Have A Little Faith in We

Hi friends – happy Veteran’s Day! I would like to take a quick moment to thank those who have so bravely given their lives to protect our country. Those who are still with us and those who have gone home to be with God –  we are grateful and in awe of them all. To read our family’s story and about my very special Arlington Angel please visit my post from last year. God Bless all the soldiers and their families!

So early in September I dedicated myself – making it official by putting it on the blog – to this challenge in an effort to get healthy and invest a little in myself. I thought this contest of sorts would be a really good motivator to get exercise in every day and to keep check with my meals in simple steps. What it really showed me was how hard it is to balance it all – per usual!

While I write this blog to talk about real life and how we do it,  I spend a lot of time talking about making it all work. There are a lot of trials and errors that can be found amongst these pages and sometimes I worry it’s a little bit too much. Recently somebody shared with me a free calendar printable they saw about goals and to do lists they felt immediately reminded them of me. At first I assumed it was a compliment. Yes, I do love goals to work on myself or ways to keep organized. But then I started to wonder if it was a negative. Am I the girl always looking to better myself by jumping from one idea to the next? Do I spend more time TALKING about how to do it all then actually doing it?  On HALF, am I cramming way too much about attempting to get organized and the scattered results down my readers’ throats?

The conclusions I came to are:

1. My heart aches to live this life to the the fullest. And that desire burns in me in a way that demands to be shared…. I know others must feel it and I want to be open about this journey with them!

2.  If nothing else I am passionate. Always have been – always will be. I very easily get excited and just as easily can become disheartened. But I never give up the ability to become motivated and excitable….. its just who I am, thus – what my blog will be.

3. I read blogs to share in the lives of my bloggers. Unless you are into blogs, it probably doesn’t make much sense to you – but to me I love the sharing, learning, growing that is both watched and felt in the blogosphere. And striving to do it all is a big part of my story.

Finally – and most importantly -it doesn’t even get a number – these posts may not be everyone’s cup of tea and that is A-OK! If my journey, my successes, my failures are enjoyed and appreciated – great…but if they are not that is OK too.

Phew – so now that we got all of that out of the way…. I want to share the failure and success of this challenge.  My basic goals were to workout 30 minutes everyday and let Juice Plus be the primary focus of my diet: continue to take my capsules and replace at least one meal a day with a shake.

Exercise 30 minutes everyday. And of course that first week I started it I already was behind by few days – yet, because it was only 30 minutes I figured making it out would be no big deal. Whelp – before I knew it…. I was hours behind and barely fitting in the daily 30 minutes, let alone making up the balance I had quickly acquired.  At first this was really frustrating. I immediately thought here I go – another effort started and failed!! By October, I was feeling really overwhelmed with the reality of not making just 30 minutes a day work, while at the same time being very aware of how badly I needed to be building myself up and combatting stress and worry with endorphins. So before I completely went off the rails, I decided to try again and give myself a fighting chance: a very basic running plan, an accountability partner, and a promise to stop obsessing.

1. KISS had been working in other areas of life so why not apply it here: I dusted off my original running plan and just went to work scheduling time each week – which ended up being in the early morning hours.

2. Add accountability: I had never worked out with a buddy. My fears in the past had been that my partner and I would be in a different place (ability, strength, endurance)- therefore we would get frustrated and give up. Instead my sister running with me got my butt out of bed for fear of leaving her hanging and once on the road – she pushed me to keep running!

3. Stop obsessing – by saying to myself, I am doing the best I can. In terms of weighing myself – it would be only once a week and if I missed a workout I moved on – no dwelling or need to make it up. Look at the results ….be fine with where they are…and keep on trucking. No bad mouthing myself, with myself – NONE OF IT!

This has worked. I am running more days in the week than not. I am falling back in love with this dear old friend, who makes me feel confident, content, and alive. And as a result of running more via early AM wake up calls – I am going to bed earlier. Which has the added result, as much as I hate to admit it (since I already wish we had more hours in a day), of feeling better in general with just a little more good sleep.

What about my eating habits? Using my complete shakes was actually pretty strong from the start – but as the weeks have gotten busier, it has been harder to make sure I food prep.  And the truth is that when left to eating out – I do not choose wisely. The good news here is that I really own it that “I will just grab a salad” pretty much always lands me in the fast food line with fries and I have the solution – keep making my shakes. Luckily in this department, I even have extra help as Danny will happily do our shopping and make my lunches – our weeks just need to slow down a bit to assure those things get done. So solution: yes – consistency: getting there.

PS – If you want to keep increasing your water intake – continue to update your fashionable water jug……

This challenge has not really gone the way I expected, but I am thrilled to say it has lead to a new path that is working for me. Exercise and healthy food choices are officially regular fixtures in my life and it feels good. Being a little kind to myself and willing to tweak my approach – has gotten me closer than any other effort to my goals….and that number I want on the scale – AMEN.  Life in progress over here on HALF….. thanks for following!