Year In Review - 2013

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Get Busy Living - Your Year in Review

2013

10 greatest things that happened in the past year 

1. Bought a house

2. Got a dog

3. Began Healthy Eating

4. Celebrated our first Halloween in our new home with our friends and neighbors.

5. Celebrated Heather's 21st Birthday at a comedy club

6. Bought and wore this ridiculous hat (because it made me laugh) at our first Cards Against Humanity night with friends.

7. Learned to smile again.

8. Games nights with Meghan

9. Potty Trained Meghan...Seriously.

10. Celebrated our first Christmas in our home

I am most proud of these three accomplishments from the last year

1. Taking charge of my health and relying less on medications to get me through.

2. Learning to say no and to put myself first. 

3. Learning that's it ok to laugh

Three Great Lessons I've learned from last year

1. Love only dies if you let it.

2. Happiness doesn't belittle the pain, it just makes it easier to cope.

3. Good health is something you fight for, not something you're given. 

Three personal developments I have made in the past year are:

1. Getting off of multiple medications 

2. Feeling safe within my own home

3. Becoming more independent 

If I could do things again last year, I would do these three things differently:

1. Drink more water!

2. Not beat myself up so much

3. Speak up and stand up for myself more.

Three things I need to do less of in the next year are:1. Eat out

2. Waste

3. Put myself down

Three things I need to do more of in the next year are:

1. Make my health a priority.

2. Find ways to spend more quality time with my family.

3. Accept that everyone makes mistakes...even me.

Three things I need to stop completely during the next year are:

1. Allowing myself to become dehydrated.

2. Forgetting to take time for myself.

3. Putting my health last.

Three reasons I didn't achieve my goals last year are:

1. Health problems.

2. Self esteem.

3. Making excuses.

Three goals I want to achieve this next year are:

1. Med free 2014!

2. Continue to lose weight.

3. Read 50 books (34% there!).

Three reasons why I want to achieve these goals are:

1. My health is important.

2. My self esteem is unfortunately affected by my weight. 

3. Personal time and books are important to me. 

Smartest Decision I made last year:

Putting my health first.

Biggest Risk I took last year:

Beginning to get off of my medications

One sentence that sums up this past year:

My health does not define me.

One year from right now, I want my ideal day to look like this:

Energy to get through my days, freedom to laugh and smile, confidence in myself...and shopping sprees for smaller clothes. :D

*This was a therapy assignment. If you are interested in doing this work sheet for yourself, you can find it here.

Even if you don't see it...

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I am aware that many of you probably think I have given up. The truth of the matter is that I switched tracks completely. My goal, all along has been to get healthy. Losing weight is just one of the things I feel is necessary for me to become a healthier version of me. 

Since my last post, I have battled more kidney issues, migraines, two episodes of bronchitis, and pneumonia. I took this as a sign from my body that watching my calories and exercising just wasn't enough. Although it slowed my weight loss progress, I decided to start focusing more on my physical pain. 

Over the past year, I have ditched many of my medications and have began to manage my pain through more natural resources. I was able to get off of eight different prescriptions and only have one left to go. My need to take something to help with my pain has diminished from several times a week down to once every couple of weeks. My pain is in no means gone, it never will be, but I have learned to manage with vitamins, hot showers and baths, cutting out foods that cause pain, and gentle exercise. 

Although I am no longer on a migraine preventative, I only experience migraines 2-3 times a month compared to the 3-4 a week I was having. I no longer have daily headaches...period. 

I have given up beef, pork, dairy, white sugar, white flour, and potatoes. I will be the first to admit that I do give in to the sugar and flour once in a while, but I've been pretty good about living without. Eating out is extremely frustrating, but that's ok! Eating out has become a big downfall of mine and is a bad habit I need to break for my health anyhow. 

Since changing my diet, ditching the medications, and adding in vitamins, I have seen changes in not only my pain levels, but also my mood, my depression, and my energy levels. 

Another added bonus, is that by cutting out medications, the doctors that prescribe them (I was seeing FOUR specialists), and eating out I am able to save unspeakable amounts of money. I could do that math to prove my point, but it makes me feel sick to think about how much I was spending on these things.

I've given medical intervention a solid try, it only made me sicker. Instead, I'm giving living healthy my all. It's paying off!

Now, if you read this and wondered what this track jumping did for my weight, here's your answer. I have not gained a single pound. I am still down 10-15 lbs (depending on the day) from my starting weight and down 1-2 sizes. 

This year has a lot of great things in store for me and I cannot wait to share my progress each step of the way!

Get Excited!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

That Arthletic Girl

After a very long hiatus, I am back and better than ever! I apologize to my readers for disappearing off the face of the earth without an explanation. Mid October, I suddenly had the right side of my body go numb. I lost the ability to walk unassisted. I lost my sanity while be stuck at home, unable to drive. It lasted for over two months before showing any improvement. I underwent much testing only for the doctors to come up with no answers. With time, however, feeling slowly started to flood back into my body and I began regaining function. I still have patches of numbness the migrate through my right side, but it is no more than an annoyance. I am excited to say that I have not gained any weight (woohoo!) while I was down. I have an appointment tomorrow to get measured so I will have a base line for the future.

Getting healthy doesn't require fancy equipment or special clothes. You don't need an expensive gym membership or even hand weights if you decide to work out at home (seriously, soup cans will do!) but you need motivation and LOTS of it! A great place to find that motivation is by figuring out what will get you excited about a new routine.

This time around, I went exactly against the "You don't need..." mantra because I needed that extra boost. I felt like if I spent money on new stuff, I'd use it. I recognize that's not true for everyone though.

Over the past couple of weeks most of my shopping (for fun) has been centered around fitness. I bought myself a new gym bag, toiletries, a pilates ball, a fitness journal, a couple of fitness dvds, new gym clothes, and even new head phones. In a lot of ways it, was completely unnecessary, however the fact that it got me psyched up is important!

My point is, find what gets you psyched up whether it be buying new stuff, setting goals, finding a gym buddy, working towards a reward, or whatever and go for it!

Mommy Gaming and Fitness: A Juggling Act

Thursday, October 25, 2012

I am super honored to be featured as a guest blogger this week on The Mommy Gamers! Go check it out and please leave a comment to show your support. I had a lot of fun writing a fitness/humor piece and hope to do more work like it again in the future. 

The Universe Knows...

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Universe knows me.

I've been getting these nifty little emails from The Universe. They're fun and usually pretty inspiring. Like a horoscope, you can twist the meaning in such a way that you think it was truly written just for you. I find that I am able to relate my notes for the Universe to my weight loss journey fairly often.

If you knew for absolute certain, Amybeth, that every little thing you did today would later be scrutinized, literally moment by moment, by a future you, and future friends, as well as anyone else interested, and you'd all be looking for a number of qualities, especially patience, kindness, and love, during this game of games and test of tests called life, how might you treat the very next person you see after reading this Note? 

Yeah, 

    The Universe

 This one in particular really made me think. If I were looking back on myself from the future, I would be appalled by the way I treat...ME!

Think about it. I don't take care of body or love it the way it deserves. I feel it with nasty chemicals from awful processed foods. I allow my muscles to turn to mush. I talk negatively to myself and about myself to others. I refuse to buy myself nice clothes because I'm ashamed of my body.

That's not fair, at all. I deserve every ounce of respect that I show others. It's time to say no to disrespecting myself and begin being the friend that I deserve.

Do you treat yourself and your body unfairly?

Learning to Say No

Monday, October 15, 2012

Used with permission from Arthlete

One of the most difficult trials when losing weight is learning how to say "No." In the beginning it may feel like you are punishing yourself by taking away all the foods you love best. You may go through a phase of trying barter by finding healthier cookies and less fatty hamburgers. The truth is that by simply switching to a healthy version, you're still feeding the craving. Personally, I cannot do a small treat once in a while or a healthy alternative because I always want more.

I've found that for me, it's easier to say "No" if I just get it out of my system. I just need to go cold turkey, the first few days are the hardest, and it does the trick. After a week or two, sweet things start to taste sickening. I lose the need. If you had been in my house last night as I begged my husband to please go get me some ___, you would have known which stage I'm in. I had a very delicious cupcake with cream cheese frosting on Saturday at a birthday party. 

In trying to eat better, I've been trying new recipes and cooking at home more often. Last week we tried Zucchini, Black Bean and Rice Skillet, Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon Garlic Green Beans, Rigatoni with Sauteed Eggplant and Tomatoes, and Weeknight Spinach, Mushroom, and Turkey Lasagna. I made a few changes here and there, less carbs or meat, switching for whole grain, things like that. All of the recipes were simple to make, filling, and scrumptious. Good recipes take so much of the work out of it!

I'm still losing, slowly...which is good enough for me. I feel like I can only focus on one thing at a time either nutrition or exercise. I know that in order to lose long term and keep it off I need to learn to do both, but right now I'm just taking baby steps and am still learning my way. One step at a time right?

Do you find that you have an easier time with exercise or with nutrition? 

The Truth You Don't Want to Admit to Yourself - A Guest Post

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Run like no one is watching. Photo by Bernd Moehle

This is a guestpost by Kim Thirion of Un-Copied Life.

"Oh, I don't workout in public— Someone might see me."

If I had a nickle for every time I used to say that...well, lets just say I'd be typing this from a villa balcony in some rustic Italian city right now instead of my comfy recliner listening to the sounds of MarioKart coming from the kids bedroom. Don't tell me you haven't thought those words at some time or another, because I probably wouldn't believe you if you did. Do you skip your walk because there are people around? Do you avoid the gym because other people might see you exercising? Are you embarrassed? Ashamed? I get it. I do. You don't want others to see how red your face gets. You don't want them to notice that you're huffing and puffing harder than the Big Bad Wolf. You'd honestly like to be invisible. And you know what? It's all a lie. It's a lie we tell ourselves because we don't want to face the real truth. What's that you ask? We don't want to exercise in public, because others might see us. And if they see us, then they'll see that we're overweight. Well guess what honey? They already know you're overweight. They noticed it the moment you walked up. It's hardwired into them.

People notice people who are different.

So, why would we continue to hurt our bodies (by remaining overweight) and our minds (by participating in negative self-talk) just to avoid something that everyone already noticed anyway? Because by pretending no one knows it, we can pretend it doesn't exist. We can pretend we're not different. It's a survival mechanism. Our brain knows that if we keep insulting ourselves, then we'll shut down. But not all systems are fool-proof. If we keep pretending, keep giving up, keep giving in, then we'll never get anywhere! If we keep telling ourselves that different=bad, we'll never make progress and we'll never succeed. We quit because there isn't an urgency. We quit because the reasons to continue aren't quite strong enough. We quit because we don't think we can finish. Let me ask you this... If someone held a gun to your head and ordered you to deliver a package a mile away, but only gave you 7 minutes... you bet your beautiful behind you'd run. You would run until you made it, or you passed out— but you'd do it. You'd do it because you'd have a reason to. You'd do it because the alternative is unacceptable. So today, I challenge you to find a reason. Find a reason right now. I want you to put that metaphorical "gunman" next to you and run like crazy. I'll leave you with a quote:

“Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth.” —Mark Twain

Tell me what/who your "gunman" is in the comments below. Kim is the writer and creator behind Un-Copied Life where she writes twice weekly about non-conformity. You can also find her on Twitter and Google+.