and what a privilege that is!  I don’t know if it’s because of the events of the last couple of weeks, or that I just got back from an amazing trip to the West Coast that ended with a beautiful hike to the Golden Gate bridge (see pics below) but I am feeling so grateful that my body allows me to be active.  I have been sitting at my desk for about two hours now counting down the time until I can leave and change into my gym clothes (and not just because they are much more comfortable than my work clothes!) and get my workout started!  What a freak I have become!! 😂

If you has asked me a year ago if I ever envisioned not just liking but LOVING working out to the extent that I do now I probably would have laughed out loud.  I have always enjoyed being active but there was still some tediousness about getting to the gym and passing 30 minutes on a treadmill where I was most certainly willing the time to go by faster so I could move on with the other million things I had to do that day.  Oh boy how times have changed!! My entire attitude about my health and well-being has evolved to the point that working out is not something I fit into my day because I should but rather something that I now plan my day around because I want to!

I think a lot of factors go into this mental shift of mine from finding a great workout routine that is easy to follow, to discovering my love of lifting weights and the many benefits to doing so, to discovering the super-food shakes that give me the fuel and energy I need to maintain the activity levels I am pushing my body to achieve.  But as I am sitting here this afternoon I am just plain old grateful.  Grateful that my body allows me to push it.  Grateful that it was sending me all kinds of warning signs that I wasn’t taking care of it properly.  Grateful that is showing me the results that I am working so hard to achieve.  Mostly though, I am just grateful that I am healthy again! 

You guys, we can never take our health for granted!  It is not guaranteed and if you don’t stay on top of it eventually it will begin to fail.  Mine was for sure a year ago.  Once I made the mental decision that enough was enough it was time to see if my body would respond.   I am so happy to report that it indeed has in more ways that I could have possibly imagined!  This is not at all lost of me.  I recognize what a privilege it is that my body allows me to lace up my sneakers and go on that beautiful 5 mile long hike by the ocean and up and down cliffs.  It is a privilege that I am very aware not everyone has.  It is a privilege that I was terrified I was going to lose last week.  It is a privilege I will never take for granted again.  

My body isn’t perfect. I still get frustrated that I can’t eat some of the foods that most people can. I still have a lot of work to do on getting stronger, developing  more muscle and enhancing my endurance levels.  I need to continue to work on my diet and get my cholesterol levels down a bit and my iron levels up but I am so much better off now than I was a year ago.  I know I will never go back to being that tired, run down, sick and depressed version of myself that I lived with way too long. 

I now cherish and prioritize my health like never before.  I want to not only live, I want to thrive!  Hiking by the ocean the other day really made me stop and think how lucky I am to be able to experience such amazing sights.  We are all only given one body in this lifetime.  Listen to it.  Pay attention to the signals it is sending you. Feed it properly. Nurture it. Nourish it. Be gentle to it. Be grateful for it.  LOVE IT!  It will love you back in astounding ways, I promise!  Hope you enjoy the pics below I took while hiking in San Fran….

xoxoxo,

Beth