Skirt! Team Challenge: BODY: "3 Weeks, 6 Boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, and A Dozen of Grandma's Homemade Tamales Later..."

I’ve been a very bad girl.  I’ve been out of touch with my mind, body, and soul for the last 3 weeks, and it is time to get back to the healthy challenge workout that was making me so happy.  Right now, I’m 3 weeks behind on my homework, on my exercising, and on my meditating.  During COMPS exams, I also devoured 6 boxes of Girl Scout cookies all on my own.  Yes, I am an emotional eater (stress being one of those emotions).  I’ve got to find a better way to relieve stress other than grinding my teeth on sugary food products.  Just after COMPS, my family came to visit me from Texas, Kansas, and Missouri so that we could all celebrate my grandmother’s 75^th birthday.  So, after my exam, I packed my bags and went to the mountains for a week.  I didn’t anticipate not being able to write last week’s Skirt! Blog because of it (sorry ladies…grandma comes first, lol).  By the time I saw my family, I was already back to my original weight when we started this Mind~Body~Spirit Challenge:-(.  I know because I had to release my belt buckle back to where it originally was when I started.  It’s possible that I’m heavier now, because I couldn’t resist all of my grandmother’s homemade tamales, and all of my brother’s wonderful barbeque (he brought the smoker with him all the way from Missouri!), and the rest of my family’s awesome potato and egg breakfast tacos, wrapped in warm, soft tortillas.  I don’t think I ate a single vegetable all week last week. 

Needless to say, I’m feeling like “an oversized beach ball with two little hands wriggling around on either side of it,” (to borrow a well-liked phrase from my dear friend M.E.M.).  So right now it’s all about playing catch-up.  This weekend, I’ve been reading like crazy, trying to get through the hundred pages of reading I’m about to be tested on this week, as well as the reading I’ve got to write a paper about on Thursday.  I haven’t responded to any of my emails yet, although, that’s coming soon too. And now, I am on my way to my internship. 

On top of all of this, my husband and I have both caught a cold!  I know…Woe is me!

This isn’t just a griping blog though, I promise.  The good news through all of this is that I did have a wonderful time with my family, despite the amount of lard I ate.  And, I’ve also exercised twice in the past two days, which has made me feel better.  It’s amazing how difficult it can be to get back into the exercise groove again.  Instead of being able to walk 3-4 miles, I could barely manage to walk two.  And, this time, it felt like WORK! But, because of the successes I’ve had in the past with exercising, and because of the encouragement I’ve had from the Skirt! Team, I’ve been thinking a lot about how great I’m going to feel and look again if I can just push through the initial hard part of it.  It’s harder to gear up in the beginning, but once the wheels start turning, it’s like having a second wind.  I’m pushing right now to get back to that second wind kind of feeling again.