I was nominated for the Liebster Award by Andrea from A Measured Life. She has a wonderful blog full of information, tips, advice, and recipes for healthy living! She has lost weight herself and is now in maintenance, and totally rocking it in my opinion! Hop on over and check her blog out if you’d like! I highly recommend it.
The intent of the Liebster Award is to help bloggers get to know each other and expose us to new bloggers.
What did you want to be when you grew up? Artist, vet, and author/writer.
How do you take your coffee? With hot chocolate powder these days. Mmm it’s the best of both worlds: coffee + cocoa!
What food do you love that other people think is strange? I’m not sure about strange but everyone always thought I was crazy for liking broccoli.
Who inspires you the most? It’s too hard to pick just one person, so I’m going to list a few: my mom, my sister, and all of my amazing friends on SparkPeople who support and encourage me no matter what.
What is your favorite tree? Coming from California, I want to say a palm tree. However, I would say that redwoods or other trees you would see in a wooded area. Those are so beautiful, so tall and grand.
Rain or sunshine? Sunshine definitely, although a good rain is good on occasion.
What’s your favorite body part (of your own body)? Hmm usually my eyes. I used to have brown eyes when I was a kid and wanted so badly to have blue eyes. Now my eyes are mainly green and I love that, they have become a point of pride for me.
What’s your favorite song to sing? I don’t know if I have a favorite. Really any song that is fun to sing, i.e. I can remember all or most of the lyrics and can actually form the words while singing, is my favorite! Of course it also has to have a great message and nice rhythm.
Tea: sweetened or unsweetened? Lightly sweetened.
What piece of advice would you give your younger self? Find the beauty and strength within yourself. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to!
When it comes to jewelry, I prefer silver over gold.
My favorite forms of exercise include: walking, running, the elliptical, and kickboxing.
I love turning on music through iHeartRadio and just silly/crazy dancing with my nephews, and one of my nieces when she’s over.
My favorite meat has always been chicken, which was an easy transition when I started my weight loss journey because grilled and baked chicken is some of the healthiest meat.
I love reading Young Adult book series because I find I can relate to them a bit more. I’m an old soul with a young heart. These books seem to speak to me a bit more than books written for adults.
My favorite radio station to listen to through iHeartRadio is K-Love Christian Radio. When I workout, take a walk, need to de-stress in the evenings, or even when I simply need to block out the noise going on in the house around me, it is a great station. It lifts me up and helps me focus at the same time.
One of my favorite things to do is curl up with a cup of coffee and a good book, especially in the colder months!
My favorite color is purple, but pink has really been growing on me recently.
My ideal weather would be in the 70-80 degree range. Oh how I miss California, although it could get sweltering hot in the summer.
I think snow is pretty, but I do not like living in it. Once I move away from Indiana, I will probably do all I can to stay away from snow for at least a couple years.
I am allergic to many things: grass, trees, mold, dust mites, feathers, cats, dogs, vinegar… and really I am never sure I’ve listed it all because there are so many things. Thankfully not too many foods but vinegar is in a lot of foods so it’s something to be careful of and limit. Otherwise I do fine.
Which hot beverage do you prefer: coffee, hot cocoa, or tea?
How do you get to work (ex. public transportation, your own car, carpooling, etc.)?
What is the weather like right now where you live?
What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not working or doing something else you have to do?
Do you prefer cats, dogs, or another kind of pet?
What is one place you have always wanted to visit?
If you were in the circus, which act would you rather do: walk a tightrope or tame the lions?
What type of movie is your favorite to watch?
The truth of the matter is that slip-ups happen from time to time, for all of us. None of us is perfect and we all make mistakes. Unfortunately, sometimes we also go through periods of time where all it feels like we do is slip-up! Those are really the pits! I had one of those myself recently and I had to constantly fight the “I’m a failure” feeling that kept creeping in simply because I was struggling so bad and nothing I did was working.
There is some great news… It is completely normal for this to happen in your weight loss or healthy living journey and I guarantee that you will get through this as long as you don’t give up! So no matter what you do, keep trying to forge ahead with your healthy living goals. As long as you keep trying, you will find something that works for you. It just takes time! It may even take longer than you imagined but it will indeed happen.
Use your bad experience to fuel you as you move forward, instead of seeing it as a totally negative deal. Learn from it and keep moving forward. There’s no use beating yourself up about the past. As I like to tell myself: “It is what it is and all I can do is move forward.” You can’t change what already happened, but what you can do instead is keep trying to do better.
Look at the big picture. When things are tough and it feels like everything is fruitless, look at the big picture of your goals. It can be a beautiful tool because it reminds you of the big reason as to WHY you’re trying to lose weight and get healthy.
Focus on what you CAN do. Focus on each healthy decision you can make to help dig you out of the hole that it seems you fell into. What can you do right now, right here, to better your mentality?
See what you can do TODAY to move forward. There is only so much you can do each day. Think about what you can do today to work towards your goals. That way it seems like so much more of a manageable chunk.
Take it all one day, one moment at a time. No one can achieve their goals in no time flat. You think about each day, or each moment at a time, whatever works for you to make it easier and more doable.
Keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how difficult it seems. Don’t overwhelm yourself by thinking of all the things you need to do in order to achieve your goal. Just put one foot in front of the other no matter what and keep yourself moving forward.
Get yourself pumped up about something! Nothing can spark your motivation to do well like getting yourself excited to do it or something else you really enjoy. Feeling happier and more at peace will certainly help you get back on the right track with your weight loss and healthy living goals!
Even when it seems fruitless, remember that you are simply AMAZING for your efforts. Always keep trying! Even when it feels like you’re not making any progress whatsoever, keep going!
Try something new if you need to or try things that worked for you in the past. Trust your process because it is yours alone. Remember you haven’t failed until you quit trying.
Repeat this mantra when all else fails, “I CAN AND I WILL!” You will get through this.
Be More Than a Dreamer in 2016!
I wholeheartedly believe we should be doers. Dreaming is all fine and dandy but what are we achieving if we’re not getting out there to do and live! That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to go out everyday or take every opportunity that passes your way, but live your life the way you want and explore so that you can have experiences. Both good and bad will shape you because how else will you learn but by doing? Chase those dreams, make them a reality!
I think back to just a few years ago, when my life seemed to be empty professionally and personally, and think about how far I have come. I am no longer working my retail job which, at the time, seemed like a prison. I have married Evelina and we have moved into a new townhouse. Although my symptoms are tough to deal with right now, my neurologist believes the medical community is on the brink of terminating MS altogether! Life for me is as good as it has ever been.
And I don’t believe it is by happenstance.
These sound delicious and like they would provide you with plenty of energy!