Health Journey, Day 8

Well, it has been a week since I began this journey to better health. I made it through the first 7 days.  There were some tough moments but overall, it was a successful week. I truly feel like Plexus is kicking in and helping me with my energy and cravings. I have had some rough days and I can tell my body is detoxing  but I look forward to seeing how much more this helps during this second week.

The best parts of this week though have nothing to do with diet. I got to spend some time over coffee with a dear friend, musical practice with my amazing cast for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and I swam a mile! Y'all I haven't felt like exercising at all much less doing something I love for exercise. And now that I have done it, I have so much more confidence that I truly can do this.

I have already been so blessed this week and I look forward to another week of my journey.

Health Journey, Day 1

As well as starting to write more today, I am also beginning (again) my journey to being healthier.

I have always been confident in myself and my appearance. Yes, I am overweight. I have been for a very long time. Did I ever want to be smaller...yes. Did I ever try to do something to make it better...yes. And it worked for a while. But then I just stopped trying. Why? I'm not so sure anymore. I guess I just decided to spend more time doing things that interested me more than exercise/eating well. Well that was until Reed and I decided to begin trying to have children. Then my perspective changed. So here is the reader's digest version of where I am today and why.

Reed and I decided to take the step to begin starting a family in  July of 2014. I went to the doctor and was told I was healthy (minus being overweight, which was obvious) and that we could start building our family. So I started working hard to make myself healthier by eating well and  In May of 2015, I took a test and found out I was pregnant! I was so SO excited! I had dreamt of being a mom for a long time. Reed was out of town when I took the test and I really wanted to tell him in person so I decided to wait until he came home. After all, I was only a few weeks pregnant. Well, 3 days later while Reed was still gone, I miscarried. I was devastated. Over the next few months, Reed and I went through several things that rocked our marriage a lot. I still had not told him about our baby at all. I went through a very dark time. I was angry, sad, scared, and I chose instead of being healthy, to just be. I ate a lot. I gained a lot of weight, which I definitely didn't need to do and I just felt terrible, physically and emotionally. Reed and I worked through the struggles we were having and I finally told him about our baby. Our relationship was becoming healthier again. But my physical self was not. I didn't know how to change that or truthfully, if I even wanted to

In January of 2016, a friend of mine told me about a system that she used to help her with her health. She had also had some difficulties with fertility and told me about the Whole30 lifestyle and how it helped her. Reed and I had been trying to have children for almost 2 years at this point so I decided that it was time to try something. I mean what could it hurt? Even if it didn't help with my fertility, what could it hurt? NOTHING. So in February 2016 after much research, I began my Whole30 cleanse. The first 15 days were TERRIBLE. I felt way worse than ever physically. But on day 16, I woke up feeling different; like things were working. By day 30 I was a new person. I had more energy than ever, I didn't always feel hungry and I had lost almost 20 pounds which was just the icing on the cake. I felt like it would last forever! But life happened yet again and I  told myself I was too busy and I slacked off. I would eat healthy somewhat but I gave myself too much slack and it didn't work. My feelings of sluggishness and small pains began to return. And I still was not able to conceive. I began to fill my life with as much as possible to fill the void infertility was causing and stopped being so concerned with myself and my health yet again.

Fast forward to February of 2017. After much prodding and praying and people doing whatever it took to try and help me, I finally went back to the doctor. I had been in for my annual visits every year and thought that that was enough, but finally I took the step to talk to her about other options for conception. So I began the process of fertility tests to see what was going on. And everything came back normal except for one: my ultrasound. It showed a cyst on my ovary that was quite large. My doctor said she didn't think it was dangerous/cancerous, but it was large enough for her to want to to remove it. I had that surgery on May 1st. The cyst was about the size of an orange.  BUT, it was not connected to my ovary like they thought. It was pushing everything out of the right position though. When I found all of this out I just cried because for the first time in a long time, I had my excitement back! What if this is the reason why and how simple of a fix is that?! Well of course we don't know that for sure, but I still absolutely think of this as a blessing from God. After speaking to my doctor, she said that she has high hopes but that making myself as physically healthy as I can is the best way to go to try and achieve good results. I finally have some answers and I am DETERMINED to make my body a place that is healthy and ready to house a baby if/when God decides to bless me with this.

Which leads to today. It has been a month since I talked to the doctor after my surgery and I have taken some small steps but today is a big one. I am ready. No more procrastinating. Why is it that I am so organized and planned in all aspects of my life except for my own health? Well I am hoping to change that today. As well as eating healthy, I have a friend who introduced me to Plexus a few months ago and I tried it but never took it very seriously. Well another friend has been on her Plexus journey for 30 days and it has helped her immensely. So, I am going to try it for real! I am ready. Ready to take the first step. Ready to jump in and make my physical self healthy FOREVER!

My prayer is that I can have the support from those that love me and care for me. That they will not be afraid to call me out and give me tough love when I need it. And that I am accepting of their love and help.

So cheers to this new journey! I'll keep you posted :)

Time to Start Over...

Woah... it has been 6 years since I wrote here! I actually thought I had deleted this blog a long time ago because I didn't use it. So today I decided I wanted to start writing again for several reasons which I will explain in a moment, and I went to create a new blog and I found my old one! Then I began to read my old posts and the tears began to flow because all of those feelings. My thoughts from 6 years ago just reminded me of why I began to write them in the first place and that I truly have missed sharing my thoughts...even if the audience is small...or possibly non-existent! Ha! But even then, I have missed sharing my thoughts and I am excited to start again!

My oh my, how life has changed in the past 6 years! I got married, moved back to San Angelo, began working at the BEST job in the world, Reed began working at a job he loves and also completed 2 Masters degrees and a whole lot of other things that span the roller coaster of life.

So I decided today to begin sharing my thoughts and events of life again in hopes to do several things:
1. Keep myself accountable on my journey to better health and well-being. If I share about my journey, I am much more likely to keep it up.
2. Share about my life-both the positive and the negative- to possibly be a light to others who could be going through the same things as I have.
3. Share my love of Jesus, music, and teaching to the world.

There is no specific topic to this space. Just a place for me to express who I am day by day. I am excited to start this journey again!

~Julie~