In this series of blog posts, I share you my personal effort towards sustainable change.  To get caught up, read Week 1: Cyber Purging, Meditation and Exercise and Getting Healthy Week 2/3: Listening to my Body and An Early Reveal of a “Before” Picture.

For me, it was time to listen to that little voice in my head that was speaking the truth.  Here is one thing I know for sure:

When you do not listen to that little voice in your head, your body will scream at you in some way.

You might get a flare up of back pain, regular migraines, fatigue, hives or if you are like me it might manifest in sore throats and psoriasis.  Your body will let you know!  In some ways, you are lucky that your body does this because you can see what you are doing to yourself and hopefully wake up.  I share this blog post with you because I want you to know that you can absolutely set intention and make changes in your life.  When I ended 2012 with the intention to make change, I focused on diet (eliminating wheat and coffee), exercise (barre3 and yoga) and sleep.  I ended up making the best change of all in the end.  I started somewhere and ended up in an unexpected place with truth and peace in my heart.

In 2009, my sister went into labor prematurely with triplets at 23 weeks gestation due to a detached placenta (exactly four years ago today).  She had been to the emergency room for abdominal pain a couple of days earlier and was sent home with “gas pains”.  When she started bleeding and was admitted to the hospital, she was faced with the decision of how to terminate the pregnancy.  Something in her blood levels miraculously changed and she was given the option of delivering the babies via C-section.  Babies are not usually revived before 24 weeks but they made an exception for her babies born one day short of that marker.  My sister was on the operating room table for hours and almost died.  She had about 8 pints of blood transfused into her body.  When I heard the news on the phone that she was having the babies I cried, “It’s too early!! Mom, they are not going to make it!” Continue reading →