My Tip Jar

Maybe if I treat my blog like a New Year tip jar I will update frequently enough. I am willing to try!

So, here I am. I have managed to lose 1 pound in a year. One. Yep. I'll not go over how I feel about that because I know you can fill in for me. I don't feel any differently than you would.  So, I lost one pound ultimately in 2013. I lost several pounds over and over and over, just did not keep them off.

I am still in the U.Va. study to monitor blood glucose and learn to handle Diabetes the way it really has to be. I wish there were other ways...like anyone who has to jab her finger 6 or more times a day and then DO something about the results she sees...but I'm able to accept that taking care of this is an unchanging, unyielding process.

I started a TOPS group  in May and have been its leader all the while - which makes the loss of one total pound for the year all kinds of embarrassing. I am facing it, though, and with a deep breath am going to keep to staying positive and keep going to my meetings and keep starting over. Eventually, something has to click. Right?

I'm about to teach sedentary people how to move their bodies. I so wish I had this idea when my mom was alive. I wish I dropped everything else in my life and went to her the way my head always said to...and I wish I worked with her to get us both healthy. I can't now - not with her - and I can't realistically drop everything yet I am going to spend one Thursday a week with (hopefully) a few people who have not moved very much in a long time and who want to be present in their bodies and begin somewhere. This is exercise and also therapy for me. We can help each other.

I have begun the new year by outlining my next Best Year Yet. My focus is my health (all aspects of my health) and so many things contribute to the success of my health...things I didn't realize could or would...and the first is joy.  Whatever I do, I am surrounding myself with joy.

My first step. I am putting more design effort into my kitchen. It is already a room that I love very much. Now I am amping it up by adding the decor that has spent years on Pinterest and in my head...and hasn't made its way to my wall. My kitchen is going to be a place of joy for me where I can create healthy meals for myself and my friends and family - a place I not only love to be in but am good at taking care of myself in.

Otherwise I am just taking care to continue routine skin care and teeth brushing and hair setting/styling that always makes me feel good and fresh and relaxed. For Christmas I bought myself a new set of skin care products but I may go back to my previous set because the organics stuff I'm trying seems to make me break out a whole lot. It's weird? Chemicals for the win? The stuff I normally buy is pricey...and maybe it is a get what I pay for thing?

I put some more stuff on Pinterest that I will get for myself when I reach certain goals. I don't like to think I am materialistic. I guess I really am. Whatever, though. This is about joy. Sometimes things make me happy. Things are better for me than food.

Welcome, 2014.