Life’s Rollercoaster

I have been going back and forth about writing a post for the last couple of days. Life’s been different since Jen told me the horrible news about her mom. She was so young. She was hilarious and insightful. She was Jen’s biggest cheerleader. As Annabel wrote, she was our online mom, too. Jen’s mom touched so many lives. I looked forward to reading her comments on Jen’s site every day and was so honored when she would comment on my guest days.

Speaking of comments, I still cannot get over how supportive everyone has been on Jen’s blog. As I’m writing this, there are more than 550 comments of love and support for my friend and her family. It truly is heartwarming.

I’ve cried about how difficult things must be for her family. I’ve thought a lot about all the people I love and how I couldn’t imagine living without them. I wonder if I tell them enough what they mean to me. I’ve thought about the things I want to do but still haven’t done. Life’s too short. Tell the ones you care about how wonderful they are. Get out there and do what you want. What are you waiting for? You never know what might happen.

When I sat down to write this, I didn’t really know what I was going to say. My friend is going through an incredibly tough time, and I’m supposed to talk about my silly life and the food I eat? I just didn’t know how to do it. I finally decided that it’s OK. Prior Fat Girl’s Mom wouldn’t have wanted the blog posts to stop! She wrote this to me a couple of months ago when I was experiencing the emotional ups and downs of weddings and a death in the family:

We need to focus,

keeping our eyes focused on what we are doing,
as we all ride the roller coaster of life.

Very true words. When we’re at a low point on the rollercoaster, we need to take it one day at a time. We need to keep breathing and know that we can get through this. Life is precious, so let’s go out and do something that makes us happy.

And that’s what I did this morning. Although I woke up with the headache I’d gone to sleep with, I hopped out of bed, eased into my workout clothes and headed outside. I began with a brisk warmup walk and worked up to a jog. I usually switch back to walking not because I’m tired, but because I’m bored or just accustomed to slowing down. However, this time when I thought about walking, I reminded myself that I am healthy and capable of running. I’m grateful that my body can move like this, so why not work it? I did take a couple of walk breaks on my morning trip, but only because I’m not completely a runner yet, and I didn’t want to overdo it.

Even though my headache stayed with me for most of the day (how annoying!), I felt really good about working out this morning. Exercise usually makes me happy for the entire day. Today I wasn't AS happy as usual, but it's been a tough couple of days. I can only imagine how much of a crabapple I would have been had I not gone for that jog.

Anyway, I’m gonna go drink some water, read my book and hit the hay early. I WILL NOT allow a headache tomorrow. I can’t wait to give Jen a big hug tomorrow. Peace and love to you all :)