Sunshine and Weekends

It was a beautiful weekend, with actual blue sky and sunshine. The weekend started early on Thursday with blue sky and sunshine and a nice breeze. I biked to volleyball, 7 miles with ups, downs, and flats. Volleyball went until 8:30 and I played every game. It was awesome!
Friday afterwork I spent some time with Mom, picking peas, and visiting. Sitting on the porch and relaxing was wonderful.
Saturday, Jeremy and I headed up to Camp Rob Mac for the rest of the weekend. We hiked to the pinnacle and were eaten alive by bugs on Saturday. We made dinner for us and Jeremy's neice Sara and her husband Brent, and Jeremy's parents. Joseph and Mel stopped to visit, as did Dad and Sammy. Sunday, Mom came up with Gilligan and Sophie and we hiked to the pinnacle again, this time remembering the bug spray. We didn't follow the trail home, instead bushwacking through the woods. It was something none of us had done in a while and it was so much fun.
The weekend ended with a fun cookout up at Moms.

Camp Rob Mac here we come!

This weekend Jeremy and I are going up to camp. We hope to go hiking, fishing, relax by a fire, and just enjoy being away!

It is only 20 minutes from home, but without electricity or running water, it is a great getaway.

Hopefully we won't get rained out!

Lethargic and HATING It

With my history of depression, I take a lot of care daily to get what I need to remain healthy.

I make sure to get enough sleep, but not too much. Once in a while getting too little or too much doesn't hurt me, but when it becomes a pattern, I get in trouble. The prime amount seems to be anywhere from 7 hours to 8 hours.

Eating right is another big one for me. While my mood is impacted more by the choices I eat than the amount I eat, both do affect me. The more fruits, vegetables, and meat I eat, the better I feel. The more dairy and grains I ingest, the worse I feel. I am strongly challenged with dairy and grains because I love them so much. Push come to shove, I will select a steak and greens over a bowl of spaghetti, but its a very close margin.

Exercise is another big part of keeping myself healthy. It can be a simple walk around the block, or a full blown workout. Being active is integral to keeping healthy. I am working on getting yoga into my daily routine, and have really enjoyed walking and biking when the weather allows. I'm trying to find a way to add videos to my daily workout, but I just seem to lack the motivation to pop it in and give it it a go.

The other big key factor in keeping myself healthy is getting enough sunshine. With all the rain we have, I am sorely lacking in the vitamin D department. If we could just get a few days each week of sunshine, I would be way happier and healthier. I know there are alternatives such as taning, but if I can at all avoid that, I prefer too.

I am keeping my fingers crossed today that the blue sky stays out and I can bike to volleyball. I am ok with clouds, as long as their is some blue sky and a bit of sun peaking out once in a while. The plan is to head up to Moms after work to pick some veggies and visit for a few minutes, before biking off to Bethel. The route is a bit different biking from Moms as it is from my place, although I feel like it is an equal workout either way.

Yay for Yoga

I spent a wonderful few hours with Cori yesterday afternoon in a mini yoga class. She has been practicing yoga for years and has taught it many times in her past.
Having never really practiced yoga, I only knew the little bits that I have gotten from workshops and books. To be able to work with someone and have them explain how to properly work the body was amazing. My body really felt it, in a good way.
I am working my way to integrating Yoga into my weekly life, then perhaps daily. It feels so great to be barefoot and connecting with the earth. The grounded feeling is very powerful!

Whirwind weekend

This past weekend was a total whirlwind! After work on Friday, Jeremy and I headed down to visit my cousin Michelle in Mass. I did a toy party for 20-25 people, and had a blast! We were all up until about 3am, and slept until an ungodly time of 11:30. Can you believe I now consider that time ungodly!?!? I felt awful, it was not a good way to start the day. We made a killer breakfast and had a very relaxing afternoon waiting for Michelle to get done work.
Jeremy and I took a walk around a neighborhood across the street and found it sweet but very boring! There were a few houses that we really enjoyed, some with great landscaping, but for the most part everything was exactly the same, there was little to no creativity.
We went to bed at a much more humane time Saturday night, and while Michelle and Jared didn't get up the next morning until close to 11 (Michelle works a lot of over nights, so for her, its pretty normal) Jeremy and I got up about 8:30 and enjoyed the sun that was shining. I did a few sun salutations in the grass, Jeremy enjoyed a cigarette (YUCK).
When we got home on Sunday, we ended up going to Thunder Road for the races and fireworks. It was really nice to be able to see the fireworks after we missed them Friday night, and the races are always fun. However, we didn't get home till almost 11 that night. Good thing I didn't have to work until 10am on Monday!

Why I am taking part in Operation Beautiful

I elected to participate in Operation Beautiful because fat talk is a huge problem in our society. It doesn't just affect teens, but little girls and adults. Six and seven year olds shouldn't be walking around shirts designed to show off their navel, while girls of the same age group who are stronger shouldn't feel ashamed to go to run around on the playground.
If you go by the BMI, I am considered obese. I don't act it, I don't let it affect how I choose to live my life. I am currently working to lose weight to become healthier, I don't want to suffer from diabetes or heart problems if i can help it. I have healthy goals and healthy expectations. I don't look in the mirror and say "I look fat today," I look in the mirror and say "I look good today." I want other people to be happy with who they are, and to really take a healthy view to changing things that they are unhappy with.
We are all beautiful and don't need to be a size 2 to realize it, or even a size 12.
Operation Beautiful

Yoga!!!

With all the talk of wanting to be healthier, I am beginning to work yoga into my daily life. My goals are pretty modest, to find the time to fit yoga in 2 to 3 times a week, with an ultimate goal of finding at least 5 minutes every day to spend on myself with yoga.
Cori has lent me a DVD that she absolutely loves, and I am digging out my books on yoga and pilates. It feels so good to even spend 3 minutes on 2-3 different poses. It is all about me time!

Fathers Day

Fathers Day this year was a fun filled and exciting day. I am so sorry that is has taken so darn long to get it posted!

The day started out rather nice, Jeremy and I were able to sleep in, although both of us got up around 8ish. We spent some time cleaning and getting the apartment ready for company later in the day.

For Fathers Day, Peter, Jeremy's Dad, wanted to go fishing. They called us when they got home from church and we all met up to go spend the day at Silver Lake.
We had a great time, I continued my rein as fishing queen catching 4 fish that day!

Jeremy is pushing to become the fishing prince. It will take a while to earn the rank of king. Sadly, Peter didn't catch anything.

Alice and Peter brought steaks to grill for lunch and a salad, and we brought drinks and chips. The food was wonderful! Cooking on the grill in the rain wasn't so hot though. The coal got too cool, then too hot, luckily Alice likes her steaks well done and doesn't mind more than a bit of char.

We did end up having to move from the lake side were we had a sweet spot for fishing and a table to the pavillion to get away from the rain. It rained off and on all day, we got wet, but still had a lot of fun.

When we left Silver Lake we still had about a half an hour before we had to back to the apartment to get things ready for my dad, so we decided to swing into Peavine Park to do a little bit of fishing by the river. Alice and Peter both loved the spot, and Jeremy has already been back twice to fish there.

We were a little bit late getting back to the apartment so I had to jump in the shower while Dad and Deb where there but that was ok. I had already put the meatloaf in the oven. Potatoes were on the stove to boil, and salad was already made, and the asparagus was just waiting to be cooked.

Joseph and Mel were able to come for dinner and with some cards, a little Ice Road Truckers, Dad was smiling from ear to ear all night. He especially liked that the meatloaf had "crunchies" in it and that both of his kids were there to celebrate him. Sadly I didn't think to take the camera out to get any pictures.

The night ended with a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich and it was time to veg out on the couch and start the new week.

*** Hannah's Meatloaf ***
(This recipe serves 8)

Preheat the oven to 350*

2 lbs ground burger
1 medium onion diced
1 pepper diced (any color)
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 egg
1/4 can of condensed tomato soup
1/4 to 1/4 cup oatmeal (more or less, you want it to stick together but not be too dry)
1 TBS butter
1 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper

Saute the onions, peppers, and garlic until soft. Mix the burger, egg, soup, oatmeal, salt and pepper together, mix in the sauted veggies. Spoon into loaf pan or form into log on cookie sheet.

Bake until internal temperature reaches 140* - 160*