Mrs. G's Journey to Better Health

ON TARGET! Today is Day 7 on my journey to optimal health. I feel great! This morning I got up and noticed my belt was not as tight as it normally is. I thought maybe I buckled it too loose? Nope, it was right where I always wear it. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. I also noticed a slight gap between the belt buckle and the button on my pants. Tomorrow is my official weigh-in day, and I can not wait to see what the scale says. I have been sticking the program diligently. I have also managed to not drink any soda, tea, or coffee all week. Yes, I do miss them but my optimal goal is way more important to me than 7 days with no soda, tea or coffee. All week I stayed on target and today was a great day. I went out to try my hand at archery. Awesome! My arm is a tired from this new activity but I managed to also hit the target on the range. That was my arrow that hit the apple. I also managed to pop the balloon from 20 yards out. Not bad for a newbie. The introd...

Today marks Day 6 on my journey to optimal health. While I am focusing on me, my optimal health, and seeing steady progress, I want to digress a little today. In a roundabout way, I will loop it back to my optimal health journey. In the last few weeks, August 01, 2017 to today, September 08, 2017, we have been having crazy weather all over the U.S. In my neck of the woods, southern California, we experienced several days of high temperatures well over 100F. It was HOT . I do not do well in hot weather. I fell lazy, sluggish, and all I want to do is sleep in a shaded swimming pool filled with ice cubes. These last seven days have been great! Temperatures have dropped to high 80's and low 90's. It makes a big difference. Other things southern California has experience has been some wild fires. The La Tuna Fire started on September 1st. Today, September 8th, it is about 90% contained. The fire has been burning for 8 days and scorched over 7,000 acres. That fir...

The best way to describe the past 7 days is "controlled chaos." Today I steer my world back in to a more favorable direction. Seven Days Ago: The kids had Christmas parties at their school. I was surrounded by cupcakes, candy canes, hot chocolate, whip cream, chocolate covered nuts, gingerbread lattes ... a million different versions of sugar. Some parents are really good bakers and the treats they brought looked and smelled incredibly delicious. Double chocolate heavily brownies, peppermint bark,  sugar cookies, each one was more and more tempting. I did sneak in a guilty bite here and there but forced myself not to indulged in whole platefuls. It was controlled samplings. It was a busy day, I was exhausted and skipped my walking. Six Days Ago: Our garage is not connected to the house and so getting gifts from the garage into the house was difficult on account it was raining. Trying to wrap gifts while the kids were at school was challenging. I felt like I was play...

Today was a CRAZY day. The intentions were good but things kept happening to discourage my focus. In the end, I am moving through my journey a little slower, but still moving in the right direction. The morning skies looked cool and offered the promise of a sprinkle or two Little did I know they would yield a large  amount of rain suddenly and in a relatively  short  period  of time. The rest of the day was on and off  sprinkles and rain. Then the fun began. I took my cat to a heart specialist to find out if his heart is strong enough to be put under to remove a mass/growth from his gumline. While at the specialist, I get a phone call from a number I did not recognize. I let it go to voicemail. There is a moment when I have some downtime waiting in the vet's lobby, so I check my voicemail. It was my bank? The Fraud Department? *sigh* Apparently someone has decided to use my account in Brazil, Massachusetts, and Virginia and rack up A LOT of expenses. No. No. No....

The stitches are out, the swelling has shrunk, the bruising has disappeared. I am walking with a minor limp and minor pain that is tolerable. At the end of the day it can get annoying but it is not holding me back anymore. Yesterday, I went into my SparkPeople.com SparkPage and made a blog entry and set some goals... In effort to be more active in my SparkTeams, I have narrowed it down to 4 SparkTeams. Of those 4 teams, I am focusing on participating in 2 of them for the following 2 weeks, then 3 of them for the following 2 weeks and finally all 4 after that. The 2 I have selected to start with is TwitterTeam and FitBit Users Unite! I have joined the Team Goals of drinking 8 cups of water per day. This is a big challenge for me because I do not drink much water. I do drink lots of coffee and flavored drinks, but not water. According to my friend who is a member of Weight Watchers, water is any drink that has no calories, no sugar, and no caffeine. That being the case, I won...