Healthy?

Belly dance, anyone?

I'm giving you a chance to turn back now. This is one of those "personal realizations about health and body image" blog posts. They can be super tedious to read, so I give you fair warning.

Right after Christmas, I had to go to a health screening for our insurance company. My numbers were not great. Weight, I was expecting to be commented on and with good reason. But my other numbers, which are usually fabulous (seriously, I have sexy blood pressure numbers, people!), were not bad, but also not so good. More like in that warning section. The RNP doing the screening pointed out that it was a rotten thing to make everyone do the blood work during the holidays when people are generally eating, drinking, and being merry perhaps more than they might otherwise be.

That being considered, a few days later when we were sharing our resolutions and goals for the new year with one another as a family, I mentioned that my goal was to be healthier. Every single one of my boys said, "Really? But you're super healthy. Why do you need to do that?"

And for a brief moment I saw myself through their eyes. They have a Mom who takes belly dance, ballet, spinning, runs and does hateful those tabata or boot camp workouts all throughout the week. I ran 5 miles Thanksgiving morning. I trained for and ran 1.5 half marathons last year. I'm taking my kids to hike two whole states worth of the Appalachian trail this spring. They have a Mom who tries to feed them healthy food and tries to encourage good eating habits in them.

Yeah, I need to lose weight. I should eat less sugar. And I'll work on both of those things this year just like I said I would.

But I am so grateful to my children for being a better mirror than the one I look in by myself.