Life After I "Dew"

I am so excited and honored that Shannon is allowing me to take over her blog for the day today while she's on vacation, getting some sun, enjoying some beverages and her sweet family. Life After I Dew is one of my favorite daily reads, and one of the things that I love the most about Shannon is that she keeps it real.

So, what better way to honor her while she's our of town than by writing a post where I 'try' and keep it real as well?! And today, I'm going to give you my take on what I try to do to stay in shape, and why I don't think some of those things are working out so well for me as I near the age of 30.

Let me give you a bit of the back story. In high school, I was one of those girls that you love to hate. While I did run cross country and track to stay in shape, that's all I did. Ever. I was able to stay at a weight that didn't intimidate me at all, and to be honest, I never really thought about my weight.

Fast forward to my college days. The story was pretty much the same, except I gave up the running almost completely. I ate whatever I wanted and went out partying/drinking with the best of 'em. That all worked out really well for me until about the age of 25. I was a few years out of college, working a 9-5 job, and just wasn't making the time to maintain a 'healthy lifestyle.' I should add that I was never a really bad eater, but I definitely loved a big bowl of mac n' cheese and can hardly ever say no to ice cream.

I think it was somewhere around this time that I started get back into working out. Going for runs, and even trying workouts from Jillian Michael's and 'Zumba!' 

Then, we got engaged.

And, if you've ever been a bride then you know what it means to work your buns off (literally) to get into your best shape to be the bride. And, that's exactly what I did. B and I did the P90X program (well, 8 weeks of it) leading up to our wedding and the results were awesome.

And so the story goes, after the wedding, we moved into an apartment, got a puppy, and I got comfortable, and probably gained close to 10 pounds over the first 18 months of our marriage. This was a slow, gradual increase, but eventually, I did notice that some of my clothes (read: especially jeans) weren't fitting right anymore. Cue the freak outs.

So, I've spent the last few months trying to be more conscious of what I'm putting into my body, and how I'm spending my time. I may love macaroni and cheese, but that doesn't mean I need to eat it twice a week. I may also love reality TV, but it doesn't mean I need to become a couch potato.

I've said it once, and I'll without a doubt say it again, but I'm challenging myself to be healthier and more active. I don't want to go crazy, or obsess over it, but I do want to make sure that I bring it back into my lifestyle, because for me, it's all about the routine that I'm in. And the other part of it, the part that is a little harder to stick to, is the realization that my body is likely never going to go back to what it was when I was 17, so I need to embrace this part of life and be happy in my almost-30-year-old skin!