In one of my gyno visits, before conceiving Achilles, my doctor asked me how much I wanted to weigh after giving birth. Naturally, I wanted to stay around my weight, so he suggested losing 20-25 pounds before getting pregnant. And I did just that. In about 3 months, I lost 20 pounds. I worked out daily well into my pregnancy, and didn’t gain much weight until the third trimester. After I gave birth, I was back down to about 10 pounds from the weight I was before losing the weight. All of my clothes still fit me, and I barely looked like I had been pregnant at all.

I thought nursing would expedite my weight loss, but I wasn’t one of the “lucky” ones. Instead, I put on weight. I was always so hungry and lack of sleep made me lethargic. I also felt sorry for myself and would excuse my laziness with self pity; after all, I barely slept!

Fast forward to a year and three months later (last Sunday), and I am still 15 pounds away from my average weight. But what’s worse is that I had given up on any physical activity because “I didn’t have time”.

But what I hadn’t realized was that I had so much time. Last week, I saw a friend documenting her anywhere workouts on her instastory, and I thought to myself: that’s what I should be doing; we even chatted about it for a bit, admitting how easy it is to become lazy and sedentary. But still, that wasn’t enough. I had gone on a walk that day because I had resolved to incorporate more physical activity into my life, but it was the only day that week where I found the coveted “extra time” to work out.

And then it happened. Sunday night I couldn’t sleep, and I picked up my phone as usual, except this time I noticed an alert for “screentime” appear. I had never noticed it before, so I did some further investigation. I was disgusted at the data I saw. I had spent 38 hours that week on my phone, most of it on social media and messages. Granted, I hadn’t gotten my laptop yet, and I was virtually working from my phone, but it was still unacceptable. A little Instagram here, a little Facebook there, and a little WhatsApp too had amounted to hours of my week!

There I was, not working out because I felt that if I didn’t do at least an hour, I hadn’t done enough, but this feature on my phone had reminded me that a little bit here and there adds up. So I resolved to change that. Less screen time, more physical activity time, more family time, more me time, more anything-but-my-phone time. And I put that into practice Monday morning.Since then, I have accomplished so much. Whenever I get the urge to pick up my phone and IG, I make sure to get up and do something I’ve been meaning to do like organize a closet or do some wall pushups or spend time with Achilles. And it’s worked. I feel motivated and full of energy. I am doing so much more than I was doing before, and it’s great!

This is not my New Years resolution, it is my new life resolution.

Yes, I still have to be on my phone (and now my laptop) to do my social media work, etc., but I now limit my time and focus on just that at scheduled times throughout the day. Instead of sitting in front of a screen for hours, I’m putting my phone down and living my life more.

It’s exhilarating and liberating, and I’m glad I realized it.