A New Goal or Two

As I started this blog hours earlier this evening, I had a different direction in mind. I had actually planned to choose a topic from one of my Soulful Journal series books to write about. I didn’t want to bore you again with updates on my New Day Resolutions.  However, after an unexpected art/love project, this is what you’re getting. Sorry about that.

I didn’t set any new goals today but I managed to accomplish all of my current daily goals. I drank more water. I maintained a vegetarian diet. Again I missed the mark only slightly for having a complete vegan day because of my coffee creamer and the cheese in my leftover nachos from dinner last night. I have tried a couple of different vegan creamers and I’m having a hard time making that jump. I’ll keep trying though. I think if I can ever jump that particular hurdle, everything else will be cake!

I read my Soul Detox plan and wasn’t quite as moved as yesterday. As a matter of fact, I actually had an almost repulsive feeling after reading Jeremiah 12:1-4. But thinking back on it now, I guess I see the reason for this selection since the underlying topic is toxic thoughts (DUH…sorry, the light just turned on for me). I’m going to spend some time reflecting on these questions asked in the introduction and I guess that’s kind of the point here huh? Here are the questions that I plan to ponder for a few days.

• Which types of toxic thoughts do you experience most often?
• What are some examples of your toxic thoughts?

One daily goal I haven’t written about here yet is my desire to be creative each day. I’ve sort of taken the easy way out on this by counting my writing and my photo a day on Instagram as the check off on this one. Today I get to check off the box because I actually got creative with a special project we did with the kids. I used crayons (like the art kit kind), paper, pencils,  and markers to MAKE something. It felt really good and now I’m even more motivated than ever to do more things like this. I’m going to probably add this to my goals list for maybe three times a week or something like that.

Speaking of goals, I’m still working though how I want to track these. I watched a great video tonight that talked about categorizing your goals and I like this idea. The categories suggested were Family, Personal Development, Social, Health, Financial, Work, Home, Fun, Spiritual, and Community. I think I can work with this. Here’s a link to the video if you want to check it out.

Now, I want to leave you with one thing that completely blew me away today. I was trying to catch up on some of my recorded episodes of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday while I ate my dinner. In the episode Oprah was asking some big questions to many of the great thinkers of our day. The questions were mostly about spirituality and God and this one question and response from Iyanla VanZant left me awestruck. I have been a huge fan of hers since about 2000 and now I love her even more. Oprah asked her, “What is the difference between religion and spirituality?”  Here’s her response.

Religion is the rules, regulations, ceremonies and rituals developed by man to create conformity and uniformity in the approach to God. Spirituality is God’s call in your soul.

Whew…that one gave me goosies!

284/365 This Sucks

One more visit from Dr. Dominguez, one more injection, several more pills, Gatorade, and bed rest all day and night. This is NOT how I planned for this vacation to go.

283/365 Yin and …YAK

Yin

We spent the morning with Matt and Michelle at Tulum. It was SUPER hot and humid but it’s such a beautiful place that it’s easy to forget that.

YAK

The day did not end as wonderfully as it started. By 5:00 PM, this is what I looked like.

By 9:00 PM the resort doctor had been to my room twice, given me three separate injections to stop the vomiting and abdominal cramps, and prescribed three different pills to take.

Now, I pray for sleep.

Note to self: Avoid sushi in foreign countries.

210/365 Doctors and More Doctors

Today was another day of doctor appointments, this time back to back. First was to see my Dermatologist for my twice yearly skin check. Unfortunately, sunscreen was not a priority in my youth so I’m paying the price with semiannual appointments to make sure the many spots on my arms, chest, and face don’t turn into something serious. Once again I left with tiny blisters from freezing some spots and a small bandaged area from yet another biopsy. There’s  not a lot of concern about the biopsied area. It is more of a precaution than anything. I’m sure when my October appointment rolls around, it will be more of the same.

My second appointment of the day was with my gastroenterologist for a consult.  After more than 2 months with almost constant abdominal pain, along with several other symptoms, he recommended more tests. In the past month or so I’ve been poked and prodded much more than I would like to be, with very little explanation for my symptoms. There have been sonograms, blood work, CT scans on my kidneys and bladder, cultures and even a peek inside my bladder. It seems with each test result there comes more questions and few answers. It’s getting old pretty fast, and I’m quickly running out of specialties.

This time I left with an order for a colonoscopy, as well as another CT scan. If only the CT scan was more like this:

 

192/365 The Color of the Day is Green

Have you ever been stung by a bee? How about multiple bees at the same time in the same spot? Neither have I, but I’m pretty sure I know what it feels like. I had to go for a CAT scan today and since I have almost nonexistent veins in my arms, they have to put IVs into my hands. I was just fine with the initial stick (and mining expedition that followed), the syringe of saline, the syringe of medication, and another syringe full of saline. It wasn’t until they started pushing the contrast solution that I let out a pretty loud OUCHIE. I felt like I had stuck my hand into a bee hive and they were repeatedly stinging my wrist over and over.

After the technicians confirmed my vein didn’t blow, it was decided that we would continue, since what I was feeling was pretty normal. Sure enough, once they started pushing the dye again, there was about five seconds of agony again, then just a deep burning sensation that was unpleasant but not painful. And then just like that, they were pushing the nice cool saline through again and four minutes later, I was all done.

What I have to show for it is a nice little (large) bruise forming and some swelling and soreness that I’m sure I’ll be feeling for a few days.

At least I’m all set with a natural shade of green for the St. Patrick’s day festivities tomorrow.

For you Hunger Games fans, the nail polish is 1 coat of Agro from Disctrict 11 (Agriculture) and one coat of Luxe and Lush from District 1 (Luxury). I selected Agro because I wanted to represent for St. Patrick’s day as well as Hunger Games week!

For a better representation of the actual colors, click here.

155/365 Holy Cow I Did It

I completed Day 1 of the Couch to 5K training. I’m not sure anyone truly understands the significance of this, but trust me, THIS is a big deal for me. BIG. HUGE. I walked/jogged 1.46 miles in 30 mins. I actually jogged 8 mins of that. I even added on an extra 2 minutes to the cool down so that I could log a full 30 mins of activity time for Weight Watchers.

Wow…I still can’t believe my body did this. Must be divine intervention. Must be!