the one with the red lights

Note: Tonight I'm going to take a little break from the "prepster" and talk a little more about the "within".

The roads in Gainesville have the ego of big city traffic. For whatever reason, this town of 100k residents has traffic that can take you 45 minutes to go 2 miles during rush hour. The worst offender is Archer Road, and I'm sure it doesn't help that it is filled with every chain restaurant and big box store - all within about a mile stretch, in addition to being a major thoroughfare from the hospital / university to the interstate. I normally avoid this road at all costs any time of day, but especially anytime near the evening rush hour. However, Friday I had to put on my city driver no mercy face to navigate the three west bound lanes to get to my doctor's office for a last minute appointment. The traffic gods must have been smiling on me yesterday, as I made it all the way from the hospital to Haile Village without hitting a single red light! I got to the doctor 20 minutes early, which gave me some time to enjoy Haile Village Center - a neighborhood whose condo rates also have the ego of a big city - but it is quite peaceful for those of us not shelling out that kind of money for a townhouse. Relaxing under the low hanging branches of trees with Pinterest-perfect lights strung from one to another, I thought about how this past week has been full of red lights. 

Haile Village Center at night

Whether it was spilling Alfredo sauce all over myself and my kitchen, which could have only been more complete with a Full House style laugh track; or getting a backhand smack to the face during an unfortunately crowded Zumba class - this week has not been going my way. 

Let's throw in that my work and lack of sleep schedules had me off track in my exercise routine and on another planet when it came to healthy eating options. Thursday night, dinner time came around 11pm two and half hours away from home. I felt like Lindsay Lohan's character in Freaky Friday eating my french fries from the McDonald's drive-thru (or would it technically be Jamie Lee Curtis' character? Deep thoughts...). I couldn't help myself from saying out loud over and over again "these are SO good" and other various noises displaying my level of satisfaction for those salty golden potato sticks. 

I also made some really bad decisions this week. After being Mt. Dew free for 6 weeks (after at least 10 years of averaging one or two a day), I caved and had Mt. Dew not once, not twice, but FOUR times this week! At first I didn't feel bad about it, it's my caffeine source of choice and I adjusted my calorie intake to not go over for the day. But then I had another. And another. And another. So now that I know I can't be trusted having 'just one', I must cut myself off again. But I don't wanna. But I must. 

Yesterday at the doctor's office I got some bittersweet news - after a month of unexplained neck pain, I found out I have two vertebrae out of alignment. Great to know that I'm not crazy making up the pain and also that there are ways to fix the problem. But of course who wants misaligned vertebrae? 

I could keep chalking up all these things to being 'red lights' in my life, causing me to stop on my journey and let life pass me by. However, the pasta alfredo was still delicious and getting smacked in the face isn't going to keep me from pretending I know how to booty shake and burn major calories in Zumba class.  Misaligned vertebrae may cause me to slow down and my decision to end my addiction to soda is obviously going to take some recommitment. These are all just yellow lights in life. I can choose to slow down and be aware of what's going on in order to make it through the intersection or I can hit the gas and not look back. Either way, there will be no more full on stops, no more red lights! 

No limits!