Elf4Health in Review

During the past four weeks I was privileged to have been part of the Elf4Health challenge run by two great women. I stumbled across this challenge from another blog that I was following. It is amazing how wonderful these blogs can be to help lead you to something wonderful and exciting!

I was partnered up with another Elf, one for the first two weeks and a second for the last two weeks. Both elves were great support systems and I really enjoyed communicating with them. My first elf really got me going on the right track though and encouraged me to hit all of the challenges laid out for us.

When I tell you there was a great support system, I really mean it. Not only did I have awesome elves but there was even a Facebook group created so that we could share our pictures of us completing the challenges. It was great to see how people took the challenges and went in so many different directions and made each challenge their own.

Below is a list of challenges that we completed through the four weeks. If you run across this challenge next year, make sure to sign up! I will be on the lookout next year for this challenge.

Spreading Christmas Through Ornaments!

Fellow blogging friends of mine Jennifer and Jenny decided to host an Ornament Swap in which they invited other bloggers to join up, then they gave us partners and it was our task to get to know our partners over a few weeks. I would certainly check out Jennifer and Jenny's blogs if you have not already. These ladies are pretty fabulous!! What a great job they did with the Ornament Swap.


I was very fortunate to have a wonderful partner named Katie. She blogs over at Big Apple Girl and is so good at paying attention to detail and I am pretty sure has read almost all of my blog posts to see who I am as a person. I was thoroughly surprised to receive my ornament and then be able to open it up not knowing what to expect. I almost started crying because this ornament has to be my all time favorite and came at such a great time. I was losing steam with my weight loss and my journey but Katie has re-motivated me to keep going on.

Can I say... COOLEST ORNAMENT EVER!!! 

I really enjoyed chatting with Katie and getting to know her over the past few weeks. She has encouraged me to share some of my other talents with all you blog folks so the next blog post will be about one of my hobbies.. You will not want to miss it! Make sure to go and look at all the other ornaments that were sent to my blogger friends either through Jenny or Jennifer's link ups! If you were not a part of it this year, I highly recommend participating next year. This is going to be a new Christmas tradition for me.

Lessons we Learn

With the help of one of my fellow elves, Brianna put together a link up. So my guest poster is the very talented Laurie who has a few blogs; Travel with Cajunville and RV Cajun Cooking.

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God, don’t we have enough experience yet?

The CEO of a very successful business was asked how he became so successful.  He responded “he never makes mistakes”.  The interviewer asked “how do you do anything and not make mistakes?”  To which the CEO responded, “Experience”.  The interviewer then followed up with one more question, “how did you get your experience”.  The CEO finally responded, “I made lots and lots of mistakes”.

Expertise can come from experience and is not always the result of a mistake; sometimes stuff just happens.  My husband, John, and I are dedicated RVers and we recently took a trip from Louisiana to a family wedding in Boise, Idaho and back to Louisiana.  In seven years of RVing this was by far the trip with the most “RV experience” leading to expertise.  Some of our friends call this our “trip from Hell!”

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

The lessons started as we pulled out of our driveway when our pivoting hitch began making a popping sound.  Long story short, six hours later after a complete pin box rebuild we began our trip. 

No blinkie, no blinkie, no blinkie

First morning in Texas during our safety check before getting on the road, we thought we had a burned out taillight.  Three days later, after backtracking half a day, a professional service technician changed a portion of the wiring harness in the RV which had shorted out and we once again pointed the front bumper in the direction of Boise.

“John, why is that truck kinda sideways?”

A couple days later traveling into Colorado we started receiving interstate high wind warnings.  They continued to increase through Denver until we reached the Wyoming border.  At the first Wyoming exit we were met with flashing lights with the instructions, “warning high winds, all RVs must exit now”.  Luckily we had planned to stop for the night at that exit so we had reservations and we rocked and rolled all night.

LOUD BANG!  No, really, a LOUD BANG!

Our next experience occurred in the town that coal built, Rock Springs, Wyoming.  Most RVers that pull a 5^th wheel trailer will tell you there are two kinds of RVers those who have unexpectantly dropped their trailer and those who have yet to do so.   Upon pulling out of the campground at Rock Springs, the trailer slid from the hitch and banged onto the bed of the truck.  After the chaos of the immediate bang after we were able to catch our breaths we realized no real damage had been done; we rehitched and were on our way.

Flap, flap, flap, bang!

Sometimes wine is more expensive than it first appears.  Returning from Guy Drew Vineyards after purchasing our obligatory case of wine,

we crossed the private bridge exiting the property and caught our tire on a damaged piece of metal.  After entering the highway the telltale flap, flap, flap, bang told us somehow the wine was going to be more expensive than we had just paid for it.  Two days later and two tires later that case of wine ended up costing us about $700.

Big Bang! (way back there someplace)

A Big Bang between Pecos and Ft. Stockton, TX began a several day saga that saw us replace not only a damaged trailer tire but our spare tire as well. 

Whir, Whir, oh crap!

“John the right leg is not coming up”.   We were two hours late leaving the campground in Beaumont, Texas due to a bolt coming loose from our front leveling legs on the RV.

Finally on the road on the way home.

Bump, Bump, Geez…Bump, Bump, Geez… 

Yes we are getting closer to Louisiana.  But, then there was that really big bump not long after getting on the Interstate.

Honk, Honk, Honk. 

The guy in the car next to us on the Interstate in Beaumont tells us we are dragging our waste water tank.  What?  Impossible.  Nah…  On the side of the interstate with the RV oscillating back and forth from the 70 mph traffic passing inches from the RV, John is under the RV having a near death experience and finally frees the tank hanging under the RV.   After emptying the tank (clear, fresh water thank goodness) we are loaded up and headed for home once again.

Certainly a part of expertise is experience and while we don’t claim to be RV experts necessarily we certainly have a lot of RV experience and therefore expertise.  On our last leg of the trip home John looks at me and smiles that quirky smile he has and chuckles, then I look at him and blurt out, “OK God, we have enough experience, you can stop now”.  

New Years Resolutions and the Gym

So my sister asked me to write a blurb to be put in a nutrition newsletter about fitness and New Years Resolutions. This is what I came up with for the newsletter and it was sent off tonight.

January is right around the corner and it is time to begin thinking about a New Years Resolution for 2014. Did you know that 40% of Americans create Resolutions each year with 21% choosing to lose weight and 14% want to increase the amount of exercise they are doing? This is why gyms around the country see an influx of people signing up for memberships and attending throughout the month of January. I have clients come in with the best of intentions and by the end of January, only a vast few are left trying to accomplish their Resolutions. The reason is due to the fact that when we create goals, they are often far out of reach and unattainable which causes people to lose their momentum because they are not where they ‘see’ themselves being.

When setting fitness goals, one should have a larger goal in mind and then set up mini goals to reach along the way. One of the easiest and sometimes most difficult goal can be to walk into the gym with an open mind. Take the time to talk with other clients and staff members to figure out what it is that you want to set as your goal and then work to achieve. Maybe you want to lose inches off your body but do not know how, or you want to eat better but are not sure what direction to go. Another small goal could be to sit on the floor and be able to get up with ease. Remember there is no such thing as a silly or too simple of a goal, and whatever you choose does not have to be extravagant and over the top. One client had trouble touching the floor as one of the moves to a Zumba song. She decided to make that her larger goal and created smaller goals that she would work towards. First she started with touching the floor once, and then twice, soon she was touching the floor every other time. At the end of two months she was able to not only hit the floor every time but would hit it hard so everyone knew she had succeeded in reaching her goal, it was her reminder that she can do it. This inspired her to create another goal in which she tried other fitness classes that were being offered at the gym to see what she could challenge herself with.

Your goal can be that simple; trying one new class a week or even one new class a month. Make a goal to increase the amount of time or the number of days you spend at the gym. When creating your New Years Resolution consider a few things:

1. Make it attainable
2. Create mini goals to get to the larger goal
3. Be realistic
4. Believe in yourself

Out of the 40% of people who create New Years Resolutions, only 8% of people are able to carry out and reach their goals. Are you willing to challenge yourself to be part of that small group to successfully complete your goal in 2014?

Gym and Personal Records

With the Elf4Health challenge this month, it has really pushed me to do more and push my boundaries to be a better person and look at what I can do to simplify/better my life. I have been able to do many of the challenges and while some I was not able to accomplish, I am not giving up. One of the best features is that I have been given two separate elves to help me out these past three weeks.

I put a hold on my membership for three months because I had started TurboFire and did not want to lose my last month membership. So I started up again on Wednesday. I have a deeper appreciation for the gym and have realized how vital it is in my own life and that 

Today was one of my favorite challenges because it forced me to be uncomfortable. I dragged myself out of bed before work to go to Spin class. So I made it to the 6am class and then the challenge for the day was to run your fastest mile. I did that today and have beat all previous records that I have personally held. I started a year ago with completing the 1 mile in 19 minutes. This morning I was able to run 1 mile in 10:19. It is my personal best and I am very proud of myself for having come so far in the last year. 

With the end of the year coming up, what are you proud of? What is something that you have accomplished in the past year or have noticed a change in?

First Time Video

So my sister Stevie, owns her own gym which caters to women only. I go down there about once a month and workout or get a nice massage. It is a really nice place and she has been in business for a number of years now and have moved a few times because of a need for more space for her clients and the workouts she offers.

Once a week Stevie puts up a video of some tips that will help clients during the week or some minor changes that may help improve their diet/exercise regime. We were all home for Thanksgiving so she decided that I would be the perfect 'guest' for the video this week. It is my first time on actual video and I think I did pretty good for a first time. It was about the holidays and how to stay on track during the next month or so with holiday parties, Christmas and New Years. So check it out, let me know what you think!!