HiHoRosie's Place

Today's challenge is micro-blogging. Write a story in six sentences. Here's mine. My Health Focus: In a Nutshell I started talking a lot about wanting to make changes in my health and diet but when faced with obvious opportunity and support, I sat on the couch and complained some more. But, then I agreed to make some small changes so I didn’t feel like I was getting jipped or feel like I was giving up my life for boringness. Changes are hard but many times necessary and worth it. Those little changes led to bigger changes and ones that I decided on without any encouragement because I was ready and wanting to make them. Little did I know at the time what favors I was doing my body; my body saying THANK YOU! I may still struggle with some changes nowadays but I know what the payoff is like and I am willing and ready to do what it takes to get there…for me.

Prior to exploring a healthy journey, I was overweight (big surprise! /sarcasm). Not obese but definitely way out of shape. Huff n’ puff. I didn’t suffer from many health problems as a result. I was lucky. However, I did have one ailment:   plantar fasciitis . image I’d wake up each morning with one and eventually, both feet, aching until I was able to stretch them for awhile or put pressure on them, but even then they’d still be tender. I’d feel it in my heels all the time. I couldn’t figure it out until I mentioned it to my doctor. She thought plantar fasciitis but referred me to a specialist. The foot doctor confirmed her thought. Now, a perfectly fit person, most often a runner, can develop plantar fasciitis because of the abuse their feet take. Well, we all know I was in no way running (ha!) or exercising much so that wasn’t the reason I was experiencing it. It was all due to weight and probably cheap flip flops. My poor aching feet! It was worse ...

Day 16 of HAWMC/WEGO Health . Today’s exercise or challenge is to create a pinboard for my health focus and pin three things. Easy! Except, I pinned four things because I’m a rebel that way. The first image I think is self-explanatory. I was blessed with a healthy body. It’s not perfect and it never will be but I have a responsibility to myself and my family to take care of it best I can. I don’t want to wake up one day and say, “I wish I did…” Walking: this is my current form of exercise. Not bad at all I say! I don’t have to be a marathon runner or be able to lift 350 pounds to be considered healthy and/or fit. Walking is enjoyable and something I don’t have to think about as exercise. Plus, it's free and eco-friendly. Going to a gym to workout isn’t my idea of a good time -- not to say I wouldn’t ever go or it doesn’t have its many benefits, it’s just not as fun to me as going for a walk in the great outdoors, granted the weather cooperates. Ha! Anyway, seeing this ...

Ekphrasis , a commentary on a visual piece of art. Day 5: Write a post inspired by an image from flickr.com/explore on how it relates to your health focus. photo credit: leisakay3 This beautiful butterfly, the common buckeye, is a great image that relates to my health focus of getting and staying healthy. As long as I am alive, I’m constantly transforming myself in some way. My intention however, is to make those transformations positive and healthy. So day by day, bit by bit, I am becoming a healthier version of me. Again, my focus is not being skinny but being healthy. I also associate the butterfly with beauty, patience, endurance, and uniqueness.    ๑ Beauty – I’m not referring to outside beauty when it comes to my transformation but filling my soul with positivity and love for myself, for others.    ๑ Patience – a must have when working towards a goal. Transformations don’t happen overnight but take time. And I must have patience if I wa...

image source Happy Friday the 13th! I'm not superstitious so bring it on. :) Confession: I used to drink Mountain Dew. Note the words used to . It’s been at least four+ years since I last had a sip, but I used to drink more than my fair share (I ain’t kiddin’ folks). Where some drink lots o’beer or Gatorade or Red Bull or Dr. Pepper or Coke or whatever, I drank Mountain Dew. That was my vice but since I didn't drink alcohol, what's the harm in a daily shot of MD? I’d go to Costco and buy cases or stop at the store and pick up a pack if it was on sale, “it’s a good deal!” I’d say. Many of my friends were dew-heads and we’d party-harty downing the dew and chasing it with tons of Smarties then filling up my fireplace with the empty cans (crazy kids). You know, pyramid style or whatever fancied our creativity (like that tree). Just silly mayhem, really. I didn’t think much of it then. Silly young me. What shit that was! Excuse my language but it was and still is. Chec...

Happy New Year, friends! Isn't that the best happy New Year's quote? Thanks Tamikko via Pinterest! Hope you had wonderful holidays and celebrations or simply enjoyed some time off. :) It's been a fun and busy time for us as YS2 understands more of the hoopla surrounding the holidays. I had been wondering if we'd raise Caleb to "believe" in Santa. He'll know the real reason for Christmas and he'll know of Santa, of course, but wasn't sure I wanted to get into the whole Santa thing. Well, Sam convinced me (with little arm-twisting) to follow tradition and enjoy the spirit of Santa. So YS2 got Santa gifts and all that. I failed to get a picture of him with Santa this year though. #Lame. I think he recovered from last year's Santa experience  but I guess we'll never know for certain. Looking back at my childhood, I'm not sure if I believed in Santa. At least, I don't remember being disappointed in learning he wasn't real -- I...

Happy Friday! Ready for the weekend? I am! I’m in training, as in exercise. Okay, don’t laugh. I’m being serious. I have been meaning to get off my duff and exercise more; to work out; to get active. I don’t do nearly as much as I should and it’s obvious. Well, the time is now. My inspiration: This flyer came across my desk and I thought, “I want to do this!” Hmm…let’s think about this. I don’t like to run, climb stairs, or knowing that I’m exercising in general – I like being active but not the act of exercising, if that makes sense. I haven’t been walking daily or as often as I should. I love yoga but again, haven’t done it in eons. I huff and puff because I’m out of shape. I can be competitive – I don't care to beat out anybody on this climb but it has sparked my determination and competitiveness to put my goal of getting fit into action. Gotta start somewhere right? So this is my personal competition to prove to myself I can do it. I’ve got three months to prep and t...

Please excuse me while I organize myself here. Some of my posts will basically be catching up posts and are more for me so you might find them less exciting, mundane or random. But here we go… First up, thank you for your support and loyalty . You guys are so cool . I knew you’d understand when I say I blog when I can. Life is happening all the time; blogging can wait any old day. I figure those who don’t understand aren’t real people anyway. Ha! For YS2’s birthday last month we got him a Strider pre-bike or a balance bike. If you’re not familiar with a balance bike, it’s a little tyke bike without training wheels or pedals so the focus is on balance . Everyone can pedal or easily learn, right? But balancing on a bike isn’t that easy. When it’s time to transition to a “big boy” bike there will hopefully be less spills and owies and instead lots more yays and smiles. YS2 has gotten the hang of it and now sits on the seat and not just walk with it standing up (that's how they fir...

I’m here! I’m alive! Life has taken precedence so to say I’m behind on blogging is an understatement. So many ideas swirling in my head, too. What I didn’t mention in my past post was that I was in the middle of a “vacation.” I took two and half weeks off work so family time was at an all-time high plus, as you regular readers know, I was still recovering from my illness then there were the holidays , which were beyond happy. Crazy and mad fun. Then vacation was over and it took some time to get back into a groove and into routine. Obviously, some areas will take awhile to recover. :) *** Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. Martin Luther King, Jr. We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Martin Luther King, Jr. *** Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day . Maybe some of you are fortunate to have the day off (not me). I was thinking that even though I don’t have the day off I’d still think about Dr. King and the many p...