Happiness

Last fall Melissa mentioned a book she was reading called The Happiness Project. I thought is sounded interesting and picked up a copy for myself. One of the things I liked about the book was that it was broken up into months so I could read it a little at a time. First, I would not categorize this as a self help book. It's a book about someones year of setting goals and trying to accomplish them. However, you can gain prospective and even things you may want to do yourself. Second, I love the fact that she sates she is not unhappy but that she could always be happier. Yes, everyone can always be happier.

I found a wonderful talk given by President James E. Faust entitled Our Search For Happiness. Here is an excerpt that I enjoyed.

As the Prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) told us, “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected by Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 255–56).

The more faithfully we keep the commandments of God, the happier we will generally be.

Although “men are, that they might have joy” (2 Ne. 2:25), this does not mean that our lives will be filled only with joy, “for it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things” (2 Ne. 2:11). Happiness is not given to us in a package that we can just open up and consume. Nobody is ever happy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Rather than thinking in terms of a day, we perhaps need to snatch happiness in little pieces, learning to recognize the elements of happiness and then treasuring them while they last.

Now why do I think this is applicable to Healthy Wife Happy Life? Good question. With the name of the blog including the word "happy" I thought what why does being healthy bring happiness. I think we've all learned over the past year that there is a lot more to it. I know people who thought being thin would bring them happiness and it hasn't. There is a lot to finding happiness. I'm actually impressed by what many of you have chosen as your 30 point challenges over the past year. I think it's helped bring a well roundedness to the healthy aspect.

Healthy to me means, physically, mentally and spiritually. If I'm healthy I'm happier to be around, I'm more willing to serve others, I can have loving relationships with my family and friends. I can come closer to my Heavenly Father. When I'm not healthy I'm down on myself and cut myself off from others and the Lord.

So back to why I brought up the book and why I want to share it with you. She discusses the idea that growth brings happiness. "It isn't just goal attainment but the process of striving after goals-after growth-that brings happiness."

I loved this idea. So often in my life I've looked to the future but when I got there it didn't bring me the happiness that I thought it would. For the past 5 ish years I've really tried living in the now and enjoying life everyday, whatever it may hold.

As we are trying to make healthy choices in our lives now it's important to enjoy what we're doing. To appreciate the growth we are making and learn from our failures. Heavenly Father wants us to be HAPPY! If being physically healthy will help us to that he wants that for us. If by improving our health we can be a better mom, spouse, friend, help us desire to serve others and fulfill our callings at church it is a righteous desire.

The challenge, therefore, is to take pleasure in the "atmosphere of growth," in the gradual progress made toward a goal, in the present.

One Year Ago....

One Year ago this past Tuesday Healthy Wife Happy Life started it's first challenge. Isn't it amazing that time goes by so fast. Have you started any new habits? Kept any of them up? Do you feel healthier than you did a year ago? I personally have learned a lot about myself and feel that although there is still more to work on I'm moving in the right direction and mentally I'm in a great place.

Well here is some exciting news...that I'm really late in doing this but we have two winners!

Marci was are last challenge. She has been training for a half marathon and has been putting in the hours in exercise! I can't wait to hear all about that! She has also signed up for a Marathon later this year!!!

I went back and tallied up all the points from January and February challenges. I was very impressed by the number of people that completed three of the challenges and even more impressed by the number of people who completed ALL FOUR CHALLENGES.

drum roll please......

Cammy is our winner of the "I can do hard things" charm.

Thank you all so much for taking this journey with me. You are all amazing women who inspire me to keep going. Whenever I'm tired and ready to throw in the towel I remember that you're all here waiting for me to keep things going. I'm blessed to get to know you and cheer you on. Here is to another great year!

Time change

The time is about to change. My children will be lagging for about a week. And I will be staring at the snow, willing it to melt one final time. {Final may be overly optimistic at this point, but I'm sticking with it.}

As soon as the white stuff is a memory, I will resume my 5:30 a.m. class as I discovered that a one minute plank is difficult again. That's a sure sign that a class that once seemed routine will actually be fairly challenging once again.

Honestly, I prefer falling back to springing ahead. But falling {no energy needed} is always easier than jumping {loads of energy needed}. Physically and in all other ways too.

how's it going for you???

The last 2 weeks of challenges have proved to be... challenges!!! I picked writing everything down, which I usually do great at till late afternoon... This week I challenged myself to sit down when I eat. I have seen the reason for my overeating! I eat out of the bag, standing at the counter constantly! I turn to food when I want to forget everything thats going on etc. etc.
How do YOU stop the emotional, crazy eating??? What's crazy is that when I do this I am a horrible mom. I can always tell when I am frustrated with my eating habits and how I look because I take it out on my sweet innocent family!
It has been a very hard week! I haven't earned my points once! UGH

I hope you are all doing a lot better than me!

Pain in the back!

Hi girls,
I ended up at my new sports othopedist today with more lower back pain and a little bit of nerve issues down my right leg.  It was a loooong visit, but he gave me corizone injections to speed up and assist in getting the inflamation down so that my body can 'heal itself'.  He said 'NO RUNNING!' for at least 3 weeks, just exercise like walking, biking and swimming.  I had a discussion with our Sweet Audrey and she gave me some great tips on how to burn lots of calories with low impact excercises. Do any of you have tips that work for you that can help me get my burn on so that I can maximize my workouts?  I'm thinking I may revive my aerobic step and increase my reps with my low-weight, weight training. Any ideas??
Thanks!!

A-ha!!!!

At last I know why I've got fat hips!
When taking a shower I often use the rest of my shampoo to lather myself.
Well, yesterday, I read what was written on the bottle-
"For extra volume and body." WHAT A SHOCK!

No wonder it is so difficult to keep my weight under control.
From now on I will use dish-washing liquid for showering-it claims:
"Dissolves fat that is otherwise difficult to remove"!

(got this in my email this week-I got a kick out of it).

:)

New Gadget

I burned out my little chopper/blender thing a few weeks ago making my banana ice cream. I guess I shouldn't be too sad since we had it for over 10 years but it was still very handy especially for little things like grinding flax seed, making baby food, etc.

I ventured down the kitchen appliance isle at the store looking for something to replace it and found this little guy.
Okay so it looks like a little plastic jar with a handle (and I found out after I bought it that a small Mason jar will work too) but this little thing fit right on my blender and works even better than my little chopper blender I had before. I like that it is small so I don't have to wash out the big blender every time I use it. Yesterday I chopped up whole almonds to put on my salads and it took all of about 2 seconds to grind the nuts and maybe two minutes to wash out the parts and put them away.

I also found this little attachment but I haven't tried it yet because it is for Hubby's birthday. He likes to make shakes and such but honestly the blender just doesn't cut it sometimes so this little blade is supposed to do the trick. We'll see in a few weeks if it actually works. Should be good for smoothies too;)
I know I know a silly post but I had to share. Does your brand of blender have special attachments too? You might want to check and see. You might just find a handy knew gadget in the process.

Internal monologue

Sometimes I'm bothered by my inability to attain perfection on a seemingly simple task: drink 64 ounces of water. And I say to myself

"Self, if you can't do this one simple thing, what kind of discipline can you maintain? I mean, really!"

But other days I'm much kinder to myself:

"Self," I say, "You did a pretty good job today. You drank 54 ounces of honest to goodness water and if you throw in the fruit and, yes, even the cup of caffeinated coffee...you likely almost broke 60 ounces. Still pretty good."

Sometimes I feel that I have only so much energy to devote to the disciplines in my life. So, if on any given day--like this past Monday for example--I've done 9 loads of laundry {including folding and putting clothes on respective children's beds} and I've read my Scriptures that day and I've made a home cooked meal...the discipline bank has been all used up and the exercise or veggies or water or whatever I've fallen short on that day will just have to wait. And that's O.K.

Just today I've embraced another discipline: to take the time I usually spent on facebook and devote it to Bible study and prayer instead. I've decided that this discipline will take priority over all others for the next 40 or so days...but I have a sneaking suspicion that other disciplines will fall into place more readily and with less effort as a result. That's usually what happens when my priorities are more properly aligned.

So much to say...and so busy.

I run through life posting in my head...and rarely does it get on the computer. I really like being detached from my computer but sometimes I wish I had it with me when the thoughts were going through my head so I could share them all with you.

After a somewhat successful week of keeping a daily food diary....even while having two birthday celebrations for my 9 year old I've decided to take on exercising more frequently. I'm really good at getting about 3 days in a week, but I think to the success and change up what my body is use to it times to take it up another notch.

Story #1 I went to bed at 10:40 Sunday night with the plan to wake up at 5am to get to the 5:30 spin class...I find if I get a start on my exercise Mondays I'm much more successful all week. At 4am, my little one decided to come get in my bed. He loves to get in there and snuggle up with his dad. I'm chopped liver. I complied, "turned off" my alarm, stuck it in the drawer and hopped into his bed. I like this room because it's the darkest room in the house.

At 5am, my husband walks in the the alarm going off in his hand. Not only did it wake him up but he also had to find it. I felt so guilty about waking him up that I jumped up and headed to the gym...

Story #2 Although my intention is not to stay within my calorie range, tracking your food intake and exercising kind of make you want to at least be reasonable. Tuesday, swimming from 3-6pm and then Enrichment (it will always be called that as far as I'm concerned) at 7pm. I decided to take the boys to Baja Fresh. I love their grilled Mahi Mahi tacos. Very delicious, nutritious and within my calorie range. I got Jonah the chips and queso to go with his dinner. He's found a new love for queso...we had never had it here and when I tried it with the hot chips I could hardly shovel them into my mouth fast enough.

Ahhh, my effort to have a healthy dinner on the run back fired. Good thing it's far enough away from the house to not frequent with my kids.

New Goal

Mine for this week is writing down everything I eat. I don't want to do the calorie counting thing because I'm dreading it and because I'm going to a girls weekend away in Breckenridge (can I get a woop woop!?!) Writing your food down is the next best thing.
I aced the water drinking, even if I was chugging 24oz after 9pm every night.


PS- Comments are worth 5 points a day, right? And posting is three points or two? The spreadsheet says:
Post x2 (max 6)
That made me wonder.

Have you smiled yet today?

 

What did the duck say to the egg?

You quack me up!!!

Thanks for making me smile, even if I'm having a tough day!

Exercise...

This week I'm focusing on the exercise. Making sure I get at least a half hour of activity each day.
And, so far so good!

Last week, I did so so on my goal of calorie tracking.

Onward and upward!

WaTeR, DriNK mY WaTeR

I did OKAY this past week on my exercise, I was hoping for GREAT. As my husband always says, "Hope is not a course of action." Actually I did better than I have been doing and I'm committed to getting all five days in this week. For my next goal I will focus on my water consumption which isn't where it needs to be. I find it really hard to drink the required 64 0z each day, if it were Diet Coke I'd have no problem. I don't drink soda anymore so I'm off to get a glass of water right now as I need to drink 32 oz more before bed time. I am grateful for water and for the blessing of good safe water that comes right out of the tap in my kitchen, now I just need to remember to drink it.

New Goal

So I did not do the greatest with the veggie intake on the weekend but overall I did not do that bad.  I am going to add drinking my water for this weeks challenge.  This is actually very difficult for me because I have very limited bathroom breaks at work so it makes it difficult to get enough water.  Hopefully I will figure out a system that will work. 

Convictions

I was at a retreat this past weekend and one of the activities we did was called "Convictions." One by one and in fairly quick succession, the facilitator had us finish these sentences on a sheet of paper.

I am convinced that food...
I am convinced that money...
I am convinced that exercise...
I am convinced that my parents..
I am convinced that I...
I am convinced that the world...
I am convinced that God...
I am convinced that my faith...

It was a real eye-opener for me to see where my gut took me. I had the same answer for food and exercise: is essential in shaping my day to day mood.

My New Goal

Well, I did good on my water almost the whole week - minus the sick day with kids. This week I've decided to add on no eating 2 hours before bedtime, especially considering I sat on the couched and munched M&Ms and jelly beans while chatting with my hubby for a couple of late hours last night. Not Good! Wish me luck.

New Goal

Hey Girls!  I did great with my personal goal last week -it was to drink all my water!  It felt good, but I had to pee a lot!!  This week, I'm choosing to stay in my calorie range.  This is a major challenge for me, but I can do it!!  BTW, I love all of your inspirational posts.  : )

Live Life On Purpose!

Isn't it funny when you are pondering a question and not just here on this forum, but the universe finds ways to answer your question?  I was channel flipping yesterday and ran across a PBS special by a Dr. Daniel Amen, about how eating, exercising and just making smart healthy life choices makes you healthy, thinner, smarter and happier (I perked right up to this!).  He went through the basics of choosing a good healthy life.

The world would want you to believe that you need to eat more, have lots of sugar and red meat.  He showed how on brain scans he had done in the past 20 years, unhealthy choices = unhealthy braincells .  Not  only were most of these people overweight, some of them had problems with thinking straight, ADD/ADHD, memory, being grumpy, unhappy, irritability, etc.  (sound familiar?)  Changing to a more healthy diet and way of life, these problems were significantly reduced or went away completely.  Their thinking was more clear, memory was better they lost excess weight and they were in general, much more happy.

He talked about putting "smart" calories in your body.  Calories that will give your body what it needs.
Dr. Amen validated the need for a multivitamin, but also fish oil.
It's important to have sunshine or vitamin D (helps avoid depression)
Green Tea extract to help your focus
Get control of emotional eating.
Get control of your mind -stop automatic negative thoughts (ANTs)
Disconnect from past traumas and emotional distress

Basically, he validated all that you ladies have been professing that is good for us to remain or journey to:  Healthy Wife!  Happy Life!

So I feel inspired and encouraged and more dedicated to the cause!

Don't we deserve to be healthy and happy?!

When you eat those extra cookies, chocolate or donuts, do you feel happy or guilty...or regret?!
Do you have to deny yourself?  NO!  But train yourself that a taste is ENOUGH!  Cut off or count out what is a taste, then eat it slowly and enjoy every bit of that taste.  Thank yourself for the treat and be glad that's all you need.  I'm constantly telling myself that I don't need the sugar or the fat, but I do need the veggies and fruit.  If it isn't something fabulous, it doesn't need to go in my mouth...and really, unless you're on a cruise, how much stuff do you encounter everyday that is fabulous?

I know it's not as easy as eating whatever...but whatever is not healthy.  Yes, it takes more time, thought and effort, but YOU'RE WORTH IT!  Your family is worth it!  It's time to take control!  Be in charge of yourself!  If you mess up, don't be discouraged, but learn from your mistakes and readjust your thinking so it will be better next time.  Plan ahead (key to success!).

Live Life On Purpose!

I am grateful for those who have healthy alternative at the parties or gatherings I go to.  I went to a  baby blessing this morning.  I knew there would be foods there that wouldn't be healthy (family tradition!) so I brought some cut up fruit so I would be sure I had some delicious alternatives.  Even my husband commented how good the fruit was!

At the end of the day, I feel like I have had a successful day!  We can't control everything that happens in our life, but these two things we have control over.  What we eat, and our attitude about life. 

I sometimes play racquetball with a guy who gets mad or frustrated, then he quits trying.  When I get mad or frustrated, I try harder.  If I didn't win at the end of the game, but played my best, it's still a good game for me!  I think of the good shots I made and how much exercise I got during that game and I feel good.  Then I try harder next time to make better shots and anticipate how to best play the game.  After I've analyzed my oppontent and their strengths and weaknesses, even if I lost the first game, it was still a valuable lesson to me.  Here's the kicker...If my opponent was no challenge for me, I have gained nothing!  There is no reward to beating an opponent that does not challenge you.

Why did I tell you about my racquetball analogy?  Because you can apply it to the challenges you face right now.

You guys are awesome!  I hope you make goals that challenge you!  I hope you do not get frustrated and get mad and quit!  Try harder!  Change your strategy!  Don't run faster than you are able to run, but run further than you thought you could!  Be grateful and ask Heavenly Father to help you with your weaknesses.  He's always there for you and so interested in your success!  So am I!  Keep posting!  Keep being awesome!

Be Healthy
Be Happy
You deserve it!

Rose-bud

Water Bottle

Doing great on the water this week. Enjoying the perks of this new fancy water bottle that filters out the yucky stuff. (But maybe the good stuff too: flouride, not sure.) There's nothing like a pretty new container to make the clear stuff go down easier.

So, now I'm debating, the next goal. The super hard would be getting exercise in 5 days a week. But if I pick that now, could I sustain it for four weeks? Am I being a wuss if I pick a slightly less challenging goal for week two? Hmmm. I'm tempted to work on fruits and veggies next too, just to get the healthy eating/drinking combo down.

Week Two, please bring some sun this way. Pretty please.

Ginormous EVIL Costco Calorie Laden Muffins

For months now I've been able to ignore the ginormous Costco muffins my husband buys every two weeks but today my will power completely failed me. I don't even want to think about how many calories I've eaten today, I feel so full and disgusted with myself. I had two large mugs of hot chocolate, six sugar cookies (of course made with butter) and two ginormous huge Costco muffins and that's not including the real food that I also consumed. On top of that, I talked myself out of going to the gym yesterday and today. I hate my lack of discipline, thank goodness tomorrow will be a fast day for me. I wish my hubby wouldn't buy those EVIL muffins.