I am home for the next two weeks, so I FINALLY have time to post on here. On Friday I quit my job as a nanny. Getting underpaid, working long hours, and struggling to make the trip there and back due to time constraints all were factors in my decision. A big part of it was the feeling like I had almost no time to myself, and as such - almost no time to focus on my health.

This post is another kind of summary post - kind of a way for me to just look at the upcoming weeks and start planning, and put the past two months behind me.

Working anywhere from 35-60 hours a week was a huge eye opener for me. Not only did I slack off on eating right, but I also found myself so tired from then lack of iron (hem hem* vegetarianism) and all the commuting I was doing that I didn't have much energy to put into exercising either.

Plus, as a few people commented, sometimes I plan in excess - not allowing room for flexibility. For instance, when I would plan my meals, if I wasn't hungry for something I would suffer through it, but often I would end up eating something I was actually craving later anyway. With fitness, this was the same - I would promise myself that I would workout X amount of times in a week and I would plan my activities to a T. When something came up, and I couldn't do the exercise I planned, I just gave into the defeated, disappointed feeling.

So now I am going to try to live a little. I love to dance - so if I go out to the club and dance (while watching my intake of alcohol) - that counts as my exercise for the day. If I clean enough to break a sweat - that counts too. If I plan to exercise, I will give myself options - go for a walk with a friend, go to the pool, or go to the gym. If one falls through, I can always do something else.

One quote that has been especially motivating recently, when it comes to exercise, is this: "I always regret it when I don't work out, but never regret it when I do." So I'm going to listen to that and keep it in mind in the upcoming weeks.

As for food - I realized that a part of eating healthy is enjoying your food. Of course, this seems like an obvious observation... But seriously! There are plenty of fruits and veggies that I love - so why do I still feel the need to suffer through steamed carrots, apples, or artichokes? It doesn't make sense.

This revelation made me rethink all my meals. From now on, the experts can bite me. I'm not eating the carrots, and that's final.

My last thought for today - vegetarianism. This has been exceptionally hard. I'm not getting enough iron or protein in my diet because of it. And the lack of iron has left me exhausted. So I'm going back to meat. I know how to eat healthy, and deep down eating meat is just delicious.

Until next time.