Happy and healthy

Did you know the healthier you are, the happier you are? I swear it is true.

Every time I do a killer workout with my trainer or finish a long, hard run like a half marathon, I always feel fantastic. But it's not even that. It's that I feel terrific from the inside out. I feel younger and have more energy. Sometimes I think I am going to bounce off the walls.

It is amazing to see the progress I've made in my health and running this year. I am so close to achieving my goals that I am bursting with pure excitement. Yesterday was my best half marathon to date, only missing my goal time by two minutes, which is a twenty-five minute improvement over my very first half marathon just a year ago in February. Woohoo!

If you catch me smiling, chances are it's because I am jumping up and down on the inside because of how far I've come. Honestly, I'm already thinking about my new goals.

While the effort and hard work is on me, the support that I've received from family, friends and my fantastic trainer, Jon Tobey of The Fitness Factory must be mentioned. Without Jon helping me build the strength and build my cardio with his boot camps, metabolic meltdowns, and the one-on-one training that focuses on my core activity needs, I would not be as fit as I am today.

Thank you, Jon!

Thank you to all my friends who have cheered me on through your words of encouragement and kudos, through your nagging me to join in yet another run. It’s nice to know that while these races and these goals are mine, because of you all, I feel like I can achieve them.

I can’t thank you enough for your kind words and support!

So, if you’re looking for a little encouragement to get yourself out there and achieve your goals, take it from me, a woman who a year ago was diagnosed with kidney issues…NOT NO MORE, who couldn’t lose a pound to save her life…I’ve lost 15 and counting, who didn’t think she would ever run a half marathon again after the first one (last February) took six weeks to recuperate…I’ve done a dozen more since then and am doing about one a month now, sometimes more. You can do it!

You can achieve your health and fitness goal and along with it will come an extreme happiness that you did not know existed. All it takes is guts, determination, and dedication.

Tell us what you're reading

This week I am reading an historical romance and a mystery. I'm continuing to read historical romances by Johanna Lindsey on my Kindle. This week, I'm reading The Pursuit.

Blurb: What was to be a grand adventure for Melissa MacGregor an escape from the wilds of her Scottish home into the whirl of the London social scene--seems to pale before the promise in the passionate gaze of Lincoln Ross Burnett. Though they exchange but a few words before parting after a chance encounter on her grandfather's lands, Melissa instantly knows this bold stranger is her destiny, while Lincoln realizes his heart has been claimed forever and he will never be complete until Melissa MacGregor is his bride.

But there are serious obstacles impeding the well-smitten Viscount Cambury's pursuit of glorious romance: sixteen of them--all big and brawny, six named Ian and all named MacFearson. The bane of Lincoln's Youth, Melissa's stifling, disapproving uncles are now determined to rob him of his newfound happiness. Yet he is equally resolved to confront the peril--and to pursue his exquisite obsession all the way to London... and to the ends of the earth, if necessary.

For the mysterious side of my nature, I am listening on audiobook in my morning commute to The Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell. Who doesn't love a medical examiner?

Blurb: A woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada. Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over two thousand miles away in Boston. She has no idea why.

But as events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect that the paleontologist’s disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age.

When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that the danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closest circles. Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles. Her lead investigator, Pete Marino, and FBI forensic psychologist and husband, Benton Wesley, have secrets of their own. Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel.


What are you reading this week?