After almost 6 years I have made the hard decision to stop blogging.  The truth is that I have been writing less and less over that last 2-3 years since I picked up coaching.  Honestly, in 2017 I struggled to get a post up once a week.  

It is not that I don’t have stories to tell.  I have tons to write about, but there just is not enough time in the day to get everything done. 

I teach elementary school full time, coach an amazing group of strong, fabulous female runners, and in addition to that work part-time as the Social Media Manager and Ambassador/Squad Team Coordinator for a business I LOVE and want to do more for.  Toss trying to find the time to do my own marathon training in with the 3 jobs and the truth was that something had to go.  Don’t even think about trying to figure out how to get enough sleep and find time to have a social life too – I am still working on that (unsuccessfully I might add).

This does not mean that I will not be around.  I’ll still be active on Instagram so be sure to follow me at www.instagram.com/BackatSquare0

Also, I am still taking on run coaching clients so please visit my information page for more details.

Since I had to cancel my flight to the Chicago Marathon, thanks broken ankle, I had some airline cash to use up before the end of the year.  Being a teacher I don’t really get much time off (3 personal days a year) so I booked a flight back to Indianapolis over Christmas vacation to see my amazing family.

It is really cold in Indy, supposed to get down to a real temperature of –12 degrees this weekend, so other than a Pacers basketball game last night (my Christmas gift to Jack) we are all hanging out in the house.  We are enjoying watching movies, playing games, and I am having the most amazing time just staring at the cute kids.

I am not going to lie, I am very ready to say goodbye to 2017.  Something about ringing in a brand new year just seems like the fresh start that I need.  See, the last 3 years have not been kind to me.

2015 & 2016 – 
My health crashed downhill.  I was constantly exhausted sleeping 16 – 20 hours a day on weekends and falling into bed by 5/6pm every night after work.  Because I was sleeping all the time I stopped my regular workouts and only exercised on the two weekend days.

No matter how healthy I ate I was gaining weight pretty quickly.  In the end I put on 50 pounds and nothing seemed to get it off.  On top of the exhaustion and the weight gain I was sick all the time too.  I had shingles 6 times during these two years, along with numerous stomach bugs, colds, and sinus infections.  It was miserable. 
 
However, perhaps the worst of it all was bouncing from specialist to specialist.  Over the 2 years I saw 6/7 specialists who all agreed there was something very wrong with me, but couldn’t figure out what it was.  Each one sent me to another specialist so I spent months and months waiting for specialist appointments to become ready, and racking up medical bills.  In two years I owed so much out of pocket medical bill money it was equivalent to the cost of my car and pushed me into huge debt.

2017 – 
In February, after two full years of searching, I finally found a doctor who was willing to try and treat me.  Woohoo!  My testosterone level was non-existent as my body had stopped producing it, and I had almost 3x as much estrogen as I needed.  I began treatment right away, and still to this day go in every 2 months for my checkups and hormone treatment.

Even with regulating my hormones my body was still constantly exhausted and after extensive testing they realized that my body was not producing enough T4 which is the thyroid’s essential piece for energy, fat burning, etc.  I started on thyroid meds in addition to my hormone therapy at the end of May and noticed a small improvement, but not much. 

So then, at the end of July we doubled my thyroid medicine to see how that helped out.  I was elated – I felt like I finally found something that worked and by the end of August I was noticing a difference.  (Honestly even with all the hormone therapy and thyroid meds I would still say I only have 80% of the energy level I used to have.  Plus, I struggle with weight a lot, even more than I used to which is tough.  However, that 80% is still a big improvement from where I was.)

Then, after I was finally starting to feel better and get back to training – BOOM – I fell down the stairs and broke my ankle.  Just when things were looking so good another huge setback and more medical bills… ugghhhh…

So, I figure my time is coming – it must be right?!  I’ll find a way to feel like myself again, to get back to running again, to ditch this extra weight so my clothes fit, to feel happier, healthier, and more energetic. 

Bring on 2018, it better be my year!