Be Healthy

From MadisonBalance.com

Don't wait until January 1st to start living a healthier life.  There are ways to get fit right now and stay fit through the holiday season.  Creating the good habit is half the battle.

1. Get outside and go!  Fall can be a treat for the senses: the crisp air, pumpkin carving, apple picking and beautiful fall foliage are all around you.  These few months are a great time to exercise outdoors without the sweltering heat or freezing temperatures.  Find a hiking or cycling trail, canoe or kayak.  Remember, working out doesn't have to be a chore.  Have some fun!

2.  Think outside the box.  Has it been your dream to learn to tap dance or box?  There's no time like the present to find a class that works for your schedule.  Classes are starting everywhere in the next few weeks. 

3. Be an active TV watcher.  Watching television doesn't mean you have to be a couch potato.  While you watch you can run in place, do standing lunges, tricep dips off the couch or lift weights.  Commercials are the perfect time to get in a set of push-ups or sit-ups.  You have an average of 20 minutes of commercial time during an hour program to get fit.

4.  Integrate exercise into your life.  Park your car farther away from the grocery store, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk during your lunch break.  This may be the easiest way to get started on a healthier path.

5.  Rejuvenate.  Fall is the time to rejuvenate your body.  Your time spent doesn't have to always be about physical training.  Good health is also about mind and spirit.  Learn to meditate.  Treat yourself to a massage after a run.  

Juice Fast

Hey peoples.

Hubby and I just finished a 3 day juice fast. What an experience! Who knew that 3 days could last so long!? Lol. It was very interesting to feel how devastated your body gets once it realizes that you are trying to clean it out. Day 2 was the worst for me. I had the worst headache that I've ever had. We learned through research that when you go through pains/headaches, it's because the toxins in your system are trying to escape your body. Hubby thinks my toxins are related to the amounts of salt that I take in. He's probably right since I eat a lot of Lean Cuisine tv dinners for lunch at work. They just happen to be on sale all the time at CVS! And I love the sweet and sour chicken one! Between Lean Cuisines, White Castle cheeseburgers and Digorno pizzas, I spend $20 on lunch for TWO WEEKS. I know I know...The savings do not make up for the fact that I have to do better. Hence I will.

The worst day for hubby was day 3 (yesterday). He had to leave work early because he had no more juice left at work and was getting a headache. If how he felt was anything like how I felt, there was no way he could sit there for 4 more hours and make it. Yesterday was great for me. I felt so clear and clean! I wasn't even hungry. My mind wanted food more so than my body did. Knowing that my fast was coming to an end, I couldn't mentally understand the difference between eating on Wednesday night as opposed to Thursday morning like I was supposed to do. Fasting is truly more of a mental exercise than it is a physical one. That mind is a strong organism man!

What we've learned is that we need to be more careful about what we put into our bodies...the salt, the caffeine, the sugar, the non-essential fat, etc. And since we did it together, we also grew closer. The feeling of making a huge life change together was uniting. I'm looking forward to incorporating juicing into our normal lifestyle (especially because we have nothing but shelves of veggies in our fridge now). Since we don't eat veggies like we should, the spinach/kale/lettuce juices we made will be essential to our diets going forward. I'm excited about this new healthy lifestyle we're embarking on. I'm more excited about the possibility of less ailments in my house. Hubby's headaches have GOT to go. If I were to do anything different, it would have been to continue our fast 2 days longer. I heard that the 4th and 5th days are amazing. The energy levels, the lack of ailments that you had before, the refreshing feeling... I'm interested to experience that and to see what it does for hubby since he gets sick so often. And perhaps we shouldn't have broken our fast with a slice of pizza. lol. The pizza wasn't even all that good either! Womp.

Anyway, I'm in a good mood, my body feels good and I'm excited about our progress. Let's pray we can keep this momentum going!

Goals

Lots of goals to harp upon....

Spiritual - I took a look at my goals document saved on my desktop, and I actually accomplished everything. Go me! So now, I want to start assisting with Kingdom Hall and Assembly Hall builds. I don't know where this desire came from, but I really want to put up dry wall and install lighting/fixtures and stuff. OH! Interior Design Experience!!!! Yes!

Exercise - This might be contingent upon getting a steady source of income, but I want to get back into ballet. I need some disciplined dance courses in my life. One class a week should be enough.

Vacations - Well Cabo is coming up in May, and then we have the family reunion in August so I think I'm okay with vacations for now. If I can get in a trip to CA that would be great. I'll look towards winter for that trek. Again, this is contingent upon income.

Career - I should go ahead and re-do this living room like I want. Do you think I can do it in April while I'm pioneering? I also have an idea for a photography site where all I need to do is set up interviews with people I admire spiritually... It always sounds so easy. The only thing to it is to do it.

Sick?

Something's wrong with me and I can't for sure tell what it is. My energy levels are literally in the negative and I'm sleepy all of the time. My face was hurting the other day but it doesn't hurt much anymore. I had a migraine two days ago, but it's gone as well. The only thing that has stayed from beginning to end is my lack of energy. I hope that I'm coming out of whatever this is being that the migraine and face hurting is gone. I really wish that I could avoid crashing when coming home everyday. It's a pure waste of valuable evening hours with my husband. I can't even find the gusto to cook for him. I pray that I can shake off whatever I have pretty soon. I want to live again.

The Take Back My Life Plan

The following seven items will help me to build my defenses against the catastrophic war I am in against my evil job. I'm taking it back to the bunker to regroup before busting out like GI Jane again. THEY WILL NOT TAKE ME DOWN! Hoora!

Exercise - 3x/week from 6am - 6:30am Strengthen my muscles to help alleviate my back pain.

Food - Eat a piece of fruit a day. Aim for at least one blanced meal a day with plenty of vegetables.

Sleep - Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night, which means I must be in the bed no later than 11pm.

Vitamens - I can't stand popping gigantic horse pills as I feel like one day I may die choking, but make it my aim to at least get a reasonable amount of B complex vitamens in me during the week.

Spirituality - Maintain my regular routinue (meetings, Bible reading, prayer) in addition to 1 session of the "deeper things" per week. Get back to working on my monthly fruit of the spirit and making at least the national average in the ministry.

Liesure and Recreation - Take the time to insert one thing that I enjoy into my schedule every work day like reading a blog, writing a blog, catching up with a friend, doing something nice for someone, attending an after work affair, etc.

BREATHE - In an effort to minimize these new anxiety attacks I've been having at work, I would like to practice some breathing techniques I've gotten wind of.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Deducing

This post is entirely for me to rant. So no need to really even read or comment. Just tryna sort my feelings out.

I'm in a very weird transitional phase right now which has got me kinda screwed up. When I no longer have a schedule or a concrete reason to wake up in the morning, I tend to get a little confused. I wake up in different cities. Can't really keep up with the date anymore. Not sure how long my money will hold out. I keep forgetting what clothes I have in NY and what I have at my parent's house. Not in the mood to go anywhere anymore. I'm very unclear as to what my future holds. My body doesn't even feel right. When I wake up in the morning, after 9 hours of sleep, I feel extremely exhausted instead of refreshed. I get dizzy when I stand up more times than I care to share. I'm just wrong. Completely out of wack.

I'm trying hard to push through this forest of shrubbery that's enclosing around me. Yesterday, my sister and I disappeared to my friend's house (who happens to be out of town) to go hard like we're in finals, and apply for jobs. We were there from 11am to 6pm searching and applying. Searching and applying. Searching and applying. So at least I did that. My life preserver has been cast. I'm just waiting for someone to tug on it so I can get some sort of direction. Sucks that this had to happen around the holidays. I can't tell if people just aren't at work or they don't like me. I want to apply to more jobs, but the listings haven't changed (because no ones at work).

I really want to go someplace warm for a mini-vacation so I can stop sitting in NY and MD looking all confused, but I'm afraid to use my money. My car's registration expired so I have a huge penalty fee coming my way in addition to a ski trip coming up in February. No matter what you do, there's always something. I'm actually excited for the ski trip. I wonder if I can sit tight through the month of January. I could if I had a purpose and a car.

Maybe I should look back to the 15 Things To Do Before 10/09 list and see what I could knock off.

• go snowboarding - i can check that off
• obtain an IRA - i need to check my 401Ks at Boeing and Time Inc for a rollover
• write 7 fantastic songs - i can scratch one off the list. 6 more to go. i'm not in the mood to pen anything write now though
• get baptized - i'm working on that. going out in service a little more while i'm unemployed wouldn't hurt
• have a committed relationship w/ a strong & spiritual man - Ha! NEXT
• take a European trip with sis - since we're both unemployed, that'll have to be postponed
• spend a weekday in a luxury hotel - i'm going to do this, no matter if i'm unemployed or not
• become AmEx debt free - well now that i'm back to paying the minimum, i need to change my deadline on this one
• fine tune my cooking skills - i'm actually ready to do this. if i move back home, i'll make this happen. i'm sure my family would be very appreciative
• put together a photography portfolio - now this is something i can do right now (well when i can manage to get my car registered). i keep dreaming about photography school and maybe even doing some photojournalism, so... yes. i need to jump on this right away
• take my vitamen daily - that's probably what's wrong with my body. i haven't been taking a vitamen!
• gain no more than 5 lbs. - well... something's wrong with me in this area too. my hourglass is not what it used to be. i NEED to gain 5 lbs. i used to hate it when people called me skinny, but right now, that's exactly what i am
• take dance classes - i'm afraid to exercise because i seem to keep losing weight. if i stick to my New York City Ballet workout DVD, i should be able to tone w/o losing
• become bomb at my job and get a good raise - errr, umm. the economy kinda killed that one
• get into interior design - eh. not feeling that right now

Okay so here's what I deduce from the above. I'm funneling all of that information into a thesis of sorts.

j.a.c.'s so-she-won't-go-crazy-while-unemployed to-do list, version 1
Finances - Handle my 401K business. Research Suze Orman advice.
Health - NYCB DVD in the mornings and take daily vitamen supplement.
Spirituality - Daily Bible reading and personal study. Prepare for mtgs. More service.
Lifestyle - Cook. As long as my parents purchase the groceries I'm good. Get a new menu book.
Passion - Take my camera out into the field. Maybe I can do a collection on love.
Career - Apply for 3 - 5 jobs everyday.

Cool. Now I gotta write this down where I can see it everyday and make a schedule. lol. I'm such a structured person. But that's okay. It's what I need to be j.a.c.

Did you enjoy my process? lol. They're always so funny. I start out down in the dumps, or somewhere near there, and then spit out these 1-2-3-4 executed instructions on how to raise myself back up. No wonder I'm so good at math and finance. I'm extremely logical, and if 2 + 2 doesn't = 4, then I'm confused. Eh! It is what it is!