Diet or Health? Which are you focused on?

Are your daily choices focused on helping you DIE or HEAL? There's a difference between being "unsick" and actually being "healthy"... 

One state leads toward becoming sick, while the other leads toward a vibrant, optimal life. ❤️ I choose optimum health... One healthy habit at a time! 🤩 

Do you want to come along on the journey? Follow my "Healthy Habits with Jumbled Sunshine" page for ideally-daily strategies to make your life better every day!

~JS~🌞 #StrategySaturday #optimumhealth #loveyourbody #takecareofyou 

Tips for reducing stress! (According to WebMD)

I know some of these are easier said than done. But if you can work on them one at a time, you'll go a long way to helping yourself have a happier and less stressful life! 😊💯😍✌️🕊️🌞

(1)Keep a positive attitude.

(2)Accept that there are events that you cannot control. That's okay, let it go!

(3)Be assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive.

(4)Learn and practice relaxation techniques such as meditation, yoga or tai-chi.

(5)Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is fit.

(6)Eat healthy, well-balanced meals.

(7)Learn to manage your time more effectively.  Set limits appropriately and say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life.

(8)Make time for hobbies and interests.  Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events.

(9)Don't rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviors to reduce stress. Drugs and alcohol can stress your body even more.

(10)Seek out social support. Spend enough time with those you love.

(11)Seek treatment with a professional trained in stress management or biofeedback techniques to learn more healthy ways of dealing with the stress in your life.

Make each day your very best!
~JS~ 🌞
#StrategySaturday
#stressrelief #healthyhabits #makeeachdaycount

Get up and Try Again!

"Never let a stumble on your road be the end of your journey." Get up and try again! 🚧🚸🛣️ 

~JS~🌞
#SacredSunday

 #goals #journey #repentance #mercy #forgiveness

"I Just Want Everyone to Smile!" Wise Words from a Child

This is so great! "Everyone just needs to settle down and be nice and be friends!" Wow, if I need advice in the future, I'll know where to turn! Isn't she adorable? 😍👧



This is why we have kids. They teach us so much!
~JS~🌞 #FamilyFriday

#cutelittlegirl #greatadvice #justbenice

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

Unsend Feature Now in Gmail App!

As a longtime user of the "Inbox by Gmail" app, I've been saved many times by the UNSEND feature! 😌

This feature has (surprisingly) been missing from the Gmail Android app... until now! 

With the new "cancel send" feature, if you change your mind or see a typo as your email is queued to be sent, you can click "cancel" and it will stop sending! (Not that any of us ever does such a thing... Cough, cough) 🙄😆

If you don't see this on your Gmail app, go into your Play Store to check if your app is up-to-date.

Have a great #TechTuesday everyone!
~JS~🌞

#gmail #newfeatures #updates #email #techtips #mistakes #autocorrect

Becoming Your Very Best Self! 💙

Imagine your very BEST SELF! 😊 Not your perfect self, because no one's perfect, but your BEST self...

What does this person look like? A person who's your best friend and is with you everyday,  every step of the way. 🤼‍♀️ A person who forgives you no matter what mistakes you've made. A person who cheers you on and helps you become the best that you can be.  📣

Do you believe it could be possible to become such a person? If not (to quote a loved and hated song) just "Let It Go!" 💙

Let go of negativity towards yourself and others and focus on the positive. ➕ Be your own best friend because you're the only person in the world who will always be there for yourself until the very end. 🔚

Let go of any part of yourself that doesn't believe it. 💖

I believe in you!!!
~JS~🌞
#MotivationMonday

#selfrespect
#letitgo #beyourownbestfriend #motivation #abundance

Be Proud of Every Step You Take

"Don't wait until you've reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal."

I'm so grateful for the things that I've achieved in my life and for everyone who helped support me to get me to where I am today.

I've got a long way to go to become the best I can be, but today I'm celebrating the progress I've made. 😍

Remember to pay attention to the little things that you accomplish instead of only focusing on the road ahead. Remember that if you make it partway toward a goal, that's not failure, that's successful progress!

Always focus on the good that's come from everything you try. You got this!

~JS~ 🌞
#ThankfulThursday

#goals #motivation
#patience #notfailure #gratitude #support #mentors #littlethings

Prayers for Tham Luang

Praying for the Thai soccer coach and his 12 little ”Wild Boars" as the rescue operation proceeds today. 🙏♥️ He's a novice monk and has been helping them survive the ordeal with meditation. #SacredSunday

Let Freedom Ring!

"Freedom is not the right to do as you please, but the liberty to do as you ought." #HappyIndependenceDay

You can do this life thing! The best is yet to come. #SacredSunday #quote #challenges

Look to the Future!

Do something today that your future self will thank you for.
~JS~ 🌞 #ThankfulThursday

#inspire #succeed #gratitude #quote #quotestoliveby
www.jumbledsunshine.com

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~ 🌞🌄

Focus on the Moment

Ain't it the truth though? 😂 

But seriously, let's all try to remember the people around us and focus on what's truly important!
♥️ ~JS~  
#TechTuesday 

(Thanks to Peter Urmston for the laugh today!)

Dads are Heroes

Photo credit: Melissa Ward

Happy Fathers Day to all the wonderful men out there trying hard to do their best for their wives and children. ♥️

~JS~ 🌞
#SacredSunday
#fathersday #fathers #family #dad

My Seven Day Social Media Fast - Podcast Episode 10 - IDP010

What I Learned When I Turned off the Chatter for a Week

It was an interesting week and I learned some interesting insights.
Enjoy the podcast!


If you're more of a reading-type, a transcript of this podcast will be posted soon.

~JS~ 🌞
#TechTuesday

For more optimism and insight for your everyday living, visit www.jumbledsunshine.com!

Seven-Day Social Media Fast

At a historic fireside this evening, all LDS youth were invited by President Russell M. Nelson to participate in a 7-day social media fast.

In an effort to support the youth and claim the blessings of this prophetic charge, I'm going to take a break from social media starting tomorrow morning. See you all next Monday! ~JS~ 🌞

You are Worth It!

"God would not put you through a refiner's fire if you were not worth refining." - Brad Wilcox

Have wonderful #SacredSunday today!
~JS~🌞