Healthy Living Challenge Starts Tomorrow

Just a reminder – if you are participating in our neighborhood Healthy Living Challenge we are starting tomorrow, Friday, April 12.  Click here to see the entire program and to access the downloads.

Time to strap on those running shoes, fill the shopping cart with fresh food and get your mind focused on a fabulous 6 weeks!

Enjoy!

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Healthy Living Challenge – How It Works

You read about my current Healthy Living journey here.  Have you been thinking about our challenge?  Ready to see what our Healthy Living Challenge is really about?

Enter LynDee.  My neighbor and friend who inspired women in our neighborhood to take a Healthy Living Challenge in teams of two.  The original “Feeling Super in 6 Weeks” program has been floating around the internet and here is how we adapted it.  We earn points based on the good foods we eat, the exercise we do, the life we live.  We lose points for naughty choices.  Yikes!  We then report our weekly points to our partner and then to a group recorder who tells us who is “winning” each week.  Pounds lost plays a small part in the challenge because it is more about healthy living than about losing weight.  But we all know that we can’t live healthy without losing some weight in the process so that is definitely a goal for me.

I am now 8 weeks into this thing (the other ladies started 4 weeks before me).  I’ve lost about 15 pounds and I feel like a new person.  Literally.  The group is taking a 2 week break right this minute and then we’ll have one more 6-week session right before summer starts.  New partners. 6 new weeks.  It’s coming starting Friday, April 12.  I decided to keep going during the two week break but I’m not being quite so strict.  I don’t want to backtrack so I decided to stay focused and keep moving forward with the challenge till the rest of the group joins me again.

Now, let’s get down to business.  First, there are guidelines to this challenge.  Rules need to be followed to earn your maximum number of points.  Be honest!  No cheating yourself of the changes that are possible!  These rules are focused on the entire body and spirit so you will see religious things included.  You can choose to leave those things out or simply replace them with something that feeds your spirit.  Click here (Healthy Living Program Rules) to download the rules that WE are using.  Feel free to adapt it but I encourage you to stick as closely to the plan as possible since it works.  I’m here to prove it!  All of these downloads are a reflection of our 4-week sessions.  Our next session will be 6 weeks because we are trying to be done before school is out and summer hits.  But you can do it for 4 weeks or 5 weeks or 6 weeks or whatever works for you.  I loved doing a longer commitment but in 4-week increments.  That was a really successful formula.

Next you need this Point Tracker.  This is the one we are using and you can create your own really easily – it’s just an excel document.  Our week has been starting on Wednesdays and we report our points on the following Wednesday morning.  I like doing it like that because Sunday is a free day for exercise (20 free points!) and that lands in the middle of our week to give a day to recover.  Due to other calendar items happening in April, we will be starting on a Friday and reporting each Friday.  I am including both Point Trackers (Wednesday and Friday starts) but they can be changed to whatever start day you want in excel.  See the list at the bottom of this post for all of the downloads.  Friday, April 12 will be our start date – all my online friends you can join us or start it whatever day you like!

Finally, you need this Good & Bad Food List.  At first it may seem like everything good is on the bad list!  You’re right – there are a lot of tasty things on there. But they are not doing us any favors so for THIS challenge we are committing to giving them up.  And here’s what I’ve found, it was really hard at first to let go of some of those things, but by focusing on the good food list, I am starting to crave those foods more than I ever did before.  I’m not saying I don’t want to snack on the chocolate chip cookies my friend Kristy brought me for my birthday this week (thanks a lot!), but my cravings ARE reduced the more healthy foods I eat.

Also, here is a Weekly Calendar Example to give you an idea of what kinds of things can go on yours.  A different person doing the challenge creates the Weekly Calendar each week.  It can include anything that helps us live better – spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally.  You choose these daily challenges.  Here’s the links again for each file:

Healthy Living Program Rules

Point Tracker – Wednesday Start

Point Tracker – Friday Start 

Good & Bad Food List

Weekly Calendar Example

Take a look.  Think it over.  Can you commit to this right now?  I couldn’t do the first 4 week session with my neighbors because Jason had just gone into the hospital and I couldn’t add one more thing to my list.  But I was ready to take it on a month later.  Do what’s right for you but consider jumping into it and creating a more healthy life for yourself.

Let me know what you decide!  We would love to have you!

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From Survival to Healthy – My Traditional + Holistic Approach

Life gives us many journeys.  I don’t think that life is confined to just one adventure or journey or road or trail.  It’s made up of a combination of paths and hikes and jogs and strolls, depending on what is going on at a particular time in your life.  The beginning of May three years ago was the beginning of one of my life hikes.  The climb was steep.  Overwhelming, in fact.  Rocks were tumbling down around me and at times I just curled up and tried to survive the onslaught called gallstone pancreatitis (click here if you want the story from the beginning).

Weeks in ICU, a pseudo-cyst in my abdomen that made me swell larger than when I was pregnant, pain so intense that I couldn’t move or breath for fear of triggering a greater ache.  My only nutrition for about seven months was from a bag I carried around to a picc line in my arm.  My pancreas was removed except for 30%, my gallbladder is gone and my organs are rearranged in a way that affects my digestion and creates a constant pain.

But I did survive.  Two and a half years later, after working my way through a laundry list of problems and ailments – some temporary (the need for iron infusions each week) and some permanent (diabetes) – my doctor said, “You need to gain more weight.”

I was a ghost.  I had gained 60 pounds in one week because of the pseudo-cyst and water retention at the beginning of my illness.  I then lost much more than that while on my picc line.  I had survived but I wasn’t very healthy.

My ability to eat real food was a challenge for many months so when my body finally kicked in and started hanging on to the food I was eating, craziness happened.  I’m not kidding.  The diabetes wasn’t familiar to me and we were playing with my insulin a lot.  I wasn’t experienced in how to read my new body and the sugar lows so when I finally felt cravings for food I acted on them….even when it happened three times a night.  I was ravenous.  Suddenly starving after 2 years.  Since I was told to eat, I ate.

Six months later, I was 20 pounds overweight and my doctor was saying, “OK, now you need to lose weight.”  Talk about frustrating!  I couldn’t believe I had done that!  But I tried not to beat myself up too badly because again, this was one journey I was on in my life.  One experience.  One adversity.  One challenge.  And I was working my way through it.

This was so much more than losing weight, though.  My pain level was still controlling me on a daily basis and I was on many different medications and supplements.  A pill for this, a tablet for that.  I looked at my handful of pills one night and thought, “What am I doing?  There has to be another solution.”

Thus started my attack on my own poor health.  I have a 4-year-old son and I wanted to live a long and healthy life with him and for him.  It was time to tackle this thing.

What have I been doing since?  Knocking out my health issues and taking control of my own body in more natural ways.  I believe in doctors.  I believe in medication and prescriptions.  But I was ready to try some holistic options for certain things.  Here’s what I’m doing and how it’s affecting me:

1.  FOOT ZONING

My first step was to try foot zoning because my neighbor, Kathleen, has been certified in it and she is a down-to-earth person who was looking for ways to help her family with different medical issues.  She is not mystical or too extreme and that is why I finally tried it. It is similar to reflexology where the entire body is mapped out on the feet but as they work and massage the feet in a specific pattern and method, the entire body is affected.

My expectations were low and there are many claims of things that it can do to help our bodies.  I didn’t really see the kind of results that others might experience with this method of treatment but after the initial series of 8 sessions, there was one major change in how I felt.

My energy level was remarkably improved.

For the first time in 2 1/2 years I could keep up with my son.  I still felt pain every day but I no longer needed a nap every afternoon.  Naps were over for me and I could move easier and was more free than I had felt since I got sick.  That was worth every penny.  I still do foot zoning about every two weeks to keep things going.  My health issues are long term and we are working toward a maintenance schedule of once per month.  Foot zoning is one piece of the puzzle in my attack to gain a healthy body.

2.  ACUPUNCTURE

I had heard that Chinese acupuncture helped with pain and since I was taking 6-8 low-grade pain pills in every 24-hour period, pain was ruling my life.  I went to a local acupuncturist with hope but again, not very high expectations.  I started on a 8-session series where I visited her twice a week and she targeted my abdominal area, digestion and pseudo-cyst area.  She also worked on helping me sleep better and controlling my food cravings.

Acupuncture has changed my life.

After 6 weeks I was able to drop to just one pain pill every 12 hours and I’m working on getting off of those right now.  I have left behind many of my other meds because my digestive issues are more controlled and healed.  My body temperature has been extreme – I am always hot and can’t really function in anything but cool areas since my illness.  My body temperature is now more normal.  My food cravings are very controlled.  My sleep is better than it has been in a long time.  I have to roll Jason over every night, usually twice a night, so being able to maximize my sleep and get back to sleep easily is really important to my overall health.

I am now down to one session per week and feeling the effects like nothing I have ever experienced.  I am a believer.  After feeling this kind of pain for almost 3 years and to be virtually free of it after 6 weeks is remarkable to me.  I feel balanced in so many ways and I am grateful for this method of treatment that has literally changed my life.

3.  HEALTHY LIVING CHALLENGE

Finally, my friend LynDee spearheaded a challenge that has been floating around the internet for awhile, tweaked it to fit the needs of our neighborhood and invited some truly committed women to be a part of it.  It involves having partners to keep you accountable, exercise almost every day and keeping track of good and bad foods you eat.  Everything has a point value and the goal is to get as many points as you can by the end of each week, report your points and see where you land on the leaderboard.  Oh, and you get points for losing weight but weight is not the focus here.  It’s all about eating right and moving more. (click here to see post explaining the challenge & free downloads)

I’ll share the program in more detail in this future blogpost but I want you to think about joining in with us for our next 6-week session.  We’re finished with our second session this week and we will be starting up again on April 12.  Start thinking about it.  Do you want to change your health?  Nutrition is key and this challenge helps you focus on healthy eating and healthy habits.  I’ve lost 14 pounds in 8 weeks but more than that, I look great.  I look healthy.

FINAL THOUGHT

This is my journey.  And my tools to navigate this particular path.  It may not be the same path that you need to take but I wanted to share my experience with you since it has impacted my overall health so dramatically in just a few short months.  I started Foot Zoning last fall but acupuncture began 10 weeks  ago and the Healthy Living Challenge began just six weeks ago.  All of these things are working together for the same goal.  The same good.  The same results.  One step at a time.  I am not an expert on any of these things.  I’m just sharing my experiences.  I add what I can, when I feel like I can tackle it.  We should all do what we can, when we can without feeling pressure to do something we are not ready to do.

I am reminded of this post from 2011 (click here for free download).  The idea of balance applies at every stage, including this one.  But I can’t help thinking of it in new a new light – balanced energy, a balanced diet, a balanced spirit, a balanced body.  This is what matters most right now in my life in order to make the most of the rest of my life.

But I would love to join you on my journey this next round of our Healthy Living Challenge!  Watch for more info about the program – coming soon!

Here’s to a journey full of health, energy and joy.

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Project Life Cards – Silhouette Style

I’ve been involved the scrapbooking industry for many years.  Trends have come and gone throughout the course of the the 10 years that I’ve been going to trade shows and events.  But one thing that hasn’t changed is the ability that Becky Higgins has to record life in a meaningful way.  Project Life is no different and now that she has been doing this a few years, we are scouring the internet for creative ideas of how to personalize our Project Life albums even more.

If you own a Silhouette, you’ll love these Project Life Cards that are now available in my Silhouette online store.  Here’s a look at what you will find:

Quotes 1, Quotes 2, Quotes 3, Quotes 4, Ampersands, Arrows 1, Arrows 2, Months of the Year, Days of the Week

What are you doing with your Project Life Cards?  Let’s see!  Send me an email with images or links to your blog and we’ll feature it here!

Happy Cutting!

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Forget Me Not – Free Printable

Our crocuses are up.  The first sign of spring and one of my greatest joys this time of year.  A tiny bundle of light peeking through the snow or the cold-packed earth.  Another tiny flower of inspiration is the forget-me-not.  President Dieter F. Uchtdorf talked about the humble forget-me-not flower in this speech a couple years ago (printable version here).  It was a beautiful image and a beautiful message.  I promptly designed this printable, purchased a bundle of silk forget-me-nots from Hobby Lobby and placed one blossom on each little image.

I have been giving them as gifts ever since.

Now you can give it as well.  Here are different versions of the Forget Me Not message.  Click on each title to download the printable.

Forget Me Not – President Uchtdorf 5×5 - the 5×5 frame is from Hobby Lobby in their regular stock

Forget Me Not – President Uchtdorf 4×6 - if you can’t find the 5×5 frame, here’s a 4×6 to make it easier for you

Here is a non-religious version of the same idea.

Forget Me Not Own Words – 4×6 - this version is only in the 4×6 size

Five petals.  Five thoughts.  Five things to remember.  Just add the petals with your own silk forget-me-not flower.  Trim the blossoms from the stem and adhere with a glue dot for stability.  The dimensional look of the flower is perfect.

I love these words.  Whichever version you choose, I hope you love it, too.

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Madly in Love – Free Printable

Madly in Love – 5×7

Madly in Love – 8×10

I need to tell you about my friend.  She called and asked if I could help her with this quote because she was doing the 14 Days of Valentines for her husband and wanted to give it to him for one of the days.

Here’s what she said,

“It’s a quote from Peeta in The Hunger Games but that’s not why I like it.

It’s just so us.“

What a way to be able to describe your relationship!   These two are in love.  Five children later and a living simple lifestyle, they are madly, happily in love and aren’t afraid to show it.
What better words to wake up to each day.Relationships take work.  They take fun.  They don’t have to be flashy or expensive or filled with gadgets or presents or trips.  But the best ones are filled with true love for one another and the ability to think the journey together is fabulous.

So, we printed this out on white textured cardstock, trimmed it to 5″x7″ and Amber popped it into this floating frame from Target.  She wrapped it up and set it on her husband’s shelf in their bedroom for him to find.

What a great thought to wake up to each day.

Here’s to loving someone madly.  Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day.

Enjoy!

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I’m A Mormon – Love It

I want Coleman to love things.  To love life.  To love friends.  To love family.  To love reading.  To love soccer or lacrosse or chess or whatever activity he chooses.  Jason is a very loyal, passionate person.  He is a super fan of so many things, including Cole and I. I want Coleman to feel that same passion for whatever he chooses to do in his life.  Including his faith.

There is so much good in the world.  So many good people who believe in doing good and being good.  I am grateful for the opportunity to rub shoulders and be friends with people of all faiths and beliefs.  But I think I’m not alone when, as a parent, I want my child to feel as strongly about his faith as I do.  I want him to be proud to believe in things of the spirit.  I want him to know it for himself and by knowing it, choose to live it.  I want him to love it.

I think I want this for the simple reason that I know life is challenging.  My faith has guided me, strengthened me, and given me peace during dark, difficult times.  I would love for my son to feel that same sense of strength throughout his life as he faces the natural twists and turns, ups and downs that our journey takes.

I’m sure these thoughts are on my mind right now because Jason is back in the hospital for an 8-week stay.  He just finished 6 weeks in the hospital this fall from surgery on a bone that was causing chronic bedsores.   Unfortunately, that surgery didn’t heal properly so the surgeon had to go back in a second time.  We had a fabulous holiday with our families and after two weeks of cousins and food and laughter and fun, we left grandma’s house to drop Jason off at the hospital while Cole and I headed home.  Surgery was two weeks ago (two weeks down – hooray!) and Jason is actually doing amazingly well as he is required to lay on the fancy no-pressure sand bed to heal.

Life brings challenges.  Adversity is around the corner.  Faith doesn’t solve the problem or take it away but it helps us manage our struggles.  And sometimes that’s all we need.  Here’s to faith – whatever yours is, wherever it’s found.  May you find hope and peace and courage to help you work through anything life throws you.

Faith – Love It.

For those of you out there who loved Ann Dibb’s talk about being a Mormon, here’s her quotable quote from that lovely talk.  Free Printable….Yes!  I can see this in our Activity Days future.

click: I’m a Mormon Quote

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Activity Days: It’s In the Bag Recognition Night

Have you ever had one of those experiences where everything comes together perfectly?  When reality surpasses all of your ideas of how something should go?  When a good idea becomes a great moment because all the stars align and everyone actually does their part and you end up with a perfect evening instead of simply a good idea?

That’s what happened at our last Activity Days Recognition Night.  The idea was not mine.  I stole it.  I’m a big believer in building on ideas that are already good and proven and then adapting them to fit our individual needs.  This activity was passed from my sister to my sister-in-law with fabulous results.  They did it for their young women’s groups (ages 12-18) but I knew it would translate perfectly for our 8-11 year-olds.

 

 

UPDATE:  I have received emails and comments about the invite so I’ll add that here.  I purchased glassine bags (look like wax paper) very inexpensively from amazon.com.  Click here to see the ones I chose.  They are 4 1/2″ x 6 3/4″ in size (11.4 cm x 17.1 cm).  I used that size because they came in a package of 100 for only about $10 and the numbers worked out that we could use one package for both the invitations and the refreshments so I got them large enough to put the popcorn in.

I designed the invite in Illustrator and it is not possible to offer you a file that you can manipulate in Word so you won’t be able to just use this invite, but I’ll tell you that it doesn’t have to look exactly like this to be darling.  Add some baker’s twine (I pick mine up from pickyourplum.com whenever the spools go on sale because it is heavyweight and lasts forever).  I put ALL the info on the invite so that everyone could be prepared with their presentations.  

If you look at the picture further down in this post you’ll see the back of the invite has the message to the parents and what their responsibility is that night.  To create the gray lattice on the back I used my Silhouette Cameo and cut out one of my pattern shapes. I used that as a mask and simply placed it over the back of each invite and lightly sprayed spray paint over the top.  I didn’t take the time to adhere the mask so I just sprayed very carefully directly over the top of the page (a little farther from the page so that it wouldn’t blow the mask up) and called it good.  I like the effect of the paint being blended and “not perfectly crisp.”  If you want the pattern more crisp then you’ll probably need to use removable adhesive to adhere the mask down each time.

Text About the Bags Said This:

GIRLS, PLEASE BRING A BAG THAT REPRESENTS YOU (such as your backpack, purse, dance bag, sports bag, etc.)

and fill it with three items that reflect YOUR PROGRESS in each of the three areas of the Faith In God program (be prepared to share about them for 3 minutes total)

1.  Learning & Living the Gospel

2.  Serving Others

3.  Developing Talents

 

Overview:

Each girl brings a bag of their choice (purse, backpack, dance bag, whatever) with 3 things in it – one item for each of the 3 areas of the Faith in God program (service, living the gospel, developing talents).  They knew they would share for no more than 3 minutes total about their items and I was totally impressed with their preparation and the thought they put into their items.

We started with a very short message about “what we are carrying” in the bags of our lives and how to keep the most important things handy.  Then each girl shared their items in their bags – what each item represented and why they included it.

The “Service” category included things like writing to their brothers on their missions, helping friends at school and babysitting the neighbor’s baby.  For “Developing Talents,” we learned a lot about the loves and hobbies of our girls.  Piano, softball, sewing, reading, dance, karate, and even cutting vinyl!  Lots of talents were shared and celebrated that night.  Finally, as the girls shared about “Learning and Living the Gospel,” we learned about scriptures, prayer, Primary, and family home evening.  Each girl was very thoughtful in what they chose to bring in their bag.  They had practiced what they were going to say and did a wonderful job of talking about their own progress in the Faith in God program.

What could be better than the program being carried out by the girls themselves?  It was often touching, sometimes funny, definitely surprising, and always meaningful.  We learned that Savannah earned her lacrosse bag by selling 29 coupon books in the fundraiser!  No one else even came close!

We learned that Olivia aspires to be a fashion designer and learned to crochet from just one 30 minute lesson from her mom.  Oh, and she loves pigs.

We learned that Karissa has been befriending a less-fortunate girl at school who was being teased by their classmates and Madison has been working on developing her talents in the kitchen – especially with “baked goods.”  Yum.

Parents:

After their daughter shared their items, parents were asked to take 1 minute to share ONE QUALITY that they have seen grow in their daughter over the last 6 months.  It was a focused, simple way to have parents share publicly about their daughter but keep the time under control.  Happy tears were shed, smiles were plentiful and there were lots of spontaneous hugs to go around.

About 45 minutes and 20 girls later (not bad, right?), we wrapped things up with a short message encouraging the girls to cling to their parents as one of the best things they could “carry” with them throughout their lives.  We then gave each girl a letter from their parents that we had gathered before the evening.  This step takes forever to pull together but it’s worth every phone call and reminder text to track down a letter for each girl.  Treasures.  That’s what those letters were.  Not only did each girl get to share their goals and achievements, but they got to hear what makes them special from their parents – both verbally and in writing.  And the whole fabulous night only lasted a total of about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Decorations:

So simple.  We just gathered shopping bags from appropriate shops and stores that coordinated (pink, black and white became our color-scheme because that’s that the majority of shopping bags color motif).  We  used my trusty pedestals in our colors and placed shopping bags on and around them.

Add some tissue paper in each bag and tie a balloon to the handle and you’ve got fun and beautiful decor on the cheap.  I used my foamboard covered in fabric as a backdrop and added some pink banners and called it good.  I think the decorations cost about $2 for the tissue paper that I didn’t have on hand.

Refreshments:

Popcorn drizzled in white chocolate (thinned just a touch to make it light and easy to pour) and placed in the rest of the glassine bags (same as we used for the invites).  I used box lids as the “trays” and covered it in wrapping paper to keep the color-scheme going.  Those glassine bags were also used for our invitations.  I purchased a package of 100 for $10 and we had enough for both the invites as well as the popcorn.

Easy.

Simple.

Meaningful.

My top 3 qualifications for a great idea.  This one didn’t disappoint.  It’ll work for any group, young or old, boys, girls, whatever.  It’s easily adapted and totally perfect.  Perfect because it is focused on each individual.  It’s for them, about them, and in celebration of them.  And that’s what turns this good idea into a great one.

Try it with your group and let me know how it goes.  I can’t wait to hear.

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Stand in Holy Places – 2013 Theme

I am LDS.  Every year our Church decides on a theme for the Young Men and Young Women (boys and girls ages 12-18) to focus on.  I am not in charge of the Young Women or Young Men.  So why do I find myself designing posters and vinyl quotes for the theme each year?  Because my beloved husband IS one of these Young Men leaders.  And I get volunteered to be the poster designer for the kick-off meeting for all of these fabulous youth in our neighborhood that he is in charge of.

Since he gets to benefit from my choice of careers, then you do too.  You’ll find this vinyl quote version of the 2013 YM/YW theme as well as this and this Print & Cut file.  Jason is pumped about this year’s designs – and I am too, I must say.  It works for boys and girls (that’s hard to do) so along with having it available in various colors and shapes in my silhouette store, I’ve decided to make a printable here for you as well.  FREE.

Stand In Holy Places Poster

Happy theme-ing, all of you youth leaders!  I see this making an appearance at New Beginnings or Youth Conference or Girls Camp….don’t you think?

Not LDS?  Stay tuned for my next post.  It’s the best “recognition event” idea ever and can be tweaked to work for ANY group, ANY age, ANY class, ANY team, whatever.  Totally meaningful but totally adaptable.  Trust me.

See you soon.

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All Is Well

After multiple emails from you, my kind and thoughtful readers, wondering where in the heck I have been – I have finally bit the bullet and entered the blogging world again.  I’ve wanted to give you all an update for a little while now but after so long, I felt the heavy weight of thinking I had to tell you everything, which would take forever and was way too much to tackle.  So I did what many of us do when we don’t want to deal with something – I ignored it.

But, enough is enough!  Let’s start fresh!  Here is what I’ve been doing instead of click, click, clicking away at my computer:

Hanging Out at the Pool with My Little Fish

Spending Time with Cousins and Friends

Seeing If I Like to Bike (and I do)

Starting Preschool

Running Back and Forth to the Hospital While Jason Spent 6 Weeks Recovering From Surgery

There.  That’s been my life.  And it hasn’t had time for blogging or browsing or facebook or following. Hey, I love Pinterest as much as the next girl but sometimes we have to put the computer away and live life, don’t you think?  However, now that the fall chill is setting in, I’m ready to pay attention to you and to my work a little more.

That’s enough for today.  I hear an awesome 3-year-old riding his plasma car around the kitchen calling, “Mom!  Yo-de-lay-he-hoo!”

Way better than blogging.

Welcome back.

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