury before, that fear only intensified.

Here's the thing: I became a published author at the beginning of August.  I had spent all summer doing the illustrations and formatting to make it happen and it became the thing I needed the energy for.  I have 8 more books in the series to do, the next I plan to release by the end of September (I finished the writing and editing about half a year ago-- it's the formatting and illustrating that necessitates the wait.  In case you were wondering what kind of garbage only takes two months to write...  That part took the better part of ten years, so exhale!).

In truth, I am maintaining my weight easily with just the walking and reasonable eating.  I take a multivitamin daily and I continue to enjoy doing the things I love.  Yeah, I can still stand to lose 20-40 pounds (if I'm going for some serious overachieving), but I'm also at a healthy weight NOW, one that puts me out of risk for weight-related health issues.  I don't get winded running up stairs, I can bend effortlessly, I still haul about 40 gallons of water once every week or two.  My journey isn't over, but I have reprioritized from any loss/gain into a sort of maintenance, at least until I release the second book.  When I take that celebratory break, I'm going to reevaluate, see if there is a place for more cardio for the time being.

Don't be afraid to extend the timeframe of those goals when other priorities come up.  I still weigh weekly to make sure I'm keeping up maintenance, I still don't binge or forget to eat.  Health is still top priority.  In fact, I never would have been able to chase my dreams if I hadn't made the chance.  A bikini body is not.  It's September now...  I can pick up the torch again in a few months.  For now, I have a few dreams worth chasing that won't wait.