I know I haven't posted anything in a while and I won't make excuses as for why. Ok, I will... I haven't had anything new to talk about! I fell off the health wagon for a bit, and I'm really just now getting back on, or I guess I've been back on for a few weeks.

To update you on my goings-on lately, I have now lived up here in the Artic North (Illinois) for almost a year. In that year, I have been blessed to be able to spend an abundance of time with my wonderful family, something I was never able to do down South. Unfortunately, all of that family time has not blessed my waistline. My family loves to cookout, eat out and go out for drinks... none of which are very conducive to a healthy diet. Needless to say, I've put on 10-15 pounds. Not a tragedy, but still not the direction I was looking to go.

Even with all of this family time, my happiness level has been steadily dropping. Since this blog is about health (not just bodily, but mental health as well) I feel the need to delve into this sadness and what I'm doing to fix it... just for a minute. I won't bum you out too much. Let me just start my explanation by saying that being a single mom sucks - big time. I love my kid to death, but a bouncy rambunctious four year old is just EXHAUSTING! After the running and constant talking and playing - not mine, hers - I go to bed every night just completely worn out. Have you ever watched someone run a marathon and felt like you needed a nap afterwards? It's like that. Vicarious exhaustion. And never having the opportunity to say, "Hey, watch the kid. I'm going out for an hour" catches up with you. I also don't really know anyone around here to go out with, other than my family, so I've been lonely.

Enough explaining. So what am I doing to actually FIX things? Like I always say, "If you don't like something about yourself, fix it." Well, first I addressed the sadness. It's hard to lose weight if you're sad or stressed, so I needed to fix that before I started on anything else.

Back in October, the 30th to be exact, my grandfather passed away after a short battle with pancreatic cancer, and my stepmom took it really hard. At her suggestion, I went to church with her the following Sunday. She hadn't been in a year, and I hadn't been... since my mom quit making me go in high school. Neither of us are very religious, but we went, and I took my daughter to Sunday School. After watching my mom cry during the service and hearing my daughter rave about her "school", I decided to start attending regularly, not so much for me, but for them. After a few weeks, I noticed that I was feeling better. The weekly fellowship gets me out of the house, and even if I don't get as much from the ministering as others, certain things do sink in. I've met nice people in my area, and I was even convinced to join the Mothers of Pre-schoolers group, where I've found other women my age with that same look of hidden exhaustion and sadness. It helps to know you aren't alone sometimes. I also joined the church's volunteer cleaning crew. I only clean for an hour a month, but most of the people on the crew are old, and they got so excited about "a young person" (I'm thirty) helping out, that I couldn't help but feel happy and appreciated.

Alright, so my happiness level is creeping up, and now come New Years, I was ready to address my weight again. I debated for a little bit on what kind of diet to do. I'd had good results with the Paleo diet, as you all know, but it makes me cranky, which is counterproductive to my new-found happiness. Also, I'm not on my thyroid meds, so I need every happiness boost I can get. I'd also had great results with the Alli diet in the past, but I didn't want to spend money on pills. I decided to try something in the middle. I acknowledged the fact that I eat too many carbs, so I decided to lower my carbs and raise my protein. I started adding proteins to each meal - putting peanut butter on whole wheat bread at breakfast, swapping my Yoplait yogurt for Chobani Bites (greek yogurt is really the one area where I really think the added expense is worth it.) At a tip from Bob Harper, I try not to eat carbs in the evening. I also eat dinner really early so that I can burn off more calories before bed. At first I thought that eating at 5:30 would mean that I'd be hungry again by 10:00, but I'm really not. If on the rare occasion, I find that I am, I suck it up and wait until morning. Once I got into a diet routine, I logged onto MyFitnessPal.com and added my daily meal plan to see where I was at and where I needed adjustments. MyFitnessPal gives you a suggested calorie intake (based on your weight and activity level) and calculates your calories, fat grams, carbs and proteins. I was right where the program suggested I be. The Alli diet holds you to less than 1500 calories and 45 grams of fat per day, and with my new diet plan, I'm coming out at 1150 calories and 40 grams of fat. I still get carbs, but I have enough protein to keep building muscle. On the new plan, I'm seeing better results than I did on Paleo or Alli, but I'm still happy and the diet is effortless and easy for me (which your diet should be). I even allow myself an "off-day" once a week so that I can still go out with my family. If you want to take a look at my exact diet, you can find me on MyFitnessPal by looking for artex1024.

With the diet under control, I'm working on getting back into the workout routine. It's winter, so I can't just go out and go for a walk, like I used to. I've had to find things that I can do indoors, which takes more motivation. That's why I still love Fitocracy. I can use the "leveling up" concept to keep myself going. During my hiatus, I stayed level 12 FOREVER, so I made a goal to reach level 15 by Spring. I'm 2/3 of the way through level 13, so I'm fairly certain that I can achieve my goal. (If you're on Fitocracy, you can also find me there as artex1024.) I'm staying active through a combination of body weight strength exercises, like push-ups and squats, workout dvds, and I even jump on the treadmill when I'm at my stepparents' house for dinner. I'm hoping to be considerably more toned and jiggle-free by Spring, and to have actually hit my body goals once and for all by Summer. 2013 is going to be the year of determination, so stay tuned!