Choose You Blog

So I’ll confess…I was watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey reruns, yes, the Country Club episode, with a horrified fascination and also, a sort of empathy and relief. Relief? Yes, relief. Why? Because Teresa, who recently had had a baby, had jello-belly. Yes, a baby bump, still, more than 6 days post-baby. She’s a small build, thin woman who otherwise looks better than most mothers of four on a good day. So, fair enough, you know, to think that this privileged woman who pampers herself into $11 million in debt would not suffer that same jiggly abdomen the rest of us had for…err, a while. But she is. And we get to see it, and in that, I am relieved.

Every time I see something about a celebrity new mom, she’s always in skinny jeans with not a sign of jello in her belly. The reporter always kindly asks how she does it, be so fit after birth. There is often a hair toss and a laugh and a hand flick then, “I just make healthy choices!” (or that’s what I hear)

LIAR! HA!

You starved yourself and had a trainer in three times a day and worked your rear (or belly) off so you could pretend that being that beautiful just happened, like Cinderella perking up out of bed, with butterflies floating around her head, birds singing a song just for her.

This is work. This is hard, hard work and tough choices. Being healthy and fit in a time of easy unhealthy choices and huge demands on your time from many sources…it’s hard. It takes work, and we will never look like anything other than a healthy version of ourselves, which may never match what we see in front of us.

Yesterday I was in a sort of fugue of exhaustion and stress, juggling a full day of work and two bored kids stuck at home with, allegedly, nothing to do. So I let them bake. Then my sweet tooth took over and I forced my kids to tithe me one mini muffin (blueberry cheesecake) each. Oh it was good. Too good.

Last week I traveled to Charleston. There are a lot of good seafood restaurants in lovely waterside locations, and I visited them. Oh yes I did. I had crab cakes at dinner. Tuna tacos at lunch. Shrimp wrap another lunch. I nearly felt guilty. I couldn’t even pretend I was making healthy, low fat, low cal choices. That was real butter, friends.

But I wasn’t sorry. It was worth it, and I don’t eat that way all the time. So I was willing to really let go and enjoy myself and the delicious food in front of me.

Sometimes, choosing me means choosing to not deny and sacrifice all the time.

This summer I’ve been out of my routine and eating out more, probably flat out eating more now that the kids are home. They barely go five minutes without thinking of, begging for, or eating food, I think. It makes it hard for me to stick to my health choices.

This whole thing is hard, and it’s hard to not get discouraged when, despite my exercise, the backs of my thighs still look a little loose, and suspiciously lumpy in that cottage cheese way. It’s hard to feel like you are sacrificing and yet, aging is winning anyway. Then these people pretend that they are somehow of superior genetic quality because it allegedly “just happens.”

Right.

So I watch a hilarious British humor video about women and marketing and keep in mind I keep getting a lot of really unrealistic messages about my body and what it can be if I do not dedicate myself to it exclusively, selfishly, sadly. It’s best to keep perspective and laugh and just…choose healthy.

Sometimes it is one thing, sometimes it’s one thing that dominoes. Sometimes it’s a big thing. But as long as it’s something, right? Something you do for you, for your health.

I asked some friends on Twitter, “Hey what do you do, diligently, to keep yourself healthy?”

These are my favorite answers — such a variety:

Kat1124, “great question, curious as to other replies. I make sure to get enough sleep, and if I do get sick, I stay home from work.”

suefisher, “A constitutional walk before bedtime. Flossing. A tablespoon of flax seed oil in the morning. A cod liver oil pill after dinner. @mayberrymom @jpippert I am a serial flosser. I must floss several times a day. My gums hunger for it.”

KateRobins, “I grow as much of what I eat as I can. I know what’s in it; it gets me outside; keeps me curious and challenged.”

mayberrymom, “Love yoga for physical and mental health! Also, I am a champion flosser. I seriously get a little flash of euphoria after I floss.”

room704 , “I don’t drink diet soda. I rarely drink soda – so when I do I make sure it’s Dr Pepper that I love.”

LucieD_inthesky, “60 ounces of water a day!”

plathitude, “yoga yoga yoga!”

Love it! Love the choices here!

What do YOU do…and how challenging is it for you?