take better care of myself

Bright Idea. I really like the thought of rising to the day and right away greeting it with new energy. I like the simplicity of this picture, as I can get distracted with too much information on one page. I can add this to my phone’s home screen and see it very morning as a reminder to great the morning, and hopefully feel more energized to start my day.

Credit: Facebook Page, Sowing the Future

Sometime next week, I will write up a routine list for the morning/noon/night, so that I have a physical, visual list that I can keep at arm’s reach all day, and mark off when I complete different things. I tend to get all gong-ho on a health/workout/eating kick, and I inevitably start to do less and less, and ultimately stop. I have trouble keeping up the motivation and routines. I want to change this, but it is difficult for me. I find that lists in notebooks near me help the best during the day.

Lately, I have been eating very well. For example, tonight, I made giant, stuffed portabella mushroom tops. The stuffing was a sautéed mix of: shrimp, celery, red/yellow/orange peppers, onions, the gills inside the mushroom and a creamy, spiced goat cheese that my sister wasn’t going to eat and gave to us. I steamed a stir-fry mix of frozen veggies, and made a salad, too! Yum. My mom and son loved it! Good food is gooood. I have been keeping better nutrition choices in mind, not that I have a bad diet by any means (unless the fast-food bug bites me). I have been avoiding wheat/gluten an dairy, and have been trying to buy food items labeled as GMO-FREE, and the like. We have also been buying most of our meat in organic form. All-in-all, nutrition is my best area.

HEALTHY is the new SKINNY! :)

On the sleeping front, I suck. With my son home all day now, I don’t have any me time anymore…unless it is after he goes to sleep (it is currently almost 2:30AM). I love sleep, I do, but, I think I love quiet me time even more. I can’t get on 43T at any other time. And, 43T is a big part of my Sanity Diet! Sanity has been lacking the last couple of weeks. My hormone levels must be very off. I have been trying to take my daily supplements, but I am awful at it. Two days ago, I started taking a thyroid health supplement; hopefully makes some kind of change in my stress levels and general demeanor.

I have been starting to work out and trying to move everyday…even if it’s just numerous sets of various exercises for fifteen minutes or so. I like doing exercise moves during commercial breaks if I am watching at TV show. I found a new appreciation or the dreaded commercial breaks. I have also been keeping up with my 200 Squats Challenge (after the 200 Sit Ups I did). I need to start adding in cardio, along with daily Yoga or Pilates. I plan to start jogging again next month. I want to get my mom and kiddo out with me, moving and enjoying the fresh air and sunlight.

When it comes to drinking more water, I think I am doing well. I can always do better, but I am drinking a proper amount. I need to start putting apple cider vinegar in my water everyday, away from my supplements. I feel much better with that added in.

By this time next year, I plan on looking nothing but smokin’, bangin’ hot! ;) ...AND FEELING EVEN BETTER THAN THAT!!

This is ridiculous!

I was just sick in March. Something is not right. My mom has been telling me that she thinks my thyroid running low; hypothyroidism. She has been dealing with the worst case of hypothyroidism – Hashimoto’s Disease, so she knows much about the stupid little gland in the neck that causes so many problems.

I have had my levels checked a few times over the years, and I jave always been just OK…right on the cusp of needing further tests done. The majority of doctors really don’t like to test thyroid levels, and really dislike doing a full battery…you usually have to request them.

The past week, I have not been able to get out of bed to save my life. A few days there, I was getting up at 11:30AM, which, yes, I’m stressed, but I never wake up that late. I’m cold all the time, especially my hands and feet. My hair, skin and nails are a mess, and I can’t lose any weight. I haven’t been very hungry, and have just been a zombie lately.

Since I have been sick, I took my temperature this morning before I got out of bed, and it read a whopping….96.8º Yea, so I’m barely alive. My mom told me I need to start taking a supplement for thyroid support, which I have, and need to make sure I take every day. Maybe something will change. This is just so dang irritating.

Not with my arsenal!

Tomorrow, it will be a week that this crap has been creeping around my insides. I can now add acute laryngitis and coughing fits to my sinusitis. I had little to no voice all day yesterday. I never realzed how painful a couch can be when your throat is swollen with laryngitis. Ouch!

Today, I need to get in:
Tumeric Tea ×2
Apple Cider Vinegar ×like 6
Oil of Oregano (awful stuff, but way good for me) ×1
Emergen-C ×3
Molasses ×2
Coconut Oil ×2
Garlic ×a bunch
My handful of supplements
Tons of water, grape juice and hot tea!
My mom grabbed these two products from Broncolin; honey eucalyptus drops with plant extracts; honey syrup with natural plant extracts and propolis (not the best-tasting syrup, but so many good things in them-can’t hurt).

Also, need to keep being good at avoiding gluten and dairy. I haven’t had either in awhile now. :) I know if I go to the dark side, I will feel even worse.

I have been pretty much sleeping in an upright position the last few night…helps a bit. I’m tired of this junk! This is the same stuff my mom went into the clinic for to get antibiotics, because she couldn’t take it anymore. I refuse to go the antibiotics route. That’s just a cycle of high Candida that I don’t care to have. I feel better from the beginning of the week. Hopefully it keeps going well, and I feel me again soon.

Within the last two-three months, I have caught a few different nasty bugs. It seems to be a much more common occurance just recently…which is surprising, because I have been hounding myself on getting back to healthier routines and habits. I don’t know what’s up.

At the moment, I believe I have a sinus infection driving me batty. I feel like someone knocked me in the nose a few times. Awful feeling. This all started Sunday night.

This morning, I went all home remedy on this crap! Apple Cider Vinegar, Emergen-C, Oil of Oregano, Tumeric Tea, Molasses, and numerous vitamins. I tried to drink tons of water during the day, but didn’t get in as much as I wanted to. I did enjoy a cup of Kumbucha Tea with lemon and honey. I have so many concoctions in my body today.

Tomorrow, I will do the same, but add more to the list and be on top of it.

I think sleep is the best option for me right now. Nighty-night, my lovelies. Zzzzz….

I haven’t been doing great lately, but today I thought I’d start anew:

Sleep
• I got to bed at 1am last night. Better than 3am! I was shooting for midnight. Got 5 hours of sleep. I need to get to sleep earlier.
• I amazingly heard my alarm this morning, and like a miracle – I actually woke up to it!
^{I have come to realize that I absolutely loathe being jolted awake by the abnoxious sound of: BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! over-and-over again. I will turn off my alarm in a groggy, irritated state, and not even remember doing it! It’s bad. So, last night I set it to play the radio instead. And it worked…today}

Today’s Morning Routine & Hygiene
•When I got up, I went straight to the kitchen to gulp down four vitamins that I thought would be useful to start my day right: B-Complex, Iron, Niacin and Acidophilus. I plan on doing this every morning
•Then, instead of sitting down on the couch (where I will usually get comfy-cozy and fall back to sleep), I high-tailed it to the shower
• I ended washed my face with alcohol, witch hazel, and peroxide (face will be much happier tomorrow)
• brush/floss
• I moisturized hands and face
• Vinegar on tooties to try to get ‘em healthy

Appearance
• blow-dried and straightened my hair (haven’t done that in some time)
• I went without makeup today and it felt great. I’m having a hard time putting chemicals (essentially) on my skin for my body to absorb
• I actually put thought into my clothing
• Wore my glasses all day without a headache (ah, wonderful)

Nutrition
• When going out to the buffet for breakfast this morning, I pretty much stuck to my eating guidelines (because I wrote it all down and took it with me). It was hard to stay aay from the yum I’m used to every Sunday
• I took a second dose of vitamins in the afternoon to combat my usual downfall to lazy and tired – it worked!

Human Interaction^{I don’t get much of that}
• I had a few conversations and chats with actual adults(!!!) while out to breakfast – that was nice :) I found out that two different guys that I see at two different places we frequent are brothers! There was a guy from our thrift store in for breakfast today and he was talking to the guy who checks people into the buffet. Buffet guy says “hey, meet my brother.” Haha, I just spent some time talking to that brother at the thrift store about a week ago-my kiddo interigated him about Pokemon. :D lol. Neither one of them seem tobe too bothered by him. Nice guys. I <3 Old Country Buffet!

Cutting Down on Toxins
• I went through all of my plastic containers and got rid of all the types that should be nowhere near me and my family – yay! That feels awesome!

Although my food intake today was atrocious (for whatever reason I was hungry all day), I hope I took a bit of the edge of by downing some organic apple cider vinegar 2× today. Help with the calories little sour appley dudes, please! [pleads!] Along with the ACV, I also took a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses and coconut oil. I’ve become accustomed to the uniques flavors of all of these natural remedies. I really wanted to do a yoga and/or pilates video tonight, but I am ready for bed. Maybe tomorrow!

So, Today:

• Awoke with a shocking 8 hours of sleep!

• ACV/VCO/Molasses – yummers…mind over matter!

• Drank tons of that clear, flavorless stuff (water, is it?)

• Took a bubble bath (kinda opposite of goal as my sensitive skin freaked out over the bubble stuff, epsom salts and conditioner to shave my legs)

• Yes! OMGosh, yes! I shaved my legs! Weird to be so happy? Maybe. But c’mon ladies—if it’s winter and there isn’t a special someone around to share blankets with, you too may not be as quick to spend time and effort making those beautiful gams smooth too. Mine were starting to bug me! I’ve gotta draw the line somewhere, lol. :D

• Pushed back my cuticles

• Clipped toe nails as low as possible and dabbed with AVC for nail health

• Washed my face (rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, peroxide)

• Drinking (as of now) a very delicious glass of Saffron Tea with Chamomile (over 90 health benefits, the box shows)

• Will Brush/floss teeth next

^{This coming week, I hope to incorporate relaxing exercises before bed if I stay awake and keep off of 43 for an hour after my son goes to sleep (Haha! Funny.)}

There’s just something about feeling clean and well-groomed that’s not quite like any other happy feeling. :)

My little bout of depression-like feelings have made me kinda not care much about the happy clean feeling and happy well-groomed feeling, so, tonight before I go to bed:

-take a peaceful shower (peppermint shampoo/conditioner-oh yes!)
-cleanse my face with my wonderful naturals (alcohol, witch hazel, and peroxide)
-add on a nice face lotion
-brush and floss my chompers
-blow dry and straighten my hair while rockin’ out to the radio
-drink a big, tall, glass of water before I hit the hay
-oh, yes, and spend some time on 43! :)

I just have to get my water, and I’m ready to zzzzzzz-out.
Good night 43.