The first day back from anything is hard. Take the first day back from a long vacation. You can’t wait to sleep in your own bed or lose the constant state of transition. But coming back from vacation is like waking up from a deep and restful sleep – well at least when you’re on vacation at an all-inclusive resort without a care in the world. Who gets to take those vacations? No matter, it’s still a rough reentry – there are bags to be unpacked and put away, laundry to be done, groceries to buy, prepping for the next day, e-mails or phone calls to return, etc, etc.

Or for my mommas out there, the first day back home with your new baby (or sometimes, the second or third day because the first day you might still be in a bit of a medicated haze). Talk about rough – sure the baby sleeps all day but thank God because most of us have no idea what we’re doing – heaven help us if the baby were more awake those first few days/weeks. Again, it’s so nice to be back in your own home, your own bed, with your own food. But then again, there’s no nurse call button at home. There’s no nursery to whisk baby away to should you need a few hours of sleep.

Monday was my first day back to work out at Crossfit. Wow. Following my theory, it was a rough first day back. Is it bad that I could feel the soreness settling in my quads the first hour after my workout? It’s almost as if I had never done a Crossfit workout before. But something had to change. I recently started running and playing soccer again because I like the feeling of fitness. I don’t always like the work involved, but I like it when I can play an entire game of soccer and not have to stop at the first pharmacy to grab ibuprofen because my back is so sore. I would like to say that it was the second pregnancy that caused me to veer off track, but the reality is that I had begun my downward spiral long before I got pregnant. I was sneaking soft drinks and cookies when I could. It might have been some emotional eating, but we won’t dwell on the past. So here I am coming back from my all-inclusive vacation of eating what I want and stuffing as much of it as I can get in my mouth at once with minimal physical activity. On the upside…it’s better than answering e-mails on a Monday morning.