Under Construction!!!

Oh don't you just cringe at the sign "Detour Ahead"?   Blech!  And we all have our gripes about road construction.  But usually we all want the end results.  Yes we want the wider interstates so there will be less traffic jams and hopefully LESS car accidents.  But we hate the inconvenience.  I want the awesome results just don't mess up my daily routine to get them, right? 

Well as I tend to call this my healthFULL journey I am learning that I want the end results but that means I have to put in the extra work of adding detours and mapping out my new blueprints.  You don't go from 300+ pounds and in two weeks at optimum health looking great in a bikini.  (Although there are a lot of diet pills, scams, and books that want you to believe ANYTHING is possible ;)  But if I want the end result to be better for the future that means some uncomfortable detours now. 

First I have to listen to my body of today.  Yes I want my future lifestyle to include healthy eating and exercise to be my daily fun not my daily chore.  Its getting there, somedays I feel I am there at the end of the construction project and other days I look in the mirror and say "DANGER AHEAD!" . So first I have to eat for this body of today.  Not the one I had two years ago and need to let go of those comfort foods of past (pop/soda, chips, and sweet pastries) and I look forward to craving my daily needs of beans, greens, and little meat.  But not quite there.  Too much health food might have me running back towards the comforts of the past :)  I ate chinese two nights in a row.  Oh many of you know how I crave those sweet sauces, and fried tastiness.  How does this fit into my new blueprint.  One night we ordered in and one night we cooked it ourselves.  Our version twenty times tastier than the delivery version.  I don't know how fresh the restaurant's food is but I know exactly the freshness and what ingredients we cooked with. 

I want to get more active and I wish I could say that my family never overlooks the beauty of a beautiful day.  Today was a gorgeous day for a family walk.  We however ended up taking a family nap.  Which also can be healthy.  Obviously, we all needed a bit of extra sleep.  This is something we should either adjust at night or that we all do have a tish of a bug.  I am getting over a cold and my sweet darling son decided to puke on me three times in a row (there is nothing worse than sour milk).  It actually was this last incident that made me think of the detours we need to take for the betterment of our later journey.  His second bath for the night and my evening shower weren't necessarily on our agenda but when a detour pops up sometimes we don't have a choice but to follow. 

It would have been easy to say after the low key day and not feeling a hundred percent to say oh phooey to the exercise portion.  But after two suppers of Chinese food back to back - my body kind of begged for a little health stop.  So I checked my pedometer at 11 pm and still had about 1500 steps to equal at least my regular daily goal of 7000+ steps.  This had me exercise for my body of today and not for the ideal road conditions of the future or the abandonment of the past.  I didn't grab shoes, or a sweat towel and honestly just stayed in pjs and began to pace my house.  With a steady non-quick pace in twenty minutes I was able to check on my son, switch over laundry from the "sick" incident, straighten a couple of things in the kitchen, and manage to walk my 1500 steps to complete my daily goal.  Yes, I could have easily finished those couple of things in less than two hundred steps and call it a night.  But if I want different results I need to approach things differently so in my mind it was time for a detour. 

It isn't easy to change old patterns of comfort into healthy routines but with a few detours and adjustments along the way; I have the utmost confidence we can all maximize our HealthFULL Journeys.

May your path conditions improve with the help of detours that encourage hope for a better life. 'Til we meet again. . .

 

Sometimes we NEED a victory dance!

Due to my husband's influence I have joined the legions of football fans; mostly NFL but some college.  It has become a special weekly event for my hubby and I as we don our black and gold.  I try to dress our son in the appropriate spirit wear as well.  However he usually cheers from his crib as it is either bedtime or naptime.  We do look forward to sharing this tradition with him.  I won't get started ranting about athlete salaries because that leads to celebrity and politicians vs military, teachers, fire personnel.  But the game does unite communities, families, and sometimes loners.  My hubby is from New Orleans and it is the city where we met.  It holds a special place in both our hearts.  We felt the loss as Katrina damaged and destroyed a beautiful piece of our country. But the people rallied.  Did the Saints heal the city?  They certainly helped strengthen that amazing community spirit.  I witnessed Katrina's destruction but I also celebrated in the French Quarter after the Saints won their first SuperBowl.  It truly was a memory of a lifetime.  We might not have ran the field but in our hearts we matched them yard for yard.  As I gain knowledge and seek healthier alternatives in my daily choices I have a newfound respect for athletes.  They don't take care of their bodies for simply appearances. They do it for performance and functionability.  They fight for their livelihood.  Day in and day out they push, they strain, they refrain, and hope to avoid injury.  So when they not only accomplish their goal but surpass everyone's expectations; including their own.  They celebrate.  They create humorous, touching, or offensive actions to celebrate their hard work.  And when we're rooting for that team we too share the victory and celebrate accordingly.

Could you imagine how different life would be if we shared our victory dances and joined others in theirs?  When someone earns an A we applauded instead of whispered "they must have cheated."  Or when someone loses ten pounds we cheered instead of sneered.  Maybe we don't need to pat others' fannies but we all could pass more pats on the back around.  We are quick to criticize - everyone, especially ourselves.  And with such critical eyes we forget to shout our Hoorays!

My son is at that fun age where he is starting to mimick adult patterns.  We applaud his victories and nine times out of ten he stops to applaud with us with joy in his eyes. And I get the distinct feeling he is applauding our applause.  His response is so genuine it brightens my mood, lightens my stress, and reminds me that we all do need a victory dance.  We need the victory dance; to celebrate, to encourage, and to connect. 

May your HealthFULL Journey be full of victory dances for yourself and for those you cherish.  We all deserve a celebration. ' Til we meet again. . .

Phasing out the Bad by Welcoming the Good :)

Have you ever suffered from a bad headache?

How about a week - long headache?

Or a headache where the growing gnawing nauseousness

or where light is painful

or noise beyound obnoxious

or just that fuzzy cloudy feeling?

Any of this sound familiar?

If it does, don't feel alone!!!

I too, can relate to the variety pack of headaches.

I really can't remember my life without headaches playing a part, I usually say I remember them starting when I was seven years old. Not that I know for sure that's when they started. I just remember having a headache that young. I would say it was pretty common to have a headache of some sort at least once a week until I was sixteen. It was at age sixteen that I received a concussion and for many years suffered the gambit of headaches on a pretty steady daily basis. I saw countless doctors about what I could do and ran many, many tests (including a new cat scan). I tried a variety of "cure-alls" from giving up caffeine to increasing caffeine to peppermint oil, keeping hydrated, several different vitamins, etc. Many factors acted as "stressors" and I tried to eliminate them as I went about my routine. I just made sure to keep my friendly tylenol or advil, handy. When we moved out of North Dakota to South Carolina my headaches diminished quite a bit. Though I think the move and change in weather and atmosphere played a part, there were other factors probably contributing to the success of less headaches. Most of the credit goes to the fact that I pretty much had given myself the okay to take 600 mg of advil daily. I would take it in the morning and go headache-free for 85% of the time. I felt this was a preventative action. I never exceeded my daily limit and was always upfront with anyone taking my medical history that I did this on a daily basis. Well from my last post you would know that I have started reading the labels of what I consume. Recently, I informed my husband that I am not suppose to be taking these OTC (Over the counter as it has switched to generic ibuprofen) medications on an ongoing long-term basis. I know this is going to sound ditzy, but I was shocked! I don't even like taking medicine and I realized how long I had been taking this on a daily basis. If I truly wanted to participate in my HealthFULL Journey I felt this was a big step to take. I had to let go of my head-ache free blanket and see what would happen. So I slowly phased out the pills. I was taking three 200 mg pills daily. So each week I dropped a pill from the routine. And I am proud to say that it has been a week without my morning safety net and for the most part have been head-ache free. Though I have tried several cure-alls in the past I think I am remaing head-ache free because of the joint effects of incorporating a healthier lifestyle. Where maybe in the past one cure-all didn't solve all the headache triggers. By combining extra sleep, tons more water, cutting way down on soda, adding excercise and trying to push out junk food and adding in the healthy nutritious food it is possibly fighting off the headaches for good. I of course don't know which combination is directly responsible but I am enjoying the benefits. I think a HealthFull Journey is all about Phasing out the Bad by Welcoming the Good :) May you find out how to Fully Understand Life by Living while welcoming in the good habits and phasing out the bad. Good luck on your HealthFULL Journey!!! See ya next week. . .