Change is Hard, Y'all! | The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans LLC

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Change is hard, y’all! As you are reading this post, I am helping my best friend load up a moving truck to move 1,000 miles away, to a state I’ve never visited. We’ve known each other since around 1998 (when our now-adult sons were just little boys) and we’ve been through a lot of tough times together. We have spent many hours together trying to navigate day to day life.

We’ve been through homeschooling challenges, difficulties, and fun. We’ve been through weight challenges and trying to figure out what works for the world we live in. She’s been through breast cancer and survived and thrived.
(She’s the reason I am such an adamant walker for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day.)

We’ve been through pregnancies that resulted in wonderful little boys who are now 11 and 12 years old. Our boys have literally grown up together since they were itty-bitty babies.

She’s helped me move across town again and again. She’s helped me take care of my son when I had to take a job. She’s been my go-to person when I need a friend to pray with/for me. She’s the friend that I needed when we moved to Dallas back in 1995 (even if it took a few years to find her).  She has been my sounding block for most anything I’ve needed to sound off for over the past 15 years. She has been a constant companion that was always ready to go grab a coke and a chat. She has listened to me ramble about important things and she’s listened to me ramble about not so important things.

But, as I said changes are hard! She’s moving away this weekend and our main connection will be FaceTime and text messages. There will no longer be the afternoon coke breaks. There will no longer be the weekend lunches or quick shopping trips. We will no longer have the driving-around-town just so we don’t have to go back home chats. I am going to miss these afternoon get-togethers.

Typically, when I am going through a hard change (no matter what that change is), I forget abou all things health and fitness, but I have really been working hard to make this time different. I have to make my health a priority even when I want to cry myself goofy, and that means I need to not let this move get me down the road of not taking care of myself. I learned through my 5 weeks of Whole30 that gluten really bothers me, so I have been trying to avoid it. Previously, I would have said, “Screw it! I want what I want so I’m going to have it”! This difficult time has found me being more conscious of what I’m eating and drinking. This difficult time has made me want to be more physically active, too! In times past, when I am sad or upset about something, I would just sit around and mope and feel sorry for myself. This time, I am getting off my butt and putting some action to my words. I have gone for walks when I wanted to let my mind wander. I have gone to help pack, even though I know that by helping her family pack, that means less time with her.

The bottom line is…..she is moving. She is moving whether I sit on my butt and cry into my chips and queso or if I cry into the box of stuff I am helping load up! Neither one of my actions is going to change the outcome; she’s leaving Sunday morning.

Regardless of what I do or don’t do, we each have to take responsibility for our own actions. We have the power to change ourselves and no one else. And whether the change that we are looking at is losing weight, gaining muscle, or seeing your best friend move away, we each have to Wo“MAN UP” and accept the changes that are in front of us. We must take control of our own life, for us to make our own future, and we have to stop looking for all the excuses and reasons why we can’t. We all have opportunities in front of us every day to make changes that are hard. It will be worth it in the end.

The first step is to make the small changes necessary to get started. Take it one step, one decision at a time. Decide for yourself how you want to your future to look and make the decisions needed to make it happen.

xoxoxo,

Ann

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