Day 1 results/Day 2 plan

Howdy all,

Day One is at an end! I had a really good day and I achieved my goals.

I started out late and missed morning yoga before class...no fear though because I did it when I got back to my apartment. I had Wheat Chex before class for breakfast. Then I made pb&J sammiches for Darling and I for lunch with smoothies! So yummy. For dinner I also ate very well! I had my advent calendar chocolate (dessert first!) and then chicken and stir-fry veggies with brown rice. So good! Out apartment smelled delicious afterwards.

It was actually really impressive how calm I was this morning and today. The "I can" and "I am" list was a great idea. I really enjoyed doing that. I still haven't shared it with anyone but I can share with my roomie in a few mins. In spite of the craziness that happened today, I have felt very peaceful and relaxed about it all. Tomorrow when I am less tired I will let you know how sharing my list went with my roommate and myself.

At the end of the day I am very satisfied and feel pretty good. Now it's off to bed so I can get a good 7 hours of sleep.

The goals for Day 2 are:

1) Count my blessings...after receiving many noticeable ones today, I will be counting the ones I see tomorrow. Not only will I count them, but I will make note of why those blessings were important to me.

2) I will be spending the day in Salt Lake and will need to be watchful of my eating. The plan is to bring my lunch and to buy a salad or other healthy item for dinner and to make sure I am still drinking my water.

3) I will also being going to bed early tomorrow night because Darling will be busy and I have a long day ahead of me on Saturday. Sleep is vital!


Alright friends! Cheers to a great day!

Day One Plan :)

There is something about starting things that is really exciting. Maybe it's all of the possibilities, or the fact that I haven't screwed anything up yet, but I am really excited for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be Day one of my FANTASTIC FINALS FITNESS 10 DAY PROGRAM.

Challenges for tomorrow are:

Mind/Body Love

1. List as many positive things as I can about myself using "I can" and "I am" statements. 
2. I have to write them down and share them with one other person out loud
3. At the end of the day I will look myself in the mirror and say them with confidence to the person who needs to hear them the most...myself. 
4. Then I will write a short journal about how it felt to make the list, and share the list, and to say those things to myself. 

Exercise/Diet

1. I will do Morning Yoga Routine
2. I will drink 3 full water bottles of water (recommended for my body size)
3. Eat Breakfast (smoothie and granola)
4. Eat a healthy snack (apple/banana/orange)
5. Eat lunch (planning PB and J with a side of carrot sticks)
6. Eat a healthy dinner (chicken with stir-fry veggies and rice)
7. And one piece of my advent calendar chocolate-it's my dessert :) I think this is great because I will not make it if I don't get anything chocolate for the next 10 days, so understanding portions and eating less will help me keep going. 

For some inspiration...Here's a goodie by Michael Jackson

**I want to make an important point. If I slip up and don't do one of these things I plan on, IT IS NOT the End of the World. Instead, at that point, I need to drop negative talk about hopelessness and failure and bring it back to positive self-talk. "I can do this." "My body wants me to do this." "My personal Self wants me to do this." "My body accepts and loves me, and I accept and love my body." "My mind is powerful and full of knowledge." "I enjoy learning.""I am worth it." "I am smart. I is kind. I is important." 

Abby's Fantastic Finals Fitness-10 day program

Okay all,

I must admit it out loud. I have been acting and eating totally unhealthfully the past few weeks. As finals approach, the stress of group projects, exams and essays have been bearing down on me. I have been feeling so overwhelmed! Like usual, this means that I struggle to eat well, exercise, and take care of myself at these times.

Sometimes I feel like this:

How can I practice what I preach during Finals Week?

This question has plagued me for some time. Semester after sweet semester, I can keep healthy and take care of myself. I can get my check-ups and screenings. I can exercise daily and not feel exhausted. I can eat well and take time to meditate and be still. Finals arrive however, and procrastination catches up with me, or my groups' procrastination does, and I feel like doing only 4 things. EAT. STUDY. WORK. SLEEP. **Repeat until finals are over. I add work because I really enjoy my jobs and find that working during finals week is actually relaxing because I know I won't be broke over the break :)

But I am done with it!! And Seriously, I mean it! I am done with eating bad food all day to get a quick energy boost. I am done with not sleeping enough and going to bed stressed out. I am done with feeling gross! I am done with being unhealthy during exams!

For the next 10 days, I am taking my life back from finals. The worst part of all this may just be that I am a Public Health major at BYU. I know that what I am doing is bad. I know what I should be doing differently. Now this is when push comes to shove. If you are anything like me then you need a program. I can't just lolly-gag around and think about doing what I need to. I have to make a plan to do what I should, or it might get pushed aside and make its was down on my priority list until it is off of it all together.

NO MORE!

I will be blogging everyday about things that I plan to do for the next day to stay healthy during the next 10 days. In 10 days Finals will be over and I will be packing for England :) 10 days! 10 Days! Also, everyday I will report back about how I am doing. Am I doing what I planned? Am I eating healthfully? Am I exercising? Am I taking time for myself.





There will be 2 parts to this FANTASTIC FINALS FITNESS PROGRAM

1) Mind/Body Love: this part involves a challenge for me to take some time to relax. This may include a meditation/relaxation exercise, journaling about a certain topic, practicing positive self-talk, or doing service.

2) Exercise/Diet/Sleep: this part of course will be focussed on preparing healthy meals for the next day, eating those healthy meals and snacks, and making sure that I exercise daily. This could mean that I do yoga in the morning and evening, could be that I do a zumba workout or weights. This section also includes drinking enough water and getting enough sleep. My goal is to get to bed at 11pm latest and be up at 7:30am latest every day. This also means that I personally will be taking my vitamins and oils (omega 3 and 6 capsules) as well.

***You can of course adapt this to meet your own needs, whether you are struggling through finals week, or everyday life.

But here I go on my journey to take back my life and my SELF from Finals Week. And yes I believe that as I take care of my mind and my body, both will function better and result in better scores and a more satisfied me.

Tell me what you think!

A

Things Lately

Hello Friends!

I am really irregular about posting. That is kinda lame huh?! Well, maybe one day I will be better about updating weekly. Things lately have been fabulous!

1. Darling and I had a great Thanksgiving with Grandma, my brother, and some cousins and aunts and uncles of mine. Went to Grandmas house and stuffed ourselves.

2. We went Black Friday Shopping. I bought presents for those to be left unnamed and we ate some left overs.

3. We saw Life of Pi with Grandma and my roomie. Really cute movie in my opinion and it was just beautiful!

4. Chatted with family on Google + Hangouts on Thanksgiving

5. Darling and I are reading "His Needs Her Needs" (can't recall the author's name right now) as well as "Things I wish I knew before we got Married" by Gary Chapman. Really helpful books. We needed to talk about some issues and these books are helping us open up those conversations that we didn't even think about.

6. I have found an internship at the Utah Department of Health! :)

7. I leave for England in less than a month for the holiday!


Needless to say things have been going well. And hopefully things will keep going so well.

There are so many cool movies coming out!!! I want to see:

Lincoln, The last Twilight movie, The Hobbit, Les Miserables, The Host, Now You See Me.

Oh man I am excited!!! I am going to try to convince Darling to take me to see Les Miserables together at Christmas.

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, ate lots of Turkey, and were grateful for peace on that day.

My hobbies

Lately, I feel like I have been in a rut.

Not a normal sort of a rut...but a Looooooong

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RUT!

I feel in some ways that I have found reasons to stop doing the things I once loved. I think there are 3 main causes for this change in behavior and subsequent change in satisfaction with my life in general.
1) Feeling like I have less time, there are more demands on my time, and I have poor time management skills.
2) The fact that my significant other and some dear friends do not have interest in doing those things with me, and with the time I do have, I want to be spending with people. (studying, test taking, etc. are all done by ones self).
3) I am limited at this station in my life financially and physically. As I do not have a car and I do not make a LOT of money, I don't have the ability to head off into the mountains on an adventure/hike/camping trip, I cannot simply take a trip to Salt Lake in the evening just because, I do not have the luxury of being able to pop over to the Hot Springs in the next city (buses don't go close enough).


Thus  I feel I am stuck in a RUT. Darling and I have a lot of things that we love to do and would love to do, and would have loved to do this summer. But being limited by the above 3 things, we have not been able to accomplish too many of those things.

So, in light of this rut feeling, I have decided to make a list of my hobbies and things that I enjoy...because I can! I enjoy many things and people and activities, and I need to remind myself that I am a fun person, and I can still choose to be that fun and exciting person with neat interests.

• I really enjoy a good card game. When I am home in TX, I love to play with family and friends any chance that I get! 
• I like animal watching, and people watching! People and animals do the funniest things. 
• I love to dance! Folk dance, Salsa, Bachata, Country Swing, Country line, etc. 
• I find solace in playing guitar and singing
• Painting and doodling is so much fun, and I find that I love to get those creative juices working. I just adore the feeling of pain on my hands. 
• I enjoy taking pictures of people I care about and pictures of myself with those I love. I like to edit them too. If I had Adobe Photoshop....I would go wild. 
• I am learning to like crocheting and knitting 
• I like to know that I can fix things by sewing or household items too
• Creating useful items out of recyclables is fun!
• Taking walks, is something I have always loved. This can include walking around the neighborhood, the city, the forrest, the park, or hiking around the mountains. 
• I like to play basketball for fun...mostly just shooting, I am not very competitive unless it comes to some types of dance. 
• Kickball, baseball, softball...all fun games I like. 
• Playing with my hair to find and try out new hair styles is exciting and something I really like doing.
• Classically, I find immense pleasure in cooking and baking for others and in eating with other people.
• I enjoy decorating my apartment and making it more like a home
• I like to do Zumba and workout in my apartment or in near by lounges with big tv's 
• Reading is a love/hate relationship because I love reading, but I hate that it takes me away from people and relationships so much
• I love doing things with other people, building relationships
• I love to go to the theater to see plays and operas and dance performances
• Watching musicals is a weak spot. I love musicals! 
• I really like to watch specific TV shows and think about what is going on in the series
• I like blogging and facebooking and looking at cool things on pintrest and youtube , and  that sharing with others. 
• I love taking baths...with a book, with a movie, with candles, with aromatherapy
• Thrift store shopping is fun
• I like to plan trips and vacations in my future and dream about what it will be like.
• I love to search out new and exotic places online or while watching the travel channel and imagine myself there
• I used to be really into ice skating; not that I was any good,  but I liked it
• I like to swim for fun
• I find that talking to other people really is so much fun for me. I love to get to know people. Learning more about others makes me feel good inside.
• Service and volunteering also just wets my whistle. I feel so confident and glad to be there.
• I enjoy boggle and taboo and other board games of that nature
• Gardening is great, even though I do not currently have my own. 
• I also really like learning about Public Health related things and Home Remedies
• Playing with small pets is a lot of fun too.
• I could see myself loving rock climbing if the situation permitted

Well, considering it is past my bed time, and I have in the early morning, this list is good enough for now.  I have things I like and love to do and now I just need to start having a plan and making time to do these things so that my life remains more balanced. So, how do I decide what to do with others and what to do by myself, well maybe that is just trial and error. 

Any suggestions? 

Thanks, 

As always I ams continually learnings,

Patience

I have recently been contemplating one very most important, imminent, and life changing event.

Marriage. 

More precisely, my own MARRIAGE.

Now, I know what you are going to say. "Well you aren't even engaged yet?!". Right-o! However there is the small fact that my darling and I are so very deeply entangled that at this point marriage and eternal commitment seems inevitable.

To be sure it is not the wedded life of bliss, endless friendship, and waking up in the arms of my darling that I abhor. Of course, like any human being capable and in need of love and support and companionship, I crave those things! Not to mention the breakfast in bed, or all of the other fantastic things you can do in bed (like build a fort, or sleep all through the night together- I really do look forward to not having to shove him out the door at midnight). But alas, it is the terrifying and billowing threat of divorce and unhappiness and separation that I am so afraid of. That, or a life full of misery and dread under the heavy weight of ball and chain.
---Just a side note...balls and chains have always given me images of slavery, bondage, and the waxen cord always referred to in scripture as the favorite accessory of the devil-just sayin that maybe we should pick a different metaphor for marriage.Knots aren't too much better as I think of when I was a kid and used to double knot my shoes to make sure they were tight, and how annoying it was when I realized that knotting them meant that I couldn't get them untied to get my feet out without the use of a pencil or other long skinny object that could fit between the laces.---

Luckily (knotting and ball and chain issues resolved), I think, I love my darling even enough to get married.

No, I haven't been married and divorced, and my parents are still married (happily is all in their perspective and the amount of work they put in, so they tell me). Truthfully, my parents have given me a great example of sticking with it, and loving unconditionally. They love each other for all that they are, warts and all. Maybe they love the warts a little bit less, but they love the person all the same, and over time have learned to help one another surgically remove a few warts. They really are adorkable and I love them so much and am so grateful for all their counsel.

So what is really bugging me about marriage? Well, I believe it lies in the fact that I cannot simple will not tolerate being loved unconditionally by anyone other than my omnipotent and all forgiving and loving God and Savior. Even we have brokered some sort of deal where I am allowed a certain amount of shame and guilt to keep me comfortable, but not enough to totally inhibit my spirituality and safety of my soul.

Unfortunately, this deal is becoming unbearable as I fall deeper and deeper in like and in love with my darling. He seems to love me even in my most ugly and loch ness monster moments. I don't get it. I feel like in my fiery and raging personal hell there isn't space for someone else to come get me and save me and hold me close. But some how my darling has this amazing ability to hold me and hang in there himself, even during these moments and instead of feeling dread at his existence (like my own at the time), my soul feels safe. Granted feeling safe there feels terrifying beyond belief, but nonetheless I feel safe.

This reflection comes probably as a result of little sleep, a high from some really great dates, and some good commitment phobia reading.//

Right now I am devouring page by delicious page:

Some how Elizabeth Gilbert, whether she is trudging through a messy divorce, or meditating at an Ashram in India in Eat, Pray, Love ; or if she is running around South East Asia trying to figure out what marriage means and is, or if she is stuck at the airport with the love and other half of her life being "deported" in Committed; somehow she puts into words exactly what I needed to hear and I find my own life experience reflected in what she writes. As I read this self-explorative narration, I cannot help but feel exactly as she did. I find myself wondering exactly what some or any person with a commitment phobia wonders at some point.

Am I asking too much of marriage? Interesting thought really that not only do I, and probably many others, expect and desire decency, honesty, ability to provide, but also inspiration from a Suspected spouse (or future spouse in my case)... , " That somehow be answerable for every aspect of each other's joy and happiness. That our very job description as spouses was to be each other's everything...For the first time in my life, it occurred to me that perhaps I was asking too much of love. Or at least, perhaps I was asking too much of marriage. Perhaps I was loading a far heavier cargo of expectation onto the creaky old boat of matrimony than that strange vessel had ever been build to accommodate in the first place" (pg. 49 of committed).

Maybe that is the key, or at least the door, to opening up my view and feelings about marriage. I really do love and care for and wish to always care for and partner with my dearest darling. He has grown to be so much a part of me and my life, that I now have me and my life so connected with him and his life that we also have a WE and OUR life. WE have plans together and WE have dreams. OUR life includes No Meat Mondays, and Sunday evening walks. WE are going to Europe for Christmas Holiday, and WE love to eat chocolate and read. OUR future dog will be small enough that we can take it on vacation with us. OUR life together will be full of learning, and growing together in love, with educational and family and personal goals that WE dreamed and imagined of together.

I thought kinda seriously about whether or not to blog about my commitment phobia, but I hope that as I do, some people or even just a few may come to understand, at the very least that I may be able to understand, my own feelings. I really enjoy and savor every day and even every minute that I get to be with my beloved. Because he is just that, my beloved; him whom my soul loves. I just hope that the day he does ask, and I know that he will (because he is just THAT awesomely studly), that I will be able to yes with all of my being without doubt and without fear. Instead, I hope to be full of joy and excitement and eager anticipation of time when I get to promise a never ending commitment of love and support and partnership and fun-ness. If there really is someone that I could consider giving my whole heart and soul to in this way, it would be him. It would be my darling.  It would be the kindest, wittiest, and most wonderful man.

With warm regard and a never ending study of patience,

A

A letter to Baby Girl

So dearest Baby Girl,

Lately you have been really sick. I am so sorry that I cannot be there with you to watch movies, snuggle, and laugh about how gross hospital food is. Have I told you lately that you are my favorite? I know I shouldn't have a favorite sissy, but I really do. 

Not being able to be there for you kills me inside. I miss you and love you like crazy! Every time I hear that you are having a bad day, part of my heart breaks. It just aches. I love you best friend. Baby girl, thank you for always being there for me.

I love calling and chatting with you. I love that most of our conversations go like this one:
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"Hi baby girl. How are you today?"

"Better now. I love you sissy."

"Oh I love you too. Are you being good for mama?"

"Ya, but my head hurts."

"Ya?"

"Ya!"

"I'm sorry. Did you have any fun today?"

"No, the doctors and mama are making me stay in bed. But guess what they have in the play room?!"

"What?!"

"Baby dolls. I saw a dolly in there."

-Some more banter about dollies availability for play dates, and how mean or nice doctors or nurses and mama are. Then we have to eventually end.

"Well, I love you Baby Girl. Don't you forget that."

"I love you too sissy. Don't you forget."

"I will call you later okay."

"I miss you."

"I know. I miss you too....now get some sleep love."

"Okay. Here's mama."

----

I love you Baby Girl. We have shared some really hard times...and some of the best! One of the things I miss most about being away from home is that when I have a hard night I have no one to crawl into bed with. When I'm home Baby Girl, you just let me snuggle for a bit. I miss you sayin, "Its okay, you don't need to feel bad. Don't be scared." You have no idea how much that means to me.

I hope you get better soon, so that you can come visit me!

I have the best Baby Sister in the world. '

Love you bunches,

A