Are you searching for a way to track your health and fitness? With all the apps are the market it can be hard to find a good fit. It seems like every time I log onto the app store there are 10 new health and fitness apps. Sure, some of them have lots of fun bells and whistles that I want to try out- but I am a big fan of stick with what has worked for me over the years. Curious what apps I use the most to track my health and fitness? Well I am here to share my top 9 with you. 1) Health Health is available on iOS and it is probable my favorite app. This app tracks all kinds of health and fitness stats, and it collects the data from other apps you already use. Whenever I log a run with Nike Run Club- that information syncs to this app. The health app allows you to see all your stats from multiple sources in one convenient place. The Health app also revolves around 4 components of a healthy life style. Activity, Mindfulness, Nutrition, and Sleep. I really like that it has a mindfulness aspect to it, not many apps have that. Also- if you are looking for suggestions for different apps, the Health app has suggestions for other apps that might benefit you that can be integrated with the apps tracking system. 2)Road iD Road iD is an app that is a safety must have if you are an outdoor runner. Every time I go for an outdoor run, I will turn this app on. It has so many safety features I am not sure I can even list them all in one or two paragraphs. First, when you log onto the app, it will ask you how long you plan to run. You also can set it up to notify up to 5 people when you start running. When you choose that have your family contacted when you start running, they will get a text with a link. From that link they can live track your location. How cool is that? Not only will it allow your family members to track your location. If you stop moving for more that 5 minutes, it will automatically send them a message alerting them you might be in trouble. Remember how it asks how long you plan on running when you start? Well, the reason for this feature is, if you are out running longer than expected- again- it will automatically alert your family that you haven’t made it home yet. Now, I will admit, this is one feature that kind of annoys me, just because I never really know how long I plan to run. I typically set a default time of 1 hour. Once you are done with your run, just hit the finish button and it will send out messages to people on your contact list that you have finished your run. Just remember- Make sure when you finish your run that you finish it on the app. I can’t tell you how many times I have received phone calls from worried family members because I had been stationary for too long (You can change a sitting in the app where it will give you a warning tone at 3 minutes). 3) Walgreen's I don’t know about you, but I like to be rewarded for my healthy life style. Walgreens is a great app because you can use it for a lot of different things, but the reason it has made it to this list is because this app will sync with your apple watch (and possibly other smart watches) and will give you reward points for reaching your step goal. You can also receive reward points for other health tracking such as blood sugar checks, blood pressure, and sleep. Now, you don’t get very many points, but always earn 1000 ($1) each month just by having it automatically track my activity from my apple watch. Who doesn’t like free money? 4) Activity This is an app that automatically came with my apple watch. Honestly it isn’t the most useful app out there, but it does have some features that I really like. Namely, the stand feature, or better yet a reminder to stand feature. If you are like me you spend your day sitting at a desk. We all know that having a sedentary life style is really bad for your health. This app will notify me on my watch when I have been sitting too long. It gives me a little physical nudge to get up and move for about a minute. The other fun feature of this app is at the end of the day when you “close your circles”, the alert tone and face display make me feel very accomplished (Imagine a trumpet sounding a fan fair for getting all your steps in for the day). 5) Nike Run Club I haven’t been using Nike Run Club for very long. I just started using it right after I gave birth to Emmett. Honestly, I down loaded it because a lot of my friends were using it and I like how it showed on a map how hard you are working. What is really awesome about this app, even though it uses GPS to track your run when you are running out side. You can also use it to track indoor runs on treadmills. Do you know how hard it is to find an app that can do that and do it somewhat accurately? It is a little off when compared to the treadmill, but it is never off by more than a tenth of a mile- which is really good compared to other apps. I will warn you, and this is why it is kind low on my list of favorites- be prepared for some headaches with this app. I have had quite a bit of trouble with it crashing. With that being said, after their last update it seems to be doing better. 6) Healow Not everyone is going to be able to use this app or find it useful. However, this is an app that my doctor’s offices use. When I was pregnant this app was a god send! I could see when my next appointment was, the medications I was taking, my test results, notes from my doctor visits, vitals, pretty much anything involving my health. What I found really awesome is, a lot of times I would be able to see my test results and lab results the day before my doctor would call me with the results. Again- if your doctor uses this app or an app like it- HIGHLY recommend downloading it. 7) Map My Run This was my go-to running app. I have used it for years and years and years. It really is a tried and true app for tracking runs. However, you can’t really track indoor runs with this app. The one thing that I do like about this app, is the website that is associated with it. From the web site you can create running routes to get a pretty good estimate of where to run if you are aiming for a certain distance. 8) Health4Me This is a really good app to have, however, it won’t be beneficial to everyone. This is the app for my health insurance company. From this app I can check to see rather or not I have hit my deductible. I can view claims. I can even contact a nurse from the app if I needed too. However, since everyone has different health insurance companies it is pretty low on the list. But, if your insurance company has an app, I suggest downloading it because it really does come in handy. 9) P Tracker Alright ladies, I think we all know what this is. Not my favorite health and wellness app, but a necessary one none-the-less. I remember back in the day we used these little pocket calendars to track our period. But this app does a lot more than just track when your last period was. It also tracks the days you are fertile (if you are trying to have a baby). It also allows you to track a variety of symptoms often associated with hormone levels. Added bonus- I like watching the tree bloom throughout the month. So there you have it, My top 9 health and fitness apps. What are some your go to apps when it comes to health a fitness?
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I have wanted to write this post for quite some time. I have started writing this post on several occasions, hit the back-space button repeatedly. Hit the delete button after several full posts. Not willing myself to share this. Why? Because this post is about dealing with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. It is exposing my mental illness and shining a bright shinny spot light on a dark corner of my mind. I hate being vulnerable, showing weakness, and being the center of attention- which is what I feel this post is going to do. You see, I have struggled with anxiety for most my life. But I didn’t realize that not everyone had these constant thoughts of worry.
I thought everyone played conversations over and over in their head days afterwards wondering if they had said something wrong and made themselves look foolish. I thought everyone experienced a nauseating feeling when entering crowded rooms, I mean, everyone that wasn’t an extrovert. It wasn’t until I had a panic attack during a practical exam while in Occupational Therapy school that I realized that my level of anxiety wasn’t normal and that it was more of a problem than I realized. I did learn a valuable lesson through that experience. With the help of my instructors I learned how to get a handle on my anxiety. I found natural ways to reduce my anxiety. I developed coping mechanisms that allowed me to live a relatively normal life, medication free. These coping skills served me well for many years. I thought everything was grand and it was. Until I went back to school in 2017 for Exercise Science. Don’t get me wrong, I loved being back in school. I loved meeting new people. However, I thought I would be able to work full time while going to school full time, and make good grades. To top it all off, I was taking college algebra, anatomy and physiology, English Comp II, and Developmental Psych. All those classes demanded so much study and homework time that my coping mechanisms failed, but I didn’t even realize what was happening. I kept telling myself I was stressed, that I just needed the semester to be over and everything would be fine. I found myself exhausted, crying in the shower, crying myself to sleep. Praying that some catastrophe would happen so I could just stop stressing out about everything... It was until several months of complete and total misery that I realized, that my anxiety had led to straight up depression. It was awful and I was miserable, but it had gone on for so long that I didn’t even know how to reach out for help. I hide my depression from my husband, my friends and family. I don’t know if it was because I was ashamed or embarrassed to admit that I needed help, but for whatever reason, I battled the darkness alone in complete and utter misery for most of 2017. Towards the end of 2017 I was listening to a personal development book and it came to me that I was choosing to feel the way I did. I didn’t have to feel miserable, I could choose to focus on the good things in my life. I started practicing daily gratitude. I would say positive affirmations every morning. I rediscovered my coping mechanisms. I started to see the sun peeking through the clouds of my depression and things were looking brighter every day. I was beginning to feel like my old self again. Then, in late January 2018, I discovered I was pregnant. I thought the unexpected pregnancy would be the undoing of my newly found happiness. The first few weeks of my pregnancy was absolute hell. My husband didn’t take the news of pregnancy well, we were both in shock and neither of us were ready to be parents again. A week after I told him, went on a date- and it was the worst and best date I think we have ever been on. Everything that could go wrong, did. We got pulled over, the restaurant didn’t have the dish we ordered, Josh got really upset because it was just the icing on the cake after a really shitty week., I started crying in the middle of the restaurant, it was truly an awful date. But, as we drove home from that date, we had one of the best heart-to-heart talks we have ever had. I told him all about my depression. He was completely heartbroken that I kept it from him. He was devastated that I had kept it from him. I had no idea that it would affect him that way. I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping it from him. I didn’t want him to have to worry about me, but by keeping it from him, I had hurt him more than if I had just told him. I promised him that if I ever started to have problems again with anxiety or depression, I would tell him. For the most part, the rest of my pregnancy was nothing but happiness and joy. I chose to place my son up for adoption. I found the most absolutely best couple I could ever ask for, my sister and her wife. And the thought of bringing a new life into the world and helping a family grow brought a whole new purpose to my life. However, as my pregnancy come close and closer to an end, I worried more and more about the possibility of postpartum depression. I didn’t develop postpartum depression, but my anxiety reared its ugly head in totally new ways. In my entire life, my anxiety never quite got ahold of me like it did after birth. First it was over the complications at delivery. The constant researching trying to figure out what went wrong. Then it was my gallbladder not functioning. Then it was EVERY. LITTLE. THING. I didn’t even realize that I was starting to lose control. It was after picking my husband up from work one day that I was telling him that I was worried about going to a dinner because I was worried about my stomach acting up and what I was going to eat. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he picked up on this abnormal thought process I was having and causally mentioned, “You are over thinking this.” That simple phrase stopped my cycle of worry about this dinner and I thought, you’re right. I started to realize that perhaps my anxiety was starting to get out of control and that I should see a therapist so that I didn’t end up where I was in 2017, but I also hoped that it would just go away on its own. A couple of weeks later I realized that my anxiety wasn’t getting any better in fact it was getting worse. I would have cycling thoughts of worry. My mind would jump from one thing to worry about to another. The best way I can think to explain it is imagining five hamsters, each running on a separate wheel. Each rotation of the wheels would bring a new thought of worry. It made it damn near impossible to focus on anything when I had these constant running thoughts of worry. I would go into the grocery store and completely forget what I was there for. I felt nauseated all the time. My muscles would get so tense that it felt like the skin was breaking from the tension. I felt itchy, which has always been a symptom of my anxiety, though I never develop hives. Which makes me think I am crazy, which in turn causes me anxiety. I remember trying to sleep one night and I heard this strange humming noise. I thought it was my night stand light, and worried that it was going to cause an electrical fire. I called to schedule an appointment, and it was going to take three weeks before I could get in. Okay, no big deal, I can handle 3 more weeks... right? The weeks that followed were an absolute nightmare. I would get so tense that I didn’t feel as if I could even work out, for fear of getting an injury. I felt like my body was in a constant state of fight or flight. I would become so consumed with anxiety and worry that I would be paralyzed to the sofa. I went into a gas station, and when the clerk wasn’t behind the counter, my mind automatically went to the store was being robbed and the robbers were killing the clerk and when they found me. I was going to be next. I once broke down crying in the parking lot of my husband’s work because I thought I had missed his dinner break and that he was going to be mad (he wouldn’t have been). I ran out into traffic once because I failed to put the gas cap back on my car and I saw it laying in the middle of the road. I was completely exhausted all the time between the fight or flight feelings and the constant fidgeting. I discovered that my hands would get clammy when I entered stores or even really had to talk to people. As my husband puts it, I was bat shit crazy. After talking to my therapist, he suggested medication. Now, even though I have battled with anxiety for as long as I can remember, I never wanted to take medication for it. I always thought I could handle it on my own. However, the three weeks leading up to the appointment I really did feel like I was losing my mind. I told him I was willing to try anything to not feel this way anymore. Because, quite frankly, I didn’t think I could do it. He wrote me a prescription and let me tell you, I don’t know why I was so against taking medication in the first place. Things have been so much better now. Sure, I still have my bad days. Like the day that I was feeling super anxious and took my nervous energy out on our bath tub. Come to find out, our bathtub isn’t off white. It is a glaring blinding bright white that shocks your senses when you turn the bathroom light on. Our entire kitchen carpet got hand scrubbed one weekend because there were some stains that just wouldn’t come off with the shampooer. But I am not constantly in a state of fight or flight. The hamsters have died and their wheels are collecting cobwebs. My hands are so dry that I find myself reaching for lotion more often than a towel. Going into stores doesn’t send me into a near panic. And I have started working out again. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in life. You may think that you have everything under control. And sometimes you just need a little extra help and support. Even though the infamous date started out so completely awful, by telling my husband about my depression and how anxiety led to it, he was able to point out when I was starting to struggle again. I am so blessed to have him in my support system and beyond grateful that I decided to open up to him about my depression. He is my rock and keeps me sane when I feel like I am losing control. I am also grateful that I put my pride aside and admitted that sometimes my coping mechanisms fail and when that happens, it’s okay to ask for a little help, even if it comes from a pill. There is nothing wrong with admitting when you are struggling with mental illness and there is nothing wrong with putting a spot light on it and destroying the stigma that comes with mental illness. I hope that if you stumbled upon this post because you are struggling with mental illness that you read this story and realize that there is nothing wrong with asking for help. It can be a hard step to take but once you take that first step, it gets better. There is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s that time of year when we start to look back on the past year and start making plans for the new year. Every year thousands of people make resolutions that THIS is going to be the year. THIS year they aren’t going to give up. THIS year is going to be the year the change. I say that is all hog wash. Don’t get me wrong. I was one of those people. I always set goals and most the time I achieved them, heck, I would even surpass them. Perhaps it’s because I am goal oriented. Give me a goal and a time frame and chances are, I will get it done. Before the dead line. But sometimes crap happens and life gets in the way. We fall short, we don’t hit the goal, or we barely hit them. That was the case for my 2018 goals. Boy did I have big plans for 2018, but you know what- life happens. Literally. When I found out I was pregnant late January of 2018, trust me- that was nowhere in any of my plans. You know that old saying “How do you make God laugh? Make a plan.” Well that’s what happened. Don’t get me wrong, being pregnant was not all that bad and I was able to give a wonderful couple a chance to grow their family. I couldn’t be happier for them. But between being put on exercise restrictions at the beginning of my pregnancy, then having complications at delivery, and THEN having to have my gallbladder removed- I was beginning to think I was never going to get back to working out and coaching. I have told many people that I am not going to make a New Year’s Resolution this year. Last year’s resolutions turned into a year of disappointments and disasters. But, I gotta say it feels weird to not make a resolution. Like I feel like I don’t know what to do with myself. Going into a new year without any goals seems to me like I am just sitting back and not taking action. Which isn’t the case, there are things I want to accomplish, but at the same time I have no desire to set myself up for disappointment, So I find myself coaching myself. I thought I would share some of the questions with you in case you are struggling with your new year’s intentions. WHY? Before you even start to think about what you want to accomplish in the new year, you need to ask yourself why. This is often one of the first things I asked people when I start coaching them. When they tell me what they want to accomplish I simply ask them Why? Why is this important to you? Why would it improve your life? Are you doing it because it is something you want to do? Or are you doing it because someone thinks you should. Let me tell you, if you are doing it for someone else- I almost guarantee that you will fail. I am not saying that to be harsh, but that is the reality of it. If you are deeply connected to your why, then you are much more likely to succeed. CAN YOU MEASURE IT? Often when talking about measurable goals we use the acronym SMART. To make a goal measurable, you are being SMART. First you want to make sure that your goal is specific. Losing weight is great, but it isn’t very specific. A better way to think about it is, “I want to lose 15 lbs.”. Next, we have to ask is it measurable. Well, yes, losing 15 pounds is measurable by using a scale. Thirdly we need to ask ourselves is it attainable? Losing 15lbs, is very attainable within a year's time. You may even be able to achieve that goal within the first 6 months or sooner. Now if someone said that they wanted to lose 115lbs in a year... that would be a little trickier. I would want to make sure that they knew it was a major life style change and it would be very difficult for them to achieve that goal. The “R” in a SMART goal, ties into “why” discussed in the last paragraph. You need to make it relevant. Again, ask yourself why this goal is important to you. And finally- make it time based. Set a dead line to get to the goal. WHAT'S YOUR PLAN? How do you plan to achieve this goal. You can make as many goals as you want, but a goal without a plan is just a dream. Are you willing to put the plan into action? Are you willing to do the work needed to achieve your goal? What is your road map to your goal going to look like? WHO WILL SUPPORT YOU? Who will be your support system? Who do you have in your life that you can count on to hold you accountable? This can be your spouse, your family, your friend, or your coworkers. It’s important to pick a support partner that won’t let you give up. You need some one that will be hard on you when you need them to be as well as someone who will encourage you when you feel like giving up. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CELEBRATE SUCCESS?
This is one of my favorite things to do with my clients and for myself. How are you going to celebrate success along the way? The possibilities are endless with this one. Find something you truly enjoy and let that be your reward. Go back to wanting to wanting to lose 15lbs. Say you decided that you were going to start eating healthy. No more eating out at lunch. When you make it a full week of eating healthy and not eating out at lunch- reward yourself with a small treat. Maybe you really like ice cream? Go ahead and treat yourself to an ice cream cone. Maybe you have a goal to go to the gym 5 times a week, well if you make it 5 times in a week, give yourself the opportunity to sit back and watch your favorite show on Netflix. The important thing to remember with these rewards is to not let them derail the hard work you have put in. Keep them small. Trust me, one ice cream cone is not going to completely derail your hard work, just make sure you keep it to one. An evening of watching Netflix is not going to ruin your workout goals- just make sure you get off the sofa the next day and hit the gym again. So, there it is, these are the questions I ask myself when thinking about my intentions for the following year. What are somethings you are wanting to accomplish? How do you plan on accomplishing them. What are you going to do when you hit road blocks? Need help coming up with some ideas and solutions. Feel free to hit me up and we will work together on making 2019 a year of intentions. It has taken me a while, longer than I expected, but I think I finally ready to get back to blogging, posting, and my personal favorite- Coaching. I always talk about how unexpected things happen and life can get messy- well, things certainly got messy, but things are getting better, slowly, but progress is progress right?
So I gave birth in September. Labor wasn't all that bad. In fact I had a relatively short labor for a first time mom. I was only in labor for 6 hours, and only pushed for a hour and 20 minutes. However after I delivered, there were some complication. In fact those complications were really really scary. At some point, I plan on writing about those complications, but I feel like that would need to be a whole separate post. I am pleased to say, even with the complications Emmett's adoptive parents send me updates all the time telling me that he is doing good. Which I am always thrilled to hear. They were in the delivery room with me and my husband during labor and deliver, and when things were really scary right after delivery I felt horrible, and was racked with guilt. Here were these two beautiful women who had been waiting 9 months to meet their beautiful baby boy and he was fighting for his life. I will admit, I felt like a failure at that moment. I couldn't even deliver a healthy baby. What was wrong with me? When the doctor came in, explaining tests that they were going to run on Emmett, I remember asking "What caused this? What did I do wrong?" I was assured by my doctor that these things happen and there was absolutely nothing I did to cause it. In the days that followed I had numerous doctors, nurses, friends, and family tell me that it wasn't my fault... Did that help? Absolutely not. I knew they were right, but I still felt like I fucked up (excuse my language). Once we got a diagnosis I began researching everything I could on the diagnosis trying to figure out what went wrong. I spent several nights bawling my eyes as I poured over articles and articles researching Chorioamniontis. Eventually, my husband told me I had to stop researching because I was just making my self upset. And he was right. I stopped researching (at least I stopped researching as much) and I found my self at peace. To top off the stress of complications- the same night I was released from the hospital, I ended up back in the ER with chest pains and difficulty breathing. I swear they ran every possible test they could to figure out what was going on. I had an EKG, CT with Contrast, CBC, CMP, and lord knows what else. All the test came back good. They did find a kidney stone that wasn't moving and the start of a UTI. But nothing to explain the chest pain and shortness of breath. In fact, the physician's assistant that treated me diagnosed me with postpartum pain. A few days later I got a call from my doctor saying that she saw the test results and needed me to come into the office right away. My liver enzymes were through the roof. More testing, and for those of you who have experienced this you know what is coming- my gallbladder needed to come out and soon. I spent the better part of two weeks in horrible pain and in a partial state of starvation because I couldn't eat anything. Finally, I had the surgery- just about 3 weeks ago- and I feel amazing! My surgeon told me I could start easing back into running a week after surgery- so as soon as 7 days had passed I was right out back at it again. My run times are not great. In fact they are really bad. But my goal is to run or cycle at least three times a week and I have noticed that my run times are slowly getting better. I am still on exercise restrictions. I can't lift over 30lbs, I can't do push-ups or sit-ups, and I can't swim until the dermabond is gone, Which I can't wait until it all falls off, dermabond is itchy, annoying, and I swear to god I think it is grafting to my skin as long as it is taking to come off. So there it is, I am getting back to a semi normal life. It is taking some time and triathlon training is currently on hold while I recover from my surgery. But I am bound and determined to do what I can to stay in shape while I am recovering. I know by staying on top of my fitness, when I am finally able to workout without restriction, my come back will be much easier. I plan on keeping up on this blog better as I continue to work towards my goals. To keep you all posted on my progress and provide inspiration for you as you work through your own transformation. I wanted to post this tonight because of something that happened at the gym last night. Now, when I first found out I was pregnant I had lots of people tell me things like:
"You shouldn't be working out right now." "You need to rest." "It's not good for the baby for you to workout." "You're going to the gym? What's wrong with you?" When I would hear these comments I would take the time to educate who ever was making the comment that in fact- exercising while pregnant not only benefits me, but it also benefits the baby. Over the course of my pregnancy, I have herd less and less of these comments. In fact, I have even heard some encouraging words regarding my dedication to staying active during this time. In fact, these words of encouragement are so common now, that I had forgotten about all the negative things I had heard in the earlier months. Until last night. Last night, as I was walking out of the gym I was met by a family. Now, I am not too upset about what happened because for one the person that caused my annoyance actually didn't say anything, plus she was quite a bit younger than me- so I am assuming her age has something to do with her reaction when she saw me walking out the gym. This young woman, eyed me up and down and stared on my belly for several seconds longer than what would have been polite. Not only that, she had a look, that I could only describe as disgust and perhaps shock. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her facial expression so you all could see what I saw as a judgmental look. But that is neither here nor there. I went about my evening as I am sure she did too. But the experience made me want to write a little bit about why I have stayed active during my pregnancy. 1) If you are pregnant you should consult your doctor prior to starting a new exercise regiment. Exercise is typically considered safe during pregnancy and it is typically encouraged. But always check with your doctor first- just to be safe. 2) If you were active prior to getting pregnant it is generally safe to continue to be active at the same level you were previous to becoming pregnant. There a tons of professional athletes who continued their training while pregnant. If you're curious look up a few of them: Serena Williams, Kerry Walsh Jennings, and Alysia Montano just to name a few. 3) Exercising while pregnant helps reduce backaches, bloating, constipation, and swelling. Let me tell you, when I would start puffing up around the ankles and hands- the cool waters of the pool felt SO amazing! Plus there are quite a few prenatal yoga poses that really help take the pressure off your back. 4) There has been some evidence that it may help prevent and even treat gestational diabetes, which would make since since exercise helps prevent Type II Diabetes as well. 5) It helps you sleep better. As the months go along, it gets more and more difficult to sleep. I have found on the days I hit the gym, I sleep more deeply in those few hours of sleep I get between night time restroom runs. 6) This may be due to sleeping better, but it will also increase your energy and improve your mood. Grant it- I am always in a better mood after working out rather I am pregnant or not. 7) A lot of what I have read is that exercising though out your pregnancy can help decrease your time in labor and can even make labor easier. In fact, it is said that women who exercise regularly during their pregnancy can shorten their active labor by 2 hours. I believe a lot of this depends on the type of exercise you are doing. Squats, lunges, and planks all help build muscles that are needed during labor and delivery. However- in my second trimester several old running injuries started acting up creating some pretty alarming fall risks, and my doctor told me not to do any squats, lunges, or exercises that would be considered "high impact" on my knees and hips. 8) Stay active during your pregnancy will help you lose the baby weight faster after giving birth. Big Win! 9) Women who exercise during pregnancy are 55% less like to need an episiostomy (please let this be true for me) and 4 times less likely to need a c-section (which can take longer recovery time). 10) I didn't have this problem as much, but many women report that even if they experience morning sickness, after a quick walk the nausea subsides. 11) One study that I read showed that children who had mothers who were physically active during their pregnancy, had a higher athletic ability than their peers. It helps condition their heart similar to the conditioning that an athletes heart sustains during training. 12) It lowers the risk of preeclampsia. Let me tell you, developing preeclampsia was/ is still one of my biggest fears when it comes to being pregnant. I had a family member that developed it and last month one of my friends delivered her baby girl a month early due to it. Every time I go to the doctor I am get super nervous when they put that blood pressure cuff on. These are just a few of the reasons why I have remained dedicated to working out while I am pregnant. The benefits are just too great to ignore. I will admit, I took last week off because I was super busy in the beginning of the week and then I got a summer cold in the middle of the week. But so far that has been the only time I have really taken off since becoming pregnant. Last night it felt so amazing to get back in the pool. It was so relaxing and soothing. It made me feel 1000 times better than I had felt all week long. As mentioned above I did have some ups and downs with some old injuries- but that just meant I needed to get creative and find a new outlet for exercising. 'Well as they say "Life Happens," this morning certainly didn't go as expected. But part of being healthy is having a healthy state of mind and sometimes it's just better to laugh at your misfortunes and count your blessings. I certainly didn't expect my morning to start off so stinky, but over the course of a few hours I learned some amazing tricks, and found a teachable moment. Here is how my day started and how it progressed.
I had just let my dog, Roscoe, out and was sitting on the sofa sipping my coffee and thinking about how excited I was for this new adventure with The Happy Healthy Life Blog. It was a pretty nice and peaceful morning... Then it hit me, that unmistakable horrid smell of, what I thought at the time, was a skunk. I thought "Oh no! Roscoe!" So I jumped off the sofa and ran out side. When I opened the front door I was hit by the most potent, peculiar, gawd awful, putrid, horrible stench I have ever smelled. Seriously, words can not do justice for how bad it smelled. My eyes instantly started watering as I try to call Roscoe between dry heaving. As I am getting him onto the front porch I see a fox run from the corner of our house towards the neighbors house. After several attempts to get Roscoe off his line, I get him in the house and into the shower. I scrubbed him and scrubbed him until I couldn't smell the stench any more. I get him dried off and go and take a shower in our other bathroom. By this time, the whole house is starting to reek. At one point I thought the smell was coming through the water lines. After I get out of the shower my husband, Josh, comes out and asks about the smell. I told him I thought Roscoe got sprayed by a skunk, but that I had also seen a fox run away too. Well Josh looked it up and what do you know- FOX'S URINE STINKS WORST THAN SKUNK'S!!! Josh and I had no idea. The two of us finish getting ready and head to work. On our way into town I mention to Josh that I felt like i could still smell it. We just shrugged if off that it was because we were smelling it in the house. Oh no- I get to work and one of the first people I see says "Oh it smells like a skunk in here." I admitted it was probably me and explained my eventful morning to her. We had a laugh about it while I sent an email out saying I was going home to deal with the situation. So I get home and pull out everything in our cabinet that has the word "tomato" on it. I am frantically looking though my non perishables and I get a text from a co-worker suggesting baby oil! Baby oil? Really? I don't see how this is going to work- But at this point I'll try anything. Did I mentioned the whole house is saturated in this nasty smell? So I run to wal-mart and pick up a bottle of baby oil. I get back to the house and try it out on Roscoe. Low and behold IT WORKED!!! Who would have thought baby oil would get the smell of fox urine out? Just to be safe I started adding all of my tomato canned goods into a pot so that I could rinse and get the smell out. I scrub my self down with the tomato concoction, shower again so I don't smell like an Italian eatery, and then for good measure slather up in some baby oil. I finally feel like I no longer smell and head back to work. So, why have I told you this long drawn out story about my crazy morning? Because like I said, life happens. Things get crazy when the unexpected happens and things can spiral out of control. Have you ever stubbed your toe first thing in the morning and then the whole rest of your day you are plagued by annoyances? Maybe after stubbing your toe you spill coffee on your shirt, then you get stuck in traffic, which makes you late to work? Everything seems to snow ball from that tiny incident when you stub your toe. That's because you are focusing on the negative. Now it would be REALLY easy for me to dwell on all the crappy things that happened this morning. I could have focused only on the negative and I guarantee you I would have had a bad day. I would have been angry, sour, and probably mean to my fellow co-workers. What purpose would that have served? Does it do any good to get angry over the events that happened this morning? And if I did choose to get angry, who or what would be angry at? My dog? He doesn't understand why he smells. The fox? He just had a biological reaction due to being scared. Maybe I should be mad at my co-worker who was kind enough to let me know in a discreet manner that I smelled like skunk. That doesn't seem fair does it? You see there is no one thing I can place my anger on to- so why get angry? Instead I am focusing on the positive. I learned alot today. 1) Foxes, though cute, smell 1000 time worst than skunks. 2) Baby oil will take the smell of fox urine off a dog. 3) Tomato sauce will not stain your hair. So next time you find your self in a stinky situation remember, grab the baby oil and smile on! Back in October 2017 I started thinking about re-branding Fitness on the Plains. Some of you that have been following me for the past few years may remember me talking about all the big changes that were coming and how excited I was. Honestly, I was REALLY excited about them. I spent 3 months dreaming and planning and couldn't wait for January 1st to launch my latest and greatest. And things were great... for a few weeks, then I found out that I was expecting. My focus, drive and energy was being pushed somewhere else and Fitness on the Plains got left behind. At first, I had planned on using my pregnancy to encourage and inspire other expectant women to be as active as possible during their pregnancies. After all Beachbody had prenatal yoga and prenatal workouts. I was surprised I really liked their prenatal workouts. They worked my legs and my core- areas of the body that need to be strong for child birth. Then, as I started gaining more weight, a lot of my old running injuries started to flair up- Badly. I mentioned the symptoms to my doctor, and she told me to stop doing squats, lunges, no running at all, and basically to avoid putting any stress on my knees... Uh- can you say BUMMER! That was like 90-95% of my workouts. How the heck was I suppose to stay active through out my pregnancy? I moped around for a week or two, pretty devastated that I couldn't be active during my pregnancy. I tried walking, but I would get board and I would start to feel ambitious and attempt to run a block or two. But it just wasn't doing it for me. I can't remember what made me decide to try swimming- but I did. I knew swimming was a great cardio workout and it would be super gentle on my joints. I am happy to say that I am still currently swimming- even at 33 weeks- though I am not swimming as much- I am still staying strong. Because of my exercise restrictions and the solitude of swimming laps I have put a lot of thought into Fitness on the Plains and Beachbody, and why I am a coach. I'll admit, not being able to do the Beachbody programs made me feel like a fraud. Why would anyone want to buy into a program when their coach can't even do the workouts? I started to ask my self some hard questions and the one thing that kept coming to my mind was "Everyone deserves to be happy and healthy" Which got me thinking... EVERYONE, EVERY PERSON deserves to be happy and healthy. EVERYONE. But what about the people like me- who couldn't do the workouts? What about people with physical limitations? Why would they buy a program if they weren't physically able to do it? And what about the single mother, who desperately wants to get healthy- but working a minimum wage job- can't afford the cost of Shakeology and subscription to Beachbody streaming service? What about the man who just got evicted from his apartment and is living in his car until his next paycheck? Don't they deserve to be happy and healthy? Of course they do! Healthy isn't just for those who can afford it- It's for everyone! As I pondered all these things, I started to realize that maybe Beachbody coaching wasn't really for me. Don't get me wrong- they have some amazing products that give people some amazing results! I mean, just look at my husband- he has lost over 50 pound over the course of 6-8 months using PiYo. But I just feel as though, if I left Beachbody I would be able to help more people be happy and healthy- which is all I ever wanted to do in the first place. So after all this thinking and plotting, I have decided to create "The Happy Healthy Life". It will be replacing Fitness on the Plains. It will not be associated with Beachbody, but instead I will be creating personalized plans to help people reach what ever goals they are wanting to accomplish. I will take into consideration what limits them currently from being healthy and find creative ways to work around those barriers. I plan on having several coaching packages to choose from- notice how I say packages- not programs? If I come up with a plan and it isn't working for you- you aren't stuck with that program! We'll rework it until we find something that does! But even though I have an idea of how I want the packages to work, I haven't came up with any prices yet- that is still in the works. I also want to point out that I will not be taking any clients at this time. I won't be accepting any clients until after I have given birth and have had some recovery time. So official launch date is yet to be determined. I am pretty excited about this new venture, and I have put a lot of thought and consideration into it. I will admit I am a little terrified about going into coaching on my own, but I feel so strongly about making sure that everyone has the opportunity to be happy and healthy-I had to take the chance! |
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AuthorAmber Ames Archives
January 2019
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