Mother Nature and her fury

Why is it that Mother Nature sees to it every month that we-as strong, capable women are rendered useless (at least in my case) for a solid day because she brings on us a wrath that has so much fury we can do nothing but bow down and take it. In other words, why am I in such pain? Why do I have to go an entire day (sometimes longer depending on the cycle) feeling like I don’t/can’t even get out of bed? Too bad the real world doesn’t work on the same schedule as Mother Nature; nope, here I am, out of bed, sitting at my desk and ready to start another work day. All because we “ate the fruit” well man ate the fruit too and what does he suffer? I say NOTHING like we do. They don’t deal with a painful issue MONTHLY, they don’t carry a baby, and they don’t give birth. Now, as far as the last two I’m sort of happy. A friend of ours made an excellent point last week. She said, “Sometimes I miss being pregnant. It allowed me 9 months to be so close with this person growing inside me. Everywhere I went, there he was. No one else got that. I felt EVERY movement.” I wouldn’t trade the opportunity to experience that for anything in the world. So, on day’s like today when I want to curse Mother Nature and her damn fury I have instead decided to take a step back and rejoice in the fact that one day soon (within the next two years anyway) these pains will go away (for a few months anyway) and they will be replaced with a human life. Every time I think about pregnancy or having a baby it amazes me to think about the fact that when that time finally comes I too will be able to experience so many things with that little person that my husband will never get. Sure he’ll be able to see it with his eyes (in the later months when it’s visible) and sure he’ll be able to touch my belly, but I’ll be able to experience so much more. So, unleash your wrath Momma N, because I will not let you ruin this day! I will overcome you. (In my mind the song “I am Woman” seems to be playing like theme music right now-haha) In fact, tonight after work I’m going to get all dressed up, splash makeup on my face, and head out to the symphony with my husband and you will be in the background-not even an after thought!

I say all this like I’m super empowered but isn’t it amazing what Mother Nature does to us each month? She brings on cravings (I had a piece of cheesecake yesterday), irritability (I have an extremely short fuse with my hubby and the things I’m willing to put up with-especially this month because I’m sick as well), mood swings, and a desire to do nothing but veg out. Yesterday when I made it home from work I wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed and do nothing but I’ve learned a new trick. I’ve learned that if I immediately ask Jake if he wants to go for a walk than I HAVE to do it. Seriously, he follows me around the entire time I’m changing clothes, getting water, finding his leash, getting a plastic doggie bag (and whatever else I may need to do) giving me this guilt trip that we still haven’t made it out the door. You try asking a dog if he wants to go for a walk and seeing him get all excited and then try not to go-it just isn’t happening. Once we made it to the trail we got in our groove and made it 3 miles in 45 minutes. While I didn’t want to do it once it was over I was so glad I did. We followed our walk with a trip to Kroger for bananas and frozen fruit because as of late my favorite (extremely low in points) snack is a fruit smoothie made with orange juice. I knew I wouldn’t be having dinner until late because I was going to a ladies’ small group bible study gathering (last night was our first meeting and I’m already super excited about it-we are finally making a “home” in this church and it feels amazing) so I whipped up a smoothie and headed out the door-it kept me completely full and satisfied until I made it home at 9:30 and made dinner.

Moral of the post: Mother Nature cannot hold us back. We are STRONG, CAPABLE women and we will WIN! Until next time: good eats!

Wednesday Food Breakdown:

Breakfast was a peach, banana, OJ, protein smoothie for 6 points.

Snacks for the day included a nut/craisin mix (5 points) and another fruit smoothie sans protein (3 points).

Lunch included a turkey wrap (6 points) and blackberries.

Treat cheesecake because we had an office birthday party and I gave in (damn you Mother Nature and your cravings and cramping.) for 12 points.

Dinner included steamed fresh green beans (0) and marinated ribeye (8 points) and a bite of the hubby’s cheesecake (12-it is EXTREMELY high in points and bites are OUTRAGEOUS-I just figured out the points for it this morning and yao-zah-no more bites for me). I used 21 of my extra points for the week yesterday and have 28 left for the week but plan on avoiding them like the plague!