Ch-ch-ch-changes

One of the many challenges with losing weight, is that every person and situation is different. Even for one single person, situations and moods change - and you have to be willing to be flexible and make changes in your routine as needed, in order to grow with your environment or battle the current hurdles you face.

When I first started my journey, I was working a ton of overtime. Generally my work weeks were about 60-70 hours. Plus of course, I also have 2 young kids as well as a husband who also worked extra hours in addition to the regular 40. Making time and prioritizing were not easy, but I figured it out.

Then things changed. The overtime died down. But I started Grad School. This kept me busy too, but at different times and in different ways. That affected the approach I took and the routine I had.

Then things changed again (imagine that). We moved because my husband had a job offer he could not refuse, for what was basically his dream job. I quit my old job and stayed home with my younger daughter (the older is in Kindergarten) while I looked for something new. Being a stay at home mom brought with it altogether new challenges. While I now had time for working out like never before, I also now had constant access to all the food in the house.

Through it all, I've been able to adjust, and that is part of why I feel I've been successful. Even when it took a few weeks, I was able to adjust and continue down the path to success. I know there are people who thought, oh of course you lost weight, you worked 70 hours a week and never had time to EAT! Or, of course your losing weight, you go to the gym 5 days a week because you are a stay at home mom. Well, yes. But that is not the only thing there is to it, and throughout all these various life circumstances I have shown that I can do it. I will do what it takes to make it work, even when it's not easy - which it almost NEVER is!

And now, I am about to embark on yet another big change - I officially have a new job! I start next Wednesday. So now, I am going from stay at home mom, back to working mom. And I've been a working mom before, but that was a very different place and a different environment - this will be an all new environment and culture to get used to. My old work had 1000 people in my building, and the company employs 90,000 people. A big company, right?  My new company is small. Not "tiny", but the numbers are in the 100's instead of 1000's, and most of them are not in the office I will be in. This "small office" thing will be totally new to me. No more onsite Cafe' with great healthy choices available. So, I am going to have to adjust all over again, to a new environment, culture and situation - and figure out how to adjust so that I can continue to be successful in my weight loss/maintenance.