Goodbye January

 

Has anyone ever said, "I'm sad, January is over." That answer is a resounding, "No!"

In January, we shake off the busy holiday season, make our New Year's resolutions, and hibernate because it's cold and dark. 

You know when you are in Ohio when the sun finally broke through the clouds one day this week and while it was only 25 degrees out, the car wash is so jammed pack, one couldn't pull in off the road if you wanted to. Wait until it hits 50 degrees, people will be out in shorts washing their cars. 

Sunny day car wash people and New Year's resolution people at the gym invade my space. I wash my car almost every day and I am not about to sit in line behind 25 cars for a car wash. Tomorrow they will all be gone when the blanket of cloud that covers Ohio is back out and in daily tradition, I went back to the car wash with ease. 

Focusing my attention on bright & sunny days ahead, I picked out my book for my flight to sunny Florida. Last year, I bought and took the book The Keto Diet, by Dr. Josh Axe. That worked very well for me and my life truly changed drastically. Then I read his Collagen book and I am SUCH an advocate of collagen. My skin has improved drastically over any skincare product line I've ever used. New year new book, I picked up another health inspired book by Dr. Josh Axe, Eat Dirt. 

I look at it this way, if I constantly incorporate healthy lifestyle practices, it enhances my quality of life now and years and decades from now. 

January, we bid you adieu. 

Hit the Reset Button

 

I blame the full moon last night. 

Today has already been a series of annoyances and I am super on edge. They say no good story starts with "she ate a salad." As trivial as it sounds, it started with a hard avocado. 

I have eaten an avocado every morning for 10 months. When I cut one open and scoop out it's superfood content, it makes the absolute, most perfect touch in my bone broth and collagen protein shake. Then, there are the mornings where the avocado isn't completely ripe, in fact it's hard, and I go to battle scooping it out anyway and my blender leaves it in chunks. This is how my morning started... with an unripe avocado.

This is my first weekend off since Christmas and my first 2-days off together in five weeks thanks to wedding engagement season. So, this weekend kind of feels like vacation. Walking into my strength training class, the class is filling up quickly and someone took my spot. As a creature of habit, I wasn't thrilled. Then, walking into the class is the world's most annoying guy. LOUD, raucous comments and laughter throughout the full hour we are in the class, and I'm probably radiating annoyance. Do you know what else is unravels my soul... there is a women in the class who I believe is quite successful owning a business, who thinks she is extra special. She works out with extra heavy weights, but cannot actually do the workouts correctly, because she has to throw the weight around in order to lift it, cannot do the intense slow and controlled reps and basically cannot do what the rest of the class is doing because her weights are simply too heavy. She looks ridiculous and I want to tell her. Between loud mouth who shouldn't be in a woman's class and this women who thinks she's stronger than everyone else, my mind has to shift to another place. 

I think about a video message I received last night and I think about another & I'm thinking about Mango Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I know I need to hit the reset button and I'm hoping this intense workout and the elliptical will knock the steam right out of me.

Three great things happened: In the locker room I struck up a conversation with a woman and 20 minutes later, she said she felt we were soul sisters. Sometimes women can bond quickly, I really like her. I hit a new record of 4,300 steps in 30 minutes, and wiping off the elliptical, I saw him. Mr. Bold & Handsome from the other day at the gym. He flashed me another fabulous smile, I smiled back. He was with his buddy working out behind me! 

Okay, perhaps the tide is shifting and the day is getting better. 

Checking my Fitbit to see where I am with my steps, I'm guessing, 7K, I look and it only says 3,700 total for the day. SERIOUSLY?! I had 400 before my strength training, that class I know I racked up steps + the 4,300 on the elliptical alone.

It's the moon.

Reset. Reset. Reset!

Mom & Daughter Dates

 

Mom and daughter dates are important. The three of us. Taking us back to our core family unit where they can just be daughters and enjoy a lovely dinner on momma and an evening out. 

Life pulls us in so many directions, in so many roles, it's always enjoyable to etch an evening out with just my daughters and have a date night. 

Walking in I noticed the three of us had skinny jeans, sweater tops, cute boots, and sparkling eye shadow. Casual, put together, and comfortable. That best describes our look and personalities. 

We ate at PF Changs. Nibbled on Edamame, dinner + sides, and dessert. There was so much food we packed most of it up and the girls both walked out with a bag filled and plenty of food and dessert for today. I passed my leftovers off to them, cheat-night doesn't need to roll over to today. 

I especially love my time with my girls. In 11 weeks my new grandbaby arrives.

500 Functions!

 

This is going to sound insensitive... instead of living in fear and jumping on the vaccination bandwagon as a quick fix to covid, take ownership of your own health. Hear me out...

I cannot even watch the news anymore, it is filled with chaos. Covid numbers, death tolls, and vaccinations everyone is holding out for as their eternal hope to stay healthy. 

Do you know the liver is the largest organ in the body and has about 500 functions for the health of the body? It filters your blood to remove toxins such as viruses and bacteria, it stores vitamins and minerals, processes fats, proteins and carbohydrates, produces bile to break down fats for digestion and detoxifies the body of hormones, chemicals, toxins, and metabolic waste. 

In one minute your liver can filter about two quarts of the five quarts of blood your body contains. To appreciate the magnitude of this, compare this with a filter in a swimming pool. The filter would need to clean 1/2 of the pool's water every minute to keep up with what your liver can do. 

Do you overwhelm your own liver with sludge? Do you enjoy the American diet of processed, sugar laden and fried food? Or, do you eat clean and healthy? How about drinking plenty of water, every day? Do you rest your liver and your internal organs by not eating for at least 12 - 17 hours a day (or overnight)? 

I'm not on a soapbox, but I've learned to eat really clean and I exercise like crazy. My health stats are excellent, I have tons of energy, my joints no longer ache (starch and sugar attacks my joints), my skin has changed, my body has definitely changed, and I am strong. 

Those with poor health, their lives are threatened by covid. Not everyone is responsible or can help their health and a lot are the reason. I just came from the grocery store. The junk people throw in their carts as their means of sustenance... and people wonder why they aren't the pillar of health. Think of their liver. It's like the little train, that no longer could.  

Pharmaceuticals are big business and too many are making their living selling quick fixes. Good health is a lifestyle. It's eating healthy, drinking plenty of water, exercising, getting a good nights rest. Do it the old fashioned way, the way we were created to. 

 

4,200 in 30

 

After strength training, I started hitting the elliptical hard for 30 minutes to extend my workouts. There is a favorite interval training option I like where it alternates every other minute from intense tension to light tension. For one minute I have to push hard to keep my steps in line with my pace, then the next minute the tension lightens and I hit my steps hard. I am averaging 4,200 steps in 30 minutes. 

When I'm done, I am wrecked in a fabulous, spent kind of way.

Completely caught off guard, I see tall, dark, super handsome and built like a brick house, about to walk by me, purposely locked eyes with me, kept them locked and flashed me a fabulous smile. Bold move, handsome. Oh, dear Lord Jesus, please let him be at least in his mid - late 40's and not younger!! 

I will be ready the next time I see him. 

A is for Apple

 

Sofia wanted to watch her videos on my phone as we ran to McDonald's yesterday. When I asked what she wanted to watch she said, "Essie". At this moment, I believe after an in depth Google search this is the way to spell it and perhaps these are the videos she wanted to watch.

In the car (before I pulled out of the driveway), I told her that I didn't know how to spell the show she was talking about, so I couldn't find it. 

Sighing loudly, she said in a stern voice, "gRaMmY, wHeN yOu gEt oLdEr, yOu nEed tO lEaRn tO sPeLl! 

And I'm the one who walked in with an alphabet coloring book and we colored and practiced A is for apple and alligator (or crocodile).  

I Arrive in Grandma Glory!

 

A Facetime call came early this morning and I could see my sweet little grandson isn't feeling well at all. He has four new teeth popping through and his eczema is flared up. My daughter, patient & loving, she is a wonderful momma, who is also very pregnant and not sleeping.

I look at my day off list of things I want to do, and scratched 1/2 them off, because I simply cannot wait to see my babies! 

Sometimes when you aren't feeling well a little pick me up is needed. I stopped by Dollar Tree, filled a large gift bag with toys: a nerf sword, a firetruck that has a siren, a helicopter that makes a chopper noise, a bag of balls (basketball, soccer & golf), 2 coloring books (one for each grandbaby), crayons, a Frozen packet with markers/notepad/stickers, 2 little teddy bears, and balloons attached to the gift bag. $12 = 2 super excited little ones.

"gRaMmY tHaT iS sO nIcE oF yOu!" Sofia burst in praise. Rowan was all about the balloons and seeing his happiness while he's been miserable, made it the best $12 I have spent in a long time. 

I popped Sofia in the car and of to McDonalds we went! In tradition, I ask, "Chicky nuggets or hamburger?" In tradition, she replies, "Both!" Both it is and her hot fudge sundae. Lunch for pregnant momma, too. 

Sometimes it's all about the surprise and sometimes it's about presentation. It doesn't take much to give a heart a lift, because sometimes it's the little things that mean so much. 

Me... my arms filled with my little ones, snuggling, hugging and kisses, is exactly what I needed, and I felt my grandbaby in my daughter's womb kick for the 1st time time. 

Time for a needed up of coffee and check off the rest of my list. It's been a perfect day off.