A Potpourri of Things

It's a beautiful Fall-feeling morning here in Kentuckiana.  Yes- I am still participating in my challenge.  It has mostly been little things each day and it definitely keeps me on my game.  I really have to stop and think.  On one hand I could write and write about how it makes me feel- on the other hand writing about the actual give would probably bore you senseless.  For example;  Friday, Day 24, I took a variety of books to my infusion center.  They have a bunch of boxes of books there for the patients to read during their infusion and we can borrow them and bring them back next treatment.  While I have never used them because I always bring something with me to read- I liked the idea and I knew that our very hardworking nurses love to read as well so I made sure to bring something they would enjoy as well.  Not very exciting in the grand scheme of things but they really enjoyed digging through that bag and seeing the new titles and that felt good.  I think what it is doing most for me is making me step outside myself and shed my day and think about someone else.  Definitely makes you stop wallowing and start getting creative. 

Speaking of getting creative.  I have been collecting for some time now all sorts of things for two vision boards.  Yesterday I complete the first of them.  This first one is for my weight loss journey.  On it is everything from pictures of three "celebs" that I think are just knock out gorgeous to photos of people doing Yoga to the actual goal to words of inspiration.  It is sitting next to me almost at my elbow so that every time I look to the left- that is what I see.  It pulls your eye do different places each time.  This time I could see "Eat Right" or "Lose for Good", next time "Discover a new calm", "Fear of Nothing" or "A journey to healthy" and then "Hello Bombshell" or "Always be your best."  The idea behind the vision board is to focus me and keep me inspired to stay on this journey. 

Another step in this is my accountability to my dear friends.  Two of my friends, my sister and I have a little group on facebook where we talk about our challenges, we share tips and ideas and are generally sharing our weight loss struggle.  In this group we have created the common goal of moving every single day.  We have created "Accountability" threads for Yoga and Pilates and we have found that each of us has cable and on our cable box we have ExerciseTV on our OnDemand.  This gives us a variety of different exercise programs to choose from and so we found one 40 minute Yoga that we really like collectively that we share and we all have other programs that we like individually.  Each day we check in on those threads and tell what we did or did not do.  This morning I just wasn't feeling it.  I didn't sleep well and I was sore and tired but knowing I had to check in- I couldnt' NOT move and so I did 20 minutes of modified yoga and movement.  After I did it I felt like I had started my day the right way.  Even if I take it easy the rest of the day- I have gotten in my movement for the day. 

I also started today watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition from last night.  Nine minutes in I had tears just streaming down my face.  I love this show.  I have watched every single episode.  It just pulls at my heart in so many different directions.  In this episode, rather than a single family they were doing a house for Girls Hope in Baltimore.  The Girls and Boys Hope program is located in 15 cities across the country.  In the residential progam- the "Scholars" as they are known, move out of their family's home in some of the worst neighborhoods in the city and into the shared house with house managers.  The program employees and volunteers mentor these children in a holistic fashion and partner with the parents to help these kids acheive their dreams.   The Baltimore Boys program (who nominated the Girls program) has a 100% rate of their graduates who complete the program going to college.  What a fantastic success rate!  In watching these boys and girls in their interviews each of them are so grateful for the opportunity that they have been given and were so excited to get to a time in their lives when they could in turn pay it forward.  What a difference this will make in their lives and the lives of so many girls and boys for years to come.  I love that EMHE chose this program for this season's opener.  It's so much bigger than just one nuclear family.  The initial "class" of girls is 7 strong but with the 11000 square foot home- there is room for even more as the program settles into their new home and grows.  Kudos to ABC for their selection of this group. 

Well- that's my round up of "good things" for this weekend.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a terrific week.