My Intentions For This Year At IIN

About a month ago, I made the decision that I would be attending Integrative Nutrition this January to become a certified Health Coach, no matter what. I remembered a website called wordle.net that my kids had used for a school project, where you plug in some words, pick a font and colors and it generates a “word bubble” graphic image. Pretty cool. So, I went to it and just let my thoughts flow. Thinking of as many positive, uplifting, motivational words as I could. This is the result and what is now my cover photo on my Facebook page, HealthCoachDebbie. See, I even went so far as to go ahead and call myself a Health Coach, because that is what I will be in less than one year.

My intention for the year is to learn, really learn, about being healthy. I started this journey back in April of 2012 when I signed up to be a rep with Wildtree – an all-natural, organic food company. I had been diagnosed with high cholesterol the previous November and was researching ways of lowering it with diet, when I found some information on grapeseed oil, which then led me to the Wildtree website. I signed up without ever even eating any of the food. I just wanted to make a drastic change and I wanted to do it right then! It’s how I roll…

Anyway, I have been fairly successful at building my Wildtree business and my family and I are definitely eating better. My picky kids and meat-loving husband honestly love the food!! After all, it’s what we ate before, only without all of the preservatives, food dyes, MSG and high fructose corn syrup that we had consumed through so much processed food before. I simply need to learn how better to incorporate more of the good stuff all day, instead of mainly supper meal time.

I also have the intention to gain more knowledge about how nutrition plays a vital role in recovery from addiction.  I would like to share this with women who are trying to stay sober – preferably while attending a twelve step program.

I would like to be able to release myself from all of the clutter that surrounds me. Both physically and mentally and it is my intention to do that with the help of the skills I learn at IIN. I’m so stoked!!

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

Getting My "Curves" into Shape!

So, yesterday, I had a moment of sheer brilliance. Nothing changes if nothing changes...duh! Some of you may have heard this profound message before, so I don't claim to have come up with it on my own. I steal most of my material. Anyway, I realized that I still have not made any changes to my normal routine since the New Year began and, lo and behold, am still feeling like crap. I have made no attempts to quit smoking, eat better, or exercise. The only thing I seem to be good at committing to is procrastination. I really can't stand myself any longer, and want to make some changes. I think, no, I know, the obstacles that I place in front of myself are baseless and silly and I am choosing, right this moment, to not let them stand in my way of happiness and health any longer!

I went online and looked up Curves - a gym for women whose unofficial motto is "no makeup, no men and no mirrors". Thank you, because I only put makeup on when I get dressed up to go out (never), I am not looking for "meat", and don't mirrors add 10 pounds? They offer 30 minute workouts that supposedly work every major muscle group with a focus on strength training.

So, can a commitment-phobe like me handle 30 minutes a few times a week? If I start working out and feeling better, will I want to quit smoking, eat better, and become more active? We'll see. I printed out a Free Week Pass and even called this morning to made an appointment - which is at 10:00am - TODAY! Shoot, I better jump in the shower and start getting ready... what will I wear?

Damn Kid's Birthday Parties

So, I'm booking Trevor's Birthday Party at Pump-It-Up and I cannot BELIEVE how expensive it is! I thought I was doing well to try and book in advance, too, but the only one I could get was the BIG package for $389.00. Ok, so we can invite 25 of his closest friends and they will supply the pizza, drinks, paper goods, balloons and goodie bags, but really - isn't that a little extreme?

Oh well, the smile on his face when I said we would do it is worth the price... isn't it? Time to whip out the school phone list. That kid needs to find 25 friends, pronto!

High School Graduation 2009!

Marcus and Jordan will both be graduating from High School this June 6, 2009! Wow! Of course, graduation ceremonies will be held on the same day, same time in two different school districts - can you believe? So, Kevin and I have to split up for the day, but each of them have large families on the other sides, so they'll be well supported. We are going to have a party for them on Sunday, too so that all our friends who have been a part of both their lives can come celebrate with us.

Announcements will be in the mail tomorrow!



What an incedible journey this has been. Marcus and Jordan met when they were just 5 and 6 years old and soon became brothers. It wasn't always easy on either one of them and they have always been so different from one another, but both of them truly love each other and have been awesome big brothers to Oliver and Trevor. Although they will take different roads from here, with Jordan going on to Sam Houston University to study Criminal Justice and Marcus going to live with his dad, working, and hopefully taking classes at Houston Community College until he finds his "niche", I am sure they will remain close as brothers and friends.

I hope you'll join me in wishing them Good Luck for whatever the future will bring!


Crying now..... :o(


Debbie

Trevor Has Gone GREEN!

Follow my little environmentalist on his journey to clean up the Earth! Check out his blog at http://bigreenhelp-gogreen.blogspot.com/ and post your commitment to Earth Day and our planet. Give us some ideas on other ways we can help, too.

Earth Day is April 22, 2009 - what will you do?

Debbie :o)

Twitter!

Has anyone tried Twitter? I just signed up this morning and don't have time right now to check it all out! I added a link to it on my blog here, tho... just one more thing to distract me from what I really should be doing!! Haha!

Update on life in Katy, TX - Mom is coming to live with us!! WooHoo! We are all very excited and thrilled to have her - what a HUGE help she will be to me so I can work more and the boys are really happy that she'll be able to spend time with them! Kevin will probably have her up all night playing Scrabble! I hope she can stand us...LOL!

Work is going well. I just promoted to Shift Supervisor - la dee da! Better me than someone else heehee! So, I have to be available to work more and longer shifts, but there is more money involved. Still won't get rich working at Starbucks, but I do love it!

Speaking of... am heading there right now to meet my friend Vicki for a cup of coffee - see ya!

:o)

Spring Break!

Hey ya'll! It's Spring Break - woohoo! I took the whole week off from work so I can hang with the kiddos. We just got back from camping in New Braunfels, TX. We left on Saturday morning, when the weather was very wet and very cold. Me, Kev, Oli and Trev went - Jordan had baseball and Marcus had work. First time without the whole crew... felt strange, but we sure didn't have to pack as much... LOL!

Anyway, our campsite was interesting. At first, we thought it was the worst spot in the place, kinda slopey and it was raining (remember Florida helen?) and we were right on the little Comal River (Mom, remember going tubing down this river when Marcus was @ 5 years old??!!) - I think Kevin was afraid we'd get washed down into it. Then there were the train tracks about 200 feet away - and yes, the train came by constantly, AND there was an intersection in the road right above us so the train man just had to blow his whistle - is there a rule about how many times they have to blow that thing? We tried get a different site, but it was all booked up, so we decided to make the best of it.

Saturday night was HORRIBLE! We all froze to death and the train and it's whistle came by at 1:30 am, 3:30 am, 5:30 am... you get the picture. Oh and Kevin's snoring sent me to sleep with the boys at the other end of the tent - fun. Sunday morning it rained a little bit more, but the sun started coming out and it was getting a little warmer. We went for a drive and found Landa Park. What a neat place! It is 196 acres of natural park with springs that gush from underground limestone formations. These are the largest springs in Texas and the source of the Comal River that was named shortest river in the world by Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not! There is also a 309 year old oak tree that was planted from a seedling in 1700 - cool. Later in the day, the boys and I went back and took a hike along a nature trail that cuts through limestone dating back to prehistoric times.

Monday turned out to be beautiful! The sun was out and it got nice and warm. We went to Natural Bridge Caverns. This is the sinkhole at the beginning of the caves to which the "natural bridge" of limestone was left. Inside, the stalagtites and stalagmites are AWESOME! It takes @ 100 years for a cubic inch of calcium to build up and make those things... wow!

We did a little fishing.

Although, by the look on Oliver's face, you can tell he'd rather be doing this:

Trevor discovered crawfishing:














Oli and Trev dared to go swimming... that lasted for about 5 minutes... still a little too cold!

We were going to try and stay one more day, but too bad we didn't have enough clean clothes! Whew. I need some sleep! New Braunfels is a fun place and we will go back this summer - I scoped out some other campgrounds while we were there - some NOT right next to a train track! Maybe next time we'll brave the Guadalupe River and go tubing down it - likely though, we'll stick to the small one.

I'll post the rest of the pics on Snapfish soon!

Deb's First Blog

Well, HEY! Thought I'd sit down and finally write a little bit. I have absolutely no idea what the theme of this blog will end up being, but you gotta start somewhere, right? So here it is...

Hmmmmmmm

A shame, really, that I can't think of anything to write about. Am sitting here staring at the computer with all sorts of thoughts going through my head, but none of them seem very interesting.

We'll try this: What's going on in my life right this minute? I work at Starbucks - that's always good material. Lots of interesting people to talk about. I really like my job, but sometimes it amazes me how "entitled" some people can be. Starbucks has a "just say yes" policy that is supposed to mean we try to accomodate customer's tastes and wants as much as possible. There are so, so many people, though that take advantage of it and always want something for nothing - I guess this is true just about anywhere. A lady came in yesterday and by-passed the paying customers in line to tell me - not ask for - that she wanted two Venti (that's large in normal talk) cups of ice. I said sure and got them for her, she then said, "where are the lids, I want lids and straws, too", so I went to the register to see if we had any way at all to charge for them. She asked what it cost and when I told her I was looking, she said "They don't charge me for them, they are supposed to be free". So I just turned my back and said have a nice day - she asked me for my name and I told her and she asked if I was the manager and I said no, so she just stared me down as she was going out the door. I would really love to hear the complaint she will no doubt make. "I came into your store, went up to the bar so as to avoid the line with all the paying customers in it, demanded free cups of ice with lids and straws and when your employee Debbie tried to charge me for them, I was outraged and now you will give me free drink coupons." It'll go something like that. And so it goes...nearly every day. BUT, for the most part it's a fun job and I still like it most days. BTW, whoever knows who "They" is, I'd like to have a word...

Ok, that wasn't so hard. Maybe more tomorrow.

Deb :o)