Ashley's Story: I'm Back

First of all, let me apologize for disappearing back at the beginning of the summer. Shortly after starting back to bootcamp, my left hip started to hurt to the point that I developed a nice limp. During my pregnancy, I had pubic symphysis diastasis, a condition where your pelvis starts to separate because of pressure. Based on my post partum symptoms, my docs were worried that I had torn cartilage in my hip. I was ordered to stop all exercise.

I had a MRI where they injected ink into my hip (ouch!) and everything came out clear. No torn cartilage, but also no diagnosis. So, off I went to physical therapy. My physical therapist was fabulous. She gave me several exercises to do each day and within a month, the pain that I had been living with since my son was born in February was gone. Now, I'm back.

I started back to bootcamp in late August. Lorri Ann redid my measurements and let's just say those few months off from exercise (where I was eating all of my emotions about having a bum hip) were not good for my waistline. Everything was bigger than it had been six weeks after giving birth. I threw myself a little pity party and then I said, "Enough!"

I've been walking every weekday morning for 45 minutes with friends and going to bootcamp once and sometimes twice a week. I've been trying to pay more attention to what goes into my body as well. Over the past month, I really had some "aha" moments about my issues with food and how I've been living my life. I'll share those with you more in a few weeks though.

My six-week measurements are coming up on Monday. I'm excited, nervous, and hopeful. I have been trying extra hard this week with the knowledge that I have to face the tape measure on Monday.

I have to tell you all that I just wrote that sentence as "I have been extra good..." and then erased it. I'm really trying to work on the way I think about food. I'm trying hard to stop labeling things as good or bad and start thinking of them as healthy or unhealthy. I've found that anytime I limit myself, I binge. So, I am working to make this a lifestyle change where I don't make anything off limits, but instead recognize why I'm important enough to put healthy food into my body. I really am tired of feeling bad, emotionally and physically, and I'm changing my toxic relationship with food.

P.S.-Even if all of that weren't already great enough, today I'm wearing a pair of jeans that I haven't fit in since before I got pregnant!