Make Up Your Mind - Once and For All - To Take Care of You!

Most of us understand that there is a link between obesity and disease. But understanding that it's bad for us doesn't automatically give us the means to change course. This is the major gap that so many of us struggle to overcome.

Photo credit: http://www.drwayneandersen.com/2018/08/24/the-failure-pattern-diet-vs-exercise/

But I believe that you can do it! It's a matter of making up your mind - once and for all - to take back control of your health and take care of yourself. Once the decision is made, it's all about finding a plan that works for you and getting positive support to help you along your way.

Join my FB group, "Healthy Habits Warriors" to get ideas, information, and support to help you make a change that will last you a lifetime! Find us at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/healthyhabitswarriors/

~JS~ 🌞
#WellnessWednesday
#habitsofhealth #changeyourlife #takecareofyou

Today's Habit of Health: Hydration!

It's #WellnessWednesday and today's Habit of Health focus is HYDRATION! 💦💦💦 How much water do you drink every day? When asked this question, many people say, "Not enough." But what is enough?

There are many recommendations from various sources, so you need to be sure and check with your health care provider for personal recommendations, especially if you are on any medications or have health issues that could affect the amount you should drink. 👩‍⚕️ However, for most healthy adults, 64 oz is the generally recognized recommended amount.

Another rule of thumb for healthy adults is to take how much you weigh and divide it in half to come up with a good target for how many ounces of water per day you should aim for. (i.e. If you weigh 200 pounds, drink 100 oz of water per day.) Again, be sure to check with your health provider for personal recommendations. 👨‍⚕️

Today's video talks about Optavia's new "Purposeful Hydration" products that can help cue you when to hydrate and give you added nutritional benefits along the way! But whatever you drink to meet your hydration goals, I challenge you to pay closer attention this week, and make sure you are taking care of your body by drinking enough water!

Watch the full video here: https://www.facebook.com/jumbledsunshine/videos/278706812855107/

Have a wonderful #WellnessWednesday and rest of your week! ~JS~ 🌞

#habitsofhealth #hydration #drinkmorewater #takecareofyou#yourbodyisatemple

August 2018 Weight Loss Progress Update!

Hey everyone - just wanted to pop in really quick and give you an update on my summer weight loss results! ⚖ You can see the external progress from the pictures above, but the real exciting part is how much ENERGY I have now!! 😄 It's incredible. I just can't believe how much easier it is to do everything when I actually have the energy to do it!

I recorded a video this afternoon about my experience that I'm going to post tomorrow. So watch for that! I'll post a link to the video here as soon as I get it published!

I'm so grateful for my renewed energy and zest for life! I have always tried to be a positive person, even when life throws me lemons, but wow it's so much easier when you FEEL GOOD. So grateful for the new journey that I'm on!

~JS~ 🌞
#ThankfulThursday

#weightloss #weightlossjourney #lifelongtransformation #onehealthyhabitatatime #healthyhabits #yourbodyisatemple

Just had to share this one! 😂😂😂 Not sure if a gallon is necessary, but be sure you are getting at least 64 ounces of water a day, and ideally you should be drinking half of your body weight in ounces.


For example, if you weigh 200 lb, you should be drinking 100 oz of water per day. This is a great simple Habit of Health that anyone can do!


Measure how much you're drinking, and then try to increase it a little bit every day. If you want to leave more about Purposeful Hydration, send me a message! 💚


~JS~🌞 #WellnessWednesday
#hydration #habitsofhealth #yourbodyisatemple #takecareofyou #makethatchange

Optavia Weight Loss Program Review - IDP011

Health and Wellness Update - 34 pounds gone!

Today's Podcast is all about my Wellness Journey for the past 30 days while I've been doing the Optavia30 Weight Loss program. I am thrilled to have not only broken my six-month plateau, but to have blown it out of the water with an amazing 11 pound weight loss!! So happy to be here and I'm going to keep going!Listen to my review of the program, including positives, challenges, favorite foods and a fantastic victory moment, all shared in today's podcast. ENJOY!




ShowNotes for This Podcast:

Previous #WellnessWednesday Posts:

https://jumbledsunshine.blogspot.com/search/label/%23WellnessWednesday

Optavia Unboxing Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvlZ9BvUmZY

Trim Healthy Mama (used for first part of my success journey):

www.trimhealthymama.com

My Optavia Health Coach's website:

https://nancybaird.optavia.com/

Broken Plateau Blog Post:

https://jumbledsunshine.blogspot.com/2018/05/health-and-wellness-journey-update.html

Doterra Slim & Sassy Gum:

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/p/weight-management-slim-and-sassy-metabolic-gum

If you decide to purchase this awesome metabolic gum, I'd appreciate if you'd go here first so that I can get credit for the sale! https://www.doterra.com/US/en/site/jumbledsunshine

Link to this podcast episode on pippa.io:

https://shows.pippa.io/jumbledsunshine/optavia-weight-loss-program-review-idp011

--
Have a great day!
~JS~ 🌞
#WellnessWednesday
#Optavia30

Dealing with Chronic Illness (Transcript from IDP006)

The following is a transcript from The Ideally-Daily Podcast Episode #006 in which I talked briefly about chronic illness before I shared a story about a "disappointing dental disaster." I realized today that I had never gone back and published the transcript from the first half of this podcast, and I wanted to reach out today to all those who may be suffering from chronic illness.

I hear you. I have been there myself. I still have issues that I'm dealing with, but thank goodness I have found some relief in remission for the past several years. But if I could go back and give myself something to latch onto and to hope for, I would tell myself the following:

Hang on! No matter how hopeless and frustrating things may feel, please trust that things will get better. But don't just wait for that day. Do the best you can today, this hour, this minute, with the situation you are in. Just do what you can, forgive yourself for what you can't, and try to press forward with an attitude of gratitude for the little things that do go right today. And know that you are still valuable, loved, and useful to society and your family, even with all the challenges that you have. Be grateful for the good days, no matter how few and far between.

That is the advice I would give myself if I could go back and reach out to the suffering version of me that couldn't hardly get out of bed some days and felt frustrated and in pain. It's so hard though, and I know that it can seem impossible to even move forward for another minute. But you can do this. And it will get better. ~JS~ 🌞

--

Here's the link to the podcast from May 2018 where I addressed chronic illness, and the transcript of that portion of the episode.



Transcript from IDP#006 - Chronic Illness portion:

I'm excited about today, because it is wellness Wednesday, and there is a topic that I've been wanting to talk about for a little while, and I actually went back and was looking over my blog this morning, to find if I had any posts about it, and I couldn't find anything, and I'm sure that there's something there. But, I wanted to talk just a little bit today about chronic illness, and then I want that to springboard into just sharing a funny story with you, from several years ago, that I found in my journal, that I should have totally made into a post, but apparently I never did, so today, its going to become one.

So, chronic illness. The reason I wanted to talk about this briefly is I just wanted to share a little bit of my journey through some health issues that I had, and hope that maybe that can connect with some of you who might be out there still dealing with issues related to chronic illness. And, I just remember through this time, when I was struggling so much with my health, you know, just not being able to do all the things that I used to do for fun and enjoyment, and to make my life meaningful, and I really had to find new ways to contribute.

So, long story short, on another day I will tell probably the whole story, but long story short, basically sometime after my sixth child was born, I started having some major health issues where I just ... I mean, it was like chronic fatigue, pain ... Anyway, it ended up being diagnosed briefly for a while as probably just fibromyalgia, which of course means that ... A lot of times it means that they can't figure out exactly what's going on, but you have the symptoms, so that's a whole other podcast right there.

But, later, a few years after that, I ended up being diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, which is when your immune system is attacking your joints and your skin. So, if you've heard of psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis is psoriasis but then also that immune system is not just attacking your skin, which is the psoriasis, but it's also attacking your joints, which is the arthritis part of it.

So, I never did end up suffering any visible joint damage, however, so we're totally, maybe a little bit unsure of whether that's really what was going on, but long story short, for about three years, I was being treated with pretty heavy-duty medications, trying to get my immune system to calm down, and I just ... And I still had life going on. You know, I had seven kids by the time all that was going on, and my youngest being like preschool aged, and my oldest in high school, and it was just still a very busy time for me.

Luckily, I was blessed that my husband was, you know, working, and I didn't need to at the time, and so financially, we were doing okay, but health-wise, there were days when I spent most of the day in bed, and I would get up, and I would start to ... You know, I'd get dressed or whatever, and then I just kind of made like a little desk on my bed, and I would sit in bed with my laptop, and that's kind of when I started getting into a lot of different online things. For a while, I did some web designing for people and things. I just had to find stuff that I could do that wasn't physical stuff, because I was in so much pain, like just swelling and stuff, that I couldn't really do like normal household tasks very easily. So that was a longer version than I was planning to share, but I know you're really surprised right? Probably not.

But anyway, the point is that I had this time period where things were pretty rough, and for whatever reason, and by the grace of God, I was able to go into remission with that illness, I don't even know how many years ago now. So it's a little bit in my distant past, and to the point where sometimes I forget that there are people out there that are struggling every single day, just to put one foot in front of the other, and to do the very, very most basic things, and I just wanted to put, I guess, a plug out there, and some empathy for anybody going through those kind of issues, and just encourage you to just keep going, and to try to find ways that you can still contribute with your new situation.

It honestly wasn't until I, like, 100% accepted my situation and said, "Okay, this is how it's going to be the rest of my life, so I'm just going to have to do the best I can," and I kind of like stopped fighting it, I guess, and accepted it. It was shortly after that, within the next year after that, that it went into remission. So, I don't know exactly all the reasons everything happened the way it did, and I'm always knocking on wood, worried that it's going to come back, and I still deal with fatigue and occasional more pain than should be normal for my age, but it's definitely taken a backseat.

And, last week, I came across somebody's Instagram, who was posting about dealing with a major chronic illness, and just trying to make it through each day, and I was like, "Oh my gosh. I mean, how could I forget those years of struggle?" But, you know, I don't know. I just wanted to make a point to share that part of my story.

For those of you who are like, "Well, it's easy for you to be happy and cheerful, because your life is perfect," you know? It totally isn't. As a matter of fact, I started [inaudible 00:06:37], the blog, when I was in the middle of a lot of those issues, so I just discovered that you know, I would feel like, "I am such a terrible mother. I cannot make dinner for my family. You know, I'm laying in bed. I should be out there cleaning the house, and helping take care of my family."

And I had to learn to be like, "Hey," to one of my kids, "Hey, let's sit down here together and you show me something cool on the computer," or, "Let's have a show that we watch together," or, "Let's read a book together." I had to find other ways to be a good mom than the ways that I had traditionally thought I had to act to be a good mom.

So, if you are dealing with any of these kind of situations, I just want to reach out and put a big hug around you, and tell you that it will be okay, and it might not go away when you want it to, or in some cases ever. But just enjoy the good days that you do have, and look forward to them, and just do the best you can on your bad days, and don't put yourself down. Because I guarantee you, if you have a good day, you're going to be up doing stuff. It's not that you're lazy. You are not lazy. You are suffering from illness, and that was another thing that was really hard for me during that time.

Anyway, I just wanted to bring that up a little bit and then springboard that into a fun little story that I want to share with you that I came across. 

(For a transcript of the story "A Disappointing Dental Disaster" visit https://jumbledsunshine.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-disappointing-dental-disaster-idp006.html)

Here's to more good days than bad days! Chronic illness sufferers are rock stars! You are a warrior!!
~JS~ 🌞🌄

Optavia First Delivery Unboxing

I'm so excited to get started on my new health and wellness program. Join me for #WellnessWednesday as I unbox my first food delivery!

Have a wonderful day!

~JS~ 🌞

#WellnessWednesday 

#healthylife #weightlossjourney #healthy #nutrition #healthylife #health #goals #determination 

Health and Wellness Journey Update: Plateau Broken!

I'm super excited today to report on my health and wellness goals! Unfortunately I'm not in a position to record a podcast today, or I'd totally be shouting this into a microphone!! 😉Suffice it to say that I think I made a breakthrough!! Aren't they the best? Sometimes it just seems like you slog away and trudge through the muck and difficulty of a challenge, and it seems impossible to overcome. But then, something happens, something changes, and suddenly you find yourself on the edge of a breakthrough. You wonder if it's the right way to go so you stew and contemplate and struggle with it (and if you're like me, you analyze it to death!) and then you decide to make the leap. 

Where I've Been

Well this week I made a big leap! And I am already seeing success, though I've barely begun. Where to begin? I suppose it's best to refer you to my last #WellnessWednesday status report if you'd like some background context. You can find that post here: First Official Wellness Wednesday Post. I wrote that in January 2018 and it's currently the middle of May 2018, so it's been awhile! I will try to catch you up a bit and then tell you what's on the horizon now.

In January I did the "no sweets for the whole month of January" until about the middle of January. Now that you're done laughing and I'm done crying (haha just kidding, I'm fine) I will just take a minute to congratulate myself for the couple weeks I did do! (Yay me! 💪💖 Go Erika!) Okay, now back to the story. So I visited my parents in January and went off of the "no sugar" thing after being there a couple of days because it was just so darn hard because I was on vacation! I did stick to my periodic fasting routine (mostly) but then I ate garbage when I wasn't fasting. So ... yeah, not the best approach, but by doing that I only gained a couple of pounds on that very long vacation.

After getting home, I got serious with my IF routine (intermittent fasting btw) by doing an eating window between 6 to 10 hours per day, on average about an eight hour window). For more details on the plan I was following, you can check out The Intermittent Fasting Podcast. I'm not going to go into detail on my exact plan because you can find it all there if you're interested. But from February until about a week ago, I basically waited to eat until about noon and then tried to eat reasonably the rest of the day, with my last meal between 6pm and 10pm. The freedom was nice because I could eat pretty much whatever I wanted during my eating window. And I think it will be a good maintenance strategy for vacations or other times when I want to indulge. BUT...

And there's the big BUT, haha. The problem is that once I got back down to my pre-2017-holiday weight, I could never break past the plateau. No matter how faithful I was to the eating windows, that scale just went up and down about 5 pounds but never went below one certain number. Grr! 😠Infuriating!!

Now to be fair, I completely know that if I had just eaten more reasonably during my eating window, I probably would have continued to lose weight. But I was just stuck on a plateau, and could never break past that spot. And I knew that I just needed to make healthier choices. But IF kind of gave me permission to not eat all that healthy when I was eating (which, like I said, can be kind of handy!) but some of that food really made me feel terrible. And I was in denial about that. When I ate healthily during my eating window (lots of veggies, moderate carbs, protein in every meal) then I felt great! But I just kept bouncing up and down about five pounds and could never get past my plateau.

A New Day!

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when a friend of mine and I were chatting in church about our health progress. She's lost 60 pounds in the last six months and it's been super inspiring to watch her progress! I thought a couple of times about asking her what she was doing, but we always had just a few minutes before and after the church meeting to chat and I was happy with what I was doing and felt like the plateau would break soon. But at the same time, I wasn't making the healthiest of choices and I knew it. And I knew that I probably needed another change.

This is how my brain works. When I start to lose enthusiasm for something, I need to change it up to make my next breakthough. A change of pace, strategy, environment, system or tools can make all the difference for my enthusiasm. Can any of you relate? 

So when Nancy invited me to listen to a health information meeting at her house, I decided to go check it out. I was super impressed with her friend Kirtley who shared her own journey. It was also fun to hear Nancy's own story in more detail. They shared some of the basic principles of the health  program that they used to reach and maintain their own health goals, and I enjoyed the get-together. I went home considering it for sure.

I found myself contemplating if it made sense for me to get a jump-start by trying something totally new, with the added support of a certified personal health coach who is also my friend. The idea of having someone to hold me accountable is probably what made me the most interested, honestly. I've spent a lifetime learning and studying, which has included many different health programs over the years, so I know in my mind what I need to do. The hard part is getting myself to do it! My daughter Jessica told me the other day that she heard something once about a study that found out that it doesn't necessarily matter that much which health program you use, as long as you faithfully stick to it and have a good plan for maintenance. In other words, you have to actually DO what you KNOW. Mind-blowing, right? 🙄 Simple but nearly impossible sometimes!

As I've visited with Nancy over the past week, I have been impressed with the details she asked me about, the knowledge she had, and her flexibility in working with me via video messages with the Marco Polo app. It works great because we get the face-to-face but we don't have to plan ahead to be on the phone at the same time. (Biggest problem with live video chatting.) Although for our "official health assessment meeting" we did both sit-down go back and forth for about an hour. She asked me about my current health situation, what my goals were, why I wanted to lose weight, and more things to help me really assess where I was and where I wanted to go. I felt like if I worked with her, I could really do this and finish getting down to my goal.

Exciting Progress

What makes this a new day for me? It's the accountability of having someone else know what my health goals are who will cheer me on and give me encouragement when I fall. It's just the sort of motivation I needed to get going on this again. And the best part?? For the past three days I have been "pretending" that I was already on the plan by eating six small healthy meals a day, every 2-3 hours. Oh and drinking half of my body weight in ounces. And guess what? Without even getting the foods yet or really officially starting, I BROKE MY PLATEAU!!! 😊😍👋

Full-disclosure here, I have peeked briefly at that lower number a couple of times over the past seven months, but never for more than a day. And it's so exciting because I haven't seen that number in the past couple of months, and now it's here! Even though it feels like I've barely started doing anything yet! So awesome.

I think that it's really about motivation and desire. I really want this because I want to be healthier for my kids and grandkids. About a month ago, I started having some heart palpitations, so I went to see my doctor and had a 24 hour heart monitor test. That really scared me. My mom died at age 60 from the effects of ten years' struggle with heart disease. She had her first heart attack at age 50. I am only a few years away from that! I realized the other night that if I died at the same age as my mom, I will not be around to see my sweet newborn grandson graduate from high school! In fact, I won't even see him enter high school. That is terrifying!!! I want to be around and keep being jumbled-y and sunshine-y for decades more to come. 🌞🌞🌞🌞

So anyway, it's a new day here for #WellnessWednesday!! I'm excited to have a COACH, to have ACCOUNTABILITY, and to maybe even earn some money for my efforts, thanks to also signing up for a DietBet challenge on Monday night. I am hoping to earn back some of the money I am spending on my new program! I just have to lose 4% in 4 weeks. Do you think I can do it? I KNOW I CAN. Who's with me? It's not too late to join me. Let's make this the best summer ever!!

I'd love to hear anything you have to share about your own plans and goals and challenges and breakthroughs. Accountability and friendships can make so much difference! I am so excited for all the decades ahead to keep learning and growing and enjoying my family and friends.

Have a wonderful day!
~JS~ 🌞
#WellnessWednesday

__________________________________________

ps - If you're interested in connecting with my friend Nancy, who is a Certified Health Coach, send me a note HERE and I'll give you an introduction or you can visit her website online HERE.

Be Cautious of Misleading Headlines and Photos

THIS IS A MISLEADING HEADLINE!

Photo from quoted article at Sci-Tech Daily

We all want to stay informed, but we need to be cautious about reading only the headlines and images of articles.

This particular article gives some good information about a study that showed potential problems with some artificial sweeteners. But when you read down through the article and look at the specific sweeteners that were tested you find this quote:

"The team fed different groups of rats diets high in glucose or fructose (kinds of sugar), or aspartame or acesulfame potassium (common zero-calorie artificial sweeteners)."

Note that the packages in this picture under the headline are for various alternative sweeteners, but it is misleading because not all of them have aspartame or acesulfame potassium in them. This makes the photo and headline misleading.

For example, neither Stevia in the Raw nor Truvia have either of those artificial sweeteners in them. So they should not be included in the photo with a headline saying that artificial sweeteners are linked to diabetes and obesity.

Always check your facts!

Have a wonderful #WellnessWednesday!
~JS~ 🌞

A Disappointing Dental Disaster (Story from IDP006)

Journal Entry from Monday, April 04, 2011: 

Well, this morning I woke up a little groggy and slow, so after getting dressed, eating some Rice Krispies, and saying goodbye to the children, I settled into my "bed workspace" with my laptop to tackle all the email that has built-up over the weekend. I clicked on "email game" because I've found that's a great way to buzz through the email quickly, feeling challenged to deal with every single email without skipping any.

I was just getting on a roll and feeling really good about my accomplishments, when my husband Lonny came in and said, "Don't you have a dentist appointment at 9am?" ARG! I had completely forgotten. Last night as I was looking over my calendar I realized that I had the appointment, but this morning it was erased from my mind! Another reason to make sure and LOOK at the calendar FIRST THING every morning, right?

So, I jumped up quickly since it was already 8:30am and it takes about 20 minutes to get over to the dentist's office. I really needed a bath because my hair was disshelveled and greasy, but there wasn't any time for that. I put it into a hopeless ponytail, low on my head since I would be laying back in a dentist chair. Then I grabbed my baggy jeans and a comfy long-sleeve shirt so I could look half-way decent but still be comfy during my dental work.

Last week I went to the dentist and learned that I was going to need a tooth totally redone - I think he said a cap. A portion of it had broken off a couple of months ago, and while it had alarmed me at first, it didn't hurt at all, so I thought it might have been a piece of dental work, not the actual tooth. Considering our efforts to save money right now, I just kept putting off going in.

SO - now that I knew the truth (it was real tooth broken off, with dentin showing - the dentist couldn't believe I hadn't felt any pain!) and the tooth was cracked, I had some major dental work. So he had postponed my cleaning and said I could so it when I had my regular dental work done, which I was very happy about because the cleanings are so uncomfortable, it would be nice to have the gas for that.

"Dentistry at Howard University, Washington, D.C., ca. 1900"
Picture Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Anyway - so we were rushing around and I was wishing I hadn't taken my meds yet because I wasn't sure how they would react with dental gas, and thinking to myself, OH WELL! I also had the thought occur to me that it was odd that they hadn't called to let me know that my appointment was today. They nearly always make a reminder call on the morning of your appointment, or the night before if it's a really early one. But I brushed it off, after all, there wasn't time to call.

Lonny was driving me because I am always really groggy for far too long after they stop administering the nitrous oxide, and I don't think it's safe for me to be driving myself home. We drove over there quickly, arriving about 10 minutes late. There were tree branches broken and laying all over the sidewalk in front of the building. I guess all that snow that dumped on us yesterday was particularly hard on Dr. Rees's trees. We stepped over the branches and the extension cords to the power tools that a worker was using the clean up the mess, and entered the office, panting and stomping our feet.

The clerk looked up at me, as did the hygienist, and they both had quizzical looks on their faces. Usually they say, "Hi Erika! How are you? Dr. Rees will be ready in a minute." I had a fleeting thought that I was in a dream, but shook it off and walked up to the desk. "Hi - I have an appointment at 9am. Erika Ward." She looked at her computer and typed a few things, then weakly said, "okay. . . well, I don't have you on the schedule for this morning. Let's see. . . it looks like I have you at tomorrow morning at 9am."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

The only thing I can say is that I'm glad I hadn't had to get a bunch of toddlers ready to go with me and then dragged them all over there. I wish I had listened to that still small voice that kept putting little thoughts in my mind about calling to check on the appointment. Oh well. Lonny sweetly said, "Well, at least I got to spend half an hour holding your hand while we drove."

Is he the best or what?
~JS~ 🌞
#WellnessWednesday

Who's the Boss?

Don't let this thing rule your life! But check it regularly to help keep yourself aware and on track. And yes, I mean YOU! ~JS~🌞 #WellnessWednesday

Introduction to the Jumbled Sunshine Podcast - IDP000 - Transcription & Show Notes

The following is a transcript of my first podcast! I recorded it several weeks ago, so these posts are getting all out of order, but you gotta start somewhere and just keep putting one foot in front of the other, right?

Being my first podcast recording and all, it honestly starts out kinda awkward!  But then I get going and it's gets better. So don't give up on it after the first few minutes! 😛 I explain what the plan is for the podcast and where I'm going with my whole Jumbled Sunshine online experiment. I think I even said a few valuable things in there! ;) So if you like podcasts, here's an opportunity to check out my new one! It's kind of an experiment and we'll see how it goes.

Here's the audio of the podcast episode if you want to download it, pull it into your podcast app, or listen online:


Have a wonderful #ThankfulThursday and be sure to show those around you how much you appreciate having them in your lives!
~JS~ 🌞

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Transcript: Introduction to the Jumbled Sunshine Podcast - IDP000

Hey everybody, Jumbled Sunshine here! How are you doing today? I hope you're having a wonderful day. If everything goes the way I plan, this may be the first official podcast that I've ever recorded. But I am just getting started, so it's probably gonna be a little bit awkward.

I'm not the kind of person who has trouble talking about things. In fact, I have to be careful to not talk too much when I am in social circles, and make sure that I stop, and I listen, and I let other people share as well. So talking is not the issue. It's more thinking and pausing and saying, "Um," actually. And "actually" and "so" and "anyway." Those would be the big ones! So I apologize ahead of time for any of those that happen.

Jumbled Sunshine Online - Where I've Been

This is sort of a little experiment, because I have been really working hard on my Jumbled Sunshine business for the last couple of months. I am trying to get it back off the ground because if you go back and look at my blog posts since 2013, I think? When I started it? No, 2013 ... anyway, I started it a long time ago. Like 2010 or earlier. [Correction: I started www.jumbledsunshine.com in 2012, however I had been doing other blog and website projects on and off since the late 90's, so we'll just leave it at that!]

You will see that there were some years when I only wrote one post for the whole year, yikes! And that's because I was trying to decide what I was doing with it. But lately I've been posting a lot, and I have kind of started to get into a rhythm that I really love that I am hoping will help me to really get some good content and interesting information out there for people like me. If you want to know what my personality is, just keep on listening, or you can go have a look at my blog, www.jumbledsunshine.com. But you will get to know me here, and I hope that I will get to know you.

Anyway, the reason I am starting this today is because for the past while I have been doing these themed posts every day. Well, I decided I'm gonna call it nearly every day. Because ideally, I am blogging or posting or at least mentioning something about one of the themes every day. But I realize that with my personality, that may not be totally realistic. So I'm gonna call it ideally-daily, or something like that, I don't know. I'll probably change it a couple times!

But recently, most days, I have been either blogging, posting, tweeting, instagramming, steemit-ing, and I can't think of what the other social media things are at the moment, but I have been posting online about a different theme every day. My current themes are #MotivationMonday, #TechTuesday, #WellnessWednesday, #ThankfulThursday, #FamilyFriday, #StrategySaturday and #SacredSunday. And lately I've been doing that.

Podcasting Possibilities

One of the ways that I have been brainstorming for ideas of what to post is by just free-talking to my phone into a little app I use called Easy Voice Recorder Pro on Android. I have been free-talking into it, and then I take what I said and I transcribe it, and then I kind of edit it up and make it into a post. And then I shorten it for all the different social media outlets, and I put it out there.

And so the irony was not lost on me that since I have become obsessed with podcasting lately, that I should just be recording these for a podcast, instead of only for my personal self. But you know, I didn't want to start a podcast until I had my theme music and all my cover photos and the perfect title, and had my notes, and my strategy and my plan. And if you relate to this, you will probably enjoy my podcast haha.

I didn't want to start because of a couple things. One is, I was afraid that I would stop posting and recording, and that has been an issue, as you can see if you look over my blog for the past decade. But I want to point out to myself at the moment and to you for your own struggles and challenges, that I didn't stop! Because guess what? Here I am. It's 2018 and I am not only posting most days, but I am starting a podcast. And I have been just working on it a little bit at a time, every day.

What is Jumbled Sunshine All About?

And so what my blog is about, I guess I'll go into a lot more detail in the future. I'll do that later. But what it's basically about is to, I guess in the words of Dori from Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming." You need to just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and moving forward, and congratulating yourself on your small wins and big wins, and recognizing those wins. And seeing the good in life around you, not just looking for the negative and the depressing and the sad.

I recognize that motivational speaking and memes are necessarily going to solve your problems if you are dealing with a clinical depression, or anxiety and things like that. And I will just put out there right now that I have dealt with some of those issues myself on and off throughout my life, so I do get it. I know, of course I don't get your situation totally because nobody does except for you. But I get the idea. I have had my own struggles, as we all do, and I realize that it is not something that's just gonna be fixed by posting happy things or whatever.

However, I have also found that no matter how low I've gone in my life, just making myself look for the positive and try to do those things that they say will make you feel better, even if they're not making me feel better, those things have helped a little bit and helped me to keep going when it was tough.So yeah, I wasn't going to go into details about what the blog is about, but that's kind of a really general thing.

The other half of it is Jumbled. What does jumbled mean? So that was kind of the Sunshine side. The jumbled side, you've probably already figured out by just listening to the first couple minutes of this. But I have a ton of interests. Everything is interesting to me. I'm one of those people that can really relate to the "squirrel" thing! And I just love learning and experimenting, and trying, and doing, and creating, and sharing, and listening, and learning, and I could go on and on and on and on, about everything.

And I want ... well okay, so when I came up with the idea of Jumbled Sunshine, it was one of those things, you can go look on my blog if you want for a post called "Are You Jumbled Too?" And I can't tell you what year it is, but I will put it in the show notes because I guess if I'm doing a podcast, I need to have show notes, don't I?

When I first came up with the idea, it was because I woke up in the middle of the night and was just like, "Boom. Okay, I need to stop fighting who I am, and celebrate who I am." Rather than trying to fix all of the things around me using other people's systems and kind of looking for that perfect system, I need to just celebrate who I am, accept that I'm probably gonna try systems and read books and do things in my life that I'm gonna then completely quit and abandon. And that's fine! It doesn't matter.

Why? Because everything we do in our lives gives us wisdom. It gives us experience. It gives us fun in some cases! Everything we're doing ... you hear, "Life is a journey, not a destination." It's not just a cliché, it's true. Every single thing you do, every single day, everything you read, everything you try, is all part of the experience of what your life is.

So instead of looking for that end destination, and trying to find the perfect system that, "I will do every day from now on, all the way until the end of time," I need to just say to myself, "Hey, what did I learn from trying that system? What did I like about that system? What didn't work about that system? And why did I quit doing it?" And then acknowledge that for whatever reason, I'm moving on, and I want to try something new. And I can archive that into my experiential archive of the things that I've learned over my life.

I hope that makes sense! If it does, then this podcast is for you! Because ... I don't know where I was going with that, and that's the other part of jumbled, haha. So I think you've probably got an idea of what jumbled is. It is about enjoying and celebrating who you are, what your interests are, what's around you, and finding the joy and the positiveness in life. And recognizing that you don't have time to do all of them, all the time, in your life. And so just enjoy the jumbled sunshine of your life. That's what it's about.

I didn't even originally intend to call myself Jumbled Sunshine, it was just the blog was gonna be Jumbled Sunshine. But then over time, people would be like, "Oh, Jumbled Sunshine, that's a good name for you." Haha. "That describes you perfectly!" or whatever. And I'm like, "Oh, okay." So my actual name is Erika Ward, and I live in Utah. And I grew up in the MidWest. And that is enough background information, I probably shouldn't have even gone there. But the point is that my real name is Erika, but I will refer to myself sometimes as Jumbled Sunshine, because it's just kind of become a habit, I guess!

What's the Plan from Here?

Anyway, so I guess this is my first official podcast, and I just want to tell you what the plan is. The plan is that when I do my ideally-daily brain dumps to figure out what I'm gonna post about that day, or what I'm gonna focus on for that day, I'm going to record it into my little Easy Voice Recorder Pro app with my nice headset and microphone that I bought because I wanted to do podcasting. And I'm gonna record it in there, and then I'm going to post that.
At least right now, it will not have any frills. I don't have music, I don't have sponsors (of course because, you know, it's the first one). I don't even totally have a plan, except that ideally-daily, I will post about my themes. Motivation Monday, Tech Tuesday, Wellness Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Family Friday, Strategy Saturday and Sacred Sunday.

Sacred Sunday

Now, let me make very clear, which you may be wondering, especially in today's world, with the Sacred Sunday on the end there. This is not a religious podcast. I am a religious person, but I will be posting things that I believe are universal principles. They may refer to God or Jesus because that's is where my belief stems from. But Sacred Sunday will be about taking a special day to reflect, and to do whatever it is you do to prepare yourself for the upcoming week.

Strategy Saturday

I guess I'll just work backwards from there. Strategy Saturday will be, at least for now, until I change it [I don't have plans to change this, so I'm not sure why I said that!] will be about strategies for making your life better. It may also have some things about online business. It may have some things about, you know, just anything that to me seems like a strategy, will probably end up on Strategy Saturday. I will also say that #StrategySaturday is probably gonna be one of the hardest ones for me to be consistent on because, you know, it's Saturday! And so I apologize ahead of time if the ideally-daily leaves out #StrategySaturday sometimes.

But I will try as best as I can to, at the very least, retweet something or post somebody else's post on my Facebook page, which by the way, you can find me at twitter.com/jumbledsunshine or Facebook.com/jumbledsunshine. I will try to at least put something out there. So if you really want to get a daily thing from me (even though I realize that's ideal and possibly won't happen totally), you will want to probably be following me on at least Facebook, as well as listening to this.

I do have a YouTube channel which I haven't posted on for awhile, but I'm hoping that I feel really motivated, and I've actually gotten dressed up, I will also video myself doing this little brain dump so that I can post it as a video. But those days where I'm not in pajamas with wet hair, like I am today haha, may be few and far between. So I may or may not always have a video up.
So I guess what I'm saying is that if you want the whole experience, you'll need to follow me on all my different social media channels, and I will put those in the show notes. But I am being diverted, as usually happens. So Strategy Saturday, yeah. My strategy for getting back on topic is to notice that I'm off, and to get right back on!

Family Friday

So Family Fridays. I am a mother of seven children. I have been married to my spouse since 1991, you can do the math. And I feel very blessed, I've got young adults, I have a couple teenagers left at home. I have one little, cute, two-week-old grandson, who's the son of my oldest son and his wife. And so that's where I'm at, at this point in my life in 2018.

I think I've probably learned a couple of things about families, so I might post things about parenting, appreciating your family, things like that. Things that have to do with family. Just pretty much, if it has to do with family, it can go on Family Friday.

As well as, family history! Because I am a little bit of a family history nut, although I am very jumbled in my application and dipping into my interest on that. So that comes and goes. But it's one of those interests that I don't think will ever go away for me. So I will also be talking a little bit about genealogy, family history, things like that. That's Family Friday.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday is about being thankful for what you have in your life. Sometimes it will just be a little quick gratitude post, or a beautiful picture of a sunset like I posted last week. Oh my gosh, I woke up and I was just like, "Oh my gosh! I need to take a picture!" I take so many pictures of sunrises ... it was a sunrise, not a sunset ... I take so many pictures of sunrises and sunsets where I live, it's just insane. It is unbelievable, I'll tell you.

Anyway, Thankful Thursday will also have a little bit to do with giving back to show your gratitude for what you have. It's gonna be about looking for the good around you, and then finding ways to give back. My husband works for an international charity and we have been involved in international charity work for awhile now. I don't want to try to even come up with a date, because I couldn't tell you, but that's a whole other story that actually, I believe is out there on my blog also, of that career change and how we made the decision to get involved in international charity work. [Here's the link from my husband's blog: http://www.lonnyward.com/p/our-journey.html]

Anyway, so sometimes it will talk about some of the projects he's doing, or maybe even encourage you to donate a little bit to either the charity that we are involved with, or other worthy charities, or wherever you want. So Thankful Thursday is about being thankful and giving back.

Wellness Wednesday

Wellness Wednesday. I've been on a journey, my whole life, as most of you probably have been, to try and be healthy. I'd better not go into a bunch of detail, because this is gonna get too long. But Wellness Wednesday will talk about things that have to do with health and wellness. Originally it was gonna be #WeightLossWednesday because I am currently in the middle of a weight loss journey. I have already lost somewhere around 25 pounds and my total goal is 50, so I'm about halfway there.

And I'll just talk about things that have to do with health and wellness. Sometimes it will have to do with weight loss. Sometimes it will be an update on my personal journey. Sometimes it will be sharing things like, tips about things that help you to be well, or taking care of yourself. So that's what Wellness Wednesday will be about.

Tech Tuesday

Tech Tuesday. Okay, so I'm a little bit of a technology geek. I mean, I'm not like ... just from the dates and things I've told you, that I'm not a young Millennial that knows current things necessarily all the time about technology. Although I do have quite a few of my children who are at that age, and so I really do know about a lot of the brand new things going on. But Tech Tuesday is really more about how we can use technology to make our life better.

Sometimes it will have to do with things that, ways that I am using technology to do things, like perhaps my podcast setup right now. Or ways that I'm using spreadsheets to organize things, or the way I made job charts for my family, using technology, when they were young, and things like that. So sometimes it might be a review about a new phone that I get, or whatever. It's just, you know, stuff that has to do with technology. So that'll be Tech Tuesday.

Motivation Monday

Motivation Monday is just all about being motivated. I came up with motivation Monday because I need to be motivated on Mondays myself, haha, and I figure most people need to be motivated that Monday. So that's what I'm going to talk about time management, things that are inspirational and get you up off your chair and things that make you want to move forward and just positive motivating stuff. So yeah, that's what motivation Monday is.

That's the Plan!

So that is the line up, and that's what I'm going to be doing. Ideally this will be daily, but I am going to promise you right now that it won't be absolutely every day, especially the podcast part. But I will try as hard as I can every day, unless I'm taking like a vacation or some kind of a hiatus, to move forward and do this and bring you along with me.

So I think it's gonna be really fun I hope that you are interested in some of those topics. I will say that I came up with those hashtags, even though as I've been posting about them I realized that a lot of other people use some of those hash tags as well. But I really did think, "Okay what are my interests and how can I make them fit the days of the week?" because that just seemed like a framework that I could work with. So I did come up with those ideas on my own but then a couple of them were tweaked by, for instance, changing Weight Loss Wednesday to Wellness Wednesday because I saw somebody else had it and I was like, "Oh, that's so much better."

So I'm not claiming to own the hash tags or be the creators of them, but I did kind of come up with those ideas because they fit my interests and I hope they fit yours. I'm gonna go ahead and end. I'm gonna try to make these always be, well I was gonna say less than fifteen minutes, but I just looked at my timer and it's twenty two! They will not go over half an hour if I have to stop in the middle and divide it in two, because I know that really long podcasts can sometimes be, well, too long.

So this is where we're at. This is my introduction post, and I just wanted to kind of put it out there and and say what I'm planning to do. I will hopefully be transcribing these to then use as online posts sometimes. I don't know, we'll just kind of see how it goes because it's a lot of work to post every day, which sounds silly but, you know, to compose something meaningful every day. So we'll see how it goes.

But I hope you stick with me, and probably if you're listening to this, it's because I actually have done it for awhile and I have a few out there, and people have started listening! So... yay! If it didn't succeed, probably nobody will ever listen to it, except maybe my future descendants haha. And they'll be like, "Oh, sweet Granny, she sure was trying!"

Anyway, I will stop rambling and end this. I hope you have a wonderful day! This is Jumbled Sunshine and I will talk to you again soon. Bye bye!

Desktop Yoga - No Excuses!

If you really want to make a difference with your health, exercise is key! No matter what your situation is, you can find a way to get some exercise in. Check out this great Desktop Yoga routine from Benchmark Recuit.

I'm doing this simple routine in my work chair today! Will you join me?

~JS~ 🌞
#WellnessWednesday
#exercise #workfromhome #office #work

How I Organize My Health Supplements

Today for #WellnessWednesday, I thought I'd show you how I have my health supplements organized! There is one container for daily supplements, and another one for "as needed" supplements. It has been awesome!

This is a really good way for me to remember to take my supplements everyday, because every time I go into my bathroom, they're sitting there on the shelf. It's easy to open up a container, grab a couple, and put it right back. This helps me spread my supplements all throughout the day whenever I think about it without having to open lots of bottles.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of the supplements I take and why. I'm not going to write about that right now because this post is just about the system, not trying to sell you supplements or anything.


Here is a closeup of the daily supplement container. You may notice a little red bead in the far left section. I use this wooden bead to remind myself which supplement I took last, so I can rotate them throughout the day.

Also, don't forget to exercise common sense caution! If you have small children in your home and decide to try something like this, be sure to keep your containers in a safe place where they can't be accessed by little hands.

Have a wonderful #WellnessWednesday! ~JS~🌞

First Official Wellness Wednesday Video (Transcript)

This blog post is a (slightly edited) transcript from a video that I filmed in January 2018 as an introduction to what I was planning to call “Weight Loss Wednesday” which has now been updated to #WellnessWednesday. So it’s a little bit behind where I’m at now in my weight loss journey, but it has some good background information about my health history and methods that I’ve been using over the past year.

Image Credit: www.crazyfitmama.com

I'll be uploading the video to YouTube by the end of the day today and then I'll add the link to the bottom of this post. So without further ado, here’s the transcript of the video. Enjoy!!

* * * * *

Hey there everyone! Jumbled Sunshine here! I am going to do my first official Weight Loss Wednesday video right now. I just wanted to share with you a little bit of my weight loss journey so far, and kind of where I'm at, what I've done to get here, and where I’m going.

Background

Growing up I did not have a weight problem. I was a fairly small-sized person, I guess. I wasn't like Skinny Minnie, but I was just kind of an average kid growing up. In High school I started thinking I was really fat (you know as everybody probably thinks when they're in High School!) so for a while there I worked pretty hard to exercise and to try and stay at a decent weight. I probably even took it a little bit too far, as many of you may have been down that kind of a road before. But by the time I got through to college, I started being a little smarter about things, and I just pretty much did okay. I was just kind of an average weight, not super skinny, but not heavy.

It wasn't really until I started having my kids that, you know, I would gain weight, have a baby, then I'd lose most of it, but maybe not all. After my second baby, I was like, "Okay, if I gain 10 pounds with every baby, I'm in trouble!" So I worked really hard at it, and I remember after my third child was born, being super excited to be able to put my wedding dress back on. So that was like pretty awesome. I'm like, "I've had three babies and I'm wearing my wedding dress!" You know, I just remember that felt like a pretty awesome achievement! 💒

Anyway, I worked pretty hard on staying on shape throughout the years as my other children were born. But then, after my sixth baby was born, I started having some other health issues, and it just really started to take a toll on me, and I didn't have a lot of energy. Then, when I went through my seventh pregnancy, which was my last, that's when I just put on the weight and I didn't ever lose it. Not only did I not lose it, but I put on more weight after the baby was born.

So just for the last decade (baby number 7 is 13 now!) I've been just like heavier than I really feel like is good for me, and I've been wanting to make a change. I've done some things here and there, and I'd lose a little bit of weight, and then maybe maintain for awhile and then regain it. You know, just kind of that up-down that I'm sure some of you are familiar with!

Time for a Change!

In the meantime, a lot of my health problems had resolved for the most part, and I wasn’t having near the problems that I had had for awhile, so I decided that it was time to really buckle down and work on my health and weight loss.

So starting on April 20th of 2017, that was the day that I put my weight down on a chart and started charting it, and started following some plans to try and make a difference. My goal was to lose 50 pounds total.

Trim Healthy Mama

I started doing Trim Healthy Mama, which many of you might be familiar with. And that was kind of my main way that I lost probably the first 15 pounds. If you're not familiar with Trim Healthy Mama, you can look at their website: TrimHealthyMama.com. They've got some great stuff. There's a little bit of a learning curve, but once you start figuring it out, it's really a plan that can be a lifetime plan I think. At least for me, I was able to learn how to be in pretty much any situation, and stay pretty close to on-plan. I customized it for myself, as anyone should, and I saw really good results with that. Like I said, I lost about my first 18 pounds with that program.

Periodic Fasting (AKA Intermittent Fasting)

Then I kind of hit a plateau, and nothing was happening, and I got thinking, "Okay, I need to do something a little bit different now." So that's when I decided to try some periodic fasting. So with that, what you do, at least the way [I was doing it in January] is that you fast for 14 hours and then you eat for 10 hours. So out of every 24 hour day, you're only eating 10 hours of it. (The resources I initially used actually suggested that men fast 16 hours and then follow with eight hours of eating.)

It sounds like it would be really hard, but really what it kind of came down to for me was cutting off my eating after a certain time in the evening, and then just counting 14 hours forward, and not eating until that time the next morning. I would kind of start to get hungry toward the end of that 14 hour period, but not bad. And it really kind of jump-started me, and I was able to go past the 25 pound loss, which was super exciting!

2017 Results

I got all the way to 27 pounds lost, which was a little more than half of my goal of 50 pound weight loss. So to recap, mostly I did Trim Healthy Mama, then I started doing some periodic fasting, but I would still eat pretty Trim Healthy Mama-ish during my actual eating hours. And that's pretty much what I did through most of 2017. That's not super specific, but I can go into more details on other Weight Loss Wednesdays.

I hadn't really done a lot with exercise, I mostly just adapted my eating. During this time, I was still recuperating from the shoulder surgery that I had on February 28, 2018, so the exercise I did do was mostly just my shoulder physical therapy exercises. This weight loss journey was over a period of about seven months, from April 2017 to November 2017. I think I did it wisely, where I'd drop a few pounds, and then I'd maintain for awhile, and I'd drop a few pounds, maintain for awhile, and so on.

Holiday Blues

Things went really well until the holidays came. In November and December of 2017, my eating habits were pretty sketchy, so I did gain some of my weight back. I was mostly off-plan over the holidays, although I did do pretty well with the periodic fasting, but then as soon as I was eating, I ate terrible for all my eating hours. And then I would fast again, and then I would eat terrible. I probably would have gained more weight back if it weren’t for the periodic fasting. I mean, I only gained about four pounds over the holidays, which isn't too bad for being pretty off-plan for nearly two months.

January 2018 Progress Update

So right now [as of January 2018] I am at about 23 pounds down from where I started. No biggie, I'm gonna get right back on the wagon! I wanted to let you know what I'm doing right now, currently. What I decided to do, starting January 2nd (because January 1st was still kind of a holiday around my house) I thought to myself, "Okay, I gotta get some motivation to get back into this." So starting January 2nd, I'm doing one rule: no treats, no sweets for the whole month of January.

I'm also doing some periodic fasting, so I'll usually stop eating maybe like 8:00 at night, and then I'll go to like 10:00 in the morning before I eat. I'll go into it in another video, because I know that you think, "Well, isn't it better to not eat in the evenings, and then to eat breakfast?" Because you always hear eating breakfast is important. But actually some of the research I did actually kind of showed the opposite. And it was sort of interesting, and it's been really successful for me. Like I said, I was able to lose an additional 10 pounds doing that periodic fasting, even when I wasn't eating perfectly in the other 10 hours of the day.

January 2018 Goals

Anyway, so going forward in January, my current goal is basically just don't eat sugar. I mean, there might be a little bit of sugar in stuff. I'm not gonna be like crazy hyper-vigilant about it. But I'm not gonna be eating candy, and cookies, and ice cream and all this stuff that's been dropped off at my house for the whole month of December! So none of that.

Basically, the idea in my head is that if it could be a Trim Healthy Mama “S Meal”, then it's good to go. So just no sweets. I'm not gonna necessarily be trying to be super vigilant yet on the Trim Healthy Mama stuff, because I kind of need to do it one step at a time. But that's my plan, and I'll be able to get back on track here.

So that's my updated progress. If you have any questions about specifics, let me know! I'll put some links below that link to some of these sources that I've talked about, and where I learned what I learned about the Trim Healthy Mama and the Periodic Fasting.

So anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for joining me for Weight Loss Wednesday and I will talk to you again soon!

~JS~ 🌞
#WellnessWednesday

___________________________________________________________

 [JS here on 5/23/18: Apparently I never uploaded this video to YouTube!! 🙄 Unfortunately, I'm noticing this oversight on a day when I'm not in the right place to find and upload the old video, so just wanted you to know that I'll try to add it soon! Let me know if you're one of the people waiting on it and I'll move it to the top of my very long to-do list. Otherwise it may be awhile. 😉] 

Burgers are Better with Cheese Sauce! (Or are they?!?)

Hey everyone! Here's your #WellnessWednesday video of the day:


😂😂😂 But seriously, let's do something to improve our health today! This morning I practiced Wellness Wednesday by doing my husband's morning calisthenics and stretching routine with him. 👏 He's been doing this quick exercise routine most mornings for nearly a year now and has totally gotten rid of his back and knee pain. I've been having a lot of aches and pains lately, so I figured it was about time I joined him!

What kinds of things do you do to take care of yourself with a busy life? Share in the comments below. And have a wonderful day!! 🌞 ~JS~