Back to my ROOTs

 

When I started to blog, my intention was to blog about my attempt at a lifestyle change. From eating junk and sitting on a couch to actually getting my butt in gear, eating healthy and exercising more. Well… it worked for a while, and they I got caught up with other things and stopped going to the gym. Granted, I stilled paid my little large fat tax.

Now I’m back into the swing of things. Yesterday, I went to the gym for the first time in months and it felt great! I didn’t spend too much time there… well under an hour… but I did get a good sweat out of it, and felt pretty proud of myself.

However,  I did come home and stuff my face, which completely cancelled out everything good I did in the morning. Today, I’m going to be addressing my eating issue as well. I’m going to start using myfitnesspal again and get back into being healthy and fit.

I won’t be dieting… I hate that word, and I’ll post more about my hatred for the word soon. I am simply changing my habits so that I can live healthier.

This was breakfast this morning. A turkey breakfast burrito with black beans, and homemade pico de gallo.

I don’t really know how healthy this is, but all the ingredients are fresh, and instead of pork sausage I used lean ground turkey. So I’m going to go ahead and say it was a healthy breakfast in all. Pretty dang delish!

Today, I’m going to try and workout at home and save myself the drive to the gym. Should be much nicer.

Hope you all are having a great Wednesday!

  

A Resolution to a Healthy Lifestyle

 

I have been wanting to start another challenge to promote healthy living in our society and community. And I know there are a ton of people like me who know that they need to be healthy but don’t have the time, the motivation or don’t know where to start. So I will try and help as much as I can through documenting my own journey.

Today, I am linking up with Suzzie from SVSmiles for her blog challenge of making a healthy resolution.

I’d like to start off by telling you guys a little story about my grandfather and why I believe living healthy is important.

My grandfather in 2007 at my high school graduation party.

I think many of you saw my posts in March about my grandfather’s surgery and fight with cancer, I mentioned it shortly here and in a few other posts. Today, I want to tell you his story.

My grandfather is currently 79 years old. He has served in the Navy, and is a vet for Viet Nam and Korea. He has been a successful employee and a world traveler. He is still a small business owner and an avid bike rider. The man does anywhere from 30 to 80 mile bike rides, several times a week (if weather permits).

In May of 2010 he was hit by a car while out on his bike. He practically walked away with a few bruises and some broken ribs. Through his checkups the doctors noticed a “bruise” on his lung. They biopsied it and it came back clean. A few months later during another checkup, they noticed that what they thought was a bruised lung had actually grown. They did another biopsy and in January 2011 diagnosed my then 88 year old grandfather with lung cancer.

At my birthday lunch in February before the operation

The doctors said that he would have to go through chemo because they could not operate. If they operated they would have to remove half of his left lung, and they did not think that my grandfather could survive on only on one and a half lungs. The news was shocking to all of us, and at one point my grandfather stated that if he had to be on supplemental oxygen then he wouldn’t do anything at all. In that case he would have about a year to live.

However, we all thought he would be just fine on one and a half lungs, since he was still riding his bike for miles without breaking a sweat and being out of breath. The surgeon said that he would operate if the test results for Oxygen levels came back where he wanted them to. Well, low and behold, they put my grandfather on a bicycle test, which he passed with flying colors. EVEN with the cancer taking up half of his lung he was able to preform at such levels that the doctors were amazed. Surgery was scheduled for March.

The surgery took about three hours, and through the whole process we were getting updates from the operating room. At one point, when the nurse called to update us, my grandfather’s daughter asked how he was doing, the nurse replayed “he’s doing good… no wait… he is doing GREAT.”

When the surgery was over and the doctor came out, he told us that the cancer was much bigger then they had been anticipating, and it was actually pushing on his pulmonary artery, meaning he was getting even less oxygen into his system. He also told us that my grandfather should be feeling even better after the surgery and he did not think that he would need any supplemental oxygen when going home.

True to the surgeon’s words, my grandfather walked out of the hospital about a week later, with no oxygen and feeling great. His blood oxygen levels were actually higher then his pre-op, and he was feeling significantly better.

And he was there for my college graduation a few weeks after his surgery!

The doctors said that if it wasn’t for his biking and his outstanding physical health, he would not have been considered for surgery and God knows how affective Chemo would be.

Just this past weekend my grandfather did the annual Kaiser Permanente Moonlight Classic ride, around downtown Denver. He was also asked to speak to lung patients at the hospital and given an award at the Moonlight ride.

Here he is post op and at the Moonlight Classic.

 

Moral of the story. Get healthy and stay healthy. It will save your life.         

So what are you health/fitness resolutions?

July Goals

 

I had started doing monthly goals for a while, and then I fell off the wagon, because… well I’m a slacker and I wasn’t getting anything done. But I’m also stubborn and don’t like to give up, so when I read Leah’s post today, I got motivated to give it another try.

So here are the goals:

1. Finish reading the last two books in The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I have Turn Coat and Changes left. Both the books are sitting on my nightstand, hence it should not be very difficult to finish these books.

2.  Work out at least 3 days at the gym and some form of exercise 6 days a week. I started out doing this last week, but then ended up with a massive sinus infection which rendered me useless for the rest of the week. Included in this goal is to truly finalize my workout plan, and possibly do another Fitness Challenge.

pic via

3. Operation Closet Clean Out ( I am stealing this one from Leah as well). My closet has been needing help for a while. Since I’ve been spoiled rotten my whole life, I never had to deal with a tiny closet, so now it’s a bit of a dilemma. And the perfect solution is to get rid of things I haven’t used in a while no matter how attached I am to them.

I’m dreaming of this!

4. Set up a solid girls night out and stick to it. I miss having one night a week set out to go and have a few drinks with my best girlfriends and bitch about husbands, jobs, life and so on. We’re starting it up on Thursday!

5. Start running… sigh… again. A friend’s husband told me a few good tricks from the army and I’m going to try it out.

6. Clean out our bedroom and keep it clean. I spend hours cleaning it and within two days it is back to being a mess. I want to make sure that the bed is made on a daily basis, the curtains pulled aside to get light and fresh air into the room, and that there are NO clothes left on the floor hummm husband!

7, Sort through my photos. Make a backup of everything on an external drive and get things in order.

8. Finish this stupid class. And maybe be done with school forever?! Or at least for the next few weeks.

9. Get a job to start on August first.

10. Keep my nails kept.  

 

Come on guys! Let’s kick July’s butt! Make up your goals and join Leah and I for an accomplished July!

It’s Monday and I’m back on Track

 

Last week was interesting and very frustrating, and I was going to write all about it on here, but decided that it would just ruin my good mood. Hence, no recap. It’s in the past and I do not want to think about it.

On the very bright note, my Monday started out with a free morning and afternoon. So I went to the gym. I fixed my membership issues, which should allow me to have access to my online account now.

I spent 35 minutes on a stationary bike, per recommendation of my doctor.This was the first time I was on a stationary bike, and I think I like it. I might even take a spinning class in the near future.

Even though it only burned 150 calories in the 35 minutes I spent on the bike, I could feel it working my quads, and my knee didn’t hurt once.

After the gym I headed over to Shane Co. To get my ring cleaned and another one resized. Another, thing off my to do list is complete now.

When I got home, I wasn’t too hungry but knew I should eat something, so I made myself a fruit and cheese plate.

I had aged Gouda and some Gruyere, which are two of my favorite cheeses. A whole black plum, half of a Granny Smith apple, some grapes (which were super sweet and awesome) and a few butter crackers. It hit the spot and was defiantly a good choice.

For now, I’m going to finish drying my hair and head out to the library to try and teach a 10 year old to like reading. If you have any suggestions of books or tips on getting a kid to learn to like reading, I’d greatly appreciate you sharing. 

PS: Don’t forget about my very first give away

Quick and Sweet workouts

 

As I was browsing through some blogs today I came across these fantastic workouts on For the Love of Skinny. I thought they would be perfect to share since so many of us get behind on actually getting to the gym and working out. These are short, sweet and get to the job done.

 

 

What do you all think?! Think you can commit to this?!

I did it!

 

What you ask?!

I got up this morning with the Mister, got dressed and went to the gym!!!! I spent 30 minutes on the treadmill, then did some leg and abdominal work.

Then I made it home, took a shower and am getting dressed as I write this to head down to the hospital for a meeting. Hence why this is so short and sweet.  

See ya all later this evening when I’ll have a new post for ya!