New Year, New Me

Christmas came and went without a post.  What can I say?  We have been busy!  The holidays were so good to us.  We made precious memories with family and watched two very excited two year olds learn everything Christmas.

Everything went off without a hitch other than Grayson coming down with strep and a little health scare I had at the beginning of December.  It started with a headache that was new, out of nowhere and lasted for weeks.  It was localized toward the top left side of my head.  I broke the cardinal rule after a few days and resorted to Dr. Google.  Bad idea.  I became extremely anxious and decided to have a MRI done (even though my ACTUAL doctor was not concerned.)  The MRI showed a 5mm spot on the RIGHT side of my head, completely unrelated to the headache.  Long story short, I saw a neurosurgeon who diagnosed as a non-specific lesion.  We will watch it to make sure it doesn't grow over the next year, but it is not a tumor and does not have characteristics of MS, Lyme or anything else recognizable.  Originally, I was told it could be any of those things, and that they just didn't know.  During the month or so that this was going on I continued to feel extremely anxious.  My mind went to all of the worst places.  After finding out that it is most likely nothing, I made the easy decision to take better care of myself.  Like many, I indulged more than I should have over the holidays and gave up the gym.  Not only was I feeling tired, sluggish and bloated, I believe it contributed to the anxiousness I was feeling.  If I am going to worry this much about my health, why am I not taking care of my health?!  Unlike previous years, my new year started with a desire to be healthy and put good foods in my body for my long term health.  In previous years my sole goal was SKINNY.  It has been such a change of mindset for me and really much easier to stay on track with a goal that actually matters to me.  I've known the danger of sugar and chemically modified foods and now I am going to say no to them more times than not.  I will never be the perfect eater.  I love bad food too much!  I will however, be conscious of what goes in my mouth and make better choices most of the time.  I already feel so much better and as a side effect of being healthier, I have lost 8 pounds.  This week I started hot yoga.  WHY OH WHY did I wait so long?  It's really, really heavenly.  I love everything about it from sweating and difficult poses to the refreshing, zen like feeling I have during and after class.

Another lesson learned through this was to rely on my faith, it is there for reason.  I came to a point where the worry was making me feel sick.  I knew then to go back to what I know.  I focused heavily on the scripture of Jesus' promises.  Shortly after, and prior to my neurosurgeon appointment I had a strong sense of peace wash over me.  It was a reminder to me, to go there first not last.  Every time I have struggled in my life I have seen the power of God work when I chose to trust Him and his plan for my life.  It's an experience that I can't explain, but am so thankful for.

I am learning so much about my body and how to take care of it through the research I have been doing.  It's my new hobby!  So cheers to a healthier me in 2017!

PS.  The headache went away and was possibly caused by a change in medication.  Back to normal!