This is part 4 of a series of pandemic posts I’m bringing back. As much as we’d all like to leave the pandemic in the past, the truth is that there were some beautiful and powerful lessons that the pandemic can teach us if we let it. The hard emotions we felt during the pandemic (sadness, fear, overwhelm) were reasons people used food to soothe themselves – the resulting weight gain we called “The Pandemic 15”. But you know what – “The Pandemic 15” didn’t just disappear after the pandemic ended, did they? That’s because we still experience the same emotions and we think they are responsible for our inability to lose weight. I want to teach you how to have all the emotions you have as you live your busy, hectic, challenging life AND still lose the weight you want to lose. You only have this one beautiful life – you might as well live it in the body you want. Let’s get started!

 

It’s been a whole week of celebration for me. This week was my 45th birthday and Juneteeth, so there was a lot to celebrate. There have been lots of birthdays and special occasions since the pandemic hit, and lots of things have been canceled or changed. People have been finding creative ways to commemorate graduates and have birthday parties virtually and I found myself some ways to mark my special day. I thought I’d share so you can use any ideas you like!

Let me tell you, back in the beginning of Coronatine I prayed hard for this to all be over by my birthday. Not because I wanted a big party (I didn’t), but because I love my birthday and I always do something to celebrate. Also, I wanted to keep my plans in place. The kids were going to camp, I was gonna have a staycation, I was going to go to a day spa and get a massage, and I was most certainly going out to a special dinner. None of that happened.

 

 

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t celebrate! I did have to explain to my husband why 45 was a big deal to me. I’ve always treated each 5 and 10-year birthday with a little more excitement, but 45 seemed to have a little taste of the approach of menopause around it. It seemed important to me, even though when he asked me why I had some trouble putting words to my feelings about 45. Does anyone else feel like 45 is a big deal for women?

So after I had a little pity party for myself because my plans weren’t going to work out, I started thinking about what I could do to celebrate. Now, I know I could have scheduled a massage and that the spas and restaurants are now open, but we agreed: We’re not doing that yet. I needed to plan something where I could maintain appropriate physical distancing and do something special. Here’s what I came up with:

 

First, I kept my vacation time off. I’d taken the week off when the kids were supposed to go to camp, and even when the camp was canceled I decided that I’d still take the time. It had been 6 months without a vacation, so I needed the time to rest from work anyway.

Next, I planned a mini-retreat in one of my favorite places. I wanted to go with my husband, but I didn’t feel right about asking another person to come into our home to keep the kids, so he agreed to keep them while I was gone. So I went away and did a few things alone. Now, this may not be the kind of thing you extroverts would like, but I loved it! Let me tell you about it…

 

I went to the labyrinth and walked. What a powerful place!

 

I wandered the community for hours. I picked herbs and blueberries growing along the path and enjoyed all the wildflowers.

 

I read (fiction only), I slept, I ate veggies and soups. My phone ringer was off and I didn’t use an alarm to wake up in the morning. I never touched the TV – I just didn’t remember it was there!

Then I went home.

 

 

On my birthday I woke up early and went downstairs to find a new yoga mat, flowers, and balloons from my husband waiting for me. So fun!

Then I went up to the pool for my reserved time and found that no one else had reserved time, so I enjoyed reading alongside the pool for a couple of hours. When I got home, I set my lounge chair under our oak tree outside, read more of my book, and talked to a few friends. I enjoyed a nice bubble bath and got on to my coaching class at 5 pm, where my classmates wished me a happy birthday! My honey ordered vegan Asian fusion food, and my kids brought out homemade cake and cupcakes.

One of my best friends dropped by with her husband and grandkids to drop off a cake, flowers, and a gift. The best part was talking in the driveway and getting to catch up after being apart for so long!

 

Then we came inside and opened presents. My kids made a special trip to the dollar store to buy lots of things, because they said, “We wanted you to have lots of presents!”. I’d planned to watch a movie to finish the day, but by then I was so tired that I just headed up to sleep. It was a beautiful, restful, peaceful birthday, full of the people I love. It was a wonderful celebration!

 

 

We may not be in a pandemic anymore, but you still need creative ways to celebrate your life. One of the things that is hard about losing weight is feeling like we don’t have any fun in our lives because SO many of our ways to make our lives special revolve around food. But there are other ways to make life special – we just need to get creative. Share the ways you make your normal life special in the comments below!

 

Here’s the last video of the Getting Your Weight Loss Motivation Back – it’s a short series to help you get back on track quickly. You could binge-watch the whole series in less than 30 minutes!