Go on girl, get your healthy on!

So I have been working on my health on all levels. Notice that I stated "working on".  I am a constant work in progress. I'd always focused on weight, diet & exercise (the obvious), however, it never occurred to me that I should look at everything in my life that could make me unhealthy. What about stress at work, unhappiness, trouble in friendships & clutter in my environment, etc. Turns out those things absolutely matter.

A friend of mine, Christina, who is a registered nurse, decided to take a different approach with medicine and received a certification from Duke University's Integrative Medicine program recently. She learned to look at an individual as a whole and assess all aspects of that person's life that could be causing illness. She accomplishes these assessments in coaching sessions. It's a holistic approach to getting healthy in all areas of your life.

I decided to take coaching sessions from Christina & it's changed my life. I have a much different approach to life since. I am the happy person again that I had always been, but had lost along the way during my "growing up" years. Those years are when I began to really feel the stress of the economy, constant fears of layoffs, loss of income, etc.

I had not only gained weight, but had become a bitter person in many ways & was incredibly unhappy. I can't say I'm 100% the picture of health now because I'm simply not, but my approach to dealing with many issues has changed for the better greatly.

I spend most days now laughing and enjoying the possibilities of all the that life has in store for me. That makes for a great foundation to tackle some of the more difficult struggles that I encounter in my road to be a healthier person.

Back in August I once again started that familiar "get healthy" goal and joined a running group training for a 1/2 marathon, but got off track when life got super hectic. Since then I've found it hard to get back on track.

Lately my excuse is that it getting dark too quick after I get home from work. This is seriously a silly excuse for me because when I was doing well with my running goal I was getting up consistently 3 days during the work week and out the door by 4:45 am (in the dark) and running outside with my dog. Then I'd happily wake up and get to the running group Saturday morning for 6am long runs.

So what exactly is my deal these days you may ask? Well, if I have to be honest I'm just giving lame excuses. I simply need to stop the excuses and get up and DO IT! Doesn't matter that it's dark out, will be getting chilly (eventually), rainy possibly here and there....bottom line is I need to simply just get up and run again.

If I find it hard to get up I need to sleep in my running clothes again & set several alarms that scream at me to get up. I need to plan out meals once a week for the entire week and a come up with alternatives for the days that someone side tracks me because life does happen & the unexpected does occur. I need to have a back up plan for the days when life gets in the way of my goal.

I'm finding motivation in many healthy living blogs I've come across. Blogging is new to me as you can see by my archives, but it seems like the perfect journal to keep record of progress. I will forever be grateful to Christina for introducing me to a way of living better; for teaching me that I can choose to live life positively and change the areas in my life that I am unhappy with.

Here's to starting at the beginning again :). Day 1 of 1/2 marathon training again; can't wait for sore limbs the next couple days! They're my reminder of the good I'm doing my body.

My ultimate goal you may think may be a set amount of weight loss, but nope. I figure if I keep up with a consistent training schedule and nourish my body with good, whole foods and limit the processed food well where else will the scale number go, but south.

I want to be able to be so confident in my snowboarding skills (I currently am a horrible snowboarder; but, love, love, love it none the less) that I can master some crazy snowboarding tricks! I have this dream to be able to learn tricks on a half pipe. 

Definition of Love

Thought I'd share the image of the front of a wedding card that I bought. I loved it so much that I had to take a picture of it.

Maybe I will copy the words onto a cute pillow that I make? Must find a good 'how to' on Pinterest decorative pillow making!

I feel I should personalize this definition with the following: getting up to drive to the grocery store during half time of the Broncos game when you are a die hard fan because your whiney girlfriend has a craving for pumpkin ice cream only to come back home & find her sleeping.

Yup folks, I am guilty of being that whiney girlfriend. Bless Kelly's heart, that really happened to him. Love that boy!

Also took a picture of the letter E while at the zoo. Let's face it, it's the best letter in the alphabet :)

Lions, Tigers, & Bears Oh My!

This weekend was full of monkeying around. No seriously, it really was because I visited the zoo!   Hehe, I crack myself up!

I always love walking around the zoo in great 80 something degrees weather. I can't wait for a few more weeks when the zoo puts on its annual Zoolights event for the holidays. Just give me hot chocolate and sneakers and I'm a happy girl while I wander around and gaze at all the pretty lights.

To top off the awesome zoo experience Kelly got pooped on by a bird & it landed on his toe which was full on exposed as he was wearing flip flops. Both an eww moment as well as one with a bit of uncontrollabe laughter!

At least it's considered good luck, or at least I was told that by my friend, Kristen. Maybe that will smooth things over once I tell Kelly that bit of info as I think he currently has a bounty on the bird's head, haha!

Here are a few residents of the zoo....

Highlights

This week was great! Read below why....happy reading!

a. It was my first full week with my new hair cut. Still working on styling it cute daily, but it looks sooooo much healthier!

b. I am now writing in the blog week days. Yay, for achieving goals!

c. First year staying home & passing out candy on Halloween. The bag I bought had 160 piecees. After the trick or treaters there are 39 left & I only gave 1 piece per person!

d. Will be having dinner tonight with a friend who is having her baby soon. Last hurrah before baby's here!

Yay for the arrival of the weekend! Have plans to visit the zoo & catch up with a friend over the weekend .  

Life is good

This past weekend I was a bridesmaid in the wedding of a friend I have known since age 11. I'm now 30! Out of her of 6 bridesmaids, 4 of us can say the exact same thing. Kinda cool right!

I consider these friendships a huge blessing.  When others ask about this specific group of friends & I tell them how far we go back often they are surprised. I've found it's not as common, but perhaps that's because I now live in a large city? I grew up in a small town. Either way, old friends or new friends, life is good when you find great friendship.

Here are a couple pics of two of my friends/bridesmaids. These two I've been friends with since we were 6 years old! Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the bride on my own. I'll have to wait until the wedding photographer pictures are available.

Also, I decided to make a very last minute Halloween costume for my dog, Molly, to match my friend's little girls tutu :) Poor Molly, the torture she endures, haha!

Colorado! Oh how i love thee!

Back in September I visited Colorado for the first time with my boyfriend and I have to say I have a new love...ummm, Colorado of course! It is so beautiful, but what really stuck out was how friendly the people were.

I mean they actually didn't honk immediately after the light turned green if your foot wasn't off the gas pedal super sonic lighting speed fast. They didn't try to mow you down if you were crossing an intersection by foot as if they were collecting points in a video game for each person they hit. Get this, they actually followed the speed limit and were careful with those in the bike lanes.

Most impressive though was how many people just simply liked to spend time walking, jogging, biking, hang gliding, skateboarding, hiking, kayaking....the list could go on & on with various adventure worthy activities.  Bottom line folks in Colorado just love living. I mean they created a river in lower downtown Denver that has kayakers working it everyday, amazing!!!!

This is a state I want to move too!

Neglect

Oh blog how I've neglected you! 

It was my goal to get this blog just up & running, but I didn't realize how much time it takes to keep it up and how busy and distracted I can get. It's my goal this week to focus on this blog and from here on out write in it daily.  Fun times ahead!