Turning Pain Into Power With A Single Step

I should have known there would be monumental days in my life. April 11th is one of those for me. It's a date my body remembers, and my mind retreats from. It's the anniversary of our leaving the hospital after our son's Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis.

April 11th is also the birthdate of my Grandma Ruth (Gaga as she preferred). I miss her. Her love is at the core of who I am. I have fond memories of taking mountain walks with her. She had a painting over her couch—a custom piece of her walking along a dirt road with the Big Horns as the backdrop.

Those mountains and that dirt road are symbolic to me. My health journey has been a series of hills and valleys. The cycles of a diagnosis had become exhausting. I'd come across new bits of information that resonated to my core. I'd create a plan, go all in, see results, and then go one step forward, many steps back.

One such cycle started again in early 2021. I found a new plan for which I'd been building my mental game with the new year. In a particularly chaotic period, I decided to dive headfirst into the next phase of my nutrition.  Three weeks later, I got a spark of inspiration to walk at sunrise. I realized it was the first time my body and mind felt aligned in longer than I could remember. That painting of Gaga walking flashed in my mind as I remembered her. She loved to walk and did so every morning. That would become another layer of motivation for me. I knew my sign had arrived because I had asked for one. 

At that moment, I decided to make April 11th the day I would officially devote to the next phase of my journey. It would no longer be a day of heavy hearts and sadness, but instead the day I reclaimed my health.