BECOMING HEALTHIER: MY STORY

As all of you know, or at least those of you who follow our blog regularly, in January I wrote a blog, BECOMING HEALTHIER, which is where I told everyone my New Years resolution of becoming healthier. I am now going to tell you how its been going!

I first want to start on how I got to this point of wanting to be healthier. I have honestly always wanted to be healthier but never had the motivation to actually do it. While I was pregnant with my second child, I often times heard women say, "Before I had kids I weighed about 110 pounds and could never get it off." (This was usually coming from women who were over 200 pounds.) *NOTE: IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO LOSE WEIGHT AFTER HAVING MULTIPLE BABIES. I AM NOT JUDGING ANYONE! Anyways, I did not want that to be me. I didn't want to be the person who was always telling people how good they USED to look, I want to look good now! So I decided that as soon as I could, after giving birth, I was going to make sure to lose the weight I had gained with both of my children.

Not only did I want to work off my weight but I also wanted to start eating healthy. This was difficult for me, only because I didn't entirely know how to do that. We all know that we should eat sugar sparingly, vegetables are good for us, and basically there you go. I did take nutrition in college but the one thing I remember from that class is my teacher saying, "You can eat whatever you want, as long as you work it off." And that has been my philosophy ever since… until now.

When I started writing my blog post in January is when it hit me, that I should not only try to keep my body healthy but I should try to keep all aspects of my being healthy. That's when I put my goal into 4 parts: physical body, internal body, spirit, and mind. I have NEVER felt better!!!

BODY PHYSICAL: I have been running 3-5 times a week for the last month and a half. When I started running I was averaging 5MPH. I have an app on my phone, sports tracker, which is free, that tells me how fast I'm going, and how far I've ran. It really helps me a lot to know that I really am getting better. Every time I run I do something different, if I am going on a short run (1 mile) I make it up hill, if I am going on a longer run (4+ miles) I make it a more even course, and if I am running 2-3 miles I put sprints in the middle of my jog. I am very happy to report that as of March 8 2014, I ran 9 miles, averaging 6MPH. My fastest mile was 9 minutes 24 seconds. I can not express to you how good it feels to know that my body is getting stronger and know that I can continue to get even stronger!

Mile 8 of my 9 mile run. Kaylee met me and took this picture.

BODY INTERNAL: Thanks to Kaylee, I have found healthier things to eat. I blogged about one of the items, Kale. Anyways the list of healthier food I've been eating include, kale, quinoa, avocado oil, edamame, wheat pasta, granola, greek yogurt, frozen fruits and veggies, and fish, more specifically salmon. First off, healthy food might not have as much flavor as unhealthy food, but something about the fresh healthiness of it makes it taste delicious! I.E. kale smoothies! ARE DELICIOUS! It includes, a handful of kale, 1 banana, 2ish cups of frozen fruits and milk depending on how thick you want it. The more healthy food I eat, honestly the more energy I have throughout the day!

SPIRIT: In my January blog I said I would be doing yoga. Well let me say if you don't have a video you like or if you don't go to a class, its really hard to get into. So instead of doing yoga, I ambitiously started reading the Bible, the New Testament to be exact. I have read parts of the New Testament from classes that I've taken but I've never read the whole thing. Starting each day off with reading the bible has made my days more uplifting.

He is cuter reading the scripture than me!

MIND: I also changed this one! haha, nothing like changing your goals the day after you set them right! ;) I still want to keep my mind learning though, so instead of reading I decided to learn a new skill. (Which I also blogged sort of about, you can find it here.) You don't realize how much you miss learning until you are no longer "forced" to learn by going to school. I miss the success of getting an A on a test or paper and the anxiety you get before you get that test back. I needed to find a way to continue learning. So I decided to quilt. I have made quilts before but I was always supervised and always chose the easy way out. Well not this time! This time I'm doing it by myself!… (except that my good friend Ashley Call drew up the pattern for me and told me how much fabric to get.) Now I am doing it on my own! I've decided to hand stitch it! Which if you don't know anything about quilting just know that it is very time consuming and difficult. I haven't started my hand quilting yet, but let me assure you that the pressure of doing it, is just as good as the anticipation of waiting to see how you did on a test!

You guys, these last couple of months have been amazing! My body, my everything feels amazing! I have never felt better about myself and my abilities as I do right now! I CAN DO ANYTHING! Literally! I have seen myself go from blah to exhilarated, from no energy, to keeping up with my kids, and I KNOW it is because I am becoming healthier! I don't usually set goals because I don't care to keep them. I don't usually care to keep myself healthy because watching TV and eating Doritos and frosting is so yummy! But I found my motivation! I am changing into a better me!