Happiness is...

Happiness is...

 Riding. 

Happiness is...

Being with Steve. 

Happiness is...

Ukraine.

 Happiness is... 

Knowing that I NEVER have to go back to school. 

{Side note: Happiness is also discovering who I truly am, what my values, ethics and beliefs are, and realizing that social work and me do NOT mix. And with that knowledge comes liberating happiness. I do NOT have to get a job as a social worker just because that is what my degree is in.}

Told ya'll that I hated my degree. I still need to blog more about that.

Happiness is... 

 My Faith.

Happiness is... 

 

The Heritage Center.

And the music of Tony Summerhays and Bongo Tami.  

{I've totally got to blog about this place too.}

Happiness is...    

 Taking care of my body. 

Its such a gift to have a healthy and normally functioning body. It is something I took for granted for 25 years. Once I realized what an amazing gift it is, I no longer want to take it for granted.

Happiness is...

Realizing that my dreams are worth taking the time for. Realizing how to make life wonderful and doing just that.

Linking up to one of my favorites today. The Shine Challenge.

Keep Calm and SHINE on...

I have been so inspired by the SHINE project over the past few months. My inspiration was again renewed when I watched this video.

I am certainly tossing some ideas around in my own head and my own community to make some kind of a difference. I have been so blessed with finding the source of and working hard for TRUE happiness and I would like to share that knowledge with anyone who will listen.

Will you go follow the SHINE project? And SHINE ON.

Slow and Steady wins the Race

So, as most of you know, I am on vacation in California.

Getting the perfect tan.

Consequently I don't have a lot of time for this post but I wanted to quickly participate in this weeks Shine Challenge... Which has to do with FITNESS.

Obviously, while here we are hitting up all the major theme parks and I'm not gonna lie... I've been tempted a million times with theme park food. 

I have just recently started to become more health conscious, more weight conscious, more nutrition conscious, more portion control conscious, and more exercise conscious than I ever have been in my whole life. And when I say recently, I mean basically within the past month (maybe 6 weeks.) By making some drastic, yet simple changes in my eating and exercise habits I have lost 10 pounds in the past month. Firstly, it feels amazing to be so much more energetic. Secondly I feel way hotter with the 10 pounds gone. And thirdly, it is not NEARLY as difficult as I thought it was going to be, which is encouraging me to continue on in my journey.

One of the things that has lead to my success is biking. I LOATHE running. And I pretty much always have. For years I kind of thought that was the only real form of cardio that was available for people to do. Which caused years of sedentary behavior. 2 years ago I found biking and fell in LOVE. Last season I biked about once a week and I would do rides that were about 10-15 miles. This season I have been biking 5 days a week, again 10-15 miles per pop. That has made most of the difference I've seen on the scales... But not only is it helping me to shed some extra fattage, it is an absolute blast. My advice for all those of you who want to exercise but don't like running, think outside the box. I do not look at biking as exercise or as a duty. It is something that I enjoy and want to be doing. But it has to be on the road. If you asked me to go to a spin class or bike on a stationary bike I would probably kick you in the shins and tell you to get lost. I have to be on the road. Wind in my face, REAL hills that I can challenge myself up. IF YOU HATE RUNNING, DON'T FORCE YOURSELF TO RUN. Because your "new resolve" will last a week. I swear to you. Find other ways to exercise! There are millions of options. Don't get stuck on just running. That is my Shine Challenge advice to you all. 

Now, back to the point I was making at the beginning... I have been tempted with a lot of theme park food on this trip. {Lets just stop and go over said temptations shall we? Kettle Corn, Dip-n-Dots, Churros, Cotton Candy,  Carmel apples, Corn on the Cob, Ice cream cones, Rice Crispy Treats, Pineapple floats, French Fries, Fried Chicken, Big Juicy Hamburgers, onion rings... I could literally go on forever)
Do I have your attention yet?

And while I don't want to entirely give that stuff up {because lets face it, is anything on earth better?} I also don't want to stop the progress I've been making the past month.
My solution is a couple fold... I am still eating my very favorites that I can't go without. The things that I dream about when I am at home. The cream cheese filled pretzel. The Monte Cristo. The corn dogs. BUT... typically in my Disneyland days I will get 2 or 3 pretzels. Eat a whole Monte Cristo myself and eat corn dogs and french fries and Churros for snacks. The rest of the stuff I think I can manage without... I can curve the temptation. This trip I am limiting myself to one pretzel. I am splitting a Monte Cristo. And I am going to carefully select my dinner's. I am also packing vegetables and fruit like crazy for my snacks. I feel GREAT about the compromise. I get the best of both worlds with just a little more self control than I usually display. The other thing that I am doing for exercise {because I couldn't take my bike with me} is to take the stairs. Our hotel room is on the 4th floor and I have not taken the elevator one time. (GO ME!) But that is not all... When we went to Universal Studios I used the stairs THE WHOLE TIME! This one was a real accomplishment for me because there are a lot of stairs at that theme park... I regret that I forgot to take a picture of my main staircase conquer-ment. But I google searched one and botta boom botta bang. Check this stair case out that I totally ran up: 

See the staircase to the right? Well, it goes up and up and up. And then up some more. And there is a whole other section that is not pictured. Yep, that is right... While my family lazily rode up the escalators... I was busy taking the stairs. I totally kicked their trash too. GO ME! 

Disneyland doesn't have any stairs and neither does Knott's Berry, but I walked up and down every stair case at Universal Studios. {And my hotel.} Its the best I can do in the situation at hand.

 

I have been so pleased with myself this past month. I have made a million TINY changes in my lifestyle and they have given me HUGE results. I was very nervous about this trip and all that I would be tempted to eat and the fact that my bike is not around to exercise on, but with focus and determination and just a tinsy bit of indulgence I am one happy and healthy camper.

And I can't wait till Wednesday when me and Steve {my bike} get to spend a few hours one on one together. 

Reunited.

Me and bike Steve, we are in LOOOOOVE. 

I named him after Steve Perry. Cause we are in love too. He just doesn't know it yet. 

A Non-Traditional Definition of Beauty.

I'm going to go with something a little more non-traditional for this week’s Shine Challenge. 

 

{Click on the button for more info on what that is.}  

I just read most of the previous Shine challenge entries ahead of my link and I must confess, they were all answers that I expected to read when I started out. 

Hopefully I am going to state a definition to surprise all of you.

Sure, beauty to me is all the things mentioned on the blog linkup:

Being positive, being happy, serving others, being helpful, being confident, being wise. Beauty is loving people, beauty is kindness, beauty is laughter. OF COURSE I agree with all these definitions.

Absolutely to me TRUE BEAUTY comes from within.

But today, I want to showcase OUTER BEAUTY. Shocker hu? It is not because I think outer beauty is more important. Not because I think it can override someone with an ugly interior. Not because I think people should be vein or arrogant.

Me in Ukraine. January 2008

I am showcasing outer beauty today for a couple reasons.

Firstly, I believe that our bodies are our greatest gift from our Heavenly Father. I believe it is a miracle that there are billions and billions of people on the earth, billions more that have already lived on the earth, and no two people look the same. It boggles my mind that we all have 2 eyes, a nose, and a mouth, we all have teeth, hair and skin, yet there can be billions of different looks with those features. It is a blessing to me from my Father in Heaven that I look the way I do. Have I always liked what I saw in the mirror? Absolutely not. I have struggled with feeling beautiful My. Entire. Life.
However, the more I grow and the more wisdom I acquire the more I realize that not everyone was blessed with a healthy body like mine.

Me on my very first cruise. May 2008

My healthy body is a blessing that I don't intend to squander away.
Taking pride in the way I look is one way that I will not squander away my blessing from God. Taking the time to work with what I have and rejoice in what I have is one way that I feel beautiful, and even thought I am not the most beautiful person that I know, doing my best with what I've got, to me, makes me beautiful.

 Me with bestie. {and hot boys} Florida. July 2010

Having good hygiene is one way that I choose to showcase my outer beauty. Showering, shaving, brushing and flossing my teeth, washing my face every day to tame my school girl acne that for some reason decided to introduce itself when I was in my twenties, keeping my fingernails and toenails painted or at the very least clean and controlled, wearing clean clothes {I'm shocked with how easy this is yet how frequently people don't,} wearing clothes that work well with my body type and flatter my assets. {I am not claiming to be an expert here, I am no fashionista and I might be failing at this or making obvious mistakes to others but the efforts are honest and real.} I don't have to spend a fortune on my wardrobe either, but I feel better when I have taken the time to put together a good looking outfit.

Me and some amazing ladies. Weber State graduation. December 2010.

These are all ways that I focus on showcasing my outer beauty. These are things that give me confidence and help me to look in the mirror and truly like what I see looking back at me. Taking pride in my outer beauty always helps me to showcase my inner beauty. I don't care if you disagree with me but in my opinion that is one way I show gratitude to God for the gift of my body: by taking care of my physical appearance.

Me doing my hair. {And not pregnant.} Cruise December 2008.

My red hair is one of the things I have always loved about myself. Even when I struggled with the way my face looked, I always loved my red hair. For many years having red hair saved me. Just having one thing that I loved about my physical appearance was a blessing. But I have seen people that have the potential for beautiful hair and they just let it fall by the wayside and they just look awful. Stringy and overgrown hair is not attractive. And Lordy-be, the most disgusting thing I can look at is dirty/greasy hair. I just want to gag at the sight of it and I want to stay far enough away that I don't have to smell it.

Now, I don't wash my hair every day, but I NEVER go more than one day in between washes {unless I am camping}. There really is no reason for greasy hair people.

Me and ten year old sister. When she was 5. And when I was 21. Summer 2006.

Also, not letting my hair become an overgrown mane of a mess, {I don't need to spend hundreds on the trendiest haircuts or getting my hair colored or weaved or whatever else people do these days, a simple and modest trim and style every few months suffices.} And I don't need to figure out how girls get those fabulous curls with flat irons {because my hair WILL NOT hold the curl} but I do look like I have spent a minute or two working on my hair.

NOTHING is better then when babies sleep in your arms.
December 2009.

One lesson that I learned in my battle to find self esteem is that self esteem is earned.

We must work hard for it. 

The second reason why I have decided to focus today on outer beauty today goes hand in hand with that:
working hard.

I was one of the people that was blessed with a healthy body. I have ten fingers and ten toes. I have working arms and working legs. I can run, jump, skip, hop, and ride a bike. There are millions of people who cannot say that. Working hard to take care of my healthy body is becoming more and more important to me. I have always struggled with being overweight and being sedentary. I am not morbidly obese, but I don't eat as well as I should, I overeat, and I don't exercise on a regular basis. That is until recently. Recently I realized that I do have a healthy body and I can take care of it, therefore I should take care of it.
“I can, so I should”… that is my motto. Having a healthy body is a gift you give yourself for life. No happiness can compare with that.

 Me and Bestie. And Steve.{My bike} Summer 2010.

When I work hard to eat well and exercise and be at a healthier weight for my height, I feel beautiful. I am not obsessed with the scale or being a certain size. In fact, quite the opposite. However I have been really focusing on getting my BMI down {because it is much too high to be considered healthy} over the past few weeks, and after completely changing the way I eat, and riding my bike 5 days a week I have seen a change in my appearance. And I have even seen a change in the scale. That feels great. And you can bet your bottom dollar that it is giving me more confidence, more energy, and more zest for life. What can be more beautiful than that?

Me and half my family at Disneyland. June 2009.

True beauty is earned. I believe that with all my heart. But there are things we can do with the way we present ourselves that are going to add to our level of beauty on the outside. That will inevitably reflect on our inner beauty. 

Me and bestie. And strange, unidentified man. May or may not be ex.  December 2008

.

This weeks shine challenge was to define what beauty means to us. True Beauty comes from within, no argument here. But Outer Beauty has its place. I believe everyone possesses outer beauty, but some people need to put more work into showcasing it. I think that is important. I think it shows gratitude to my Father in Heaven for what He has blessed me with.   
Of course that is just my opinion. What do you think?