Work It Out

LoveItAll was created when I became inspired during the Lent season this year to acknowledge and celebrate being healthy and happy. And I have to say (and high-five myself) that I think I've done a relatively good job sticking with that theme. Of course there have been months I've slacked on posting, but I'm revamping my dedication to LoveItAll and will be posting more! (I was going to write 'will try to be posting more' but my fiance's favorite quote stopped me from typing 'try.' The quote is from Yoda from Star Wars, "Do or do not. There is no try.") So I WILL be posting more.

Looking at previous entries, I find it hard to believe that I've only mentioned my favorite workout of all time once or twice when talking about health and happiness. After high school when my basketball and volleyball days ended, I struggled with finding ways to stay in shape. Before college my workouts were structured, scheduled, and not optional. In college they were trying this and that (yoga to abs classes) and were few and far between. I can honestly say until I found TITLE Boxing Club, I was in a work out rutttt (One 't' didn't make the five year rut seem long enough so I added a few extra).

My whole point is not how awesome TITLE is and how I don't know how I functioned before without my kickboxing classes since they have improved every area of my life from fitness, to sleeping, to diet, to happiness, although I could go on and on. My point and advice is to find something you ENJOY doing and work it out. Let's face it- working out is hard, as it should be. You simply will not stick with something challenging if you don't enjoy it. So go find your work out niche. Whether it's running or walking or an at home video like P90X or old school Tae-Bo, just work it out and have fun. The ripple effects of enjoying yourself while getting in shape will pleasantly surprise you!

You gotta have faith

I've been thinking a lot about faith lately. One of my favorite real life examples of someone who walks by faith is my amazing soon-to-be sister-in-law, who has also become one of my great friends.

She is weeks away from giving birth to her first baby- a perfect little girl named Mackenzie. Rewind nine months to when she and her husband first found out she was pregnant: it was just days after they received news that one of her surgeries to remove cancerous lymph nodes was not successful. Rewind a couple years back and see that she has been battling Thyroid cancer and all the effects of surgeries, radiation, and healing on her body. Rewind even further and see her husband surviving life threatening melanoma, and going through chemotherapy for over a year. Because of these and other factors, the pregnancy was diagnosed as high risk early on.

When I asked her if she was scared, and how she was feeling about everything, she just looked at me and said, "You know, for me it's a total faith walk." And that's been her mentality her entire journey- from cancer, to pregnancy, and all of  life's challenges, she has continued to keep the faith. Which has inspired me to not only continue to keep the faith in God, but in others, and in myself. After all if we view life as one great faith walk, there really is nothing to be scared about.