For years I’ve joked around and said “I’ll quit smoking and drinking Dr Pepper when I figure out what my next bad habit will be to replace them!” then I’d laugh and smoke another cigarette and drink my Dr Pepper. But I no longer feel “young” and I no longer enjoy the idea of doing things that can hurt me and in turn hurt my kids if they lose me early in life from a heart attack, which is possible. There’s been years of damage done I’m sure. And there will never be a better time to start living life right than RIGHT NOW. Me for me and my family… You for you and your loved ones… We Can Do It!

Personal Goal Setting Time – Time to schedule in healthy eating habits, adequate sleep and badly needed exercise! I mean really look at ourselves. Schedule doctor appointments that we’ve procrastinated on. Take pictures of yourself or have a friend/family member do it for you. Wear a bikini (yea, I said bikini! lol), or, exercise short and a sports bra… so you can really see yourself. Pictures don’t lie! I did this when I did the P90X DVD Workout Series a couple of years ago and it shocked me. I really did not know what I looked like till my daughter took those pics of me in a sports bra and exercise shorts at 176 lbs. We can feel so good about ourselves but hate every picture we ever see. Why? Why do we hate our pictures? What is it about ourselves that we don’t like? Are we comparing ourselves to 20-30-40 years ago? I know I do it. I don’t believe in comparing yourself to others, that is NEVER okay. I do believe only you knows who is inside your body. Only you knows what makes you feel good or bad about yourself. Whether its a small build or a large build you can still do it healthy and develop a maintenance routine that will make and keep you a happier person for the next 10-20-30+ years. It’s all in your head. You just need to decide to do it. Set your goals and just start with day one and take it one day at a time. Wake up every day and look in the mirror and tell yourself I love myself. I will do this for myself. And by doing that it will also benefit your loved ones because all they really want is for you to be happy and healthy. Prescription drugs are not a cure all. For some they are a necessity. For others they are a crutch. And for others they are an addiction. For me, they scare the hell out of me. If I think I have thyroid problems and I’m still in a stage that I can control it with exercise and healthy habits then that’s what I will do before I get on a drug for the rest of my life just because a doctor said so. That is just me talking about me. I am in no way telling anyone else to do what I do. Matter of fact this would be a good time for a disclosure… (please see the bottom of this article for my disclosure and warnings).

Get UP and Move! – Large companies promote their employees to take a 10-15 minute break in the morning and in the afternoon along with their 30-60 minute lunch break in the middle. I do not agree with this at all! Your body needs to get up and move around 5-10 minutes every hour. This will help your mind stay more alert and also allow you to feel refreshed and more motivated. When I sit for long periods of time my body is not doing what it was built to do. My veins in your legs are pinched by my own weight. My posture can cause neck pain. Looking at a computer for hour upon hour all day or all night (or both!) strains my eyes and affects my vision.

Basically I need to lose 15-20 lbs. in weight –  I am 5′ 6.5″ and 151 pounds right now. My ideal healthy “in toned-shape” weight is 128-132. My opinion on how to figure this would be your individual bone structure. If you are little boned then extra weight will cause more damage to your joints, heart and blood pressure than a big boned woman/man. I can be up to a 135-142 and still feel good. At 150 I start to feel lazy and my self esteem starts to go down. At 160 my face gets more round and it literally changes my whole appearance. At 170 it starts to cause issues big time both physical and mental. This doesn’t mean it’s healthier for me to be 135-142 lbs just because I’m comfortable. The first ten pounds lost will give me more energy and in the process the exercise and healthy eating habits I will have to practice to accomplish it will also give me a stronger heart and better blood circulation. The next 10 pounds will take a little longer and that’s okay. I don’t want a quick fix, wrap me in plastic kinda bullshit diet. I want to lose weight while having a healthy lifestyle. I’m not on here to candy coat things and make everyone feel good about themselves. It would be nice but this is about taking a real look at your life, your mind, your heart and your soul. Low self-esteem will affect your relationships with your family, your co-workers and your friends. It can cause you to be temperamental and moody. You won’t want to do as many social events as you used to. And you may wake up one day and have no social life at all and very few friends left because they don’t understand why you dropped off the face of the earth.

Analyze yourself – I guarantee you will do a better job doing this than any doctor can or a family member or a friend. You can’t even get a straight answer out of your family or friends anymore anyway… they are not going to tell you that you don’t look good or that you need to exercise because all they want is for you to be happy. This is not about them or what they think. This is about us, me to me and you to you, to make our own decisions on where we are now vs. where we want to be 5 years from now – 10 years from now – 20 years from now! I don’t know about you but sure hope my joints are healthy, my bones will not be brittle and I don’t have to live in fear of the unknown. I want to wake up when I’m 60 and say “eat your heart out world!” LOL 😉

Yesterday I was reading up on antioxidants and how good they are for you! I definitely will be incorporating methods to raise my Good HDL cholesterol levels by eating more fish, using olive oil instead of vegetable oil, loving me some peanut butter, eating more fruits and vegetables like broccoli, avocados…. and fruits like blueberries, strawberries and grapes! I will try to buy organic every chance I can afford it! I will be sure and let you know if I find some good deals 😉 !!! I have never paid attention to my cholesterol and never even had it checked but I’m sure all those Mocha Frappes, which are from 400-900+ calories per drink depending on size, have added lots of toxins to my blood that are not healthy. I feel like my arms are heavy to hold up. I feel like the blood vessels in my legs ache. This can’t be a good thing. I am getting off my butt and waking the heck up and I’m going to pay attention to my body better and it will help me feed my family better too. Not to mention set a good example for them!

Here’s my “Need to DO List to be Healthier” and find MY HAPPY PLACE 🙂 :

1. I have got to Quit Smoking! It is very bad for my heart, causes lung cancer, ovarian cancer (and probably lots more types), makes your bones brittle and more breakable AND I CAN’T AFFORD IT! At up to $7.00 per pack and an average of 1 pack per day there is no justification to still smoke while trying to start a home based business and struggling to pay bills and have food on the table…. EVER! If I quit now it will hopefully add years to my life.. if I quit NOW! Not next year, not the next year… NOW. Decision made. I can not smoke and drink a healthy glass of milk, juice or water. It tastes nasty and leaves an ashtray taste in your mouth. Quitting sodas and coffee will actually aide in quitting smoking!  I know we can. I actually quit for 4 1/2 mths back in the year 2013 and it felt AMAZING! My voice stopped being so deep and throaty. I had more air in my lungs and could hold a tune longer when singing to the radio as I drove. I drank lots of green tea citrus flavor to replace the other drinks. I used an e-Cig called “blu” to stop the smoking. It cost $10 for one disposable one and it lasted me a WEEK! It was awesome. I in no way will endorse or promote anyone doing the refillable cartridges because all you’re doing is replacing one bad habit with another. There’s no way the chemicals in the eCigs are healthy and I will be awaiting the next ten years of reports coming out in the media on new issues concerning people’s health that use these product for long periods of time. As a tool to quit smoking, on a temporary basis… YES! But set a date to put it down also.
2. No more Dr. Pepper or Coffee (Painful but necessary evil) – I am definitely a Dr Pepper aholic!!! I do not even drink 1 glass of water a day and have not for years! The only water I get is in the coffee I have in the morning and in the ice I put in my glass for my Dr Pepper. I’m sure this has taken its toll on my health over all these years but at 46 years old I am actually pretty darn healthy! Quitting the sugars and the caffeine is a must to quit the smoking and lose weight in the process. The sugar hurts our memory, the caffeine wears our bodies out without even realizing it. It’s like riding a bike when you drink a highly caffeinated drink because even if we are just sitting there it will raise our heart beat and make it work much harder than it would be naturally. We also may not sleep well because of all these chemicals we are putting into our bodies each day we allow ourselves to have these bad habits. I also, for whatever reason, can not stand to smoke a cigarette without either coffee or Dr Pepper.
3. Workout/Walk/Exercise – Get your cardio workouts lined up! Whether you are walking, running, swimming or doing aerobics you need to pick what works for you out and make a plan. Set gradual increases either in sets or time or duration so as you get stronger you keep gently pushing yourself farther towards your goals. When I did P90X a couple of years ago I couldn’t do hardly any of it when I started. If I tried to do the jumps I literally urinated on myself. Now that was frustrating and degrading. But you know what… after 1 week that stopped. After 2 weeks I didn’t struggle quite so much and felt more determined. After 3 weeks I had lost almost 10 lbs! Here is the program I used:

P90X DVD Workout – Basic Program

But I also am wanting to try Jillian Michaels Autumn Calabrese’s 21 Day Fix EXTREME – Essential Package In this program she provides serving size plastic storage food containers that measures out the amount of each food group you want to eat that day depending on what your personal needs are! I’m definitely hoping to try it! 🙂

WARNING: DO NOT DO AS I DO JUST BECAUSE I DO IT. I AM NOT A DOCTOR. I AM NOT A DIETICIAN. I AM NOT A CERTIFIED TRAINER. I AM A MOM AND I AM A DO-IT-YOURSELF’R! I HAVE NO OFFICIAL TRAINING WHAT SO EVER. I AM VERY OPINIONATED ON THINGS I SEE, REVIEW AND ANALYZE AND I AM SHARING THOSE IDEAS AND OPINIONS WITH YOU. I READ A LOT BUT I ALSO DO LOTS OF SELF DIAGNOSIS. I DO NOT WANT ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING THAT IS UNHEALTHY FOR THEM IN ANY WAY. IF A DOCTOR IS TREATING YOU THEN PROCEED WITH CAUTION ON DIVERTING FROM ANY OF THEIR INSTRUCTIONS AND INCLUDE THEM IN YOUR DESIRE TO DO SO TO LET THEM ADVISE YOU ON THE PROPER WAY TO DO IT AT THIS POINT IN YOUR HEALTH CONDITION. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DECISIONS YOU MAKE IN YOUR WORLD. I ONLY HOPE TO INSPIRE YOU TO SET GOALS THAT WILL HELP YOU ACHIEVE A HIGHER LEVEL OF LIFE. PEACE OUT! 🙂