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August is Health Awareness Month and today I’m sharing my own personal healthy living journey. Over the past 3 years, I have made a lot of lifestyle changes for my family and its been amazing how much healthier we are.
The most dramatic change has been my weight loss – I’ve lost about 60 pounds and down about 5 clothing sizes. Shopping for clothes is fun.
This is a quick photo I took last year with my phone and posted to instagram after cleaning out my closet one day and found an old pair of jeans (and they weren’t that old). These jeans were a size 14 – now I’m down to single digit clothing sizes!
But more than just losing weight it is how I feel. My energy level has increased. I need less sleep. I’m much more active and I love it. Less aches and pains in my body even though I’m getting older (I’m 44). I feel younger than I did in my 30s! I have a very active 9 year old son and its awesome to be able to keep up with him. We both love nature and hike or bike often on the trails near our home.
Less colds and sinus infections for our family. About 5 years ago, I was at urgent care so often for sinus infections they wrote on my chart ‘chronic sinus infections’. Now I can’t even remember the last time I had one. For the last school year my son got the Perfect Attendance Award – and he even has asthma.
Exercise Being active is important to good health and happiness. As I started to lose weight and make other health changes I felt better and exercise became easier for me. Once I added it into my daily routine, my health continued to improve even faster. I take barre fitness classes, run and hike with my son.
Vitamins and Supplements I started seeing a naturopathic doctor a few years ago and she is the one who helped me make a lot of changes that resulted in such an improvement to my health. She routinely takes my blood work about twice a year and adjusts the vitamin and supplements that I take. I take a few supplements including fish oil and probiotic daily. Right now my vitamin D and B levesl are low – its always amazing how much my energy level increases once these are back in the normal level. My son takes fish oil and a multivitamin daily.
Whole Food I have been gradually transitioning our family’s diet to more whole foods, organic when available. Because I was also diagnosed with food allergies I was forced to cook a lot of foods from scratch which required a transition to whole foods. Coconut oil is just an amazing product – so many uses. I use it as a replacement for butter when sauteing food (and my family can’t believe I’m not cooking with butter) and in a lot of Paleo dessert recipes.
Natural Products I’ve been transitioning to more natural products for home care and my beauty routine. Vinegar is a great additive to laundry and as a cleaning products around the home. I keep a small bottle of coconut oil in my medicine cabinet to use as an eye makeup remover. And a larger bottle in my shower as a deep conditioning treatment for my hair.
Me time I’m busy. I’m a single mom to an active 9 year old, own my own small business in addition to blogging. I’ve made a conscious effort the past few years to take time for myself. This may mean a few minutes in evening sipping tea and reading a magazine. Enjoying a glass of red wine on the patio in the evening after my son has gone to bed. Lunch with girlfriends. Happiness is so important to good health and as moms sometimes we forget to take time for ourselves.
Sam’s Club is the destination for everything you need to stay healthy. While there I picked up their Healthy Living magazine from their pharmacy.
I love these huge containers of coconut oil.
Because we eat mostly whole foods, Sams Club is the perfect place to stock up on fruits and vegetables – I spotted some delicious looking organic grapes and carrots that are perfect for snacking or school lunches.
Sam’s Club is a great place to stock up on vitamins and supplements. I also stocked up medicine for fall allergies plus first aid supplies for the upcoming baseball season.
Interested in making healthy living changes into your lifestyle? Visit Sams Club September 12th for FREE health screenings.