Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? The last half of my summer was pretty terrible. Now that it’s over, I’m trying to get back to as normal a routine as I can manage right now.
A few days after I wrote my last post, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. A couple weeks later, he underwent emergency surgery due to a hole in his intestine caused by the cancer spreading to his stomach. The past few weeks were very stressful. Not knowing what would happen to my father was terrifying.
During that time, I couldn’t find the motivation to workout or meal prep. Between spending as much time as I could with my family, running back and forth between work and the hospital, trying to keep my house clean and organized, getting sick myself (I only had a cold but because of everything else that I was stressed about, it took me almost two weeks to get over it), working out and eating healthy just didn’t feel important to me.
But then, about three weeks ago, I had somewhat of an epiphany. I know that my family needs to be my priority right now. I might not always get to work out and I may have to eat some meals on the go without worrying about macros. But I need to be strong for my family. That means that I have to be the best version of myself that I can be. Being my best self means that I’m still fitting in time to plan healthy meals for myself and working out whenever I can. Staying positive is crucial right now, and these things can help put me in a more positive mindset.
I hope that this doesn’t make me sound selfish or anything, but I think it will help me to keep up with the things I can control – like my workouts and meal planning. I’ve been working on doing my own strength training more often by following the 5/3/1 program. I’ll write more about that soon as well. Doing things like this that I enjoy gives me something to look forward to when I have serious issues to deal with, and it’s helping me cope with everything.
So for now, I’m going to just focus on taking care of myself as best as I can while still being there when my family needs me. Trying to stay positive is easier said than done. However, I know that staying as strong as I can both physically and mentally will help me get through this.
