July 2016

Life sometimes gets in the way of things, like blogging.  Life can sometimes get in the way of things that we enjoy too.

The last few weeks, I’ve felt like I’ve been in a fog of sorts. I’ve felt like there is a lot of noise from the political world, the work, home, etc. And I just haven’t been mentality able to sit down and write out a blog.

I feel like in someways, being a parent in this day and time is really hard. Cost of living is going higher each and every year. More dangers for our kids. More pressures at school and from the education side.

Life can be a struggle. But I think at the end of the day, it is really how we handle it. How we face these challenges. What we do to change the world to be a better place.

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I’ve heard this phrase, Self Care a lot lately, have you? I think that it is the new buzz word for 2016 and here at the base level, what Self Care? Here is a nice summation from the University of Kentucky

Self care includes any intentional actions you take to care for your physical, mental and emotional health.

Isn’t that sweet. Actions that you use to take care of your physical, mental and emotional health, what a load of bs! Am I being insensitive? Yes! Yes, I am. And why? Because it is a load of crap. As a parent, my kids come first. Would I love to take a day off and rest? Take a nap? Goto a baseball game? Grab a beer with a friend. Sure, but my responsibility is to my kids and I don’t have the luxury of taking a break.

We as parents, have to do what is right by our kids. We work for to provide, and many parents work multiple jobs to make ends met. My guess is that these same parents that talk to their friends about Self Care probably want their kids to get a trophy for showing up to a game and standing in the outfield chasing butterflies.

And more importantly, isn’t some of this really common sense? Think about it. If you are overweight, you work out to lose weight. If you are having mental or emotional issues, you talk with a friend or more importantly, you talk with a professional about your issues. This isn’t Self Care, this is freaking common sense.  But yet, there are people out there talking about Self Care and how they can charge you money on how to find a solution to get you Self Care.

I was talking with a co-worker this morning about our grandparents and how they were the greatest generation to live. They lived through and survived some of the toughest and darkest times of our country. Could you imagine our grandparents sitting around the fireplace talking about Self Care?
If your answer is yes, please don’t read my blog anymore, there is no hope for you. But if you answered no, you are right. They did what they had to do to survive. They worked through and figured out how to not only take care of their families, but also themselves.

If you need a good laugh, scroll through this quick search that I did on Google for Self Care.

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I’ve beyond slacked off as it pertains to my normal exercise routine.  I can give a million and one excuses, long commute, tired, would rather do anything other than working out, etc. But at the end of the day, I need to do more.

Today, the boys and I walked over to the playground instead of riding bikes. We ran, did jumping jacks, played tag, etc. The boys thought that they we were just playing, they didn’t realize that they were jump starting my exercise program. For the first time in a long time, I ran sprints. I tested my knee, which should be scoped and cleaned up again by my Orthopedic surgeon. But until then, I have to test it more. I have always tried to take it easy with my knee, which might have been a reason why I put off my exercising.

Today was the first day of my new work out plan. My goal is that on the weekend, get 2 work outs in a day and during the week, one long walk either before or after work and yoga. I felt great. My knee, didn’t, but it didn’t buckle which was a nice thing.  And as the boys and I walked home, I realized that as I watched the boys run, this was the first of many exercise days with them and they didn’t even realize how much they were doing for me.

 

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