Putting on your own oxygen mask first

Seven years ago, I asked my new work colleague if he wanted to go to an event at the Vatican Embassy here in Washington, D.C. with me. He accepted and we met at the embassy as friends. I will never forget standing in the corner of the large room upstairs with a table of food spread out in front of us, when he said to me, "I read your blog post about your sister..." I was caught off-guard by his comment as he was probably one of ten people total who read that blog post. This man had done his homework. Not only that, but he seemed pretty moved by what I wrote and connected with it deeply in his own life.

It came as a great surprise to me then, but probably not to any of you reading this today, that the night at the embassy became our "last first date." Three years to the day later, we said "I do" in the middle of a global pandemic, under a marble dome on the National Mall. From an embassy to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, ours seems like a fairly DC centric fairy tale.

I start this first post back into the blogging space with that story because it remains the only time anyone ever told me, "I read your blog post." But if that blog post was good enough to land me a marriage proposal, certainly I should give it another go, right?

Life is very different today than it was back then. I'm now both a wife and a mom, as we've had two children in the last three years. I am deep in the trenches of the early motherhood space with a 2-year-old girl and a 10-month-old boy occupying a giant portion of my brain power and time.

But there is nothing like having a child to snap your priorities into perspective. I've always been passionate about the wellness space and I find my desire to focus on my family's health and well-being stronger than ever. As a certified health coach and fitness instructor, I know what I should be doing for my family's health, but knowing it is much easier than living it out every day. My goal here is to find - through trial and error - healthy solutions that actually work for you and your family. 

To kick it off, I'll be going on my own health journey and taking you with me. I've spent the entirety of the last four years either pregnant or breastfeeding. In that time, I carried three pregnancies - two to full term and one ending in a miscarriage. My body is drained, and my posture seems stuck in a hunched over position. As my son nears the one-year-old mile marker, it really does feel like I am coming up for air for the first time in a long while. It's time to do what they keep telling me to do on the airplane when I'm with my children: "Ma'am, please put on your own oxygen mask first."