Hello 2012!

May you be unencumbered by the past and be the most fantastic year yet! 


It's crazy how when I look back on 2011 I feel like I'm looking through fog. I sure hope the fog has lifted. 


Here are a few goals for 2012. 


Complete the virtue project and the integrity project for personal progress. 
Piano: learn one new hymn per month, perform twice (once on piano, once some other way)


My health goals are on the other blog. I'll just say I'm excited with the direction they are taking. 


And to finish off...a couple of books I highly recommend. 


"The China Study" by Colin Campbell
"In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan

Old/New goal continued

So day 3 hasn't been a rousing success, but I'm a work in progress. Tomorrow will be better.

I had a nice visit with the naturopath today. I told him that I feel like this detox thing is going to take forever. He told me that the bulk of it happens relatively quickly, but the end of it drags out. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but it gave me hope that some day soon my bp will return to normal because I won't be detoxing as actively as I am right now. Whatever I'm detoxing now is making my left hip hurt bad enough that I can't find a comfortable position to sleep. Ugh.

He also told me that my body is stronger. I can't tell if I'm progressing or not, so it's always nice to hear good things like that. It's still hard to be patient when it's taking so much longer than I hoped it would.

He also told me that I've progressed enough that another layer has been uncovered. Good or bad news I can't tell at the moment. Hopefully, that's good in the long run. Apparently, our scar tissue isn't as supple and pliable as regular tissue and sometimes it runs interference in the nerve impulses that run through our bodies. So we did some work on my scars today. He had me touch my gall bladder scar and tell him about the circumstances, my emotions at the time, when it happened, etc, as he waved a lazer beam over me. It was weird, but I'm sure he knows what he is doing. Then we did it with my C-section/appendix scar.

It's really interesting to learn about my body this way. I'm really thinking that for now this is the best course for me. I'm glad I found someone good.

Old/New goal

Out of all my goals this year, one I focused on a lot was my weightloss and health goal. I've seen some progress, and some regression. It has been disheartening to see some pounds come back, but I figure it's part of the journey. Part of that is because of the detoxing I started in July, and part of it is just plain because I lost the pounds in the wrong way in the first place.

I have always felt that I shouldn't eliminate any food, but rather that I need to learn how to eat all foods in the proper portion size, to have a well-balanced diet. While visiting the naturopath I've learned that eating low fat for so long may have contributed to my current health (or lack thereof) and I have happily increased the fat I eat. Early in this journey the naturopath asked me to track my food and had very few suggestions to make my eating better. I was doing quite well on my own and once I started really looking at what I was eating I started losing weight because I started eating better portions.

However, the last six months have really been hard for me as I worked towards this goal. The slow track got very boring. HCG came along and promised quick weightloss. I thought I could cut 5-6 months off my overall journey. I didn't realize until later there were several aspects of that program that wouldn't work for me, and in all reality hcg cost me a good 6 months in my progress. 1. It was so restrictive that I ended the diet even more tired of self-denial and gave up not eating certain foods completely and in some cases a little too early. 2. It totally messed with my head and my thinking. I have always worked on having healthy thinking when it comes to food...but after hcg I was entertaining serious thoughts of bulimia and other diet mentality thinking. 3. While some people can readjust in the three weeks of maintenance, I took months and months. I don't know if I am totally stabilized yet. 4. My body kicked into heavy metal detox which made it even harder to readjust after the diet.

So, I'm back to doing what I know deep inside myself is the right thing for me to do. To strive for a well-balanced, healthy diet that eliminates nothing. I recently found some inspiration in this. One of the sisters in our ward started doing something very similar last March. All she has done was to limit her sugar and refined foods to two days in a year's time (her birthday and Christmas) and exercise 6 times a week. In nine months she has lost 80 pounds and is looking great.

My goal this year is to limit my sugar intake (the obvious sugar) to one day per week. I'll try to limit it to reasonable portions on that day, but I'm not going to sweat it if I over do it once or twice. The second part of this goal is to eat as gluten-free as possible. That, by itself takes care of alot of refined things. The third part is to do some kind of exercise 5-6 days a week. I'll have to figure out how I want to report my progress, but I'm excited.

I'm also a little scared. I'm stepping out on faith. What if my body is still so stressed with detoxing that I still don't lose weight? What I'm hoping for is that I'll be back down to 163 by my birthday in June, but I've decided that at least I'll be eating for health and some day the weight loss should catch up.

So I'm off on a new year already. December 26 was my first day. I haven't done perfectly, but I have done a ton better. So I'm happy with my progress so far. I'm even seeing a very slight sign that things are turning around after the first two days.

Goal Update

I will do most tracking of my goals offline, but I will be posting progress photos on my blog this year. They will be where my book list was last year (scroll down and look on the right.) The first two photos are there now.

I have been working on weightloss for way too long and this is the year it will happen. I've lost a total of 23 pounds now. That's the first 10% of my body weight. I've lost a total of 8 since starting with the naturopath in November.

Today I talked to my medical doctor about adjusting my blood pressure meds and getting off them in the future. She wasn't so positive almost one and a half years ago when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. She redeemed herself a bit today by being quite positive about that possibility.

Looking forward

I've learned that I'm the happiest when I'm working toward something. So, here are some of the goals I will be working on this year.

Physical:
Continue working with the naturopath for health and weightloss. (I've lost a total of 22 pounds from my highest weight...7.5 since starting with the naturopath. I won't tell you how many still to go.)
Floss my teeth daily.
End the year exercising 30 minutes 5 times a week.

Spiritual:
Read my scriptures daily (even if it's only one verse)
Attend the temple 12 times.

I'm also working on a few for my calling, but haven't finalized anything yet. I'll probably not post them.

Hopefully, the year of 2010 will go much better than our trip to Idaho Falls on January 1!

Happy New Year!

For many years we would set the same goals over and over and never acheive them. I started dreading the New Year's celebration. I was so discouraged and depressed. Nothing ever changed...not my weight (except to go up), not Tom's employment situation, not our finances...

During this time I was called to serve in the Primary presidency and the Bishop promised me an amazing blessing when he set me apart. He told me that if I fulfilled my calling my desires of a home and land would be filled. I did my best at that calling, and ultimately we moved to Boise a couple years later, on my birthday in 2000.

When we moved here I held on to that promise the Bishop gave me, and we finally bought our first home six years ago. Tom's employment has been steadier. We set goals of paying off overdue bills from our time in Salt Lake City, our school loans, our van and the credit cards, respectfully. Over a period of seven years we were able to finally pay off all consumer debt. My weight has even been coming down. It's been one of the hardest experiences of my life to overcome the issues that were the very reasons I gained weight in the first place.

Every year I spend the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas counting my blessings, enjoying the time with my family, and planning for the next year. That's when I set my goals and do all the normal New Year's things. Between this habit and the discouragement I was feeling for many years New Year's has been a wasted holiday in my mind. Right next to Halloween on my list of least liked holidays.

This year has been different. Everything has been the same as usual except I have been so excited. I set my goals and couldn't wait to start them...so I didn't...lol! This year is going to be a great year! To quote something Tom told me over and over during the hard years, "Something great is just around the corner."