Of Mushroom Heads and Muffin Tops

Well, folks, I've decided to separate my health and wellness journal into a blog of it's own. It's at http://mushroommuffins.blogspot.com. If you'd like to check it out, you are more than welcome to. Along with the journaling, I'll be posting healthy recipes that I enjoy, discussing some of the workouts that I'm doing, and perhaps talking about other health-related subjects. I'd love to get tips/ideas/hints from you about how you stay in shape, lose weight quickly, or eat healthy on a tight budget. This note is really to let you know that I didn't give up on my journey to a healthier me after one day. :) Have a fabulous day everyone!

The Journaling Begins

Folks, I've decided to make this new exercise program into a workout for three parts of me: 1) Emotional me - which is rather overly emotional A LOT of the time, 2) Spiritual me - which can always be improved and enhanced, and 3) Physical me - we all know that I should not not not have a muffin top tummy....being a woman who awaits the opportunity to have children, but who has not enjoyed the blessing as of yet. :)

I love to read mommy blogs because they showcase what my mommy friends do so well, and that is to care for and love their kidlets. This requires a lot of self-sacrifice, and I admire all of my mommy friends immensely for the selfless service that they give on a minute-to-minute and second-to-second basis. I've noticed that the service often spills into all aspects of their lives. I've also observed that when you serve one person, or one family, the natural course of events leads you to greater service opportunities in other ares of life. Having seen this in the wonderful mothers and mothers-to-be around me, I want to go out and start a philanthropic organization, perhaps donate a kidney....or make some other sort of positive contribution to society. I am hoping that as I focus on making myself a better, more emotionally, spiritually and physically balanced person, that service opportunities in my community will be more apparent, and more appealing, to me.

The real purpose of this post is to start a daily exercise/nutrition/gratitude journal. This blog might be a bit boring for the next few months, but I'll try to spice it up with other tidbits.

Here goes:

Day 1 - 21 June 2009
EXERCISE:
None. Will do cardio tomorrow.

NUTRITION:
Breakfast - 2 whole wheat Eggo waffles with fresh peace slices on top.
Lunch - Roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli, half an avocado and half a tomato.
Snack - Chocolate protein shake.
Dinner - Salmon pasta salad. (Came up with my own recipe...shall be tweaking it in the near future because I think it has potential to be very scrumptious and healthy.)
Snack - Weight Watchers oreo cookie ice cream bar. (It's Sunday...the day of ice cream!).
Snack - Snitched a few bites of the leftover salmon salad.

GRATEFUL FOR:
1. My dad. (Happy Father's Day to a very smart/wise dad.... Even though he's been my dad for almost 28 years, I still have lots to learn from him.)
2. My job. I love genealogy very very very much, and I love helping other people discover their backgrounds just about as much as I love researching my own.
3. My legs. They work like a charm!
4. Spring flowers and summer vegetables.
5. The chance to say goodbye to people you love. (My brother and his family are moving to Georgia this week and I'll miss them sooooooooooo very much. They are letting me drop in on them quite late tonight so I can give them last-minute squeezes.)

Body....for Life!

Well, folks, I feel a bit strange as I type this post. Have you ever undergone periods where you felt like you were a piece of taffy right smack dab in the middle of a taffy pull? I know I have, and the pulling generally comes from three different sources:

1. First, I am stretched and pulled in different directions by life in general, much like the delightful taffy on this machine. This stuff is automatically stretched over and over and over and over and over and over again:



2. Second, I am also stretched (generally in positive ways) by different people in my life. Sometimes I feel like the taffy in this picture:



3. Third, I find that my own choices sometimes stretch me most of all, and not always in positive directions. The goal, of course, is to make better choices!

I like to imagine myself as peppermint taffy because, well, it's my favorite flavor in the entire taffy world.

Anyways, I've decided that if I liken my life unto being the taffy in the middle of a taffy pull, in the end, theoretically speaking, I can potentially be a tasty treat and a delight to people of all ages, right?

I hope to end up as a splendid snack, rather than any number of horrid-tasting substances. :) In the process, there are certainly lots of painful moments, and sometimes I forget what the final product is supposed to be like, look like, and, most importantly, feel like.

The stretching part is the best part of it all, and sometimes the most painful. One of the stretches that has been plaguing me lately is my weight. This problem I can only attribute to one source: me. I've never been athletic, but I've always wanted to be fit. I've always wished for more energy, and to be secure in my own skin (and secretly I've wanted to fit into my sister's beautiful wedding dress. Nope, I'm not getting married in the near future, but ever since my sister got married, I've wanted to be able to fit into her gown.)

I've found that making myself accountable to others is helpful when I set personal goals. So I'm setting a goal right here on the world wide web: I am taking the Body for Life Challenge! In the next 12 weeks I hope to transform my diet, my exercise, my mental attitudes, and in the long run....my life! The reason why I'm posting it on my blog, (no need to thank me for not posting my "before" pictures here), is because I will be updating my weekly progress here. I trust you, the few, the proud, the readers of my blog, with this information because you are all kind peeps. :)

There is one section in Champions Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength that caught my eye this evening:

Here's the most encouraging thing about Body-for-Life: It starts with you.

You have the power to make the decision, to begin the journey. For the sake of sanity, we delude ourselves with the illusion of control, but fate and fortune have a way of reminding us that, in truth, much of life is out of our control.

Nevertheless, you do have control over this: to start or not to start, to remain the same or to be different in 12 weeks.

Here I go! I am starting now, and in 12 weeks, I'm going to be a slim, trim, especially low-fat piece of taffy!