Healthy Family Quest

Self care. I cannot tell you how many times loved ones have told me to "take care of myself so I can take care of the girls". Easier said than done! It is a slippery slope, the kids were up all night then awake at 4am. You stare at the half eaten toaster waffle and think, "sure, why not just have that for breakfast?". The kids are running circles around you, no time for lunch so you skip it. Baby is teething and refuses to nap so snack comes and goes with nothing of value in your tummy. At 3:00 you feel like you were run over by a truck so you reach for the coffee. Dinner is spent shoveling whatever you can into your mouth so you can get the monsters into bed. Life with three toddlers. I know it well.

Life is hard enough with three kids and then you lump in depression, severe medical issues, body conditions like PCOS and hypo glycemia and you know what you have? An overweight, unhappy Mommy Monster!

For about a year now Daddy and I have noticed that our Gracie is never full. She will eat and eat and eat until she throws up. At her last MRI we found a reason for this behavior, her hypothalamus is greatly enlarged. Combine Mommy Monster with the fact that one of my children will struggle with healthy portions and weight gain from something she cannot control and you need an overhaul. I needed to lead by example in healthy eating, proper portions, and exercise. If she grew up seeing me do it and it was all she remembered maybe she could avoid a life of weight struggles.
We went into Emma's next MRI and Daddy threw his back out, he was literally crawling to the car for me to take him to the ER. They told him he was over weight and had a herniated disk. Enough was enough. So I joined Beachbody.

Why? So many reasons. In your 20s you can "fake it to make it" with your weight and eating habits. Then 30 hits, three kids are born, and the game changes. Life doesn't stop when you have three girls in 20 months, it was hectic. Then the word no one wants to hear, CANCER. My baby had cancer. Suddenly the world spins with doctor appointments, MRI tests, drugs, surgeries, and tears...so many tears. Two years later Gracie was diagnosed with brain tumors as well. After this I couldn't handle my emotions on my own and went on antidepressants. The irony in antidepressants? You feel better emotionally but they cause you to gain weight in all the wrong areas leaving you depressed about your body. A little weight gain never bothered me before, I could just run it off. But now in my 30s, depressed, chasing three toddlers through a hospital I was unhappy about my body. It had betrayed me. First it couldn't handle the stress of cancer and now it gets fat. Body hate. I needed an outlet so I started running, pretending I was running from the cancer, the
needles, the medical debt. I loved it but I hit a wall at the 5k mark. My body would just collapse. I knew I needed to cross train and make food work for me, not against me if I wanted to get to my goal of a marathon. So I started Shakeology and joined a 21 Day Fix. After only one week I ran a 10 mile race and after two weeks I had lost 3.5" and was back in my skinny jeans. But the best part is I had energy, my crazy coffee cravings lessened, and I was happy. For the first time in two years since Emma's diagnosis I was happy.

If you want to follow along in my family's journey to being healthy you can follow me on Instagram (anyaheidenberg) or my webpage,
www.beachbodycoach.com/anyaheidenberg. I am only going to post on our blog and Facebook page ever so often so we do not annoy any of you.