Hi friends! I’ve resurrected the site after a few months away and, MAN, am I glad to see y’all.
Why the time away and new domain? Life, man. Life.
Over the past year, I’ve been through some big changes and life has been a wild ride. I reached a point where I had too many irons in the fire, so I made a choice to slow my roll on the illustration and blogging front. I was bummed about it, but it was the right choice at the time. And, even better, I’m back now and I feel refreshed and energized and jazzed to the max.
WORK IN PROGRESS - CHECK IN
The last time we spoke (in January, y’all…sheesh) I gave you an update on the fitness journey I started last fall. Let’s start there.
I’m happy to report that I’m still on the grind. I’ll post a more thorough update later, but I’m currently weighing in at 212 pounds, which is a total loss of 53 pounds from where I started in the fall. More than that, I am in the best shape of my life and the strongest I’ve ever been.
There have been a lot of milestone over the past few months, but I’m gonna pause here and just share a few pics from my hiatus to document the journey.
These couple snaps are from today and, man, do I need a haircut.
And here are a few comparisons I’ve posted to social media, showing a current pic versus an older photo.
The left collage is from February 2020 and the one on right is a progress picture from March 2020.
This “after” pic is from this week. I went through my closet and dresser this past week to get rid of the clothes that are too big for me now as I was approach summer. I found this Level 3 tee from the 2010 Day of Caring in the back of a drawer. I had no idea I still had it. I remember that, at the time, I was super embarrassed because I couldn’t fit in the tee, even though it was a size Large. I had to run to Target the night before to find an XXL shirt that coordinated with the official event t-shirts. It fits now though - a decade later!
COVID-19 & LIFE
Obviously life has been different here lately. Before the Tulsa-area went on shutdown, my partner and I had already decided to practice social distancing to the max. By the time Tulsa tightened restrictions, we were already working remote and staying close to home.
We’ve had a lot of pajama days around these parts and lots of puzzles, board games, card games, chess and video games to pass the time.
I’m lucky enough to work remotely full time, so there wasn’t much of a transition for me.
The kiddo is homeschooled through a local charter school, so this was also a pretty smooth transition for him, other than school was put on hold for a few weeks.
My guy has had the biggest adjustment professionally but has sailed through it like the pro he is.
This has been an incredibly stressful time for everyone. I feel fortunate that I’m surrounded by people who have been focused on supporting each other and making the most out of everything. Like I mentioned, we’ve had lots of family time and game nights.
But, when our respective gyms both closed, my partner and I needed to figure out how to adjust so that we didn’t derail our progress while we still maintained our safety and level of activity.
Enter: our new bikes.
In addition to taking longer walks as often as we can, we’ve been putting these babies to work, cycling all over town and the metro.
Between sensible eating, staying active with walking, jogging and biking, we’ve both managed to continue shaving off body fat during this epidemic, which is miraculous to me considering we haven’t been to the gym in 6 weeks and we’re home all day surrounded by food. That time outdoors, and burning off energy, has also helped us manage the feeling of confinement we’re all dealing with.
We can’t wait for life to get back to normal, but we’ve enjoyed the time slowing down and being together too. We are staying safe and taking care of each other. I hope you are too.
I’ll be back soon with a recipe that’s become a family fav through this quarantine; it’s so easy and so good!