Painting Mishap and Weight Gain

 I was struggling before the pandemic even started. I hadn't gotten into a groove working at home and being around my kitchen all day wasn't helping. I started the pandemic at almost 240 lbs, almost 10 lbs higher than I had been 9 months pregnant with my son (10 lbs less than 9 months pregnant with my daughter).

I immediately felt completely stressed by the pandemic. I had anxiety and panic attacks which I never had. I hoarded food like crazy, I was terrified of getting covid, worried that being obese and not knowing if I had high blood pressure or diabetes and what that could mean. I bought tons of comfort food. Within a month I was no longer wearing jeans "to work" but wore comfy clothes (because the rest of my family was....and my clothes were getting a little tight).

I had my physical in July and I was 255 lbs. I said I wanted a weight and blood pressure check (because my BP was a little elevated, first time ever) a month later but I blew it off after I got home from the doctor and saw that the nurse had written my weight as 245 not 255 and my BP wasn't right either. I told myself I would re-schedule the appointment when I got below 245. This was when we thought the pandemic would be over by the end of the summer.

But then I had something new to panic about. My client was going away and I was at serious risk of losing my job at the end of September and being in IT my husband's job isn't always secure and our bank account was pretty low and we heard companies were laying off people without severance and that trying to get unemployment was a full-time job because so many people were out of work. So I was completely panicked about our finances. I handle all of our finances. Needless to say the scale wasn't going down, it was going up. I can't remember when I actually stepped on the scale and it was 270.

In the spring of 2020 I was still trying to be somewhat active. Not needing to get kids out the door allowed me time to go for a walk in the morning. But then the painting happened.....

Even before the pandemic the plan was to re-do the kids' room. In March right before everything shut down we got their closets professionally done. But I couldn't get a painter in, so I decided to do it myself. Despite the picture of my daughter painting, she painted about the size of the blue - I did all the rest. My husband doesn't paint (he does a lot of wonderful things, but not paint). 

After 4 days of prepping and painting my abs were killing me. A lot. I joked to myself about using muscles I wasn't used to. The muscular pain went away but all of a sudden I was looking 20 months pregnant. I had my physical a couple of weeks later and she told me to work with a PT to strengthen my core, but I knew it was something more.

After that I pretty much stopped exercising and stopped going out a lot because I hated feeling/looking so pregnant. And it got worse as time went on. Both physically and mentally.

We did get this in March 2021. I used it for about 6 weeks and then not again. I do love it. I just have to get into the routine.

Next post will be where am I now.....