Changes

I feel a little bit like I should preface the blog change. We’ve been trying to change a lot of things in our lifestyle lately, and even though I know people will think it’s weird, I feel like I might as well blog about it. I also don’t want to be one of those pushy people who is always confrontational, attacking other people’s lifestyles simply because they’ve chosen a different one. Mostly this is just becoming my place to write about what I want. That’s all.

Since I was probably 14, I’ve had this vision in my head of what my life will be like 50 years from now. I will travel, grocery shop, cook, taste food, fly planes, ride horses, shoot guns, climb mountains, hang glide, sky dive, ride in hot-air balloons, wear pretty shoes, have a garden, take road trips, spring-clean every month, go to the temple, say prayers at night, argue about the Sunday School lesson, go walking, people-watch, sleep with the windows open and a fan on, listen to the birds in the morning, listen to thunderstorms at night, and more, all with my best friend in the whole world.

Even though I know it probably sounds a little bit crazy, I just want to be like my grandparents, who did EVERYTHING together. I never saw them without each other, and I remember once my mom talked about them and how they were such good friends, they did everything together just because they could. They went grocery shopping together, went walking together, travelled everywhere together, made food together, and talked to their grandchildren together. I think the only thing my grandpa did by himself was fix electrical appliances.

Laying aside the difficulties of actually trying to be friends with my husband now that I have one (they always say the first year is the hardest, so maybe as of Saturday it’ll be easier…) when I picture myself and my best friend in 50 years, we’re still both able to walk, able to travel, able to think quickly, able to move quickly, and alive. I want to live as long as I can, and I want to really LIVE until I die. And I want to be with my best friend until I die.  I really don’t want to spend any lengthy amount of time without him. Ever.

My family has a history of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. I have watched several family members come face to face with death, and have to dramatically change their lifestyle in order to stay alive. Usually, their wives are the driving force behind their lifestyle change. I decided a few months ago that I don’t want to wait to change my lifestyle until I have to do it out of fear. I want to do it now. I want to keep my buddy around for as long as possible, and I want the time to be fun, active, and full of life.

When we got married, Jubal and I both gained weight. I haven’t gained a lot, I can still fit in my old clothes, they just don’t look quite as good. Jubal gained a lot over our first summer, but lost almost all of it during the winter when he started exercising. But I worried. If we have a hard time keeping off weight when we’re only 22, it is gonna be ridiculously hard when we’re older, especially as our lives get crazier, as I have kids, as we spend less and less of our time running up the stairs to our apartment when we forget things, and walking across campus as fast as we can while looking idiotic because we’re late for class. I took a hard look at our lifestyle, and identified the things that are really keeping us from being the best bodies we can be.

And together, we are changing. It’s not about losing weight, it’s not about being attractive, it’s not about moving to Oregon so we can be around people who are more ‘environmentally aware.’ It’s about wanting to be around, get around, and stay around. Ya know how you always see people with super nice cars, or super nice houses, and think ‘doesn’t that suck, that we have to wait to have the things we want until we’re old and can’t even use or clean them anymore?’ Well, since with our line of work, I KNOW it’ll be a long time til we can have anything nice (if ever) so I’d better just try to be in darn good shape when that time comes.