Mid-Month Update: May edition

On Friday, May 5^th I closed up my LuLaRoe shop and as of today I am officially no longer a LuLaRoe consultant. Phew, what a weight off my shoulders. Not that I didn't love being a consultant, I did. It just took every bit of my energy and free time (and non-free time too) to do it. Erick and I had not had a weekend off since we started this a year ago. Even the few times we traveled over the last 12 months were for work. So yeah, we are both EXHAUSTED and in need for a serious change in our lifestyle.

And this big change couldn’t have come at a better time as we are just a couple weeks away from putting our house on the market and we still have so much left to do! But we have definitely made progress and we think (hope) we will get it all finished in time.

The permits for our new home have all been filed and we are just waiting to meet with the contractor. Sometime in the next couple of weeks construction will begin on our new home and I am sooooo excited. It’s been 9 weeks since we signed the contract and we have been anxiously awaiting the build process to start. We visit the site every week and take pictures of the progress. Which, as of right now, is just the lot has been cleared, dirt has been brought in and leveled and that is it. But still, all of that has been super exciting for us. We cannot wait for fall to move into our new home. EEEK!!!

In other big news....I started seeing a therapist last week. She commended me on already utilizing the healthy habits she encourages her patients to use; mediation, activity (even light activity, 20-30 mins 4-5 times a week), and socialization. I have spent the past year just working, working, working and all of the things she mentioned were practically nonexistent in my life – which was probably why my stress levels were through the roof. One of the first things I did as soon as I knew I would be closing up shop was to start planning social events and activities with my friends because I felt like that was an area I had really neglected and there was so much I wanted to be doing. I am so excited to be making plans and spending time with my friends again. It seemed like others were really interested in doing more things together too so we even created our own little FB group where we share events and make plans together. It is awesome! 

I think I may have mentioned previously that I have started to incorporate meditation into my daily routine. I have been using the Calm app on my iPhone and I just love it! At night Erick and I listen to the sleep stories in bed. It is so calming…the app is very aptly named ;)  I also found a 2 hour meditation class this week and signed up for that as well. I really want to build my meditation practice up so it becomes an everyday part of my life. I have found myself much more focused and far less stressed on the days I am able to meditate.

Meditation came to me when I needed something to help save me from a complete nervous breakdown. I am not an expert or even yet a regular practitioner but I am already feeling the benefits of incorporating it into my life. It is seriously so amazing how something as simple as 10 minutes a day set aside to focus on clearing your mind and stopping all the busy around you can have a huge impact on your mental well-being. It’s great.

And of course activity…I will admit there are days where I am still heartbroken over my diagnosis and the fact that I will never be a runner again. That is/was a hard pill to swallow. BUT I have really started to find activity that I can do and love and that has brought me such happiness. I am finally feeling comfortable with light activity after many months of not being able to do anything except for PT and PT recommended stretches. Last week I started a 3 week yoga program (through Beachbody, so it is all at home stuff) and have completed the first week of that. I actually took a real in person class on Saturday morning. I found this event on Facebook for Yoga 4a Cause to raise money to help end human trafficking and they were having a yoga class on the outfield of our local baseball stadium. I wasn’t sure I would be able to do much or any of it but I went anyway because I wanted the experience and time with friends. It ended up being a fabulous class and I was able to do most of it without modifications. It made me feel comfortable enough to sign up for a couple beginners classes this week so in addition to the yoga at home I will be taking a Wednesday night class and a Saturday morning class.  I am really excited for both!

I am very thankful that yoga is in my life  again. I am happy to have something to be passionate about and that makes me feel alive and energized. For the first time in a very long time, I am starting to feel like me again. And I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything...

xoxox,

Dacia

Sliding Board

I’ve been thinking a lot about my weight loss/get healthy/fitness journey getting back to where I was a year ago. You know, back before working all the time and then suffering through two ridiculous injuries. Back into the groove I used to thrive in.

Today the realization hit me that I have gained back just under 40% of my weight loss. That number hurts my heart. Not because I feel fat or hate the idea of being the weight that I currently am but because I know what it took to lose it all and how ‘easy’ it was to gain 40% of it back.

Now I should start by saying, I am still super proud of maintaining that loss for almost 5 years. And maybe had I never gotten injured I would still be kicking ass in maintenance mode. But that is not what happened. And now I am here. Fighting every day to get back to that place where I once was. Not necessarily a weight but a lifestyle. An active and healthy lifestyle that I enjoyed so much.

After three weeks of focusing my energy into making better decisions – eating more whole foods and moving my body more- I had a really rough two days where I just did not GAF. My eating wasn’t off the rails, although it could have been better, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue was I just had this gloomy “I really don’t care anymore” feeling that I could not shake.

Even getting up today took a solid hour of convincing that I needed to get out of bed and get my booty to work.

My journey towards health has always been a mental battle more so than physical. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy exercising at 300 lbs and it really isn’t easy now either at 200 lbs as my fitness level is super low. BUT the physical hurdles were (are) nothing when I compare them with the mental battles.

Now whether or not this is true I am not sure, but it certainly feels to me that I can ‘lose’ any mental battle way faster than I can the physical ones.

When I think of my biggest struggles (convincing myself I am worth it and then motivating myself to have my actions reflect that belief) I picture a sliding board.

Convincing myself I deserve to be healthy and fit and talking myself into doing the ‘right’ things can some days feel like I am climbing up a sliding board. Here I am at the bottom feeling low, and trying to get back to a healthy, positive, loving, caring mindset is a series of small, challenging steps. I need strength to push forward and I need focus to stay the course. Each day am navigating myself to the top of the slide- to that place where I need to be.

But then I take a misstep, I give up on myself, and boom! I am quickly back on the bottom of the slide. Usually I stay here for a day or two (or week or month) before I turn back around and start to climb again.

It seems so easy to slide back down when you are barely strong enough to climb.

I know that I every time I fall I am not falling to the bottom. And I know that every time I start to climb it will get easier. Even when I think about my sliding board now I know it is not nearly as steep or as long as the one I set out to climb 6+ years ago. I’m a different person now, so my life challenges are different too. Maybe my sliding board is more like this one:

Side note: I grew up calling this a sliding board but apparently that is a regional term and most people call this a slide. Hopefully the title of this post was not too confusing for you :) 

I do feel like this time around it has been more challenging. I am not sure if that is because the circumstances are so different or if it is because I feel like I lost so much this past year or if it is because I cannot envision what my healthy lifestyle will look like now that I have so many activity restrictions. Probably a mixture of it all.

I think that 6 years ago it seemed easier because I had nowhere else to go but up. I was super lazy with terrible eating habits. Something, no matter how small of a change, was so much better than where I had been. Now the changes I need to make aren’t huge, I mean even at my worst during the injury, I still packed my breakfast and lunch every day. I did eat some processed foods but not a ton. I was probably closer to 60/40 than 80/20 but I still rarely drank or ate out. I was just completely inactive. And that is what led me here today.

Maybe I just have too many expectations of what my life should be based on where my life used to be. I think maybe I just need new expectations, new goals, and new dreams instead of wishing back the life I used to have.

Tomorrow I see my doctor for my semi-annual checkup and will get back the lab results from my blood work I had last week. My last check up back in the fall, even though I had already started to gain weight from the injury, my doctor was still super impressed with my lab work results. She said she was not concerned with the weight gain because I was internally the picture of health. I wonder how much they have changed after a solid 6 months of no activity….

I will let you know tomorrow.

Lastly, I really need to thank you for allowing me a place to talk about these deeply personal feelings. Trust me, although it may sound really negative I merely want to showcase the side of the battle I am fighting right now. We all have our own hurdles, and right now this is mine. It’s no different than yours. But when I talk about mine it helps me to put things in perspective and begin to really focus on the underlying struggles and issues. Because at the end of the day, I want to be healthy again. I want to be fit and full of energy. I want to treat my body, mind and spirit the way that they deserve to be treated because I only have one life. And I intend to live it fully.

xoxox,

Dacia 

Today *the original title was too long

Aside from taking care of my sick puppy and then scraping the heck out of my heel on some brick, I was having an awesome morning. I had an appointment to see my chiropractor at 730a so I am feeling pretty great right now. Plus, he is just the nicest guy so I always enjoy my time there. Thursday’s are usually very stressful days for me – they are almost always the busiest work day of the week and then when I am home I am usually swamped with LuLaRoe party stuff. That means I usually end up going to bed much, much later than my norm and waking up much, much earlier on Friday- to take care of business stuff -before I leave for work. During a typical week I pretty much feel a little more exhausted every day from working during the day and night every day and by the time Saturday hits I am a full on zombie. If I am lucky, my body will let me sleep in on Sunday but usually my internal clock has a different idea.

For the past few weeks, as we are starting to prepare to close up our LuLaRoe shop, we have been able to step back a bit and make a little more time for ourselves. Did I tell you why are we closing our business? We are in the process of getting ready to put our house on the market because we have a contract down on a new build home that should be ready sometime this fall. 

We knew that once our house was on the market (hopefully by June 1) we would not be able to run our LuLaRoe business again until we were settled into our new home later this year. It would be a logistical nightmare to try and make it work so we made the difficult decision to close. The close may be temporary, or it may be permanent- we still don’t know for sure. But I am trying not to stress about that. Or the 1,000 pieces of clothing I need to sell before we list our home. Or what this means for my LuLaRoe group and the connection I have made with some of the most amazing women. I am trying to not stress over any of that.

Which you know that means I am absolutely stressed over all of it.

Which is why I am trying to get into a daily meditation routine and am practicing daily self-care acts.

It’s also why I am trying to eat better and be more active.

And why I am trying to spend more time with friends and Erick and have a ‘normal’ life again.

Now more than ever I need to control the things in my life that are controllable and try to NOT STRESS over the ones that are not.

So today I am going to start something I hope to be able to do weekly- a ‘what I am going to do to take care of  myself today’ post.

Today I will:

1.       Take a walk out in the beautiful sun during my lunch break and literally stop and smell the flowers

2.       Stand at my desk (I now have a variable height desk, post injury) for a total of 4 hours

3.       Eat an amazingly yummy and healthy dinner with Erick and NOT have my phone out at the table (which is pretty hard to do when you run an online business)

4.       Jump on my fitness trampoline for 20 minutes

5.       Meditate

6.       And most importantly (and the most difficult)- I WILL NOT STRESS EAT!!!

Those are my six goals for today to help me feel good about myself, find balance between work and self-care, and end the day on a positive note.

What are you doing for yourself today?

xoxox

Dacia

Why Now?

Is it weird to come back to blogging in a time where blogs are kind of a thing of the past? Are blogs a thing of the past? I hear it is all about microblogging now. I really don’t know what that means- small blogs is my best guess. LOL!

Honestly, it’s ok if no one reads this.

My main goals is just to write.

I never really expected anyone to read my blog posts for the five years prior so now isn’t really any different.

I just need to write again.

Why?

Because a) it’s kind of unfair to Erick to have me dump every thought and emotion on him solely all the time. Poor guy, I am sure he misses me writing too. So reason A is really that I need another outlet.

But the main reason, I guess reason B, is that even though I have an outlet (and I am sure I have more outlets than just the hubs but sometimes I suck at communicating the hard stuff) there is still so much I have been burying inside. And when I do that it’s only me stuck with those thoughts. Those thoughts, which could be perfectly harmless had I just said them to someone else and had a normal conversation about them (or wrote about them in my blog), then turn to damaging thoughts.

Because those hidden thoughts and emotions had time to fester they’ve turned from something maybe a little negative to something off the charts negative. I have spent far too much time over this past year telling myself I was a failure. That I was disgusting. That I was not good enough. And you know what happened? I started to believe that.

I lost hope in myself.

I conceded.

I believed that was that and I was just destined to go back to that person I was six years ago. That girl that sat on the sidelines and passively watched her life pass her by.

I lost my identity.

And I gave up.

For months and months I just gave up. I was broken. I would never heal. I would never be that girl that ran back to back half marathons or finished a triathlon or would ride 50 miles on her bike just for fun. That girl was gone and she wasn’t coming back. And I had no fucking clue how to process that.

I don’t know what happened to bring me there or when I hit my breaking point but rock bottom came and that familiar feeling- that one I felt 6 years ago when I started this ‘journey’- hit me like a ton of bricks.

I didn’t give up six years ago. And I won’t give up now.

Life is so much more than race medals. I cannot run and I will probably never run again. But I am so much more than that.

And I can do so much more than that.

I just have to get there.

Baby steps.

Just like 6 years ago.

Baby steps.

I need this now the same way I needed it then. I need an outlet. I need a space to share everything. And  I need to be able to tell myself that I will be ok. I will get stronger and healthier, I will change my life again. And if I keep telling myself enough times I know I will start to believe it.

Baby steps.

xoxox,

Dacia

Mic Check...Is This Thing On?

Wow! It has certainly been awhile, huh? (I won't tell you that it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to log into my Blogger account. SMDH)

Let me take a minute to wipe off some of the dust that gathered on this ole bloggy blog and then we can get started.

The last we saw each other I was celebrating my five year blogiversary by apparently never blogging again. LOL! I have not written a new post in over a year, and yes the last post was my 5 year post. Kind of weird, right?

Maybe from the outside, yes. But something big happened just a few weeks after my 5 year post that changed my life completely. In early March 2016 I signed up to become a consultant with LuLaRoe (super amazing clothes that helped me to feel comfortable in my skin and find my self-confidence) which on the surface seems like maybe not too big of a deal, right? It’s just direct sales- no big deal, right? Nope, it is a huge undertaking that I have spent 40+ hours a week on top of my full time job and still working on my doctorate running this new business.

I was (and still am) ridiculously busy. It’s a lot. At least, a lot for me.

We (Erick and I- he is pretty much my business partner in LuLaRoe) live our life with no margins. (See post here: http://carlabirnberg.com/2017/04/10/the-importance-of-living-with-margins/) We have said no to so many life events, passed up on spending time with friends, no vacations, just work, work, work 95% of the time. *We do try to take 12 hours to ourselves on the weekend when we can although I am still always connected and never really ‘off’. I am not complaining, I love my business, but I can say with certainty that I did not know exactly how time consuming this would be when I signed up.

And of course, you can probably guess what else has been sacrificed over the past year- our eating and exercise habits. Long gone were the days where I would make every meal from scratch and in its place is junk food/ convenience foods I can make super quick before I need to get back to work. Our gym routine went out the window early on as working every night made it impossible to get up early to hit the gym. Sleep has been complete crap too.

And then, late last August/early September I hurt my hip and back and that made that whole terrible lifestyle situation even worse. A tear in my superior labrum and bursitis in my hip, coupled with degenerative disc disease and bugling discs which created a mess with my sciatica, I got to the point where I could barely even move my right leg.

Doctors, steroids, Orthopedist, Chiropractor, physical therapy, more steroids and after months and months of pain, extremely limited activity and terrible side effects from the steroids I am FINALLY finished with PT and meds (well, only as needed) and am cleared for light activity. Yay!!!

So why am I telling you all this? Because this past year has really changed my life to the point where I don’t even recognize myself. And I don’t just mean that because I have gained weight (which I have, a whopping 50 lbs in one year!) I mean that the person I was, and worked so hard to become, the one that loves to be active, eat well to fuel her body, and focuses on taking care of her mental well being- seems to be gone. Or maybe just buried.

After a rough start in March where I found myself on antibiotics and feeling like a hot mess, I finally started to take some action and control back in my life. Right now, for April, I am focusing on daily, weekly, and monthly goals that are slightly challenging yet still doable. I am using the Goal Digger tracking sheet from Brooke’s blog (Link: http://brookenotonadiet.com/2014/07/11/goal-digger-free-printable/).  I tack my steps and sleep on my Garmin, my water intake on the Plant Nanny app and am even trying to move back to food tracking using My Fitness Pal.

Week one for April was pretty good and I am hoping week two will be even better. I have also started meditating at night. I am trying to work my way up to making that a daily habit. My exercise right now is mainly walking but I am hoping to start a 3 week yoga program in the next couple weeks. I also bought a fitness trampoline for some low impact exercise. AND once I close up my LuLaRoe shop (more on that some other time) I want to get back into weekly bike rides like we used to go on every weekend. I am trying to slowly re-introduce things and not try to take it too fast because I really, really, really don’t want to reinjure myself. So I am definitely baby stepping back into fitness.

Meal planning has been going really well and I love having time again to cook every day. I am really looking forward to summer and grilling out a lot. We tend to eat more lighter foods in the hotter temps and it is really helpful when I am trying to not overindulge too much.

Oh, and I am also doing a self-care challenge in my LuLaRoe group for the month of April and taking time each day to focus on me...it is such an amazing feeling. A daily self-care routine was very much needed! 

I have so much I want to talk about right now but I don’t want to make this post any longer than it already is. But I really hope to get back into a blogging routine. I need the accountability. It was so amazingly helpful the first time around. And right now I am trying so hard to fall back on the good habits that got me to a 130 lb weight loss. I know it’s not starting over, but honestly some days it does feel that way. I just keep telling myself- it’s not a new book, just a new chapter.

xoxox

Dacia 

FIVE YEARS!!!

So….we are just a few days away from March and I realized that this is only my second post for the YEAR! Can you believe it? I am sucking at this whole blogging regularly thing lately.

I have been blogging for 5 years now and what started as a nearly daily occurrence has dwindled to a once a month thing, sometimes even less frequently. That’s just life I guess. When I first started out (FIVE YEARS AGO- seriously cannot believe that!) I had a lot more focus and my writing had purpose- to keep me accountable. Now, I am much more set in my ways. My lifestyle is just that, it is ingrained into me. Yeah, some days (weeks) are better than others but even at my worst I am far better off than I was five years ago. My friends call it ‘health conscious’ and I love that term. Even my ‘junk food’ or ‘off days’ look nothing like the crap I used to put in my body on the regular before I knew better.

I can say without a doubt that blogging has changed my life for the better. Because of it I found my support group, the world’s best cheerleaders, and some of the most amazing friends. My community, both online and in real life, is amazing. It has allowed me to open up and connect with others that share my interests and struggles that I otherwise would have never met. That right there is priceless.

I lost weight, yes, but it was so much more than that. I gained my health back. I added years to my life. I ADDED LIFE TO MY YEARS! I stopped being so fucking afraid of everything. I stopped hating myself. I stopped feeling ashamed and embarrassed of how I looked or how I thought others perceived me. I found acceptance, self-love and I did so without having to lose weight first. I fell in love with me at one of my heaviest weights and was able to continue that through my lowest weight and every weight in between.

The adventures….oh there have been so many! Fitbloggin’, weekend trips, hiking with friends, slow rides, running races (still can’t get over this) including and most special to my heart – the Ragnar Relay in Cape Cod. Heck- I was even in a magazine!!! (And a book). Me. The girl that wasn’t sure she could do much of anything has ended up doing more than she could have imagined.

When I started writing five years ago I doubt this is what I had pictured for my future self. I am not even sure I believed that was capable of changing my life but I knew I had to try. My life literally depended on it.  And I knew that I needed to ask for help, I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own. And that is what I did. I asked you to help me, to support me, to listen, to lend me advice and input and you did. And for that I am eternally grateful.

It has been five years.

Five amazingly wonderful, empowering, heartbreaking, humbling, fan-fucking-tastic years. It’s been everything I had hoped for and more. I feel like I have learned more about myself and about life over these past five years than I had in the 33 previous. There is so much growth that happens through openness. I can only hope that these next five years bring me as much love and happiness as the last.

Again, thank you for your love and support and for coming here and reading. It means more than you will ever know.

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxox

The Friday Five

Happy New Year! 

I've missed you!

How have you been? I hope you are all happy and well! :)

I think this is my first post of 2016 which is kind of crazy since February is just a few days away.

Let me catch you up...

#1. Life is chaotic….more so than the usual chaos. Or maybe not, maybe it’s just January. I feel like I have been behind the 8 ball all month. School is crazy this semester- my schedule is so arduous that on a weekend trip home I had to write a paper from the backseat of my parents car as we drove north to my grandparents and then go to McDonald’s to ‘borrow’ some wifi to submit it. It’s been like that all month. Work, school, life…all of it. Busy, busy, busy. I am soooooo thankful I am finally taking a semester off this summer. It will be the first since I started working on my doctorate in 2013 and it will probably be my last break before I finish it in [hopefully] 2018 or 2019. Damn, that sounds sooooo far away.

#2. We are adopting!!!! Ok, that probably sounds misleading….we are adopting a dog! We have been going through the process of adopting a dog from a rescue organization and we were approved earlier this week. Next weekend we get to bring her home. She is a puppy mill rescue so the only name she has ever known is the one that was given by the rescue- Honey. We are going to change it to Bailey hopefully. Bailey- not after the Irish cream but instead after George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life. I also thought maybe to name her Zuzu (after Zuzu Bailey) but we liked Bailey better. I am super excited to add to our family, stay tuned for pictures J

#3. One of the goals E and I had for 2016 was to start to get the house in order. We had a ton of things we had bought or had been gifted to us that needed a home or to be hung or even just put away. Last week we started in our main living area and hung up a bunch of things on the walls, like our wedding guest book. I would say it’s bad we waited three months to put that up but I had a gift I got from E Christmas of 2014 (yes, 2014!) that was hidden away because we just kept forgetting to buy some wire to hang it. We are the worst at that stuff. But we are trying harder to get the house together and make it more us and less single E- he bought it 13 years ago so it definitely felt like his place. This weekend we are painting our bedroom and assembling all of the new furniture we bought to go in it. Our bedroom is getting a complete overhaul and I am thrilled about this. It will definitely feel more like home after we have all of these updates finished….and we bring Bailey home to join us.

Don't worry, Bailey will get her own shrine too ;)

#4. I realized the other night what the best job in the world would be- being the person who gets to name paint colors! Have you looked at paint samples lately? Those paints have the coolest names. We wanted to paint our room a pale green, paler than mint, and we narrowed it down to two colors to test out- tranquility and lazy days. I don’t know about you but both of those colors really describe a bedroom to me. We ended up picking ‘Lazy Days’. Painting begins tonight. Wish us luck. Here’s hoping for many lazy mornings in bed together J

#5. LuLaRoe – does this mean anything to you? If you know of it, you probably are addicted like me. Maybe not as bad but still, it’s super awesome and I don’t know a woman yet that hasn’t fallen in love. If you don’t know, well maybe that’s a good thing ;) LLR makes clothes for women (and kids too) and the materials they use are super soft, comfy and somehow look good on every shape and size. They range from XXS to 3XL which is awesome. And of course- LEGGINGS! Need I say more? Anywho, they are an online operation, direct sales only. That kind of drives me crazy- that aspect of their business model. Finding consultants, clicking through photos, racing to be the first to claim an item. Some groups have thousands of people in them and although those consultants tend to have the largest selection of inventory, it is pretty much madness trying to buy things. BUT, I do love their clothes and if you follow me on social media then by now you probably already know that. I ‘roe’ almost every day. I even bought a pair of leggings for my niece for Valentine’s Day. Not sure why I decided to share that…maybe just so I can post some fun pics of me and my crazy pants J Side note: I randomly found a LLR consultant named Dacia- I feel like she and I should be best friends.

Just thought I would throw in a picture (of a picture) from our amazing honeymoon!

Do you roe? What would be your dream job?

Love and hugs,

Dacia
xoxoxoxo