The Fibro is still getting the better of me but I can't let it stop me. So I chose to ignore pain and do my daily disciplines anyway. I have to say it felt really good to accomplish my disciplines no matter how I physically felt. I also know that if I keep with it the pain will subside and I will feel better each day I stick with it.
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
check 30 Minute Exercise
check ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
check listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
Showing posts with label Fibromyalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fibromyalgia. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Fibro kicks back
Today was NOT a good day! With Fibromyalgia, if you over stress your body, like not getting enough sleep, sitting and getting cramped on a 4-5 hour plane flight, not exercising or eating properly, etc etc, you get very wiped out 3 days later. For me that would be today! The "wiped out" symptoms are similar to the beginning of coming down with the flu, body aches, extreme fatigue, even slight nausea. I know that tomorrow will only be a little better. This, however, is the point in the past where I would continually say, "Maybe tomorrow, some day..." Well, that is the past and IT'S OVER and some day doesn't exist because ...
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
NOT 30 Minute Exercise
NOT ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
NOT listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
NOT 30 Minute Exercise
NOT ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
NOT listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Halfway to a habit!
Day 10 down... It takes 21 days to establish a habit. I'm almost to the halfway point! It really is starting to feel like a habit, where the day isn't quite "normal" without getting everything done.
I am also dicovering new and interesting fruits and veggies AND discovering new and interesting ways to prepare and eat them. I actually have been eating them two or three meals a day and usually more than one servings worth. That is a huge improvement considering I used to go whole days without a single serving.
I forgot to report on my weigh in on Sunday. I have abandoned 2 pounds and the clothes are definitely fitting better! At this rate I should basically be at my goal by the end of March!
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
check 30 Minute Exercise
check ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
check listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
I am also dicovering new and interesting fruits and veggies AND discovering new and interesting ways to prepare and eat them. I actually have been eating them two or three meals a day and usually more than one servings worth. That is a huge improvement considering I used to go whole days without a single serving.
I forgot to report on my weigh in on Sunday. I have abandoned 2 pounds and the clothes are definitely fitting better! At this rate I should basically be at my goal by the end of March!
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
check 30 Minute Exercise
check ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
check listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Soul & Day Four
Yipee!! Day four actually had a little less pain than day three!
That means I am pushing through the Fibro pain. The way I describe it to others is like the tin man, when he was all rusted up, he didn't squeek. But when they started to oil his joints and move him, he squeeked really loudly. Then once he was all oiled up he could move freely without squeeking. I'm squeeking pretty loud but it's getting better!
Today I am going to discuss "Soul". I debated about these goals because I read in another book that said your goals should be measureable. How do you measure a "deepened relationship"? I believe that all relationships ebb and flow, even our relationship to God. He's always there, it is usually (always) us that moves. How do you measure "impacting more people"? Especially when I know there are people we can impact and never even know. This blog alone, I hope, inspires someone to keep going towards their goals, or even write down some goals. All of those would be positive impacts. Again not measureable. So I am simply going to measure my daily discipline. The goal then is to do these three EVERY day.
Let me give you a little history. The first two I have been doing for quite a while. My prayer partner and I have been praying every morning for just over three years. Well, sort of every morning, we're really bad on the weekends and if either one of us is traveling. So my challenge for this discipline is to not miss weekends. The same is true for talking to Jeff. We're really good on weekdays, but weekends slip through the cracks.
The third discipline, "reach out to one more", I am measuring as making contact with someone outside of my usual circle daily. This may be, having a little conversation with the checkout clerk at the store (answering, "did you find everything ok?" with "fine" doesn't count) or trading emails with a contact or making a phone call. I am allowing people that I already know but not counting those I regularly interact with. The key is they need to be someone I have to "reach out" to.
For me, this is BY FAR the most difficult of all nine daily disciplines. I don't work outside my home and it would be very easy for me to "hibernate" in my house and my comfortable environment. So this will take effort to either go somewhere or pick up the phone. Plus there's the issue of how I was wired. Most people who know me are always surprised that this is a challenage for me. I would be described as out-going, friendly, and talkative (sometimes too much). All that is true, but only if I am with someone I know. I was in drama in high school and I am very comfortable on stage or at the podium. I have spoken to audiences of several hundred without a single bit of nerves, I love it actually. But talking to a stranger, one on one, by myself, terrifies me!!! The thought of a job interview (back when I was a working girl) scared me, even if I was the interviewer! I have worked very hard on this over the past several years and I have to say I have gotten way better. I now feel "compelled" to strike up a conversation with the checkout clerk. I went to a copy shop yesterday and was actually glad there was no one else in there so I could have an extended conversation with the clerk. She was a very nice lady!
Besides being the most difficult discipline, I also believe that it is the most important. I heard someone say that the only thing you can take to heaven with you are other people. When I graduated from high school someone gave me a card with a poem titled "Success". The card credited it to Ralph Waldo Emerson which is not true. It has also been attributed to Robert Louis Steveson, also not true. A similar poem was written by Bessie Anderson Stanley, in 1904. Here is the version that was on my card:
Success
To live well, laugh often, and love much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
A garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
I have since believed that the only true definition of success is to touch other people's lives. That is impacting people!
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
check 30 Minute Exercise
check ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
check listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
That means I am pushing through the Fibro pain. The way I describe it to others is like the tin man, when he was all rusted up, he didn't squeek. But when they started to oil his joints and move him, he squeeked really loudly. Then once he was all oiled up he could move freely without squeeking. I'm squeeking pretty loud but it's getting better!
Today I am going to discuss "Soul". I debated about these goals because I read in another book that said your goals should be measureable. How do you measure a "deepened relationship"? I believe that all relationships ebb and flow, even our relationship to God. He's always there, it is usually (always) us that moves. How do you measure "impacting more people"? Especially when I know there are people we can impact and never even know. This blog alone, I hope, inspires someone to keep going towards their goals, or even write down some goals. All of those would be positive impacts. Again not measureable. So I am simply going to measure my daily discipline. The goal then is to do these three EVERY day.
Let me give you a little history. The first two I have been doing for quite a while. My prayer partner and I have been praying every morning for just over three years. Well, sort of every morning, we're really bad on the weekends and if either one of us is traveling. So my challenge for this discipline is to not miss weekends. The same is true for talking to Jeff. We're really good on weekdays, but weekends slip through the cracks.
The third discipline, "reach out to one more", I am measuring as making contact with someone outside of my usual circle daily. This may be, having a little conversation with the checkout clerk at the store (answering, "did you find everything ok?" with "fine" doesn't count) or trading emails with a contact or making a phone call. I am allowing people that I already know but not counting those I regularly interact with. The key is they need to be someone I have to "reach out" to.
For me, this is BY FAR the most difficult of all nine daily disciplines. I don't work outside my home and it would be very easy for me to "hibernate" in my house and my comfortable environment. So this will take effort to either go somewhere or pick up the phone. Plus there's the issue of how I was wired. Most people who know me are always surprised that this is a challenage for me. I would be described as out-going, friendly, and talkative (sometimes too much). All that is true, but only if I am with someone I know. I was in drama in high school and I am very comfortable on stage or at the podium. I have spoken to audiences of several hundred without a single bit of nerves, I love it actually. But talking to a stranger, one on one, by myself, terrifies me!!! The thought of a job interview (back when I was a working girl) scared me, even if I was the interviewer! I have worked very hard on this over the past several years and I have to say I have gotten way better. I now feel "compelled" to strike up a conversation with the checkout clerk. I went to a copy shop yesterday and was actually glad there was no one else in there so I could have an extended conversation with the clerk. She was a very nice lady!
Besides being the most difficult discipline, I also believe that it is the most important. I heard someone say that the only thing you can take to heaven with you are other people. When I graduated from high school someone gave me a card with a poem titled "Success". The card credited it to Ralph Waldo Emerson which is not true. It has also been attributed to Robert Louis Steveson, also not true. A similar poem was written by Bessie Anderson Stanley, in 1904. Here is the version that was on my card:
Success
To live well, laugh often, and love much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
A garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
I have since believed that the only true definition of success is to touch other people's lives. That is impacting people!
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
check 30 Minute Exercise
check ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
check listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Day Three - OW!!!
Day two was fairly easy – got everything done early, felt good, went to bed and slept good etc. etc.
Day three, here’s where the rubber meets the road! First hurdle is doing it on day one, getting started, taking the first step... Second hurdle keep doing it when you’re sore and don't want to. OMG am I sore!!! Sunday caught up with me today! The Fibromyalgia really kicked back. I'm so glad I have the two ladies in my abandonment group or I think I would give it up about now. That’s why we write goals down, set a time, speak it, affirm it, be accountable…
As I was doing my 30 minutes exercise, I listened to an audio. It was about writing affirmations. JUST what I needed to hear. Do you think that God provides the lessons we need WHEN we need them or do our brains FINALLY hear the lessons when we're ready? I think I prefer to believe that God makes our brain ready to hear the lesson when we need it!
Here are the nine guidelines to writing effective affirmations:
1. Start with the words "I am", your subconscious interprets it as a command.
2. It should be in the present tense, as if it's already done.
3. State it in the positive, your subsconscious doesn't hear negative words i.e. no or not.
4. Keep it brief! We can easily remember advertisement jingles.
5. Make it specific and visual.
6. Include an action word ending with "ing".
7. Include an emotion or feeling word.
8. Make it for yourself and not others.
9. Add "or something better" if your affirmation includes a specific physical item, because you never know what God has in store for you.
So I think I did pretty well with my "sign-off" affirmation. "I'm living on the eighth day, right now!" Although at the time I wrote it, I didn't think of it as an affirmation but as the days have gone by it's what I've hung onto and been playing in my head to keep going. "living on the eighth day, living on the eighth day, living on the eighth day..." Sort of like the Little Engine that could, "I think I can, I think I can". I felt like I needed a powerful way to close my blogs and I really liked Dr. Chet's sign off of "What are you willing to do today?" It came to me as I blogged the excerpt of the "eighth day". (See Ball-Peen Hammer Moment) It gave me the visual of doing it now, not waiting another day! It also gave me a sense of living on borrowed time since there isn't REALLY an eighth day. Let's break it down as an effective affirmation, numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 8 DONE! I am missing a feeling word, number 7, but it does have an exclamation and it is getting to be a very emotional mantra for me. Finally, it isn't a physical item so it doesn't have number 9. What would be "better than" an eighth day? A ninth day?
Tomorrow I will discuss how I came up with my "soul" daily disciplines. Until then...
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
check 30 Minute Exercise
check ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
check listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
Day three, here’s where the rubber meets the road! First hurdle is doing it on day one, getting started, taking the first step... Second hurdle keep doing it when you’re sore and don't want to. OMG am I sore!!! Sunday caught up with me today! The Fibromyalgia really kicked back. I'm so glad I have the two ladies in my abandonment group or I think I would give it up about now. That’s why we write goals down, set a time, speak it, affirm it, be accountable…
As I was doing my 30 minutes exercise, I listened to an audio. It was about writing affirmations. JUST what I needed to hear. Do you think that God provides the lessons we need WHEN we need them or do our brains FINALLY hear the lessons when we're ready? I think I prefer to believe that God makes our brain ready to hear the lesson when we need it!
Here are the nine guidelines to writing effective affirmations:
1. Start with the words "I am", your subconscious interprets it as a command.
2. It should be in the present tense, as if it's already done.
3. State it in the positive, your subsconscious doesn't hear negative words i.e. no or not.
4. Keep it brief! We can easily remember advertisement jingles.
5. Make it specific and visual.
6. Include an action word ending with "ing".
7. Include an emotion or feeling word.
8. Make it for yourself and not others.
9. Add "or something better" if your affirmation includes a specific physical item, because you never know what God has in store for you.
So I think I did pretty well with my "sign-off" affirmation. "I'm living on the eighth day, right now!" Although at the time I wrote it, I didn't think of it as an affirmation but as the days have gone by it's what I've hung onto and been playing in my head to keep going. "living on the eighth day, living on the eighth day, living on the eighth day..." Sort of like the Little Engine that could, "I think I can, I think I can". I felt like I needed a powerful way to close my blogs and I really liked Dr. Chet's sign off of "What are you willing to do today?" It came to me as I blogged the excerpt of the "eighth day". (See Ball-Peen Hammer Moment) It gave me the visual of doing it now, not waiting another day! It also gave me a sense of living on borrowed time since there isn't REALLY an eighth day. Let's break it down as an effective affirmation, numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 8 DONE! I am missing a feeling word, number 7, but it does have an exclamation and it is getting to be a very emotional mantra for me. Finally, it isn't a physical item so it doesn't have number 9. What would be "better than" an eighth day? A ninth day?
Tomorrow I will discuss how I came up with my "soul" daily disciplines. Until then...
I'm living on the eighth day, right now!
Heart
check 30 Minute Exercise
check ate fruits or veggies
check followed payoff plan
Soul
check Prayed with prayer partner
check Talked to Jeff
check Reached out to one more
Mind
check listened to audio
check read 10 pages
check blog checklist
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Heart
Ok, so where did these goals come from? Let’s start with Heart, Physical, Health/Finances. This is fairly obvious. The most common New Year’s resolutions are: lose weight and make more money. My reasons have a little more history.
Ten years ago I was bed ridden with Fibromyalgia. The doctor wanted to prescribe a series of addictive narcotic pain killers that “may or may not help” and he told me that I would just need to change my activity level. I couldn’t do anything aerobic again, no exercise, no sports, no skiing, etc. etc. At 36 years old that wasn’t acceptable. I got busy, I found herbal alternatives, I researched Fibro, and I started walking EVERY day. I got back into shape. Then I got pregnant with my little Oops blessing!! My youngest son is now 7.
After having him at 39 years old, I had trouble with my “baby” weight. Actually, I gained weight, month by month after having him and the Fibro got worse until I finally stepped on the scale and saw 179!!! I was officially obese! (The cut off from overweight to obese for my age & height is 178) I also had two dear friends that were honest with me. When I said I had 20 pounds I wanted to lose, they said, “20??? You need to lose at least 30!!!” (I actually needed to lose 40) Hence, the abandonment group was born. We wanted to “abandon” the weight because if you “lose” something that implies that you want to “find” it back again. (I've just gotten word from abandonment group ladies - they are "in" for the 30 pound club)
The group worked well. We followed the BLI newsletters from Dr. Chet, which were the basis for the Trim Advantage program in our business http://www.daniels.mychoices.biz/ . We supported each other through emails and we had specific goals. Over the next nine months I abandoned 42 pounds. (I hadn’t been below 140 for 20 years) I started inline speed-skating with my son and felt like an athlete again. I have to say I was buff! Then I blew out a knee and had to give up skating (honestly, I don’t really miss it). But that was the excuse. Instead of intensely working out, I have just been maintaining.
So here it is six years later and I have crept back up to 160. My exercise is sporadic, my eating has way too many treats and the Fibro has “good days and bad days”. Now Dr. Chet came out with the 30 pound club! Perfect! That’s exactly what I need to lose, um, abandon. That’s how I came up with the goal of 30 pounds.
Daily disciplines: I know that 30 minutes of exercise seems to be a magic number. It is also VERY easy to put into my daily life. I also know from experience that 30 minutes of exercise gives me at least 3 hours of additional energy a day. In terms of eating, I have noticed that I have not been filling up on good stuff so I put bad stuff in my mouth. If I eat more fruits or veggies, first of all, I get more antioxidants and vitamins in my body and secondly, I fill my tummy with good stuff.
That is the first part of Heart, tomorrow I will discuss finances.
Until then I’m living on the eighth day, right now!
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