I've been contemplating starting a blog for a long time, and today is the day I will begin. I see this blog as a tool to help wellness flourish in all areas of my life: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. I'm experiencing a time of my life in which I don't have a full time job, as I am waiting to be hired as a teacher. I'm beginning to substitute teach, though of course this is only part time. I have long felt the urge to begin taking care of myself more fully, and to become more aware of how I am treating myself. To begin with, PHYSICAL.

My tastes lean towards sweet, and I have been "addicted" to sugar for many, many years. I want my relationship with food to be more balanced. Rather than restrict myself completely of sweets, I want to learn to be able to have a normal sized portion (or small portion) of sweets per day. In the past, what seemed to happen while dieting is what happens to many people trying to lose weight: I completely stopped my sweets intake, made a mistake, and then overate. For example, "I'll just have one piece of cake. Well, I already screwed my diet over, I'll just have one more." And the cycle continued like that. After overeating, I felt intensely bad about myself, and therefore, turned to more sweets to "boost" my mood (which of course, doesn't work long term). I've never been really overweight, but I usually hover around 150 pounds. Before my wedding, I got down to about 143, and felt awesome. My ultimate goal would be to hover around 138 at all times. More importantly, I want to feel really confident about my body. When I feel confident, it spreads throughout my life. I also want to eat foods that are energizing, and that make my body jump for joy, rather than slump on the couch. In this blog, I will record the food I eat each day, and this will force me to become more aware of what I'm eating and come face to face with any habits that I have been hiding from or denying.

I will also record any exercise I do each day. At the beginning of each week, I will roughly plan out my exercise for the week. This will help me actually get up and DO it, which is sometimes hard for me. I'm also going to vary my exercise: yoga, running, stair stepper, ellyptical, bike rides, boogie boarding, learning to surf, walks and runs with my husband - anything active. In this way, I will keep my body and my brain excited about exercising and committed.

I'm also going to try to do something each day to support my MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, and SPIRITUAL wellness. These could be any number of things...

Mental wellness: paying bills on time, organizing my house, searching for jobs and doing everything I can to help my journey as a teacher, cleaning the house, writing thank-you notes, doing a puzzle, reading a book, scrapbooking, knitting, making candles, cooking, exercising, writing this blog!, playing a game, and many more....

Emotional wellness: calling my friends or family, writing in my journal, reading a spiritual book, doing something nice for Kevin (my husband) or planning a special date, being creative (painting, scrapbooking, making gifts), doing yoga, watching an emotive movie, and many more...

Spiritual wellness: writing in my journal, choosing angel cards, talking with Abbey, creating a vision board, goal-making, researching spiritual groups or churches, attending groups or church, hiking, walking on the ocean, early morning walks/hikes, donating to various groups, volunteering, meditating, and many more...

Wow, all of those things I listed sound like so much fun... I can't wait to get started! Today, I kick off my conscious wellness. I thank myself for this commitment, my support system, and Spirit. Off I go!