2014 in Review

Wow, it's December 31, 2014! Tomorrow is a new year – a time where I set new intentions. But first, I want to take today to reflect on 2014.

January – March 2014

• It snowed and snowed and snowed. I shoveled a lot of snow.
• There was no balance in my work-life balance. The scales tipped strongly towards work.
• As a creative outlet, I began writing this blog!

April – June 2014

• I began to burn out from all the stress and was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue and high inflammation levels.
• I decided to address my work-life imbalance by taking a trip with my best friend to Las Vegas to see Britney Spears in concert!
• I took a 3-week basic cooking class at CulinAerie. Now I know how to use a knife properly and how to julienne!

July – September 2014

• Ben and I trekked to Jiffy Lube Live to see KISS, Def Lepperd and Lynryd Skynyrd in concert!
• I turned 43! For my birthday, my best friend gave me a copy of Thrive by Arianna Huffington. It helped change my life!
• I spoke at the White House. Seriously! It was amazing!
• Ben and I took a week-long road trip through New England. I crossed off my bucket list visiting Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.  Only 16 more states to go!
• I spent a weekend with Oprah and 10,000 others during Oprah's Live the Life You Want tour in Washington, DC. Seeing Oprah - another item crossed off my bucket list!

October – December 2014

• I attended Emerging Women Live 2014 in New York City! I met some amazing women, including Arianna Huffington, and decided I needed a lifeshift after doing a meditation with Gabrielle Bernstein!
• I became a blogger at the Huffington Post Blog, reaching thousands of people so far and hopefully inspiring them! Another bucket list achievement!
• To help reduce stress and my fatigue, I began taking Kundalini Yoga and started seeing a nutritionist. I even braved a 10-day detoxification cleanse!

In a nutshell, I worked a lot, got sick, and then remembered the goal that I set during my cancer journey to balance work and life and get healthy. I believe that everything happens for a reason. Once I refocused this year, amazing things began to occur. I had some kick ass experiences and met some awesome people, all of whom have touched my life in a special way. 2014 was a great year with a few not so great moments. It was a year that I needed. 

I can't wait to see what 2015 holds! Happy New Year!

Christmas 2014

Christmas 2014

As a child, Christmas was a magical time of year for me. We weren't allowed to decorate our Christmas tree until after December 11, my sister's birthday. But, on December 12, the tree and Christmas decorations went up, and my parents went to baking all kinds of Christmas goodies. On Christmas Eve, we would attend the Christmas Eve service and then my mom's family would gather together to exchange gifts. And on Christmas morning, my brother and I would rush into the living room to see all the presents from Santa and would wake our parents with our screams of delight! After we had opened our gifts and played with our new toys, we would head to our grandparent's home for Christmas dinner. There, we would quickly eat and then spend the rest of the day playing with our cousins. My Christmases as a child were filled with love, laughter, and joy!

And then I became an adult. Christmas lost its magic. It became filled with sadness, lies, broken promises, fear, and then cancer. It's only been since Ben came into my life that I've begun to truly enjoy Christmas again. But still I have my moments. This Christmas season, I sent out Christmas cards and gifts of love to my family as usual, but for the first time in years, I finally allowed myself to cry when my family forgot about me yet again. It was a good cathartic cry. Ben just held me as my heartache poured out with my tears. My best friend called and simply said, “That's why you have friends...because we care about you.”

So, on Christmas morning, I woke up to gifts from Ben, his family, and my friends under the Christmas tree. And as I opened each gift, I could feel the love and the thought that was put into each selection. I hope that they could feel my love to them when they opened theirs as well. I then made a Southern-style Christmas dinner for the two of us, and we spoke to my grandmother and Ben's family on the phone. And then we simply enjoyed being together. It was another step in my lifeshift to make a healthy living for myself.  

Date with a Nutritionist

As part of my lifeshift (aka my healthy mid-life crisis), I set the intention that I would strive for a healthier living. So, I made an appointment with a nutritionist. On the phone, she indicated that she would email me a form to fill out, which shouldn't take more than 30 minutes, and asked that I also keep a food log over a 3-day period.  When the form arrived in my inbox, I promptly forgot about it.

My memory was jogged while looking at my iPhone calendar the day before the appointment.  So, I frantically tried to remember what I had eaten for the past 3 days. And then I had to remind myself to be honest about it! Lying to your nutritionist about your eating habits before the first meeting is like lying to a first date about your height or weight. It's not going to get you what you want in the end!

And then, I came to the form -- you know the one that should take only 30 minutes to fill out. So, 2 hours later, I had laid myself bare in my responses. And when I say bare, think "naked on a busy street" bare.  There was not an intrusive question about my body habits that she didn't ask. We're talking how many times a day, week, month, year I have sex! Not even my doctor knows the shape of my poop, and I promise not to share it here!  But the nutritionist wanted to know!

During our session, I set goals to be healthier overall, to reduce stress, and to lose weight. The nutritionist asked me to think of her as a lifestyle coach who will help me get to the root cause of my issues surrounding food and do it in a functional manner. So, now I have my own food therapist!

I was pleasantly surprised at our meeting not to be attached to a torture rack in order to spill more secrets. However, she did weigh me and take my blood pressure. She also gave me a zinc test to see if I was zinc deficient.  It consisted of swishing liquid zinc in my mouth for 30 seconds and then describing the taste. Of course, I broke out in hives because I had forgotten that I have a zinc sensitivity! 

Until our next meeting, we agreed that I would focus on eating a healthier breakfast.  I've been testing out different smoothies.  Believe me when I say that not every combination is tasty! But I think of it as a science experiment! She also suggested that I drink a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (the kind with the mother) with water before each meal to reduce acid reflux. That actually seems to have helped.

The verdict: I'm going to see her again.  She had a positive but realistic attitude, and I think that she'll help me eat all my veggies!