What a year it's been

This month marks the one year time to the majority of my traveling both for work and for vacation.  Before this year I had only travelled in the US and not to many places, but this year was all about change for me.  As I reflect back on this year, I realize that I have been to 5 foreign countries and 15 US states.....totally amazing to me that I have been so far in just one year.   This year I have had the pleasure to go to these foreign countries China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Dominican Republic, and Mexico.  In the United States, I have been to: Nevada, Arkansas, Colorado, Arizona, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, Georgia, Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington.

Last week while on my trip I had a lot of alone time and with being in Mexico for half the week I didn't even try to turn the television on so I had plenty of quiet time to reflect and think about my life along with the lessons that I have learned.  Here are somethings that I have learned:

1.  Count my blessings - I have so many things to be thankful for.  I have an amazing husband, a fantastic son, a roof over our head, food on the table, a career that I enjoy and allows me to see the world.

2.  God talks to me most when I am alone - for the majority of my life I have believed in God but have not been a religious person.  Traveling this year I have spent a lot of hours alone and some of the hardest times in my life were times when I was alone on these trips, but yet I had a sense of peace that only God could provide.  

3.  My weight is not what should make me happy - I ALWAYS have had troubles with my weight I have always felt judged by my weight.  This year I have been around the world and have done a lot of really fun things and yet my weight kept going up.  Now I am not saying that I want to be fat and happy that is not it....this year my body has been out of whack with medicine being off, eating in restaurants, eating unhealthy foods in airports, not exercising because of being gone - however I have had a lot of great times this year.  What I know is that I would love to lose weight so that I can be healthier and be able to do more fun things this world has to offer.

4.  School is not what has taught me the most this year - as you know I started school in May of this year and although I have learned more about business and project management the things that taught me the most this year has been living life and seeing what the world has to offer.  Probably my biggest life lesson this year has been just how much I am capable of and how venturing out teaches me new things.

5.  The world is small and there is so much to see and learn - literally being in Thailand was completely on the other side of the world from where I live.  There were many similarities to where I live and so many things completely opposite of my life.  I would encourage anyone who has ever wanted to travel and has the opportunity you should do it.  Just because people live differently does not make it right or wrong it is just different.  The people who have so much in life are not always the happiest, the people who have little in life value family and life more and seem to be happy.

6.  People genuinely want to teach you about their culture - in all the countries I visited, I asked a lot of questions about the peoples lives and they seemed to genuinely want to teach me about it.  I got to see many things that are important to their everyday life....such as a Thai temple, a small Mexican Village, a typical Chinese restaurant or tea shop - the list goes on and on.

7.  The people who are my greatest supporters are not always family I have some amazing friends.    I have reconnected with some long lost family this year and they have been such a blessing to me.  There were many times when I was gone that a simple like or comment meant the world to me because although the traveling is fun and exciting when I travelled alone it was scary or lonely.  I know I don't always say it but the little things mean a lot to me.  When you are in a foreign country and english is not the primary language you feel so small in big big world and just having someone comment on a Facebook post puts you right back into your normal life.

Here are a few pictures of my year that bring back many great memories for me. 

Stores on a typical Chinese Street

Parkakeets that we could have had for dinner that I thought "what cute little birds"

A chinese menu

Veggies at a Chinese Street Market

Tea in bulk

Parasailing in the Dominican Republic

Christmas Festival in Leavenworth

Surfers in Hawaii

Sunrise in Hawaii

One of our snorkeling locations in Hawaii

Waterfall in Hawaii

A view of the city in Hong Kong

Clams in teryiaki sauce

Seafood fried rice 

Scallops in Hong Kong

Junx boat we rode on in Hong Kong

View from the plane in Dominican Republic

Lighthouse in Hawaii

Lake Michigan in Kenosha Wisconsin

Cathedral in Mexico City

Mexico City - view from the hotel window

Thai Temple

Feeding Monkey's in Thailand

Dinner in Thailand next to the Adaman Sea

I don't know if I will ever have a year where I travel as much as I did this year but I am so thankful and grateful for all I have gotten to see and experience this year.    I hope you have enjoyed this journey down memory lane.  

On a whole new journey

Do you ever feel like your are going through the motions but you just aren't going anywhere?  That's exactly what I have been feeling like for the last 8 months.  I don't know if it's depression, winter, my medicine being off or all of the above.  I have been living life but not really loving it.  Well that is all about to change.  In April I made the decision to take my life back, I contacted my doctor and asked to have my thyroid levels rechecked.  For those of you who don't know I have struggled with my thyroid my whole life, it is either high or low so about 4 years ago I had it taken out which meant taking medicine daily.  The bad part of it that thyroid effects many aspects of your body function and when your levels are off you get down, tired, lethargic and you just don't care.  Usually by the time I realize that my levels are off it's been a few months and my bad habits crept back in.  Of course when my thyroid was checked my levels were extremely low so my doctor changed my medicine and now my levels are extremely high.  I will blog soon about thyroid and what it does and how it affects your life and signs of thyroid disease.

In any case back to me....lol this is my blog after all.  So in April I decided to head back to school to get my Masters in Project Management.  At work I am a Project Manager and I love what I do, so I thought this would be a perfect fit.  I love to learn and try new things so I am excited about this new challenge.    I am attending CTU (Colorado Technical University) and getting my degree all online.

I also decide that I am tired of gaining weight week by week, month by month due to health related issues, so I am refocusing on my getting fit and my Beachbody business.  I created a schedule for myself so that I have time to play but also have time to get my work done.  I am hoping with being more prepared in life I can actually make more time for working out.... I know it's sad to say but I have to plan to work on ME!  

This month I reconnected with some family from my past and I love that I have them in my life now. In the past I stayed to myself and didn't put myself out there - this too ends with the brand new me.  I hope that you will follow my journey and support me in taking a new step one by one so that I can create a brand new me!  I am hopeful that someday soon my health will be great due to eating healthy and working out regularly, that I am happy and enjoying life pushing myself to the limits.

This song really inspires me and I hope that someday very soon I can say this is me!  

Who, What, Where and Why

Oh my gosh, where has the time gone?  I looked back at my blog and realized it has been a long time since I have posted.  I am constantly getting asked “are you still hiking?   How is your friend?  Are you still losing weight?”  Well how about we get up to date and I will tell you what I have been doing, show you some pictures and then finish off with my why. I think this story will be different than what I have posted before and so I hope you all will understand me a little better at the end of it.  So let’s get the obvious questions out of the way:

Have I still been hiking? – the answer is yes and no.  I have been going out occasionally to our local lake trails but as for the climbing high hills in the gorge, no I have not been out doing that.  I loved it and wouldn’t mind going out again but life seems so busy and my priorities right now are very different.  I have been trying to do some organized walks when they come up….more about these later…I know I know but you have to wait.

How is my friend Laina? – she is still my friend one that I have had for a huge portion of my life and one that will always be in my life.  She has been hiking with a new friend and having some health issues but she is still trudging along.  No we are not mad at each other that couldn’t happen, just life is busy for me right now.  She is still on her weight loss journey and although she has had issues she continues to move along.

Are you still losing weight? – Sort of to be honest I gained about 10 lbs over the winter back by not doing what I knew needed to be done.  The bottom line is that I need to watch what I put in my mouth and I need to move my body in one form or fashion.  At this point I am still about 4 lbs up from my lowest point but my dimensions are about the same and I am hopeful it will be coming back down very soon.

 

The Who What and Where ….

Organized walks:

  I started the year on January 1^st out on the dike in Washougal for a 5k, it was a beautiful winter day here but bitterly cold.  Laina and I walked together and had a great time. 

 

 

 

Laina and I then walked in the Fort Vancouver 10k in March, it again was a beautiful but cold day out.  This was the farthest, organized “walk” we had done but it felt great to get out walk in our local area.  This was such a well-organized walk with timing of all participants, even the walkers and pictures that they emailed to us after the event was over.

 

Then in May I headed off to Springfield OR to walk in the Biggest Loser Walk it too was a 5k.  I was joined this time by two of my beautiful nieces Karissa and Devann.  Some very close friends Karen, Angi, Sandy, Alex and Jessica.  This was probably my favorite of the year in that I got to spend girl time with my nieces that I don’t get very often.

 

  Devann, Karissa and I

 

 

 Crossing the finish line

 

 

Zumba:

Through the winter Laina and I took some Zumba classes from a couple of local places and of course I really enjoyed them.  If you have never done Zumba you should give it a try, it doesn’t matter if you are coordinated or not as long as you are moving.

 

Walking:

David and I have been getting up in what I call the middle of the night and walking ok well 4:15 am.  For those that know me I am not a morning person but I have been putting my head lamp on and walk about 3.2 miles with him.    This morning walking has shown us some wildlife that I didn’t want to believe was out in our neighborhood…aka coyotes and possums

Golf:

In February, David went to a work meeting in TX, when he came home he told me that he wanted to learn to play golf.  I said I would like to learn too.  Our other hobbies do not include each other, he likes to fish and I like to hike, so I thought this would be something we could do together.  We began taking lessons in March and since then it has been LOVE!!!  We go practice or play golf about 3-5 days a week.   I knew my husband had a compulsive personality but I really didn’t know what I was in for I think he might even dream golf at night.  I am not complaining but I don’t think we will be going on the LPGA or PGA tours anytime soon.

 

 

 

Other Exercise programs:

I have also dabbled with other exercise programs as time allows like Tai Chi and a cardio program.  Both of these programs are by Beachbody the makers of P90X, I joined this company in April of this year and so far I love it….. this leads into my why.

 

The reason I am who I am today and why I want to conquer obesity.,…

My whole life I have had some extra pounds, and from the time I was a teenager I was judged by some of my family for my size.  To be honest I wish I was back to that size again.  As I got a little older I was told that if I wanted to get a great guy the only way that would happen was to lose weight.  There was even a time in my late teens that I would eat and throw up just so that I didn’t gain weight.  It was something that scared me.  After I decided that I didn’t want to live like that I went the other way and throughout my life I was always worried about becoming so consumed with losing weight that I would again go back to making myself sick to do it.  As you all know that is not the way to lose weight or to live your life.

 

  Laina and I in high school with our friend Michelle

 

In 2007 I met David and at that time I was in pretty good shape I had been working out with a trainer at the gym and was doing what I needed to do the right way.  But like most couples in love, we began to gain weight together slowly and the more comfortable I got in the relationship the more I gained.  There is a part of my personality that if you tell me I can’t do something I will prove to you that I can….well I guess subconsciously I was thinking look at me he loves me in spite of being fat.  At the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 I started having stomach issues, this was literally the most painful thing I had ever lived through.  I would go to work and come home to lay on the couch in extreme pain, for almost of a year I laid on the couch and wanted it to end all of the time going to the doctors to try to figure out what was wrong with me.    David and I got married in the summer of 2010 and at that time I was the largest I had ever been in my WHOLE LIFE and guess what else I was the HAPPIEST I had ever been in my whole life too.  I had found a man that no matter what loved ME!!!

 

 

   My Beautiful Niece Lindsay and I on wedding day

 

 

  David and I on Wedding day 2010

 

Finally in the beginning of 2011 the doctor determined that I needed to have my gallbladder taken out….which I did but the pain still did not go away completely so she sent me to a nutritionist to see if it was diet related.  The first visit with the nutritionist I had already started Weight Watchers at work so I was feeling great I had lost a little weight…hahaha it was then that she told me how much I had weighed just a few short months before that. I was at 271 lbs.  I said you must have the wrong chart there is no way I weighed that amount….ugh are you kidding me.  I realized then that I have to do this in order to be healthy and to live a long life with the man I have always dreamed of.   I would have to get healthy, I know that health is not the number on the scale but at that weight I was not healthy.  I also learned from the nutritionist that I was lactose intolerant who knew that all of those bowls of ice cream was contributing to my stomachache, I thought ice cream was supposed to make you feel better…well not in my case.  So I started changing my diet, slowly at first but in time it was getting better.

In the summer of 2012 when I met up with Laina and we started going out hiking together I also started to look at my life and figure out what made me who I was and what was going to drive me to be different. 

We both talked about how eventually we would like to help others lose weight but there was a part of me that thought who would look at me for inspiration look at how far I have to go.  It was Laina that was on the journey to lose 270 lbs, me I just had……oh wait I had 111 lbs to lose in total…..oh could I do this??  I was going through the motions and I was losing but I don’t know if I truly believed I could do it, but I was going to try.   Well as time went on I started to do more self-analysis and what was going to drive me and I have now thought about people and situations in my life that has prepared me for this journey.  Let me briefly tell you what I have come to realize.

People matter -

My grandma always used to tell me that I could be anything I wanted to and to never let anything hold me back.  At a time while my other grandmother was telling me to lose weight because I wasn’t good enough.  I remember the day like it was yesterday because she was dying at the time she told me that and to be honest, I always knew that she was always there for me.  It was after her death that my eating disorder got out of control for a while.

The next person to shape my life was my Aunt Sandy.  She is not someone I was close to in my life and to be honest she was someone who kind of always scared me.  However in 2009 at the age of 54 she was in a motorcycle accident that left her in a coma.  Her helmet was split right behind her left ear and she had a brain stem injury.  The doctors told us that she may never wake up and if she did they didn’t know what kind of condition she would be in.  Well about 8-9 weeks after her accident she did wake up.  She had a LONG road to recovery and although she did die about 8 months later there were things in her journey that they said she would never be able to do and she did.  They told us she would never be able to walk, or feed herself…when she did wake up it took a long time and a lot of care but we got her up walking, she was able to go to the bathroom with help, she was able to feed herself and she was able to know that we all loved her.  It was during this time that I learned the importance of family.  It literally took all of us to help her recovery and if it wasn’t for us all working together who knows what shape she would have been in.  I also learned that you can overcome the worst with hard work.

 

 

 

This situation reminded me of a time when I was a teenager and we had racehorses.  We had one name Skybo and during one race that was a 400 yard sprint, he got knocked to his knees coming out of the starting gate then the two horses on either side of him closed the hole.  He not only got back up but he went to the outside and ended up coming in second place by a nose that was determined in a photo finish.  I too remember that race like it was yesterday because it taught me to be tough no matter who knocks you down you can come back and win the race. 

In 2012 when Laina and I started our hiking adventures and our weight loss journeys together I learned to not say no to her.  I thought if at 300+ lbs that she wants to climb that hill that there was no reason that I couldn’t do it too.  We climbed many heights together and did things that I never thought were possible.

 

It was about that same time that I got reconnected with my friend Shelly.  She has been a friend for about 15 years and we took a little time apart due to life just getting in the way but now that we are back together I couldn’t love her more.  I do things because I know she can’t and I share my story so she can experience it too.  This blog was started so she could see where I was going; my posts on FB about my travel adventures are so she feels like she is there too.  She is in her 40’s and has a muscular issue that even going to the grocery store causes her to be in extreme pain for days.  I realize that like my aunt, Shelly’s life turned unexpectedly.  I want to live life to be healthy and to not wonder what if or if I would have just done …..

So in April 2013 I joined the Beachbody team, they are a wonderful group of coaches, who are really just people like you and me.  The company’s main goal is to end the trend to obesity. 

 

 

 

 

What better company to be associated with, they want people to live their best lives.  So I too am a coach, am I skinny, NOPE but I am working on it.  Am I going to get there overnight, NOPE, am I perfect with my diet NOPE but I am working on changing my life and each day I try to be better than the day before.  I realize that I have a lot to learn but what I know is that I want to share with people what I do know.  I want to help people to live their best lives.  So if you or someone you know wants to have me help encourage them on their fitness journey’s then email me or call me let’s work together to fight obesity and the health problems caused by poor nutrition. 

I am going to be changing my blog a bit I am going to start blogging about the excerise program that I am currently working on plus the golf courses that David and I are playing at.  I want to leave you with one last picture that resinates with me and I hope she inspires you too.