I Believe...

Yes, I know...I have sucked at posting lately. With the move, the CPA exam, new job and the Colorado Open this weekend, life has been crazy! Here is something that I used for my family's "meditation of the day" a couple of months ago. I just thought it would be a great reminder to us all! Enjoy:)

There are not too many things in life that I have a grasp on, but over
the last 23 years I have managed to figure a few things out. First I
have found that it is extremely important to find things that you
believe in. Believing allows you to find passion and purpose in life.
BELIEVE. Believe that life is a gift to you. Believe that you are
here to better the world. The great thing about believing is that you
don’t have to know how to get there or how it’s going to happen, but
by just having a true base in your life will automatically lead you in
the right direction whether you know it or not. So make a list of the
top things you truly believe in. Here is my top ten.

1.I believe that life is a gift from God. I must take this life and live it.

2.I believe in being selfish. I think it’s ok to put ourselves first
sometimes. So many people get caught up in worrying about the judgment
of others that they forget to take care of themselves and listen to
their heart. I believe in doing things that make ME happy and more
often than not that requires that I have to be selfish. And this is
ok!

3. I believe in my principles. The past couple of years, I have
learned how quickly you can lose everything. People can take your
home, business, car or other physical assets you may own. However, no
one can take your dignity, your character, your respect, or your
ethical responsibility. These are your core values that no one can
strip away from you. So let them take your personal belongings, but
don’t let them take your pride. Keep your values, even when it is
hard. Because in the end, when nothing else is left….you still have
you! You are made up of great characteristics that can lead and take
you anywhere in life.

4.I believe that everyone needs a Starbucks or piece of chocolate now and then.

5. I believe in being healthy and fit not for physical appearnace, but
in order to better my life. In order to be prepared for the curve
balls that are thrown at me. I am healthy and fit so that I can climb
the mountains of God’s country and mentally focus in on the beautiful
gifts I have been given. I am ready.

6.I believe in the United States of America. This is OUR country that
we have built based upon the core foundation of our founding
forefathers. I believe it is important not to forget our history and
where our country has been. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you are
republican, independent, or liberal, what matters is that we are ONE
and together we represent the United States of America.

7. I believe in family. Friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, and
teachers may come and go out of your life, but family is here to stay.
Family is your support base that allows you to grow. They believe in
you even when they know you are wrong. Family is a place to feel at
ease. Family is home.

8. I believe in forgiveness. Forgiveness is the path to success. I
have learned that the path may be bumpy and long, but forgiving allows
you to release negative energy and in turn you start experience more
bliss in your life.

9. I believe in change. New opportunities and experiences come with
change. Take a chance and try something new. You will be surprised
at what you can learn about yourself when you enter a place of
unknown. Change can bring a new light into your life that you never
knew existed.

10. Last and most important, I believe in NEVER letting yourself get
too comfortable. It is so easy to fall into a routine. I believe that
as soon as you get comfortable, then you should be scared. Scared that
you are missing out on something better; scared that you are not
thinking clearly; and scared that you are not living life to the
fullest. Push yourself out of the comfort zone, whether this is out
of a bad relationship that just has become comfortable or just pushing
yourself out of the normal routine. Don’t let your body be
comfortable. Continue to push yourself physically and mentally out of
that easy place. Be uncomfortable! You will find greater strength and
happiness in your life.


-Now take a moment....think about what do you truly believe in? What keeps you going everyday? What beliefs make you the person who you are or want to be? Please comment and a share a few of those beliefs!

Why am I so scared?

When did I turn into such a big scaredy cat? I have never been so scared or anxious about my life…then the way I feel at this very moment. Tears have been flowing out of my eyes way too easily. My heart feels empty and my brain is telling my heart that this feeling isn’t going to go away. Why am I scared? I am scared to step out of my box. I am scared to leave my favorite town in the whole world to move to Denver; I am afraid to leave my friends; I am afraid to leave my gym; and I am really afraid of being alone. Being alone is a very empty feeling. Even though, I have my best friend Deverie to experience my new journey with….I still feel alone. For some reason, I am not thinking logically. I have let my heart lead me into a scary place. Starting my new job as a CPA with the largest accounting firm in the state and the fourth largest in the world should be exciting. However, I am not thinking of that aspect. I can only think about all the things I am leaving behind.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we allow new adventures to scare us away? I should be looking at this with a clear mind, but my mind is too clouded with scary thoughts. My parents taught me to be a strong and independent woman. I shouldn’t ever have to rely on anyone but myself to get the job done. For the past five years, I have done just that. If I want something….then I get it! I work hard for what I want and the feeling of satisfaction I receive is amazing. It is nice to know that I have the power to go out and get it without any help. This time, things are different. I don’t want to do this by myself. I want help….I can’t believe I am about to say this, but I want someone to hold my hand through this process! Really?! Yes, how can Miss Independent go from always wanting to do everything by herself and for herself to needing someone to hold her hand? Not sure? I need to figure this out.

Tomorrow, I am officially an adult. I start my real job. You know the kind you work from 8-5 everyday. This last weekend, I chose to leave Fort Collins with a BANG! Actually, it was a BIG BANG. (This calls for another story…another time.) This past weekend was so bittersweet. I had the best weekend ever, which makes it even harder to say goodbye. All of my friends are going in different directions. I know that some of them I will never see again, others I will see every now and then, and there are just a few that I will see more often than not. Life goes on and the music keeps playing, whether or not we want it to. This is one of those times that I wish I could hit the pause button. Since I have no control over the music player….I must accept it and move on. I have to embrace this scary thing called change; I have to run with it and I have to own it.

I am the only one who can control my feelings. I am choosing to take this scary situation and turn it into something totally FAB!

Any words of wisdom for this scared 23 year-old?

Food for thought:
“The Master of Life’s been good to me. He has given me strength to face past illnesses, and victory in the face of defeat. He has given me life and joy where other saw oblivion. He has given new purpose to live for, new services to render and old wounds to heal. Life and love go on, let the music play.” Johnny Cash

Happy Fourth of July!

Celebrate...oh we will. Thank you forefathers! It is so important to remember how far we have come as a country. Please take this day to celebrate our freedom, while remembering those who have fought and are currently fighting for the United States of America. I am taking this day to celebrate my freedom by going for a run, having a great BBQ with my friends, enjoying a nice cup of Starbuck's coffee and then ending my great day with an amazing firework show. I am free to do all these things that make me happy because America stands for freedom! Ahhh....how lucky are we?!

Enjoy your day and take a moment to remember our history....

Background
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is the annual celebration of nationhood. It commemorates the passage of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
The Congress had voted in favor of independence from Great Britain on July 2 but did not actually complete the process of revising the Declaration of Independence, originally drafted by Thomas Jefferson in consultation with fellow committee members John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and William Livingston, until two days later. The celebration was initially modeled on that of the king’s birthday, which had been marked annually by bell ringing, bonfires, solemn processions and oratory. Such festivals had long played a significant role in the Anglo-American political tradition. Especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, when dynastic and religious controversies racked the British Empire (and much of the rest of Europe), the choice of which anniversaries of historic events were celebrated and which were lamented had clear political meanings. The ritual of toasting the king and other patriot-heroes—or of criticizing them—became an informal kind of political speech, further formalized in mid-18th century when the toasts given at taverns and banquets began to be reprinted in newspapers.

Early Years
In the early stages of the revolutionary movement in the colonies during the 1760s and early 1770s, patriots used such celebrations to proclaim their resistance to Parliament’s legislation while lauding the king as the real defender of English liberties. However, the marking of the first days of independence during the summer of 1776 actually took the form in many towns of a mock funeral for the king, whose “death” symbolized the end of monarchy and tyranny and the rebirth of liberty.
During the early years of the republic, Independence Day was commemorated with parades, oratory and toasting, in ceremonies that celebrated the existence of the new nation. These rites played an equally important role in the evolving federal political system. With the rise of informal political parties, they provided venues for leaders and constituents to tie local and national contests to independence and the issues facing the national polity. By the mid-1790s, the two nascent political parties held separate, partisan Independence Day festivals in most larger towns. Perhaps for this reason, Independence Day became the model for a series of (often short-lived) celebrations that sometimes contained more explicit political resonance, such as Washington’s birthday and the anniversary of Jefferson’s inauguration while he served as president (1801–09).

19th Century Celebrations
The bombastic torrent of words that characterized Independence Day during the 19th century made it both a serious occasion and one sometimes open to ridicule—like the increasingly popular and democratic political process itself in that period. With the growth and diversification of American society, the Fourth of July commemoration became a patriotic tradition which many groups—not just political parties—sought to claim. Abolitionists, women’s rights advocates, the temperance movement, and opponents of immigration (nativists) all seized the day and its observance, in the process often declaring that they could not celebrate with the entire community while an un-American perversion of their rights prevailed.

A Modern Holiday
With the rise of leisure, the Fourth also emerged as a major midsummer holiday. The prevalence of heavy drinking and the many injuries caused by setting off fireworks prompted reformers of the late 19th and the early 20th century to mount a Safe and Sane Fourth of July movement. During the later 20th century, although it remained a national holiday marked by parades, concerts of patriotic music and fireworks displays, Independence Day declined in importance as a venue for politics. It remains a potent symbol of national power and of specifically American qualities—even the freedom to stay at home and barbecue.
Copyright © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.

Food for Thought:
“May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country! ”
~ Daniel Webster

The Secret to You

This video is amazing and I don't need to add anything. Just watch this video and soak up all the great messages it is sending. My goal is to wake up every morning and watch this video. It's a great way to start your day off right! Enjoy:)

Nutrition is my constant battle

Nutrition. Today was another wake up call for me. For the past 17 days, I have been diligently writing down everything I eat along with how much I eat. It has been a big pain in the butt. I have always believed that your food should not be this complicated and hard. I should just eat and not have to worry. This is true, but lately I have fallen off the path of healthy eating and forgotten how to just eat right. My wonderful crossfit coaches told me to start a food log and after 2 weeks they would take a look at it. Well…today was the day. Even though I am doing the Whole30 program, I learned that there are still areas of improvement.

I have been trying to master my nutrition for the past 6 months. I have successfully cut out dairy (except butter), legumes, grains, and most processed foods. My sugar intake has been minimal and for the past 17 days it has NOT existed in my life. So what do I eat you ask? Meat, veggies, nuts, seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Some people refer to this as paleo/caveman diet, but I just call this a healthy and natural way of eating. It is NOT a diet, but a lifestyle change to improve my overall health.

Even though I have been eating all awesome things for my body, I have been going crazy on the nuts and nut butters. Uh-Oh! When sugar is removed from our daily lives…we crave it! I have been filling that void with lots and lots of fat, and I also some fruit. These two combo’s together without any protein are BAD. The fruit is a carbohydrate, which causes my insulin to go up and it tells my body to store. Then when I add some fat in there….my body will instantly store the fat. So for the past week, I have been allowing my body to store fat with no way for it to be released. Ughhh!! This just pisses me off.

Coach Brad told me to back off the nuts. My problem is that I love almonds, hazelnuts, cashews and macadamia nuts so much that I just can’t eat a few. I always devour them with no ability to stop myself. My solution: Get those nuts out of the house! I immediately went home and through away all the nuts and nut butters I had in my panty. Eliminating them completely is the only way for me to break this habit. I am now going to replace the fat I got from nuts with avocados, olives, olive oil, coconut oil and coconut. I find that I can’t really over eat on these fats like I could on nuts.

What did I learn? I learned that nutrition is a CONSTANT battle. There is always room for improvement and always changes to be made. It can be completely frustrating at times and can even get to the point where you just want to say F*#! it. Trust me…I have been to this point several times. It always takes me a moment to realize and remember how I felt when I ate “dirty.” I was tired, lethargic, weak, and just gross! Eating right has improved my life. It hasn’t been easy, but then again if eating right was easy then we wouldn’t have this obesity pandemic. Nutrition is a constant battle for everyone. There are always going to highs and lows. If you fall off….no worries! You just have to get right back on!

Food for Thought:
"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.” -La Rochefoucauld

Safety Box

Spring is in the air in Fort Collins today. The park was busy with families and friends gathering together to enjoy this wonderful world we live in. The sun is out and shining its beautiful light down upon us all. As I sit here, I can’t help but smile. Everyone is so happy and all the anxiety in day to day life is removed. Today the world seems perfect.

It is days like these that I look forward to in my life, a day of peace and relaxation. It is so easy for people to get caught up in life, while forgetting to LIVE IT! I think that everyone gets in such a routine and a comfort zone that they are just able to go through the motions. But what happened to fun and excitement? Well, it slowly disappears because we are trapped by our own habits that we created. Unconsciously, we keep ourselves locked in a box. The box represents our safety zone; a place that we grow to know everything inside; a place that we know will not throw any surprises at us; a place of comfort.

Imagine your life differently…yes, I know this is hard. We are so use to this safety box that it has actually hindered our ability to think outside of it, but I challenge you to make a change today. Step outside of your box into the world of the unknown. Change is hard, but change is good. It helps build your confidence, improves your outlook on life, provides new experiences that facilitates learning and personal growth, and it opens the door to new opportunities. The hardest part of making a change is taking that first step, but I can assure you that once you take that first step out of the fear….then life can stimulating and fun.

My mom called me this morning in tears. These were tears joy and fear. She is about to embark on a wonderful change in her life. Recently, my mom has decided to accept a new job in a new town away from where we call home. She is happy that a new opportunity has opened up, but she is scared to leave her comfort zone. This comfort zone represents 30 years of her life. It’s a place that warms her heart and carries countless memories. To say the least, this change is going to be rough. The crazy thing about change is that affects everyone. Not just the person experiencing it, but the people you surround yourself with in your life. This particular change will affect my family, my mom’s friends, co-workers, and even our adorable dogs. This new experience can be ABSOLUTELY frightening to everyone. Change is uncomfortable and in turn we automatically hate it! However, my mom did remind me that when BIG changes take place in our life, it is extremely important to keep your support system close.

Change does not have to be a bad thing. I think that there is ALWAYS something good that comes from it. Change requires you to think about life in a new way. It allows you to discover new things about the world and yourself. You can make a change today!

Start with baby steps. Change can be gradual and it doesn’t have to be big.

1. Start changing the little details in your life. Maybe take a new route to work, try a new restaurant, wear something you wouldn’t normally wear, or listen to new music. These changes may seem small and irrelevant, but they will help guide you later and make you less hesitant to try a bigger change. They will also help you get use to how change feels. Change is awkward and scary. The more you can experience change, the less terrifying it will be for you to step outside of your box.

2. Don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself. We are often held back by the fears of being judged by others. Who cares?! Go out and do it for yourself, not for the for a complete stranger who knows nothing about you. Act goofy for once. Everyone knows that no one is perfect and I bet you if you let people see your “foolish,” or crazy side…they will learn to love those imperfections because it makes you exciting and fun to be around.

3. Enjoy the ride. Once you can step outside of your box into the unknown, your life will become a rollercoaster. There will be ups and downs with twists and turns, but it will only make you a stronger individual. This new ride will help you grow to better understand yourself and encourage your inner soul to fly. Remember life is too short to stand around, so hop on the rollercoaster and enjoy the ride.

I encourage you to be curious about life. Soak up all it has to offer and break down your barriers. Let good thoughts rush through your mind. Capitalize on every single day.

I am going to leave you with a quote from my mom as food for thought…
"Have fun. Seek adventure. Change your life in a wonderful way!" -Mom