I am BACK!

Hello, select handful of people who were reading my fitness blog earlier in the year!  I know I only had a handful of posts, even though I said I was going to update it every day.  I'm not gonna lie, I don't feel the slightest bit bad about not keeping that promise.

Okay, when I put it that way, I broke a promise and I'm sorry.

I guess what I meant to say was once you hear my excuse/story/reason/whatever, perhaps you'll understand?  I hope so, 'cause I appreciate your continued support in this maddening effort.  Or at least, slightly labored effort.

Anyways, on with the story.  I'm sure you'll remember me mentioning that my mom was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.  Thanks to one major surgery, she is now CANCER FREE (Praise GOD!) and completely back to herself again.  However, that one surgery was, as I mentioned, major.  I spent a lot of time running the house and taking care of Mom right around the time I stopped posting updates.  Not only that, this past semester was my second-to-last semester as an undergrad college student (I don't want to say my last semester EVER as a college student, 'cause who knows, maybe grad school is a possibility, but anyway), and as such it was heavy laden with many, many writing projects, including a brutal 20 - 25-page research paper that involved more literary research and analysis than I ever care to do for the rest of my life.

So, bascially, after I was done with my daily self-flagellation, my affectionate term for doing all that writing for school, why on Earth would I want to write a blog post if I could flop across the couch and turn my brain off in front of the TV instead?  Don't even lie, you'd do the same if you were me.  I think.

If you're not convinced yet, let me shovel one more excuse onto the pile (shoveling is good core/upper body exercise!).  I promise, it's only one excuse but it comes in three parts.  Part 1 - Hallmark.  Part 2 - Discount Stable.  Part 3 - Kent State Stark Academic Success Center.  What these three seemingly-disconnected establishments have in common is that they all employ Michelle Jarvis (that's me) on a part-time basis.  While she is taking care of her recovering mother and killing herself slowly with homework assignments.  And she's gonna stop talking in third person now, 'cause it's creeping her out.

What Michelle is–ahem, sorry–What I am truly contrite about is that shortly after I stopped posting updates on my blog, I stopped the nutrition plan, too.  It was simply becoming too much to manage.  Which probably isn't true.  It was more or less of a mental block.  I told myself I was still eating sensibly, but let's face it, we are capable of lying to ourselves.  I'll spare you the details.  Just use your imagination.

Okay, I didn't eat that.  Boy.  Your imagination really thinks I'm a pig.

Suffice it to say, I left The Long and Winding Road so I could Get Back to a more convenient dietary lifestyle.  I Should Have Known Better, and . . . this is exhausting, so for now, I'm just gonna Let It Be.

And with that, a tiny bit of encouragement from my awesome friend Rebekah (see? I get by with a little help from my friends), I have decided to revive my blog.  I have been doing very good, with no cheating whatsoever, and I have been drinking all 3 Stumpies.  But before I congratulate myself too much, I must remember I've only been doing this for two days.  Heh.  I'll keep it going, though.  If you help me.

I have continued my weekly meetings with Justin, Mom, and Sue, so I haven't been a completely lazy slob.  Sure, there was a great big break in there while we waited for Mom to recover, but we've been going regularly ever since.  I'm still hoping he waits to do a fitness evaluation for another few weeks, 'cause I'm afraid of what the numbers will say.

Well, that's all for now, folks!  Hopefully you'll be seeing more regular posts from me.  Not promising daily ones, but at least a few times a week!





P.S.  Here's another reason why I took a break from the nutrition plan.  This was my first cheat meal, of many.  Two big pieces of Mom's homemade lasagna and a glass of zinfandel.  Mmmmmm MM!

If you don't think Mom's lasagna is a good reason to go off a nutrition plan, then I'm not sure we can still be friends.







Oh, and you should be proud of me.  I ran 1.3 miles today.  Boo-yah!