Dropped My Oxygen Mask

Crazy-busy doesn't even come close to describing the last three weeks of my life.  Our son got married two weeks ago in a small, family ceremony (we are now empty-nesters!!), we spent a week in Arizona attending a conference, we helped our son and his wife move into a new apartment and we are helping our oldest daughter and her family get ready to move into a new house in two weeks.  Our son and his wife also just took temporary custody of her nephew (3) and niece (10 months), so I've spent some time helping them with the children (his wife also has a 3 year old son).  Like I said, crazy-busy!

What happened in the process of being crazy-busy is that I didn't make the time to really take care of myself.  Sleep got short-changed, exercise went out the window and - true confessions - I wasn't particularly mindful about what I was eating, either.  I still gravitated towards healthier food for the most part, but I wasn't mindful of portion sizes.  My stress level went up - way up - and I stopped taking care of myself, slipping into an old "survival" mode.

So what was the end result of this?  Scale went up, energy level plummeted, and I found myself dealing with all of the busyness feeling less than optimal - sluggish and a bit out-of-sorts.

I took stock this morning and realized that enough is enough!  Things are going to be crazy-busy for a while . . . I'm not sure how long my son and his wife will have these two children plus they are having a baby in July so things will be busy there, our oldest daughter is not only moving to a house closer to us, but she is expecting her second set of twins late this summer and one of the twins will be born with a fairly significant disability - I will be very busy helping her, I'm sure.  To juggle the needs of my family and have the energy I need to help with THREE new grandbabies (!!!!!), I need to be at the top of my game. 

This means that I have to take care of myself, too!  Eating right, getting in regular exercise and getting adequate sleep is essential so that I can give my best to my family.  It's so easy to set aside taking care of ourselves when things get busy and we are busy taking care of everybody else.  For moms with young children in the home, this is an ongoing challenge - I remember those days very well!

Every time we fly, the pre-flight instructions include the flight attendants telling us that in the event of a change in cabin pressure that results in oxygen masks dropping down, it's important that we put on our own oxygen mask first before we attempt to help someone else.

It's a bit scary for me to see how quickly I can drop healthy habits and revert to things that aren't serving my best interest.  It's been almost four years since I reached my weight loss goal and I keep thinking that eventually maintaining is going to get easy, but I'm realizing that it never will be easy.  Constant vigilance and daily wise choices are needed and always will be.

So today I'm recommitting to making those wise choices.  I'm too busy to NOT take care of myself!  No matter how busy we are or what's going on in our lives, if we want to feel good and have the energy to deal with the stuff, even the craziness, we have to make the decision to choose wisely :-).