Tag Archives: Mental Health

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Reflecting On My Journey

While I was driving to work this morning, I was listening to Oprah Radio and just doing some self – reflection about my health, wellness and fitness journey. My thoughts were triggered last night while reading the book about the P.I.N.K Method. The book also serves as a journal in which you write your starting measurements, goals etc. While writing my goals, I realized a number of things that I am doing to hinder my health and fitness journey. Some of the things I am going to mention in this post may be a repeat of a earlier post so I apologize in advance.

1. I am an emotional eater.

2. I  snack out of boredom

3. I sometimes skip breakfast

4. I eat certain things out of weakness (giving in to what my daughter and man want to eat for dinner)

5. I lay in bed most of the weekend in the dark either sleeping or watching TV

6. I spend a lot of time feeling sorry for myself

7. I am allowing my depression to run my life instead of continuously seeking treatment (this is my biggest obstacle).

8. I have not made any short or long-term weight loss goals

My biggest obstacle is depression and I have decided that its time to contact my insurance and seek treatment. I was under treatment before at the Veteran’s Affairs but I stopped going since the main focus was medicating me and not allowing me to face my issues and learn new ways to overcome those issues.

I have also realized that I do not need to have everyone in my house on the same page with me. I find that I want EVERYONE in my house to change their lifestyle because I am trying to change mine. I am unsuccessful with my change because I am not focused on just me. It is okay to be selfish so that I can reduce my risk of heard disease, diabetes, high cholesterol etc. I have to make a change for ME and not anyone else.

I initially planned to start the  P.I.N.K. Method on March 19th but since I have not finished reading through the book I have decided to start on April 1st. The first 90 days of 2012 did not go they way I intended on this journey (only a 3 lb weight loss so far), so let’s see how the 2nd 90 days of this year will go. I have some upcoming events to get jazzy for as well as being healthy overall such as my daughters graduation and my birthday. I will discuss my short-term and long-term weight loss goals in a future post. :-)

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31 Day Reset – Day 29 – Get your “side hustle” on

I am participating in the 31 Day Reset which is a life coaching challenge hosted by Rosetta Thurman on her blog Happy Black Woman. So far I have really been enjoying the challenge and I hope that you enjoy following me along on this challenge. If you are interested in doing the challenge, click here.

For this exercise I am supposed to develop a side hustle that will generate more money on the side. Every so often I may sell unwanted items on eBay to make a few dollars but nothing very serious. Basically this will be a short blog post because a side hustle is not what I intend to do now. I do not have the time or the want to start a side hustle. I am a full-time student at the University that I work for and I also work full-time, have 3 dogs and a family to care for. Education is my current side hustle with the result creating my main hustle of a career in counseling.

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31 Day Reset – Day 26 – Things I love <3

I am participating in the 31 Day Reset which is a life coaching challenge hosted by Rosetta Thurman on her blog Happy Black Woman. So far I have really been enjoying the challenge and I hope that you enjoy following me along on this challenge. If you are interested in doing the challenge, click here.

For this exercise,I had to think of and list 100 things that make me happy. I had a hard time thinking about 100 things that I love but I got through it. Here are 100 things that I love in no particular order of importance.

1. God

2. Being in love

3. My daughter

4. My boyfriend

5. My friends

6. My home

7. My dogs

8. Reading

9. silence (quiet time)

10. Massages

11. Music

12. Life

13. Dancing

14. Smiling

15. Acting silly

16. Making YouTube videos

17. Inspiring people

18. Motivating people

19. Planeteriums

20. The Zoo

21. Aquariums

22. the stars

23. Sunrise and sunsets

24. Elephants

25. Panda Bears

26. Singing

27. Reality TV

28. romantic comedies

29. Hot Baths

30. Sitting in the Sauna

31. long weekends

32. Books

33. Vegetables (broccoli, mushrooms, spinach)

34. shrimp

35. Regular weekends

36. Lipton‘s Mango and peach white tea

37. Documentaries

38. Movies based on true events

39. San Diego

30. Stockton

31. Vineyards

32. Tulips

33. Tilapia

34. My family

35. My mother

36. My brother

37. Sedona

38. Flagstaff

39. Living in Arizona

40. Working for a christian university

41. learning

42. babies

43. puppies

44. camping

45. Natural hair (mine and everyone that has natural hair)

46. sitting around the camp fire

47. nail polish

48. church

49. choirs

50. romantic comedy

51. horror movies

52. The Beach

53. Self reflection

54. Brownies

55. Blogging

56. Gadgets (cellphones, digital cameras, MP3 players)

57. orchids

58. Positive people

59. Hummus and cucumbers

60. road trips

61. autumn leaves

62. christian music

63. stimulating conversation

64. roller skatinng

65. riding my bicycle

66. exercising

67. Zumba!!!!

68. learning something new

69. purple

70. Snuggling/cuddling with my boyfriend

71. Affection

72. Fire places

73. House hunting (looking at model homes)

74. dreaming

75. relaxing

76. Red Lobster

77. YouTube

78. BMW 745Li

79. dresses

80. Sandals

81. Clicking with someone immediately

82. amaretto sours

83. respectful children

84. swimming

85. scented candles

86. jacuzzi’s

87. reminiscing

88. Volvo S80

89. Stanford

90. Zebras

91. Applebee’s

92. Receiving something I ordered in the mail

93. Making others laugh

94. Hybrid’s

95. Moves from the 80′s

96. 90′s music

97. country music

98. reading blogs

99. being a college student

100. trains

Some of the things may seem odd to you but they are the things that I love. :-)

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31 Day Reset – Day 24 – Make a new friend

I am participating in the 31 Day Reset which is a life coaching challenge hosted by Rosetta Thurman on her blog Happy Black Woman. So far I have really been enjoying the challenge and I hope that you enjoy following me along on this challenge. If you are interested in doing the challenge, click here.

When it comes to friends, I am very selective. I do not just let anyone into my life. That may sound a little “stuck up” or crazy but I have been crossed many people who I automatically considered friends. Because of this, it is hard for me to make friends. For day 23 of the 31 Day Reset I joined a community to help support my goal of losing weight and getting healthy, that community was MyFitnessPal. My plan was to make a few “friends” on that website and maybe even find a person from that site that lives in my local area that I can have for a workout buddy.

While navigating the site, I noticed that it is not as user-friendly as SparkPeople. There did not seem to be any groups to join, no articles, recipes, or member pages to browse like on SparkPeople. My plan to make a new friend for this challenge is pretty much on hold until I close my account on MyFitnessPal and open a new one on SparkPeople.

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31 Day Reset – Day 22 – Plan your reset project

I am participating in the 31 Day Reset which is a life coaching challenge hosted by Rosetta Thurman on her blog Happy Black Woman. So far I have really been enjoying the challenge and I hope that you enjoy following me along on this challenge. If you are interested in doing the challenge, click here

For day 22 of the 31 Day reset, I am to choose one specific area from my life map to make progress on within one month. Out of the seven specific life areas: lifestyle, work, education, finances, health and family, I chose to make progress on my health within one month.

I chose health because I know that if I exercise more it will help me with my depression that I have fought. I also need to lose between 30 to 40 pounds to look better, decrease my health risks and since I recently found out that I have moderate arthritis (in BOTH knees), I need to get “lighter” or I will end up using a cane or walker when I get older.

My goals that I hope to achieve within the next 30 days are:

1. Exercise 4 days a week this month

2. Eat out only twice this month (I have to wean myself off of that slowly)

3. Lose 5 pounds

4. Decrease my blood pressure

5. Start physical therapy (depending on my MRI results)

6. Read half of Fitness for Dummies (13 chapters, I am now on chapter 2)

7. Have a good start on a healthier diet

I will measure my success in the following ways:

1. Determine weight and inches lost by the way my clothes fit

2. Journal, or place a star or something on my calendar on the days I work out

3. Check my Blood pressure in two weeks at one of those BP stations in Wal-Mart or the mall to find my BP

4. Listen to feedback provided by my physical therapist

I am sure that I will encounter many obstacles while trying to meet my goal. I am about to start classes again, my daughter will be back from the east coast so that means I really have to schedule my workouts and make them a priority. I also plan to take before pictures of my body and tape them to my mirror to remind me of my current physical state and that I need to lose weight. I also am reminded daily that exercise will aid me in dealing with depression, stress, sleep issues, and my knee pain

In order for me to see results in 30 days I will need to write out a work out schedule, a meal plan, get my accountability partner involved and just go for it!