Confession time. I'm 34 years old. My husband and I will be married for 4 years on November 2nd (we've been together for 11 years, not counting the years we dated in jr high and high school. That's right, I met my husband when we were 12). And we're ready (finally) to start having kids. Most of the girls I went to school with have preteens now, and I'm just starting to talk about having babies. I guess I'm just a late bloomer. ;)
Why am I telling you this? Because I'm scared. Will our baby be healthy? Will my labor be difficult? Will I have to have a C-section? Will I end up with gestational diabetes? Will I even be able to get pregnant????? There are two major issues that affect all those concerns.
First, even if I got pregnant today, I'll have hit 35 by the time I give birth. Those of you who are pregnant at this age know what that means. Three scary and somewhat demoralizing words: ADVANCED MATERNAL AGE. Ouch. Kick me in the shins while you're at it, why don't you? Modern medicine is not-so-subtly telling me that because I'm OLD, my pregnancy and birth carry more risks. Apparently, sometime between the 365th day of my 34th year and the 1st day of my 35th year, my reproductive system will completely melt down. Sheesh.
Second, I'm overweight. See that profile picture over there to the right? That's the last time I was thin. I've been varying levels of overweight nearly my entire life. And while being thin would be nice, that's not really my goal. I want to be healthy. I want to be able to have a complication-free pregnancy and birth. And more importantly, I want to be around to see my future children grow up.
I've tried all the fad diets, and you know as well as I do that they're all bull. The ONLY way I will reach my goal of better health is if I eat right and exercise. Gosh, it sounds so easy. And I'm pretty sure that the actual actions of eating healthy and exercising ARE easy. It's the giant chasm between my current habits of non-motivation and laziness and the new habits that I need to develop where all the problems lie.
So I'm going to take it one step at a time. I think that instead of saying "I need to lose (insert giant number here) pounds", I'm just going to go small. I can plan a week's worth of healthy meals. I can walk my dog every day this week. I can work out 4 times this week in addition to those walks. And if I can do those things next week too, I'll be well on my way to new habits, and better health. And with those new habits, a funny side effect will happen. The weight will come off.
Here's where I need your help. I know I can't do this by myself. If I'm the only person I have to be accountable to, there's no way this will work. I need you to ask me if I'm drinking my water, doing my yoga, walking the dog, eating my salads, not eating a cake. Chastise me when I slip up. I'm a big girl, I can take it. But most importantly, cheer me on when I do good things.
Help me, Mamavation Sistahood! And when we do have a baby, I will name it after all of you. A girl can have 100 middle names, right? Unless, of course, it's a boy, then the naming after you thing would just be awkward.
