The Importance of Self Care

Have you ever flown in a plane and heard the instructions about oxygen masks? You know, the one that tells adults to put masks on first, then assist children? There is a reason for that. If the adults pass out from lack of oxygen, then they can’t assist the children. In order to be a help, adults must take care of themselves first.

You can’t squeeze water from a dry sponge, remember?

Sometimes, especially as moms, we forget this.  We take care of everyone else before ourselves. We put ourselves last and hope there’s enough left over at the end.

On Monday morning, my lack of self care came back to bite me.  I was making breakfast at my moms house, and in the middle of flipping a pancake, I hit the floor.  Passed out cold.  No warning, no symptoms. Standing one second, flat on the floor the next.

As I’m writing this post on Tuesday, I feel like I’ve been in a car wreck.  My head hurts from the impact of the floor.  My neck aches and I have a massive bruise on my hip.

Both my mom and my husband insisted I go to the ER to be checked out.  While the ER doctor recommended further testing, they did find that my blood glucose levels were very low.  And I had eaten peanut butter crackers AND drank a small Mt. Dew on the way to the hospital and my blood glucose was a 73.  The physician estimated that earlier in the morning my sugar reading would have been in the low 30’s.  Perfect explanation for my ‘episode’.

Thinking back over the previous day’s nutrition, it’s really no surprise that my blood sugar was low.  I ate crap.  For breakfast, I had the girls leftovers.  I did have a fairly decent lunch because we went out, but then supper was junk again.  Not because I wasn’t hungry or I was necessarily wanting to eat junk, but because I didn’t take the time to make sure I was eating enough or well.

You guys, I cannot take care of my kids if I don’t first take care of myself.  I know this is not something world-shattering, but sometimes it takes a scary episode to remind us of something we should have already known.

Let’s make a pact to take care of ourselves, ok?  To eat often and well.  Healthy foods more than junk.  Not because we want to lose weight or fit into our clothes better, but because we need to eat well to live well.  And because we don’t want to give our moms heart attacks by passing out in their kitchens.