Healthier Living Challenge: Weeks 3 and 4

1/29/2017

I did not blog about my completion of my week 3 goals because I ended up giving myself a day off, therefore not fulfilling my goals each day of the week.  I did not complete all of my goals for week four either.

The last two weeks were filled with sickness and stresses beyond my control.  But I have started to feel better recently and am getting back on track with my aim to live a healthier life and be a healthier person in every way I can be. 

I will fall down at times, like the last two weeks, but I will get back up again and move forward because I need to for myself and for my family and friends.

I finally weighed myself today after doing 4 weeks of this challenge.  So far I have lost 3 pounds in a healthy manor and am on target to be under 160 lbs by mid-February.  This is exciting for me.  Today I weighed in according to my scale at home at 162.8.  The last time I weighed myself I was 166.  So really I have lost over 3 lbs.  Not much for month but it is progress in the right direction.

My goals for week 5 deal with finding ways to destress, continue to exercise in creative ways during my chaotic day, and paying more attention to what I am putting in my body drink and food wise.

Onward and upward my friends!

Goals for Week 5: 1/29 - 2/5/2017
1) Drink 60 oz water daily minimum
2) 100 crunches and various exercise throughout the day
3) Fill half my plate with fruits and/or vegetables at each meal
4) Read at least 30 minutes a day

Healthier Living Challenge: Week 2

1/16/2017

This healthier living challenge is different than before.  I have less time to myself so I have to get really creative about movement and exercise each day as well as finding time to relax while taking care to my two very active boys.

My weekly goals that I set for myself are much different than the last time I did this.  I find myself writing down more goals that focus on mental and emotional health than physical.  But I have not forgotten about my physical health.  I am just realizing that for myself, I need to get into a healthier frame of mind before I can focus on my physical health. 

I am taking steps to do so.  I recently started on anti-anxiety medication and will in the near future be starting on the pill to get my female physiology back in order.  Good stuff happening here folks.

As for my goals for the week of 1/8 - 1/15, I completed two out of three.  I drank at least 60 oz of water a day and read for at least 30 minutes a day.  I did 100 crunches 5 out of 7 days last week and found various ways to get some form of exercise each day as well.

My goals for this week are more mental and emotional health focused again.  I am going to continue to work on getting into a routine of doing 100 crunches everyday and some form of other exercise throughout the day as well as time allows.

So onward and upward!

Goals for Week 3: 1/15 - 1/22
1) Drink 60 oz of water daily
2) 100 crunches daily and 5-10 minute intervals of exercise throughout the day
3) Log off Facebook every day by 7pm
4) Read for at least 30 minutes a day

Healthier Living Challenge 2017: Week 1

I gave myself 4 goals for week one of my 2017 healthier living challenge.  I accomplished 2 of the 4.  Getting back into this challenge I am giving myself has been harder this time around. 

For starters, I now have two kids to look after and take care of.  The first time I did this challenge I had one kid and therefore a bit more time to myself each day.

Juggling the needs of two kids is tough and adding more to my pile of things to do each day is exhausting.  But nonetheless, I am continuing forward with my healthier living challenge for this year.

For week 2, I am being more realistic with my goal to time ratio and have given myself 3 goals to accomplish each day.  They are not too strenuous, but will help me with my physical, mental and emotional needs.  Onward and upward I go!

Goals for Week 2: 1/8 - 1/15/2017
1) Drink at least 60 oz of water daily
2) 100 crunches a day and 5 - 10 minutes of various exercise throughout the day.
3) Read at least 30 minutes a day

Healthier Living Challenge 2017

Two years ago, I put myself through a healthier living challenge for an entire year.  Each week I would give myself some goals to work on, some to complete and then blog about my progress or problem spots the following week. 

I have decided to do the healthier living challenge again this year.  I will be working on my physical, mental and emotional health throughout this year with the goal of making permanent, healthy lifestyle changes by the end of 2017.

So here I go!

Goals for 1/1 - 1/8/2017
1) Read devotion and journal at least 3 times during the week
2) Read at least 30 minutes each day
3) Do 100 crunches and 5-10 minute increments of various forms of exercise movements throughout the day all week
4) Be in contact with friends I haven't seen in a while.

October 25th...

This date on the calendar since 2007 is always a struggle for me.

Let me explain the best I can.  I don't talk about this ever so my thoughts will probably be jumbled at times.  On October 25, 2007, I was finishing up my long stretch of work at both of my jobs.  At the time I worked two jobs, one in clothing retail and one at a law office in downtown Minneapolis. 

Once I finished working for the day, I was going to join some friends from seminary to hang out for a bit and then head back to my apartment to pack for my long weekend off of work for a friend from seminary's wedding that Saturday.

Unbeknownst to me, that same day, my new friend since the 4th of July, Katherine Olson had been lured to a crazy person's house under the pretense of a nanny job from Craigslist.  She was found the next morning having been shot in the back, shoved in the trunk of her car, bled out in an empty parking lot.

I did not find out about any of this until a few days later.

I was getting ready to drive to a meeting for the trip to the Holy Land I was going on through Luther Seminary in January 2008.  I was to pick up my friend Veronica on the way so I called her to figure out what time she wanted me to pick her up.

That is when I found out.  I mostly remember thinking "this can't be happening".  But it didn't take me long to understand what she was saying to me.  I sat in my car numb for a while and once I could convince myself to move again, I went inside my parent's house and said in monotone what Veronica told me about what happened to our friend Katherine.

My dad showed me the paper and there she was.  My friend smiling back at me.  But she was gone.  It took a while for it to compute.  When it finally all hit me, I was at the Fireside Apple Orchard just outside of my hometown with my mom and I completely fell apart.

The next few days were a blur, completely numb.  I know I cried a lot.  I went to work at the law office but called in at the clothes store and got off until Thursday.  But mostly it was like watching myself go through the motions but feeling nothing.  I stared at nothing a lot and tried not to cry at work, especially the Monday after when it was the hot topic of the office.

I wanted to scream and cry, but I also needed to hold it together.  It was for a long time one of the worst weeks of my life.

I spent a lot of time with people who were also grieving Katherine's loss because they were going through it with me and I with them.

How do you talk to someone about something so horrific, the murder of a friend, family member someone you know, who hasn't gone through it themselves?  So for the most part, I don't talk about it.

I don't talk about the misery and pain of October 25th - October 31st.  It doesn't help to talk about the horror of it, the evil way many of us lost our friend Katherine.

Instead, I think about the day I met Katherine, on the 4th of July a few months before her death.  She was asking me if I was dating anyone and I answered that I wasn't.  I said I had no interest in dating someone from seminary, especially someone who was going to be a pastor.

She laughed and said I bet you will end up marrying a pastor and having kids.  I said back, yeah right, never going to happen.

It's funny to look back now at how prophetic this conversation was.  I am married, to someone who is a pastor and we have two amazing boys.  These are the things I like to remember about Katherine.  Her little Facebook private and public messages of encouragement when I posted that I was having a rough day.  Those things are what I choose to remember about my friend most of the year.  Only during this week does the horror show it's ugly face and I am taken back to those dark days.  When it gets really bad, I make myself remember our 4th of July conversation and give my husband and boys extra hugs.

One other thing I think about is how people can form strong bonds when faced with such tragedy.  Not long after Katherine's death, I joined a small group of women to do a book study on the book Velvet Elvis.  Most of the ladies participating were acquaintances or friends of Katherine.  These women will forever be an important part of my life.  I love them like family even though we don't see each other anymore either do to distance, schedules or other reasons.  But the ladies in that group helped me heal and I will always be grateful for them.

And so today I quietly mourn the loss of my friend Katherine after 9 years of her being gone.  I know we will meet again, but until then I will carry on and live life to the fullest as I know she would be doing if she were still with us.

Sleep Deprivation and Sesame Street

Last night my oldest son slept like crap.  So today is another sleep deprived day.

He is emotional about everything.  He is set off by the smallest noise or action he deems threatening to his control.

He spent over 30 minutes in hysterics because his younger brother was scooting around the dining room in his walker and then rolling around on the floor.  This is nothing new but as parents my husband and I have decided to let our oldest freak out so that our youngest can get some good exercise daily and learn to get around on his own.

My oldest has control issues stemming from his speech issues and years of health issues.  He had RSV when he was 6 months old and since then a variety of health problems have appeared and made his life hard.  One of the biggest was delay of verbal communication.  Another one is constipation and he just recently in the past month had his tonsils and adenoids removed.

With all of his health issues, he has developed control issues on certain things, mostly these days dealing with his brother being mobile.  But unfortunately for our oldest son, he is going to have a hard time for a while as we allow our youngest to move around more.

We are hoping that as he sees his younger brother being mobile throughout the day, he'll just stop caring and it will just be part of normal daily life.  Hopefully this happens sooner rather than later.

After being in hysterics for almost an hour before lunch and throughout most of lunch, our oldest has finally calmed down.  Our youngest is napping and the oldest is watching Sesame Street calmly.

There is nothing like a little Sesame Street "Learning About Numbers" to relax a sleep deprived kid and momma after having a rough morning.

I pray daily that our oldest son is one day healthy and happy like the other kids he spends time with.  He is better than before he had his tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, but there is still a long way to go before he can be considered in the average health range. 

For now this sleep deprived momma and our oldest son are going to watch Sesame Street some more and maybe I will sneak in a quick nap while my kiddo is distracted.

Random jumble of thoughts...

Ever since I decided to try being a blogger again, I have had a lot of random jumbles of thoughts on what to blog about.

In my I'm back post, I wrote that I was going to blog about whatever was on my mind that day or at the time I sat down to type.

Since then, I have been musing about possible themes to blog on.

On idea I came up with is to blog about the scripture passage in my daily devotional.

Another idea was that I start another year long blog that I update once a week to show my progress.

I started doing a weekly gratitude challenge, but had to stop because I was in a really low place and couldn't fake feeling gratitude at that time.

Or I can just stick to my original plan and blog about whatever comes to mind when I feel the urge to post a blog update.

So many options to choose from.  I haven't fully settled on what I am going to do yet for the rest of 2016, but have some great ideas that I will share in my next post for 2017. 

I mostly just blog for myself anyway, but if I do have any followers out there, stay tuned for more updates as I figure out this whole blogging sphere all over again.