Journey

Back in the summer of 2014 several families in my neighborhood had a yard sale. I will never forget walking outside to help out with a 1.5 quart mixing bowl filled with Froot Loops with Marshmallows and eating the entire thing. It was pure bliss. When I graduated from high school (2000) I weighed about 135 pounds. In 20I4 I weighed the exact same. My body had a set point that maintained no matter what I ate, how much I ate, or how active I was (though I have always been pretty active). In 2015 life became stressful, and I had several maladaptive ways of dealing with it. One of those maladaptive coping mechanisms went as follows: 1. Get up in the morning and immediately work out for around 1.5 to 2 hours, skipping breakfast. This included an intensive abdominal workout, leg workout, and cardio exercises as well as a weightlifting routine. 2. Around noon I would go outside and work on building rock walls (lifting heavy rocks) for 2 to 3 hours at a time. 3. I would sit down outside wi...

In late December 2018 I talked with my brother about New Year's Resolutions vs. INTENTIONS. A resolution is something that can be broken, and honestly, it usually is. Think of all of the people you know who set an intention to work out, get into shape, or lose weight in January and keep it up for three months only to go back to eating fast food and drinking a few beers every night (this may be the reason I did not start at the gym until March). An intention is something to strive for. Someone I value described it as pointing to the moon or the North Star and heading in that direction without worrying so much about actually being there in the end. It is more about the journey, the process. It is about doing the best you can in the moment and getting better each step you take.  As many of you know, my intention for this year is to be kind to myself. Kindness has always been something I look for in others while also striving to be kind, no matter who the person is or what the sit...