You are enough so embrace it.

It’s a big world out there and sometimes it’s hard to navigate and stay true to yourself.  I remember my teenage years and all the adults claiming “you’ll find yourself as your grow older.”  Everyone has heard the “just be you and don’t worry about what other people think” speech, but it’s easier said than done, right? As I grow older though, I think it becomes harder to be who you are without being conscious of what other people may think or say.

It never gets easier and it never goes away.  It’s something everyone has to work towards.  Just be you because you are enough. Love yourself for the person you are, try to always keep growing and most importantly, try to be understanding in all situations. It’s time to recognize and acknowledge your self-worth.  I am enough. You are enough!

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The world is filled with different types of people.  It’s constantly changing and growing due to the uniqueness of everyone.  Don’t be afraid to squash your uniqueness.  If you do you’re doing everyone a great disservice because you’re not allowing people to learn and grow.  It’s a system of interdependence which is VERY important to keep moving in a positive direction.  Take the time to celebrate all the things you think make you different from everyone else.

Find out what really makes you happy! Write them down.  Let the list rest and go back to readjust.  Go beyond the every day of family/friends/spouse/children and really dig deep to find out WHAT really makes you tick and makes you happy.  Once you figure out your happiness, your life’s focus will become clearer and being yourself will come that much easier.  It’s going to be different for every person but I truly believe everyone should know what truly makes the happiness meter go off inside.  And the best thing about happiness is many things will make you happy and happiness will change over time.

Ignore everyone else.  People will always have something to say.  Sometimes it will be good, sometimes it will be bad.  Value the opinion of people who mean the most to you and everyone else, forget them.  It’s not worth it.  I know I spend a lot of time wondering what this or that person is saying about me because I’m doing this.  In the end, they may not even care.  I’m pretty sure I put myself through some personal turmoil for nothing.  There’s a difference between being sensitive to someone’s feelings and letting their feelings take over your own well being.  It’s about a balance.

Find your passion.  If you do something you really love, you’ll find peace.  It doesn’t have to be your full time job or even a full time hobby.  It does have to be something that you enjoy doing and can’t live without.  Engaging in activities like this will make being you that much easier because you’re in your element.  You’re taking the time to enjoy life doing something that makes you you!

Encourage and support others when they are taking the chance at being different.  “Fitting in” always seems to be important and we are bombarded with images and reasons why a person should fit in everyday.  But if you’re going to be yourself, don’t stifle other people’s need to be themselves either through discouragement and criticism.

Judgement is hard.  It happens everyday.  But we must always remember your life is your own.  You live it the way you choose and no one can really say anything about it.  Don’t be afraid to the person you are because you are enough.

Race recap: Pleasure Island Bridge Half Marathon

Race recap: Pleasure Island Bridge Half Marathon

It’s my favorite race of the year!  I love the Pleasure Island Bridge Half Marathon for many reasons but most importantly, it’s just a great race with great people.  I run all over the country but it’s nice to run the local races.  I’m so blessed that my community has two great local long run events. This is my 3rd year running the bridge and I wouldn’t miss it for anything.  The race is scenic and it’s always great to run a bridge, right? I didn’t have a goal this year because last year I was really sluggish at this…

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It’s holiday time but you still need …

It’s holiday time but you still need to stay fit

I walked into a store last Saturday and they were playing Christmas carols.  I had to think to myself, “wasn’t it just Halloween?”  I guess we’re completely giving up on Thanksgiving this year in lieu of the other holidays. My plan is to come up with some dishes that you can share around the holiday table without blowing out your calories.  This is something Willie and I will work on together so it will appear on both blogs.  But today I want to talk about overindulging in the holiday goodness. I know it’s the holidays and  you should enjoy it.…

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Done with being sick so I’m trying …

Done with being sick so I’m trying to get back to normal

Yep I was sick!  That’s all I could talk about but I’m glad that it’s passed.  I actually want to get moving again.  I guess the best thing about getting sick was it happened after a marathon which forced me into rest/recovery mode.  Things are almost back to normal but I can’t hear out of my ear!  It’s still blocked up. The big lesson to learn from my sickness incident is: listen to your body.  If you’re sick it’s best to get over it instead of trying to push through it.  Kind of funny coming from me since I ran…

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Weight loss makes you confront the truth

Weight loss makes you confront the truth

I was listening to sports radio today and someone spoke about losing weight.  It was asked if being overweight was an unhappy thing because most weight loss stories begin with someone saying they were unhappy with their size. I think it’s a trap people fall in after they lost weight.  I’ve said it many times that I’m happier now that I’ve lost the weight which sometimes insinuates that I wasn’t happy before.  Don’t get me wrong, life definitely had it’s down points but it also had it’s ups too! I know the weight loss forced me to confront some issues…

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If you want something bad enough you’re …

If you want something bad enough you’re going to work for it

Hello from Virginia! I arrived yesterday after two delayed flights but we still made it here. I’m running the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend and decided to bring my mom along too. I’ve been working really hard to make this trip possible and this is the one thing I wanted to do in life besides go to China. I am having a very blessed year. Last night we went to dinner at this place called Cosi. I have to shout out to how good this place was. Our options were Subway or Cosi because it was late and this stuff…

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My weight loss gamer changer

My weight loss gamer changer

For some reason people are saying that Willie and I were on The Biggest Loser. I’ve been stopped four times in two days of people asking me about the show. Sorry folks, we weren’t on that show. The social aspect of the show would have had us voted out in the very beginning. But the lovely lady at Sam’s Club did ask me what the biggest game changer in losing all the weight. I didn’t even flinch when she asked because I know portion control was the biggest learning experience of it. Please pay attention to portion sizes. Read the…

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Finding happiness in St. Louis!

Finding happiness in St. Louis!

Happy Monday!  We got in from St. Louis late last night.  It was a good weekend and I’ll recap it later in another post.  This post isn’t for that that.  Traveling to St. Louis with Willie was kind of an eye opening experience for me. Or maybe just a huge surge of energy into my system. I’ve been floundering through life for the past couple of months.  I really thought it had only been a few weeks but if I look back on big picture, this moment has been coming for a long time. I’ve felt like I’ve been stuck on…

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The Sunday setup on Monday

The Sunday setup on Monday

Good morning everyone!  I’m getting back on my workout routine.  I went to Group Power class this morning and I almost died.  Everything is an increased weight factor and it was hard.  But I made it through. I wanted to stay in bed but I got up to go.  Sometimes you just have to make yourself get up and do it. I was definitely feeling this way this morning.  I hate these ecards but it was the best thing to use this morning. Yesterday was a nice day because I actually had time to do stuff.  We did our grocery…

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I roasted my first pumpkin yesterday

I roasted my first pumpkin yesterday

Hello my friends!  I’m boring this week.  I’m living for the little things.  I’ve been really busy at work (both jobs) so I have been looking forward to spending a minute at home.  Meal prep happened very quickly this week by eating some old favorites.  But I was looking forward to making something with my pumpkin that has been sitting on my counter since Friday. Last Friday, we did the grocery shopping for the week because we went to Tyler for the race. We wanted to make sure we had our groceries when we returned. That’s when I decided to…

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Egg White Muffins for breakfast

Egg White Muffins for breakfast

I like to share something from the kitchen every week so this week I’m sharing a super easy breakfast thing. I use to wake up every morning to make us egg white omelets. That was before I started teaching cycle at 5AM so I had to find a way to make breakfast in the morning easy and portable if needed to be. I decided on the egg white muffin because I can cook six at a time and it was a set it and forget it type of thing.   Egg White Muffins Recipe Type: Breakfast Cuisine: American Author: Angela…

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