I tip-toed across a layer of ice and snow toward the unprotected edge while my tour mates stared in disbelief. I’d just turned 58 and this first-time trip to the Grand Canyon was my birthday present to myself and I wanted to make the most of it. As I neared the edge where there was…
I don’t eat dairy – at least not when I’m wide awake. Because I’ve made a lifestyle choice to eliminate dairy from my diet, storing the ice cream sandwiches that my grandchildren love in the door of my freezer doesn’t faze me a bit. I can open up the freezer, see them in there and…
To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself. Soren Kierkegaard The day I tip-toed, then crawled across a layer of snow and ice to kneel near an unprotected edge of the Grand Canyon for a photo op, my birthday the day before had marked my 57th year. I…
I’m a writer; a runner; a budding artist; a blogger; a novelist hopeful; a weight-training newbie; and I’m on a weight-loss journey. In short, I’m blessed with a laundry list of labels in my life that all require a level of patience for me to stick it out and make them work. But most of…
When I was younger, living in my parents’ home and then in my own, I ate sweet potatoes in one of three ways: sliced and pan-fried; sliced, seasoned and drizzled with sugar then baked in the oven; or peeled, boiled and mashed for sweet potato pie. Back then, extra sodium and fat seemed to…
“Quiet! I can’t hear myself think.” That used to be a phrase for people: a teacher with her students; a parent with children gabbing away. But not anymore. In my workbag I carry my laptop, a tablet, and my cellphone – each with their own responsibilities. My cell is not only for calls and texts,…
My life has been a series of hills and valleys where I’ve looked for myself in all the wrong places. I joined the Army when I was younger because my mother said I should. I stayed in abusive relationships because I feared not being loved. I wouldn’t speak up in controversial situations at work because…
There’s a yogi on Instagram I follow who regularly posts a saying that always speaks to me: “You have the tools; you’re just distracted.” I mostly apply that to my writing projects; but recently I started applying it to my physical fitness. Six years ago, when I was 50 years old, I would leave…
Challenges: weight loss, eating less fat; eating more veggies, exercising more; cutting out cookies, and cakes, and sodas, and salt for seven days; 30 days, and so on. I understand the basic concept of challenges: to jumpstart a change in eating or physical exercise lifestyle, hopefully forming a habit that will continue. But do they…
There are some actions I perform in my life that, in the past, I haven’t allowed much brain time. If it’s something Ifeel I need to do, I just do it. Like spending money on a Lyft ride to work when it’s freezing cold outside. (I DESPISE the cold weather) I spend part of…
Change Grow SHINE! 