What I have Learned about a Healthy Life

Yesterday I told you about some of my beginnings to my weight struggles.  Today is a continuation. I started following the Weight Watchers plan 14 years ago on my own with my mom's WW materials and help.  What I had learned until then is that I wasn't made to lose weight easily after pregnancy.  That would be something that I would use for the next 4 pregnancies.

Something else I learned is that exercise alone is not enough to lose weight.  I needed a comprehensive plan to get the weight off.  Doing my exercise videos in my living room or going to the Y was fine but I needed more.  I would often reward myself for exercise by eating, which only evened out the calories I had burned.  When I combined my exercise with a healthy eating plan, I was much more successful.  Getting the WW materials and following the plan made my weight loss easier.  This many years later, I don't remember just how much I lost after combining both exercise and eating better but I would guess that I lost about 10 of the 30 pounds that I still had to lose from Jason's pregnancy.

After losing that 10 pounds I leveled off and my life changed again.  I changed my job and that made things busier and more difficult to focus on taking care of me.  Following the WW plan on my own was also challenging.  I learned that having the materials was great but I really needed some help and accountability.  After a year of ups and downs on the scale I got pregnant with Josiah.  This meant that I started Josiah's pregnancy about 20 pounds heavier than I started Jason's pregnancy. I told myself that I would do this pregnancy differently.  That lasted for about a month and then I pulled out all of the stops and entered full pregnancy mode. This was the same mode that I was in for Jason's pregnancy and it helped me to gain 60 pounds.  It worked again because I gained another 60 pounds with Josiah's pregnancy. I had learned that gaining 60 pounds during pregnancy wasn't a good idea but didn't put any of that knowledge to good use.  I fell back on what I practiced well.....eating more and moving less.

After Josiah was born I was even busier.  The day that Josiah was born was moving day - literally.  My family moved us into our new place while I gave birth to Josiah in the hospital.  Bryan left the hospital to go help as soon as I gave him permission.  That meant that I went to a new home that needed unpacking, cleaning and decorating with a newborn and an almost 3-year-old.  I'm still very thankful for my family that helped me with all of it but it was still a lot to handle. My focus over the next months was rarely on me and losing weight.  I would again pull out the WW books and try from time to time to lose a few pounds but rarely stuck to it.  One thing that I was learned more and more though, was that it wasn't just about eating my proper points each day.  It depended on what I ate as to how successful I was and how hungry I was.  This is how I progressed in my knowledge of healthy eating. I nursed all of my children and one thing I also learned about myself is that I have a really hard time losing weight while I am nursing because I am really hungry quite often.

My time to try losing weight after having Josiah was only 9 months because I was then pregnant with Gabriella.  I was now starting her pregnancy about 10 pounds heavier than I started Josiah's pregnancy.  This was definitely not a good trend.  This time I enlisted some help.  I told my doctor that I was concerned about weight gain during Gabriella's pregnancy.  This was a new doctor for me because of an insurance change so I didn't know her very well.  She agreed that I didn't need to gain much weight.  I tried a little harder to eat less with Gabriella's pregnancy but can't say that I put all of my effort into it.  I gained 50 pounds with her pregnancy.  Although that was too much I had to look at it as a partial success since it was 10 pounds less than the 2 previous pregnancies. My doctor mentioned the weight gain a couple of times but I know that the last thing she probably wanted to do was make the pregnant lady cry about weight gain.  I don't blame her one bit.  After Gabriella's pregnancy I was now the heaviest that I had ever been.  It was depressing.

I don't want to end on a depressing note today but I know that this post is getting long so I will continue my story tomorrow.  To keep you from getting depressed about my ending here I'll remind you that it has a happy ending and I eventually lose all of the weight.

You can see here some of the things that I learned about myself.  It took years of successes and failures to learn these things - most of them failures.  If you are feeling like a failure today, remember that you can learn from those failures just as well as you can learn from the successes. Sometimes you fail more than once before you succeed.  After all, I've taken the last 2 posts to tell you about many of the same mistakes that I have made over the years only to finally learn from them and see success.  One of my favorite quotes that I love to tell myself is, "There is no such thing as failure, only feedback."  All of these failures in my attempts became feedback when I was really ready to deal with them.

Until tomorrow,
Corinna

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." -Phillipians 4:13

Looking Back....How my Healthy Life Started

I've been on this weight journey for much of my adult life and considering I turn 40 this year, I guess that means that I've been working on my weight issues for almost half of my life.  During all of these years I can say that I have been through many stages of healthy and unhealthy.

I was engaged at 21-years-old and married at 22.  Before my wedding I was accountable to my wedding dress.  If I noticed my clothes getting too tight I would back off on the sweets for a few days and be fine.  I was at a nice, healthy weight for my wedding.  I'll be honest - I rarely weighed myself at this time.  After my wedding I was accountable to only myself and Bryan and he certainly didn't care what I ate or what I looked like.  He loved me for who I was, not what I looked like.  That wasn't enough.  I was fairly new to the weight struggles that I would encounter for the rest of my life so I had no idea how important it was to be aware.

When I was first married, my life changed and I didn't watch what I ate or the amount of activity in my life.  I was a busy college student and a newlywed.  I also worked full-time.  I didn't have the time or concern to care about my body much.  About 6 months after my wedding a good friend of mine got married too.  I was standing up in her wedding. I bought my wedding dress at the same shop that she ordered my bridesmaid dress from so they just used the measurements they had on file for me.  When I went to try on the dress before the wedding, it didn't fit.  I couldn't dare admit that I had gained weight since my wedding so I blamed the dress.  It was embarrassing to know that I had obviously gained weight and had no idea.  I was wearing stretchy pants and baggy shirts and ignored the fact that they were getting a little tighter. I didn't even try wearing the fitted clothing that I owned.

About a year and a half after my wedding I couldn't take it anymore. I knew I needed to something about it.  I didn't own a scale so I didn't know how much weight I had gained.  All I knew was that I didn't feel comfortable in my clothes anymore and I was wearing larger sizes than I used to.  I joined a gym and started trying to watch what I ate.  I worked out at the gym a few nights a week after work.  It was a 24-hour gym so it worked great for my busy lifestyle.  This was a good change for me.  I've always been frugal so I wasn't about to pay for a gym membership that I wasn't using.

I tried watching what I ate but I'll be honest, I didn't really know what that meant.  My portion distortion was out of control and I ate more carbs than I needed. I knew salads were healthy but didn't know the details.  I didn't take into consideration that if a salad had fried chicken on it, my healthy salad was no longer so healthy.  I didn't worry that my grilled chicken sandwich was swimming in full-fat mayo. These health tips were not even on my radar.  We ate out like crazy.  My refrigerator was close to empty most times.

This is my healthy refrigerator now.  It's come a long way and has to feed a lot more people.

After about 3 months working out a the gym I learned I was pregnant. My attendance at the gym was no longer very steady.  I ate what I want when I wanted it because the baby needed it. I didn't go crazy with the eating because I felt pretty good.  I gained a little weight but miscarried the baby at 12 weeks.  I went back to regular attendance at the gym but still didn't look into true, healthy eating habits.  My focus changed in my life because I was now grieving a loss.  A few months later, I became pregnant again.  I cancelled my gym membership because I was now afraid to do just about anything for fear that it could hurt the baby.  If only I knew what I know now I would have continued to exercise.  Instead I ate anything I wanted. If I was hungry I ate - carbs, sweets, anything that the baby wanted.  I gained 60 pounds with my pregnancy but didn't care. Again, if only I knew what I know now.

After Jason was born, I was still very busy. I was now a new mom and a full-time college student.  Taking care of me was the last thing on my mind on most days.  I expected the weight to fall off like I had seen on friends of mine.  Apparently I don't have the "weight falling off" gene.  Six months after Jason had been born I was still wearing maternity clothes.  I tried not to let it bother me but it did. I exercised to get the weight off but I ate to make up for my exercising.  When Jason was about 8 months old I realized that although the exercising was nice when I did it, it wasn't enough. I needed to learn how to eat healthy and I didn't know where to start.  I expressed my concerns to my mom and she gave me some of her Weight Watchers materials so I could follow it.  That was the start to my healthy life.  That program taught me what was truly healthy and what was not.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't do it all perfectly from there on.  I made many, many mistakes, but this was the beginning.

This post has gone on too long already so on my next post I will continue my story and tell you more of what I have learned in my healthy life journey.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." -1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Tips for a Successful Weight Loss Week

I went to my Weight Watchers meeting this morning.  When I weighed in the receptionist looked at me with wide eyes and said, "You lost 3 pounds!"

I replied, "That's what happens when you follow the plan." I will admit that it has been a couple of months since I have faithfully followed the plan for the entire week. I'm sorry if that sounds sad but I'm just as human as all of you.  The proof is in the number of pounds that I still have to lose from the holidays.  I'm not sharing that number right now. I'm not even calculating it for myself.

This week I buckled down.  Here's what I did to lose 3 pounds:

1. I tracked everything.  Every BLT was tracked. (That's bite, lick and taste).  I went out on a double date with some friends on Saturday night and tracked what I ate by taking notes in my phone. I had ice cream with chocolate sauce 2 nights last week but I tracked them both.

2. I treated the weekend as just another 2 days.  Weekends have always been my biggest challenge. This past weekend I ate out one night but still tracked it all.  I didn't go crazy.  I ordered a meal that I knew I would enjoy but would still be within my points budget.  On Sunday after coming home from a long, busy morning at church (we spend 5 hours at church volunteering and working every week) I didn't eat to make up for the fact that I was tired.  I ate a normal, healthy lunch and then took a nap with Samuel.  I never take naps.  This was a smart move because I often eat when I am tired and I was exhausted.

3. I exercised 5 days.  My goal was to exercise 4 days and I attained my goal.  No matter how busy my days got and how tempting it was to skip my workout, I did my exercises.  I felt accomplished, thinner and stronger.  Exercising is a great way to minimize stress too.  I even upped my time from 20 minutes a day to 30 minutes per day.

4. I wasn't afraid of hunger.  After a couple of months of being on a rollercoaster and steadily going up on the scale, I was a bit hungry on a few days when I was sticking to my points budget. A little bit of hunger is okay. It was actually refreshing.  I went way too many weeks without remembering what hunger felt like.  Don't get me wrong. I wasn't famished, I was just a bit hungry from time to time.

5. I ate my fruits and veggies.  In my house we are challenging ourselves to eat a fruit or veggie with every meal or snack.  It's making a difference. I'm eating smaller portions of the other food groups because the fruits or veggies fill me up so it's easier to stick to my points budget.  I'm snacking less, it's giving me more energy and it's keeping me healthy.

I am happy to say that when my leader asked us today what we would change for this week that I had a hard time thinking of anything to change.  My goal this week is just to do it all again.  I don't plan on losing another 3 pounds but any loss would be a good loss.  I still have "holiday weight" to lose.  I'm not crunching the numbers right now.  When I get tempted to do that, I stop myself because I'm pretty sure the results would frustrate me.  When I lose a bit more, I'll see how much more I have to go.  Right now, I'm just taking it one day and one week at a time.

Have a great day,

Corinna

"Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinner tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper." -Psalm 1:1-3

The Adventures of Weight Loss

This morning I was able to catch this great picture of Samuel.  He emptied the top shelf of the tupperware cupboard and then crawled in.  Oh to be 1-year-old again.

He never stops moving.  Just an hour later I looked down from the sink while washing dishes and found him coloring all over himself with a pen. He loves to find pens and pencils left unattended.  I think that's one of the products of homeschooling.  We have writing utensils everywhere and he thinks it's so cool to use them too.

All before 10am he had three pictures of his adventurous morning.  That's my Sammy.  He makes an adventure out of life.  By the time lunch arrives he is exhausted but doesn't even know it.  He falls asleep in his high chair at lunch nearly every afternoon because that is the first time he has stopped moving since 6am.

This adventurous morning got me thinking about how a toddler so easily can make a morning an adventure to be photographed. It made me wonder what I could do to make my life adventurous too.  Don't get me wrong, it's an adventure to clean up all of the tupperware and to give him a bath but I'm not sure that's the kind of adventure I had in mind for losing weight.

Now I'm thinking about what can make losing weight and staying healthy more of an adventure.  What can keep it exciting so it doesn't get boring?  What games can I play to keep it something that is in the forefront of my mind?

I'm thinking about things such as my highlighting the number on my calendar when I exercise each day.  I know it may sound silly and so minor, but I like seeing that number highlighted.  It gives me some satisfaction to see it and another reason to put in the exercise DVD in the morning.

Another idea is to plan the fruit or vegetable for dinner or snack before I plan any of the other dishes.  That is completely backward from how I have done it for all of my life.  I have always planned the main dish and side dish first.  Then I would finally think about what fruit or vegetable I could throw in.  Since we are focusing on fruits and veggies more in my house these days I would like to plan that food group first at each meal or snack.  Because this is so different for me it will make me think harder when planning and a change in our thinking is good for us too.

A third idea is to come up with a new obsession.  This may sound odd but many times I feel like food is an obsession in our house.  We are always thinking about the next meal, snack or dessert.  We often think of family time being spent eating.  I can tell that is how Bryan and I are and now our kids have that same habit too.  When we are together as a family for an evening the kids automatically want to find a fun snack or dessert that we can all share.  Tonight we found family games to play instead of food to eat.  It was a wonderfully fulfilling time together and it didn't include an overload of calories.  In fact the games started over dinner and we found ourselves having so much fun with the games that eating seconds wasn't a thought.

A fourth idea is to keep my food choices varied.  At this time of the year I find myself all ready to eat all of the healthy stuff to detox my system from the choices of November and December.  The danger to eating the same healthy stuff day after day is that it gets boring and then the junk looks so appealing all over again.  I'm challenging myself to find some new foods to enjoy.  They can be healthy but they don't have to be the same old, same old.

As I look forward to the new adventures that my children bring into my life day after day I am also going to look forward to my own new, healthy adventures too.

Do you have anything that you use to keep your healthy life adventurous?

Have a healthy day,
Corinna

"My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing." -James 2-4

Setting Realistic Health Goals

I'm a big fan of having goals.  I find them a bit tricky though. It's another one of those things that takes balance to be completely effective.  I have learned from my past experience that if I set my goals too high I only set myself up for disappointment later.  I have also realized that if I don't set goals at all I find myself floundering with no real place to go and no motivation.

Picture this: You're out with some friends for some fun, drinks and a game of darts.  You are prepared - you even brought your own darts.  After some fun your friends announce that it's time for the big game.  You get your darts and ask your friends where the game is being played.  They look at you with confusion and say, "Well, right here."  You look around you but see no dart board anywhere.

"I don't get it," you reply, "Where's the target?"

"Ah, who needs a target? Let's just play some darts and we'll find the target as we play." says your friend.

This would never happen. You can't possibly throw your darts anywhere near the target if you don't know where it is.  The same thing goes for our health and weight loss goals.  We need a goal if we are going to know what we are shooting for.  Set yourself a goal.  To set a goal I like to think of what would make me feel just a little bit better than I do now. For example, last week I exercised 3 days.  Ideally, I would love to exercise 7 days per week but I don't believe that is a realistic goal for me.  I also know that it would be a drastic change to go from exercising no days to 7 days so I feel okay about exercising just 3 days last week. It was certainly better than the 0 days the week before.  This week, my goal is to exercise 4 days.  I don't care which 4 days.  If I can do it for 4 days I will be making progress.

This brings me to another important part to setting goals: tracking them.  My life is busy and my mind is sometimes scattered. This past weekend someone asked me what grades my kids were in.  I felt like I had been hit with the million dollar question, I had to think so hard.  I teach all of my kids every day, how hard can it be to remember what grades they are all in?  If I can't remember what grades my kids are all in how in the world will I remember how many days I exercised this week?  Today I looked at my calendar to see just how long it had been since I had exercised and how many days I had exercised last week.  I highlighted the day number on the calendar every day I exercised last week. I also wrote the DVD number and number of minutes.  That made it easy today to set a new goal.  It also made it easy for me to remember what disc number I wanted to exercise with today.  I have a 5 disc set and I like to mix it up so I am using different muscle groups and keep things different.

Health goals can be varied in many ways.  You can use numbers, pounds, days, habits, routines, pretty much anything.  Remember that your goals don't all have to be numbers but I highly recommend that you set them and make them realistic, specific and measurable in some way.

Set a goal this week.  I would love to hear what it is in the comment section.

Have a healthy day,
Corinna

"Haughty eyes and a proud heart - the lamp of the wicked - are sin. The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to want. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death." -Proverbs 21:4-6

One Great Routine to Help you Lose Weight

I've been around Weight Watchers for enough years to see that they change some part of their program nearly every year sometime between November and January. Some years the changes have been big and some years the changes have been small.  Back in October I attended a meeting where the leader told us that the program was not changing so we could purchase any discounted products and know that they would still work fine in the new year.  Then in November when I attended a meeting I was introduced to the "new" program called Weight Watchers 360.  As far as I could tell from the materials handed out, the discussion in the room and the WW website, there was little to no change.

As I have continued to go to meetings I have seen a few of the small changes that were made.  Starting in December I saw one of the changes come to the meeting room.  It was the "Routine of the Month."  December's routine was to pack a snack.  It was a fine reminder to pack a snack when going out and about but nothing that hit me intensely.  I think that I was too focused on Christmas food to care much about packing a snack.

This month the "Routine of the Month" made a ton of sense to me.  This month we are being told to set a new routine of eating a fruit or vegetable with every snack and meal.  If you are a pretty health conscience person who has been watching your health for a good amount of time you may not be hit tremendously by this idea......at first.  That's how I felt in the meeting room when the leader first introduced the routine.  Then as the conversation kept going I saw how it could be more of challenge than I thought.  I thought that I ate plenty of fruits and veggies each day but I am realizing that I can do even better. I will toot my own horn and tell you that it is rare for me to have a meal without a fruit or veggie.  My confession would be that it is very common for me to have a snack that does not include a fruit or veggie.  I love to snack on granola bars, string cheese, yogurt, crackers, pudding and other foods that are not in the fruit and veggie category. I have always thought that these snacks really are pretty healthy.  After all, they are not candy or ice cream.  But I've recently realized that they can certainly be a lot healthier.

Since my meeting on Tuesday I have challenged myself to have a fruit or veggie with every snack or meal.  On Thursday I shared my new routine with my family. I told them that we should all try this new routine.  My husband, Bryan, agreed with no problem.  He and my son Jason then decided that potato chips would count as their vegetable at snack time. I was not impressed by their enthusiasm.  Regardless, the whole family has been trying to make that a new routine.  It is a fabulous routine that I look forward to eventually call a habit.  I have think more about eating fruits and veggies than I thought I would.  It's not automatic. It's not nearly as easy as I thought I would be. It's going to take work but it will be worth it.

Now when my kids ask for a snack I tell that that they can have one but need to remember to include a fruit or vegetable.  I've even taken it a step further and told them that they need to eat the fruit or veggie first and then if they are still hungry, can have something else too.  Somehow it's easier to remember this "rule" when I am telling them than when I am grabbing a snack for myself.  Would anyone like to volunteer to be the person that I ask for a snack when I want one?

Have a great day,
Corinna

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." -Philippians 4:13

Children are a Blessing....Really

I love my children dearly.  I love them when the fight. I love them when they giggle.  I love them when they help me with daily activities. I love them when they make a mess.  I love them even when they tell me that I look pregnant in that sweater...............really I do.

Two weeks ago my wonderful, 8-year-old son, Ethan, stood next to me, looked straight at my belly and said, "Your belly looks pregnant in that sweater, Mom."  As he stared at my belly and patted it before his statement I knew exactly what he was thinking.  Unfortunately, I was thinking it too.  I can't deny it, he was right.  My belly was looking a bit pregnant.  It wasn't though, unless you count pregnant with Christmas delicacies. At least he was sweet enough to blame it on the sweater.  I knew better though. It wasn't the sweater.  It was the overabundance of food that made it into that belly.

Monday morning my lovely, 9-year-old daughter, Gabriella, walked into the living room as I began my exercise DVD and said, "Mom, why are you doing such a low-intensity workout?"  I tried to keep it calm as I answered her, "This is what I need to do right now."  It was a bit of a buzz-kill on my mood. I was thrilled that I was exercising at all.  Exercise has been almost void in my life lately.  I reminded her that I still have a callus on the ball of my left foot that is quite painful and my right knee still hurts too.  My kids were then inquisitive.  They have seen my do everything to try removing my callus.  They were home to see my tears the night that the doctor tried to freeze the callus off of my foot.  They knew about the callus. They had no idea that I have also had knee pain for the past couple of months. I had to explain to them that I probably injured my knee by walking funny from the pain of my callus.  I explained that exercise is good for my body and I really need to do it right now but I can't do anything too intense or I will injure my body.  They seemed to except that explanation and went on with their day.

The funny thing is that after completing two 10-minute beginner workouts that were "low-intensity workouts" I could barely breathe.  I definitely need to start with this beginner workout right now. It's a new DVD set that I bought from Weight Watchers. It has several workouts at different levels so I chose to start out slowly.  I did two of the 10-minutes beginner workouts on Saturday, two on Monday, two on Tuesday and am getting ready to my two for today.  So far I am loving it.  It is working me at just the right level, not hurting either of my injuries and getting exercise into my day again.  The DVD may say beginner for the workouts that I am choosing but I am feeling it in my body big time. Yesterday my muscles were incredibly sore. I commented on that soreness several times yesterday so when I finally got a chance to do my exercise DVD my oldest son, Jason, said, "Why are you going to exercise when you are so sore?" I truly do love my children.  His comment made sense though.  All of the comments do because of their brutal honesty.  Thankfully, I didn't let his sensibility into my brain because I had a crazy busy morning and it was very tempting to skip my workout.  I told him that if I kept exercising every day then eventually my muscles would get strong enough that they wouldn't get sore anymore. I also chose 2 different workouts than I had done the day before so I probably wouldn't be working the exact same sets of muscles.  The set I bought has five different beginner workouts.

I'm sore again today but I'm still looking forward to working out and waking up some morning with strong muscles that are used to exercising. As for my children, I look forward to answering their brutally honest questions and comments.  They can be motivating if I am willing to hear them the right way.  After all, children are a blessing.

Corinna

P.S. Thanks to Christmas money, we were able to get a new computer so all I need to do it carve out the time to blog more often.  You should be hearing from me more now.

"He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ask heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren women a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!" -Psalm 113:7-9

It's a New Year to Make a New You

It's 3 days into the new year and although I'm not usually one to make grand resolutions, I like taking the opportunity of the new year to give myself some much needed inspiration to make some changes.  Hmmmmm.....I guess that sounds like a resolution, doesn't it?

On New Year's day Bryan and I were out doing some shopping all by ourselves.  With the busy season we needed a little time to talk without interruption so I used the excuse of expiring Kohl's cash to get us out together to do some shopping.  We also picked up Gabriella from her sleepover.  On our way home, Bryan said to order Chinese so we could pick it up.  It sounded like a nice idea.  I wouldn't have to cook and we could have our last hurrah before school and work started again.  It sounded a little scary too.  It was the first day of the new year and it was my plan to turn over a new leaf with my healthy habits.  Chinese would certainly make the leaf much heavier to turn. The dialog in my head went from oh well, I can always start again tomorrow to maybe I can find something else to eat at home while everyone else eats Chinese to What's wrong with you?  You can still eat a little Chinese and keep your healthy day going.

I landed on my last dialog.  I decided that we could certainly order a little Chinese and not ruin my whole day or week.  I took orders from my kids.  They requested plenty of dishes and none of them were on the healthy side - fried chicken, pot stickers, egg rolls, sesame chicken, chicken fried rice, chicken lo mein, ugh!  Although their requests would certainly feed us all I had to order one more dish - veggie delight. I knew that this dish could give me the "Chinese experience" without all of the calories.  It also gave my family a choice of some vegetables to put on their plates.  When we got it back home I ate the veggie delight, some rice an egg roll.  Chinese take out isn't right without an egg roll.  I worked it into my day and week.  I will admit that for a few minutes I was tempted to forget tracking it all and start tomorrow instead but then I realized how foolish that was.  One thing I have learned over the years that each day brings a new challenge in some form or another.  Starting tomorrow is never a good option.

I'm taking my new found inspiration with the beginning of the new year to feel healthy again - no matter what curve balls life throws my way. I dare to say that I have even made it a resolution.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:13