Hello! Today I feel nearly recovered from my cold. Our family was sick for a month and a half with tiny breaks in between where we were well. It was brutal. I had the flu, a cold, another cold and then the worst cold of all! I currently have a nose that could light the way for Santa’s sleigh, it is that red. I have the driest skin on my lips of all time and my adult acne has returned thanks to the effects of cold pills and subsisting on comfort food (every night is GF pasta night!). I also took my cold as an excuse to drink only apple juice (take that, water!) and that may have contributed to the dry skin…..oh and who wants to get dressed? I picked my kids up in my pjs every day. #noshame. Yep, the mom life sure is glamorous sometimes. I kind of leaned in to the cold that last week. I was so sick, I could care less. I had every cold symptom. It’s hard to get better when you spend all your time helping your kids get better. And it is always inevitable that while you are giving them medicine, or helping them blow their nose, they will cough in your mouth. I know, being a mom- so glam. On top of that, Hunter got really sick with the cold which caused an ear infection!
Doctors.
We all had the cold, but Josh and Izzy were mostly spared. So when Hunter started to complain about his ears, we knew his cold had turned into an ear infection. I was falling asleep in my large plate of pasta, so Josh went to the doctor with Hunter. Who did they get? Only the worst walk-in doctor in town. They should have walked out. That doctor has misdiagnosed many illnesses for us in the past, confirmed by a second opinion. He misdiagnosed my broken ankle, even! But, after waiting 2 hours in the waiting room, Josh decided to hope for the best with this doctor. However, the doctor prescribed NOTHING. Said it hadn’t been long enough and it was “just a bit of inflammation”. The other clinics were closed, so we decided to wait and see if a decongestant would help….with little hope that it would.
So what happened? I waited a day and monitored Hunter’s fever really carefully. When 72 hours had passed, I went back to our clinic with Hunter(our family doctor is there and terrific but it is hard to get last minute appointments), and hoped that the useless doctor wasn’t working. He wasn’t! I asked at reception and she said it was our favourite walk-in doctor on duty and that Dr. Useless was taking appointments. We waited in the waiting area and read a book while Hunter’s fever got worse and worse by the second. He was prickly red and as hot as a furnace. His skin was covered in goosebumps to try and cool him- I was starting to get concerned. Just then, after an hour and a half wait, the nurse called us in. She showed us to a room and Hunter was concerned he might puke. I was rubbing his back when what did I hear? My fave walk-in doctor tell the nurse his shift was over and he was heading home! Just then, the door opened and in walked Dr. Useless. UGH. We were there long enough for a shift switch. Lovely. However, Hunter’s fever was so high and BOTH ears so infected that he had to give us something. He was so confused that it “turned into such an infection”, to which I replied, “I’m not. Next time listen to the parent and look more carefully the first time”, and to which Hunter added, “Yeah! Only one of them hurt a lot and now they BOTH HURT A TON”. I was so proud of him in that moment. Dr. Useless did actually say, “Next time I should listen I guess” and gave Hunter the highest dose of medicine possible. Finally. Josh and I are extremely introverted, highly sensitive, pleasers (for the most part), but being champions and voices for our kids and their needs has made us braver than we ever thought we could be.
Fitness.
I haven’t worked out in a while. Unless crochet counts! I have the strongest hands and wrists of anyone! Haha. My hands are Wonder Woman and my body is Baymax.
So I knew that I needed to change that. My body aches in a bad way when I don’t work out, I get sick more and I am crankier. I also have zero energy when I stop exercising so the house gets messier, the time after school with the kids becomes a chore and all I want to do is nap. I don’t want that more than I don’t want to work out.
Just in time, the BBG (Bikini Body Workout by Kayla Itsines) community on Instagram became super unified again. We are all starting over with Round 1 of the workout and sharing our progress. Here in Calgary, we are meeting up in March (my birthday month!) to do workout 9 together as part of #thekaylamovement. If this sounds interesting, look up Kayla Itsines on Instagram or Google her. It is giving me the motivation I need to get going with my workouts! I started today and getting going was torturous, plus I had to stop every 10 moves to blow my nose, but I got it done eventually and feel quite accomplished! Goals: To feel sexy as hell, fit in my clothes better, and have positive energy for the kids when they are home.
So on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I am going to do Kayla Itsine’s BBG workout and Gala Darling’s Bad Witch Workout (each are only about 20-30 mins). On Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays I am going to do the Zombie Run treadmill workout and actually FINISH it this time! Follow me on my Instagram account to see how I fare.
Also related to my health is my eating. My plan here is to start small. Eat more fermented food (kimchi, kombucha, and kefir), log my food in MyFitnessPal, and stick to protein and veg for dinner. I need to drink WAY LESS coffee (I am up to almost a pot a day! Damn these cloudy winter days that end so soon!!) and drink WAY MORE water. I love lemon water and water with a bit of apple cider vinegar so that will motivate me- water is my least favourite beverage of all time. Herbal tea is also a fave but isn’t particularly thirst-quenching. Once the husband’s benefits kick in, I intend to go see a nutritionist and get some advice on fixing my gut issues. I am more and more intolerant to gluten and other things are starting to jump on that list. Time to reset the gut.
So those are my goals. I think they are reasonable. I am going to think of time in chunks of three months so that I don’t find myself getting discouraged and giving up on my goals.
Daughters.
It occurred to me the other day that Iz will be in Grade 4 next year and 9 years old. Oh my. She is asking about what she could earn allowance for. She wants to earn it for the chores she does, but everywhere I look they say not to reward expected behaviour, like chores. So what do we set up then?? Just allowance for its own sake? I need to research this. Iz is also asking about internet etiquette and when she can get a phone- already!! How did this happen? I think it snuck up on me because, although she is eloquent when she talks and extremely smart, she is very little for her age which makes it easy for me to ignore the fact that she is getting older and keep her as my baby. But I need to start thinking of her as her age and more grown up than her small package appears. I need to start thinking about talking to her on the bigger subjects: how to handle yourself on social media, the period talk (eek), and setting up allowance. I thought that this kind of stuff would be gradual changes and I would be ready when it happened but I’m not. Instead, her growing up and needing to know these things snuck up behind me and clobbered me over the head with a giant club. I wish someone had warned me.
So that sums up my recent weeks. Wish me luck on the fitness thing. I want to keep going even when my motivation wanes.
How is your January so far? Can you believe it is already one week gone?
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Gah what a winter it’s been for your family!! Hopefully this means you’ve built up your immunity and will be healthy the rest of the year!! I loved hearing your update. 🙂
I know! We eat healthy and exercise and sleep lots….these germs were just stronger than us. My BFF is STILL kleenex….but almost all better. 🙂