Health

I have been thinking a lot about health. There are a lot of components to health. There is physical health. Emotional health. Spiritual health. Mental health. All sorts of health. And they all take work to maintain.

I think what has got me thinking about it is the fact that emotionally/mentally I don't feel terribly healthy. But I have a pretty good idea of why that might be. I like to think of it as me having an emotional virus. Something that will eventually go away on its own. I can do things to improve my condition and make myself feel more comfortable but ultimately I just have to wait it out. Are you dying to know what it is? If you have kids you probably already guessed it. No... I am not pregnant. But I DID just stop nursing Austin. We both just decided we were done. And I think my hormones are going crazy. I have insomnia like you wouldn't believe. I just can't fall asleep. I laid in bed for over 3 hours last night before I gave in a took a sleep aid. I have never had insomnia before. And I cry over the littlest things! I was watching the biggest loser and I was in tears for the whole episode! What is up with that?! And I feel a lot like I did right after Austin was born-- anxious, depressed, angry all the time. I don't like feeling that way. So I am attributing to the stopping of the breastfeeding. I had a few of my mom friends tell me, "Amanda, when you stop breastfeeding, be prepared for another emotional roller coaster!" And boy were they right. But at least I have the comfort of knowing it will all go away sometime in the next month or two.

Physically I am finally ready to make a change. And I am excited about it! I wasn't pushing myself to loose weight or diet earlier than this because I knew that the time would come when I would be mentally ready to help out my body. The time has come. I have been on a diet/lifestyle change for a week now and I feel awesome. I feel like a champ. I actually feel better than when I was eating too much or eating for comfort. Funny how that is. And I am ready to get back to the gym... as soon as my poor baby is no longer sick.

I think I caught a spiritual health bug while I was on vacation too. There is some part of me that thinks when I am on vacation I should take a break from everything in my daily life at home. Unfortunately that includes scripture study and prayer. So I went almost my whole vacation without reading one verse from the Word of God. I said a prayer here and there, but nothing regular. So of course I came back not feeling my best. It is shameful of me that I do that. I don't mean too. It just sort of happens. My entire routine is disrupted and that is part of my routine. God is forgiving but I need to make a better effort.

Anyway, mostly I wrote that post to get out some of my feelings. I am in pretty good health overall and I look forward to increasing my health in every way :)