It was so fun celebrating living and thriving at my birthday celebration last night! Nice to hang out with family and friends, and see some long-time Friends again!

P.S. My husband Michael Besson is the professional musician—guitarist and bassist. I was just holding his guitar for him for a few minutes and pretending to be a rock star. Lol.

Keep Calm: It’s Nalida’s birthday! 🙂

I thank God for another year of life today!

This past weekend I was telling two of my sisters that I actually feel better in my late 40s than I felt in my 20s and 30s. Then I reflected, actually than I’ve ever felt since Kindergarten! Can you imagine. That is the last time I remember Running freely and feeling active. I started getting chubby and less active in elementary school. By middle school and High school I was overweight and then obese. I hated gym class and struggled through it. I never played sports. I felt tired and embarrassed a lot during activities. I only ran, belaboredly, to catch a bus. Now I’m RUNNING and moving because I can and want to, by God’s grace, and I feel great fueled by a Nutritarian Whole Food Plant Based diet and lifestyle! I’m on a wellness committee at work and in a few weeks am leading an indoor rock climbing group.

I had some moments of regrets since last week upon reflecting on my upcoming birthday. If only I would have started this journey to freedom earlier! No, it didn’t solve all my problems and challenges in life. But I’m better able to deal with them. I prayed to let go of regret and to just be thankful. I am so grateful! Yesterday I saw this plaque at one of my schools and it sums it up well:

“Live the life you’ve always dreamed of. Be fearless in the face of adversity. Never stop learning. Use your imagination whenever possible. Recognize the beauty that surrounds you. Remember where you came from, but never lose sight of where you are going.”

#Grateful

#BirthdayBlessings

#PlantBasedGodsGrace

First I won the first round at Family Bingo after dinner. (Michael came in 1st for the second round). 🙂 Then I walked slowly on the new mini treadmill in the corner of the family room while watching Forks Over Knives (again 🙂) with the two younger kids. Nini and I ran 40 minutes total earlier for our 5 k practice while the other kids went to train with their after school/Saturday program at the track this morning.

PI Day—3.14 Virtual Race

My running buddy today was my son Michael Jr. So far this year I’ve done a virtual 18.5 mile Cinderella long run (in several days—not in one day 🙂) with my older daughter Mika, and a Valentines 2.14 run with younger daughter Nini except we ran 3.1 miles because we’re so used to 5Ks that we didn’t pay attention that it was a VALENTINES run (2/14 🙂). I looked for a race to do with my son and found this perfect one—PI Day 3.14 miles from US Road Running! Michael LOVES math and science and is a future scientist. We did a slow but steady run and sweated on our side by side treadmills on this snow day. Great job Mikey! Now he’s going to try to memorize the PI number on his metal. 🙂

#TreadmillMom

#ScientificRunner (he chose his own hashtag 😉)

#PlantBasedGodsGrace

Obesity Post Mortem.

If you want a hard incentive to make a lifestyle change and actually seeing and hearing what fat does to your organs and entire body….

Not for the faint of heart (not sure how much I’m actually going to watch myself but I’m already committed to a healthy WFPB lifestyle) but necessary if you need a wake up call. I’m forcing myself to watch it because this is where I WAS.

THEN do yourself a favor and watch Forks Over Knives (also on Netflix) and read Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book Eat To Live. You can turn it around. Do it for yourself. Do it for your loved ones. You are worthy.

Positive VS. Negative Thinking:

Please increase the positive!

Please stop the Negative!

If you have a problem with negativity OR you want to improve on your positivity, please, please Read this article then apply it! It will inspire you to change. Negative thinking (toward yourself and others) can actually cause PHYSICAL changes as can positive thinking. Guess which thinking can lead to which result? There’s a reason why the placebo effect can cause 33% cures and why people actively prayed for have been shown to improve more often than those not prayed for even when each group had no idea what was going on.

http://ewao.com/2017/11/12/heres-scientific-that-being-positive-actually-affects-our-physical-world/

After reading this article a few weeks ago, I was moved to REALLY continue to work on increasing my positive thoughts about myself and others and working on stopping my negative thoughts about myself others and I’ve even seen some positive physical changes as a result. How many times do we lack compassion and even self-compassion? How often do we belittle ourselves? My hips are still too big, I have some flab left on my abs, look at the loose skin on my thighs, it doesn’t matter if I’m a small size, I’m still not toned enough, etc.

STOP! How about my hips look good, are strong, and have done a great job supporting my body even when I didn’t know better and abused food; My abs helped to carry my children and are so much more strong now; I look good and I’m getting stronger and more toned every day of this lifelong journey of health, fitness and wellness and I thank God for that! We are children of God. We are good. We are worthy! Amen?!

#IncreaseThePositive

#DropTheNegative

#PlantBasedGodsGrace

Snow day at Besson Castle. Nini had the idea for us to play Bingo with our new accessible Braille/Large Print Bingo Boards. It was fun! Right afterwards Michael Sr. and I got a full body aerobics and strength training workout in, including core—AKA shoveling very heavy snow! 😆 I had to make sure to squat a lot to protect my lower back. Felt good afterwards though! We even got our Whole Foods delivery from Instacart with all our yummy whole plant foods which I’m about to put away. Have a blessed day everyone and stay safe if you’re in the path of this storm too!

#PlantBasedGodsGrace

Re-Post text from last year this day (pics added):

Excuses, Addictions, and Our Choices affecting others. Plus Commitment, Education and Determination helping to change for the better. Let’s take our health back!

Some excuses:

Well there was a woman who smoked three packs and drank whiskey every day and she lived to be 100!

I say, good for her but most of us don’t have those genes and are looking for excuses to continue our bad habits. It’s our choice of course. God gave us free will. But remember that our choices affect our families, especially our kids and also our potential caregivers when WE cause ourselves to be ill and not work toward healthier habits. Anything can happen but let’s at least DO our part for wellness and not have a defeatist mentality.

#TreadmillMom

#BackyardRunner

#WeightliftingWife

#PlantBasedGodsGrace

Begin Today and Keep It Going

What if I had made that commitment to educate myself on health, build good habits, not give up even when I temporarily failed, and just kept going? What if I had done it in 1992? 2011 instead of waiting to feel so sick in 2013?

What I wish I knew now was that I could have just Begun and didn’t have to wait to begin releasing over 120 pounds and poor health. It feels SO good on this side of the health equation that I thank God I finally DID begin and am staying on this journey, by His grace.

If you’re waiting, why? I invite you to begin. It’s not as daunting as you think and there are so many good resources and people to help you along the way. You will build good habits and this lifestyle will quickly become part of your routine and life. Just begin.

#SmallChangesSmallResults

#BigChangesBigResults

#PlantBasedGodsGrace

Feeling good this morning by God’s grace. This morning was my total body weight lifting. Yesterday I ran and walked while my running buddy Nini walked on her treadmill. She recovered from a short-lived tummy bug but still wanted to get moving so she said she wanted to walk. Then after work, I did some balance/core work for a few minutes. Have a blessed day everyone!

#PlantBasedGodsGrace