A few weeks ago Butterfly Wife posted on her blog a question - should she change her blog name to Does This Army Make My Butt Look Big?
What a timely question (and I nearly died laughing reading the newly proposed title!). Just the last few weeks I've been wondering something close to that myself - Does this pre-deployment make my butt look big? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes.
For the record, I'm not blaming anyone, any entity, or anything outside of my own self for the state of my rear (and arms, and legs, etc ad infinitum). I know darn well that I made the choice to eat that, not do that exercise, and so on. However, I also figured out last go-round that pre-deployment certainly makes it a lot easier to throw caution to the winds!
In a nutshell, knowing that the love of your life is going to be gone for a year (or more) and with the beginnings of anticipatory grief making themselves heard, who can say no to just one more trip to Baskin Robbins when the husband says he'd like to go just one more time? Of course, it won't be the last time, but I pretend not to realize that...
And then there's the exercise issue. When Air Force Guy is home, I'm not moving from his side. If he's on the couch surfing the internet, so am I. Or I'm reading. Or knitting/crocheting. The point is that I'm not exercising. And if I don't exercise before a certain time of the day I won't at all because I don't want my husband's last memories of me to include frizzy ponytails, voluminous stank, and sweat marks under my arms and in my butt-crack.
Once again, I realize that is utterly ridiculous, since the man has been present and seen me giving birth multiple times(and since we had home-births he had to participate a bit more than he was anticipating). Honestly, I can't think of a time I looked more unappetizing than while I was giving birth. Lucky for me it went quick each time.
Anyway, I realize this is all mental, and quite of a bit of it is silly but it also is what it is. It is how I cope with those last few days before my husband leaves. And since I analyze everything in life to death I've also analyzed my propensity to gain "The Pre-Deployment Fifteen."
What it boils down to for me, in the end, is this: I know that I'll get immediately back into a workout and healthy diet routine when AFG leaves, and I'll keep that routine when he gets home and deployment is not looming on the horizon any longer. I always do, and by this point I've had a lot of experience in what to expect from this whole roller coaster! But for now, for these last few weeks I'd much rather have a bit of a yo-yo trip on the scale than regret forever that I didn't take that last trip to Baskin Robbins with my husband when I had the chance.
It's my normal - and it doesn't work for everyone. Some couples work out together and they spend more time doing that as deployment looms. It's their comfort zone. Other couples aren't as interested in various types of food and the whole eating experience (it is an experience with us, not just a meal) and would rather take a walk, read a book together, work on a car, go fishing, go camping, or whatever works for them.
And that's all good. We do some of that, too. One of the recurring themes on SpouseBUZZ is that everything in our lives is related, but it's all snowflakes. We all approach our issues differently and need to do what works best for us. Our coping skills are not everyone's coping skills (although there's quite a bit of overlap most of the time!).
So, if you happen to see me before the end of August (when I should be back into my "regular" jeans and not my "oops I had too much mint chip" jeans), you are now fully apprised of what is going on. On the bright side, by the time AFG leaves I should be so sick of mint chip ice cream that I'll never want to look at it again.
Until his next deployment looms, that is.
