Pause and Unpause.

Nearly two years ago, I started my health and fitness journey. I've told many of you all about in in previous posts, and many of you about it in real life. I've had these stages that I've gone through. Stage one, for example, was hating it, not understanding it, but pushing through anyway because I knew that no matter what, I would see a positive result in the not-so-distant future. There was another step (much further along) where I realized that I liked the "burn" that exercise gives you (previous to this, I'd often thought people who claimed to like the "burn" were crazy liars... I guess I'm just one of those crazy liars myself, now).

That all brings me to now. The step where sometimes life gets in the way. And I don't mean the everyday rat race of kids and work and commitments and delicious, high-calorie food dangling in front of you at every possible juncture. I mean when huge things happen and just stop you in your tracks. I wrote about my husband and I being in a car accident a little over a month ago. I was lucky enough to come out with some bumps and bruises and my husband broke his back and had surgery. He's making a full recovery, by the way! But my point is that life sometimes blindsides you and every moment you spent doing "normal daily things" before gets shifted for a little while.

I spent the week that my husband was in the hospital pacing. Pacing his room, pacing the halls, pacing hospital stairs, pacing the parking lot... Just pacing. It was 50% intentional and 50% unintentional. I knew I had to move during the day. I'd spent the last year and a half losing 35 pounds and becoming healthier than I ever remember and I was absolutely not going to sacrifice that. The half of the pacing that was unintentional was due to the fact that I was on the phone CONSTANTLY with friends, family, insurance companies, etc. and well, I'm one of those people who paces like crazy when I'm on the phone. Nervous habit I guess.

The week Dan got home, I went for a couple of walks with my friend Mollie. Real, actual, strenuous walks. It felt SO GOOD to actually sweat again. Towards the end of the following week, I started doing various crossfit DVDs and walking almost daily. And then last week and this week... WHEW! I started jogging again (what a stress-buster!), I've done an early morning workout almost every morning, and I managed to squeeze in a decent bike ride yesterday afternoon, even though the temperature was 100º... Maybe not my brightest idea ever, but hey, it feels great to move again. And I'm so glad I didn't allow the "I'm not going to work out because there's too much on my plate" thing go any further than it did. Because as I or any other avid exerciser will tell you, the longer you wait to jump back into it, the harder it gets to jump back into it.

Now. If you're wondering about Dan. My husband, my amazing husband... He is five weeks out from breaking his back and having it put back together with rods and screws. And he is walking a mile and a half every day. With our dog. Who pulls like it's her job. He's not using a walker, a cane, or any other assistance (aside from the required back brace, obviously). He had his brother fashion a pair of higher-than-usual handlebars for our stationary bike and he has been going for 10-20 minute rides on that frequently. And last night he got on my actual bicycle and rode it to the end of the block.

Here's my point. BIG THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN IN YOUR LIFE. GOOD AND BAD. HUGE THINGS ARE GOING TO MAKE YOU WANT TO STOP. DON'T. JUST DON'T. YOU SHOULD PAUSE, BUT REMEMBER TO UNPAUSE EVENTUALLY AND PUSH FORWARD. LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH THE INTENTION OF BETTERING YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES. QUITTING WON'T HELP ANYONE.

And on a separate note: we have have made and canned so much salsa and jelly and jam in the past few days... We're making lemon out of lemonade, my friends! Or... Salsa out of tomatoes... Or jam out of ditch grapes... Or... You get it. We're making lots of yummy shtuff.

Peach salsa and black bean/sweet corn salsa. YUM.