What it means...

Some may be wondering why the change of blog titles...going from Second Chance Journey to Learning to Live...kind of mean the same thing right? Well, I don't know. While it's true that I feel like I'm giving myself a second chance to do things right in my life, I also feel that I'm truly learning how to really live the life that I was MEANT to live. It's all about change. With change, comes adaptation of that change. For some people, that change is learning to live with cancer or learning to live with fighting cancer. For others it could be learning to live with being parents for the first time, or getting a new job, or moving to a new town.  No matter what it is, it's your life. Most of the time we have no control over the things that shape our lives but what we do have control over is how we deal with those things and learn to live with them. Let me explain...

A good friend of mine and her husband were surprised to learn that they were expecting twins. They made all of the necessary preparations: going to doctor appointments, decorating and buying everything babies require, and even going on bed rest when the doctor ordered her to. They did everything right. They gave birth early to these twin babies because of health complications the mom was experiencing. They're little boy was small but healthy. Their little girl is unfortunately still fighting to be in this world. Their lives now consist of and may very well continue to be lived in and out of hospitals with their baby girl going in and out of surgeries for different reasons to help her live. It's their life now.

My family and I participate in the Relay for Life event every year in our town. One of the things they do during the night is have a ceremony where each team captain gets up and reads off the names of people that have either died from cancer or who have or have had cancer. So a 'in memory of, in honor of' ceremony. This year it was my responsibility to read those names off. I get towards the bottom of the list and I begin to read, "Ralph Helmer, Mildred Helmer, Ron Helmer, Jim Helmer, Mary Helmer, and Cory Helmer." There was something about seeing that on paper and reading those names one after the other that really stopped me dead in my tracks.  My point here isn't to be sad or to make people sad by reading this. My point is that EVERYONE gets handed a certain deck of cards in their life. Like the six people in my family, it was cancer. Fortunately, I believe I have six...now five very strong individuals who, yes, learned to live with the diagnosis but very bravely chose not to let it define them. Yes, they live with the scars and treatments and annual check-ups. But they also are living and loving and they appreciate the life that they have. My Grandad, Ralph, lived a very long time and lived a great life and got to see great things. He also knew when it was time to stop fighting. He left us I think knowing that we all had each other and that we were going to be okay. In his own way, even after death, he's made sure we were okay.

God has never given me anything that I couldn't handle. After all of the crap that I have been through and have even put myself through, I'm a better person because of it. Something just clicked four weeks ago that change was needed in my life. I know four weeks doesn't sound like a very long time, but I can honestly say that I'm seeing things clearer than I have ever before. Being healthy physically and mentally was a goal I set for myself four weeks ago and to see that goal becoming a reality...it's like breathing fresh air for the first time. I've never been open about my faith. In fact, there have been times when I've denied it. But I've opened myself up to it again. I needed something unwavering to believe in. I'm "learning to live".
So in a round about way of explaining my need to change this blog title...there it is. Will I be perfect in this change, probably not. Will I question the journey and have doubts, undoubtedly yes. But that's okay.

I welcome the challenge....

Trying Something New & 10-Day Cleanse Results

I am test running this new blog site. The previous one was very limiting and didn't allow me to really customize my blogs the way I wanted to. Plus, I've given my blog a new name! I'm not sure if I like the name, but we'll see if it grows on me. 

You can go here if you feel the urge to look back on recent blogs. I have done a couple of posts about the 10 day cleanse so go to that site if you want to follow my progress.

So the 10 day cleanse is done and I have to say that it was a pretty good experience. On day one I really felt like the 10 days was an eternity! Especially on day 3 because I was feeling really horrible that day and really felt like I was really having to force myself to eat the 5 meals a day and drink all of that water! On Monday however, I woke up feeling pretty good. Friday and Saturday I had cheated a little with food so Sunday I jumped back on track and by Monday I felt a lot better. All of the research I did on this cleanse and the advice I got from my AdvoCare "coach", was that this was going to be a relatively gentle cleanse, meaning I would not be running to the bathroom all the time going poo. (I'm sorry there's no other way to put it).

Not the case:

“If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles an hour, you're going to see some serious shit.”(Cory and Justin, that was for you). 

If you didn't get that analogy, I'm sorry but I'm not going in to any further detail then that. 

Before I get to the results of the cleanse I'm going to share some things I have learned over the past 10 days:

1. Eating all day makes you hungry.

2. No matter how much hummus you eat, it never tastes any better. Never.

3. Bananas go bad after 2 days of buying them. (lame)

4. The AdvoCare website is wrong: I never lost my craving for chili cheese fritos

5. Having energy all day that lasts until 10:00 or 11:00 at night is not necessarily a good thing. 

And...

6. Cheese is not a clean food item. What? Seriously?? I mean honestly, what breakfast, lunch, or dinner item does not have cheese somehow mixed in to it??? ...I digress. 

Moving on to the results.

First, let me just say I really can't believe that I'm about to put all of this info out there for the world to see...including before and after pictures. Eeeek! But here it goes.

Before the 10-Day Cleanse

 

Bust: 48 

Arms: 14

Stomach: 45

Waist: 51.5

Legs: 29.2

After the 10-Day Cleanse

Bust: 46 (Lost 2 inches)
Arms: 13.2 (Lost .8 inches)
Stomach: 45.5 (Gained .5 inches)
Waist: 50.5 (Lost 1 inch)
Legs: 28.1 (Lost 1.1 inches)

At the beginning I weighed 222 and today I weigh 217. So I'm down 5lbs.

 

Wow...I can't believe I just put myself out there like that. I have mixed feelings about the results and the before and after pictures. However, the 24-Day Challenge is not over yet. The next 14 days will be the toning phase. They say this is where you'll really start noticing the inches falling off. I have to continue eating mostly clean food and step up my workouts and amount of water I drink. I'll be taking a few supplements throughout the day, but the best part is NO MORE FIBER DRINK!! WOOHOO! That ish was NASTY! I hope you all enjoy my new blog. You can leave comments now and mark at the bottom what you think of each blog. I look forward to reading the comments, if any!
Laters!