I know it may seem cliche to say that you can’t know how far                                                                                                                                                                       you have come until you look to where you started, but I think its true.

This week has been an emotional roller
coaster for me. Hormones, a cold and lack of
sleep led me to fall off my #30daysstrong plan,
sleep in some mornings, consume some medicinal
ice cream + skip a couple of workouts.

I have this thing where I am, on occasion,
rediculously hard on myself and today would be
a prime example of this. I did so much food
prep, ran harder + longer than I have since
jr. high track + field, and had some wonderful time                                                                                                                                                                                           with the kids. In fact we went on a beautiful
long hike together on one of the mornings where
I just couldnt get myself on the treadmill.
And yet somehow I end up feeling disappointed in
myself. I decided that I would spend a few
minutes going back + noticing how far i have
come. It’s crazy that I still feel the need to justify
and say I am well aware that I haven’t “arrived’
But sometimes you need to look back to where
you were to see how far you’ve come. So I
will show some before + current photographs
(not “after” because I haven’t arrived there yet) but this                                                                                                                                                                                      is such a small part of the changes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I so hope that none of this other stuff
comes across as whiny or “woe is-me ish” But
I want to celebrate how far I have come in
the last year or so!

– I went from a +2 reading glass with Prism
to a +.5 with no prism. No one expected this much of a
change!

-I  am currently wearing my brand new glasses
that have my pre-concussion
perscription (basically cut in half) with no prism

– Instead of 6 medications on my night stand
1 have 1, and it’s dose is 1/6th of what it once was

-I have started going out more, especially at
night. Which I really had not been doing at all.

– I am back to hosting brunches + baking for fun,
and cooking for groups of people.

-I can read books (but have trouble finding the
time!)

-I still like to have naps when possible but I have
Only taken 1 migraine pill in 2018 VS an average
of 10 a month.

-I have lost about 20lbs. Still 20-25 to go to pre PCS
life, but it a start!

-I can now exercise up to a heart rate of 180 BPM
without getting blurred vision.

-I can play (+ Win) Dutch Blitz (a speed card
game which we stopped playing. We tried it about a
year ago but I lost + ended up feeling super sick)

-I have been homeschooling Addy + she has
been doing really well. A couple of years ago
I wouldn’t have had the brain power (or the
Words) to feel confident in teaching her! (not
that it doesn’t still come with self doubt.)

So all in all we are seeing change + heading
in the right direction but well on our way) and I
need to remember this post when I have a
bad day, end up needing to close my eyes or
take an Advil. We have come leaps + bounds                                                                                                                                                                                                  and I believe its going to keep getting better from
here.