Wellness Wednesday

As I let the dogs out this morning, I felt a strange wind blowing...it was warm!!!  It must have been about 50 degrees outside, so I just had to go for a run.  I grabbed threw on a hoodie, some yoga pants, and my running shoes and headed out the door.  I felt like really going for it, so I did intervals of sprinting, walking, and jogging for 1.3 miles and then I walked a lap.  This put my workout at 30 minutes but it felt so good; especially in the sun!

It's amazing how the sun can provide such happiness and inspiration.  As I was walking, I came to an epiphany:  if you spend just 5 minutes every hour doing some sort of physical activity, in 12 hours you would have exercised for 70 minutes!  Who can't take a break for just 5 minutes, and we are all awake for more than 12 hours a day!

I now challenge you, a Luana Ola reader, to spend at least 5 minutes every hour doing some sort of physical activity.  Here's a list of some of the things you could do:

• Stretch/Yoga

• Push ups

• Plank

• Jumping Jacks

• Jump rope (feel like a kid again!)

• Walk 

• Jog 

• Lunge

• Squat

Or...you can do anything else your imagination creates, just get that body moving!

Luana ola!  And enjoy the beautiful weather!

Tough Day!

For all of those who are living in a world of warmth and sunshine, I am SOOOOO jealous!  I had a feeling that this 40-something degree weather would not last long.  Yesterday the Chicago-land area got dumped (and I mean dumped...) with snow:

This fantastic (ehem...sarcasm!) weather is keeping me from running and cabin fever is getting stronger!!  I need spring and sun!

It turns out that it wasn't just the light flowing stuff, but "heart attack snow".  I managed to shovel the driveway this morning before heading out to a endocrinologist appointment (lots of thyroid history in my family).  I have been having some strange symptoms lately (if you ask, I will tell) and decided to go to the doctor to see if she could figure out what was wrong.  She referred me to an endocrinologist because I hadn't been in 2 years so it was about time I made it back that way anyways.  I had 6 vials of blood drawn and lots of tests conducted on my blood.  Today's appointment, on the other hand, was for an ultrasound on the wonderful little endocrine gland, and the results should be in my Monday as well as a follow-up later in the week.

The website for my home made salt scrubs should be up soon and the children's cookbook is slowly reaching the finish line.  If you would like any information regarding either of these, please feel free to ask.

So I am on a serious tangent today, I want to bring up one more point.  I am planning a small garden this spring.  It will be my first time trying to grow vegetables!  I am also growing herbs, but I have done those before and am trying to expand my horizons farther.  I am very open to some gardening advice!  Andrew and I are thinking about growing cauliflower, sunflower, tomatoes, spinach, carrots, pole beans, and zucchini!  Any information would be helpful, but I am really looking forward to comments about seeding, location, and germination.

Luana ola!

I Am Beautiful!

     Ladies, we do not say this phrase to ourselves enough!  We are always comparing ourselves to other women and feeding negative thoughts constantly.  You know the ones I mean..."Ugh, my jeans are tighter today!"; "Why does she ALWAYS look good in ANYTHING she puts on?!"; "I could never wear that!"; "How else can I cover up ______?" and the list goes on and on...

     I am glad to say that I have a man in my life who loves me no matter what, but I have come to find that I need to love myself as much as he loves me (or more if possible)!  We all do!  It is great to have a relationship with someone you love more than anything, but the best relationship you can have (and that you are literally stuck with) is the one you have with yourself.  Without love for who you are, you have nothing.  You are the one who has to look at yourself in the mirror after a shower and say, "I am beautiful!"  If you can't say this about yourself, something needs to be done.  As women, we are naturally curvey, sometimes not in the places we necessarily want to be curvey, but curvey nevertheless.  We need these bodies so that we can create the most precious part of life and bring it into this world as part of a special connection between us and our beloved.  With this in mind, it is no doubt that we should love ourselves!

Women are created from all the strength God had left after creating man.  He made us strong yet understanding.  How many times have you heard a man wonder why women are so emotional?  In my opinion, this is because we carry all of the burdens of those we love, plus our own.  We think we can do it all and that we don't need anyone's help.  In reality, we do need help!  We need God, family, and friends to be our second backbone when we slip a disk and it feels like we will never get through.  We need those people to remind us how special we are and how much they care about us.  Most important of all, though, we need those people to help us see for ourselves that WE ARE BEAUTIFUL in each and every part of our life!

Spread the word today and every day to the women in your life.  Whether they need a pick-me-up or not, show/let them know you care and that they should feel a sense of pride in everything they do!

Luana ola!

New Beginnings

It's a brand new day and I am feeling good.  I woke up this morning so thirsty from all the snacky foods I ate yesterday so I drank probably 3 glasses of water by 7AM!  I am going to start running in the morning, like I did in the summer; but this is what I saw when I looked out the front door:

Yuck!  But, I was already dressed, so I put my camera down and headed out the door.  I only ran 2 miles, but they felt great!  I am taking baby steps to get myself back into running so I don't burn out and quit.  By learning about myself and listening to my mind and body, I have come to find that my mind tells me to jump in to things and take off, but my body says take it slow and make it last.  I have to balance the two so that I stick with a workout routine, so I push myself but not to exhaustion (my body will tell me to never do that again...)

This is me after the run, and feeling good:

 Yummy breakfast of sauteed bok choy with strawberries, and balsamic vinegar!

Now it's time for some tea and to get those applications out there, work on my book, and think of ideas for Valentines day!

Luana ola!

Honesty is the Best Policy

Today was another tough day for me.  With running low on money, hours getting cut at work, and still doing my internship without getting credit; I am one hot mess.  I am diligently looking for a new job, but the same predicament from the early summer is following me (very few places are hiring).  I have decided that I need to keep my spirits up and keep a positive focus so something will come along, whether it be in the health field or not.  I just NEED a job!

That being said, all of these thoughts came after a really hard day, and I'll be honest with you.  Although I am studying nutrition, I still have my days in which I can not control myself.  For whatever reason, when stress knocks, ahem pounds on the door so hard it flies open, I turn to food.  The good news is that I acknowledge this issue.  The bad news is that I am still working on a way to teach myself new and healthier habits.  After binge #1 today (at Parmida) I began feeling more sorry for myself, got home and began on binge #2 (cookies, chocolate, chips, anything sweet/salty to basically 'punish' myself for binge #1).  Proceeding that, I called my mom, who is always a great help, and she helped calm me down.  We talked things through and I am going to schedule an appointment to see a nutritionist.  It is not healthy what I am doing to my body and I know that, which is why I get even more upset with myself and just continue to binge throughout the day.

The good news here, though, is that I am planning on using this experience that I am going through to write a short book to give to my future clients when they are having similar problems.  It is a real issue that affects many people, so I wanted to be able to share my story with you just in case someone else needs help as well.  As will everything else in life, the first step is admitting your fault.

I did end up going for a quick (1.3 mile) run and then walked to the grocery store (about another 3 miles round trip) to buy some lettuce for Gus (Andrew and my tortoise, in case you forgot - I haven't mentioned her in a while!)  I feel much better now and I think I'm going to have a cup of peppermint tea.

Speaking of peppermint tea...

According to Harvard and many other scholarly articles/journals, peppermint has been used for centuries for medicinal purposes to cure many common ailments; especially in the stomach.  So the next time you are feeling stressed or have a stomach ache, grab a cup of peppermint tea or pop a peppermint lozenge in your mouth to calm yourself (they say peppermint also stimulates the mind, so you might want to try those ideas right before a test as well).

Luana ola!

Remember, comments are always welcome!