Do you have a Disney World trip coming up soon? Maybe you’re like me and want to get healthy so you’re feeling great on your next vacation. Well, you don’t have to do it alone. My friend Katie over at The Most Delightful Place has just kicked off her new feature Movin’ with Mickey! She’s going to be sharing lots of great health tips and success stories twice a month as she works towards her personal goal of walking the amount of steps equal to the distance from her home in Iowa to Walt Disney World. Of course, she’ll be updating us on her progress along the way. I absolutely love her idea and I think working towards better health with others is a wonderful way to stay motivated. So please join me as I work to improve my health before my fall Disney World vacation and as I follow along with Katie on her journey!

The Plan

I have many things to work on to improve my health like drinking enough water, eliminating soda, eating nutritious food, eating three meals a day, getting enough sleep, exercising, the list goes on and on. As Katie walks her way to Disney World, I’m going to choose one healthy change to phase in each week. I’ll keep you posted on what I’ve chosen and how I’m doing.

Every two weeks, Katie will be doing a post over on The Most Delightful Place giving us an update and sharing helpful information. I’ll post a link here at Disney World Enthusiast each time she publishes a Movin’ with Mickey article so we can keep up with her progress.

In between posts, you can catch up with Katie and I over on Facebook at Disney World Enthusiast or The Most Delightful Place, where you can let us know how you’re doing on journey as well.

My Kick-Off

Where to begin? With so many changes to make, it is hard to know which one to pick. First, let me share with you a little about my current health situation so you’ll know where I’m coming from and maybe you’ll be able to relate. Like so many of you out there, I’m a busy person. I have a lot going on with my family and work, so finding time for my health is usually pushed to the back burner. I am now in a pattern where I stay up late writing away on my computer (it is now close to midnight) and then sleep for maybe four or five hours before my boys and I are up for the day. For whatever reason, I haven’t been hungry in the morning lately so I’ve been skipping breakfast (I know, I know!) and that begins the downward spiral for the day. By the time lunch rolls around I’m starved, and of course I head straight for the junk food and soda. I don’t eat a lot, but what I do eat is all wrong. What about exercise, you ask? Well, funny story. In January of 2014, I made the New Year’s resolution to run the Bolder Boulder 10K here in my area. After training for about three weeks, I got a stress fracture in my tibia that put me out of commission for several months. The bright side is that as I recovered from my injury, I changed my New Year’s resolution to start a blog and now over a year later it is still going strong! Unfortunately, I just never really got back into the swing of exercising once I fully healed. As you can see, I’ve got some work to do!

For my first change, I’m going to begin by drinking at least 8 glasses of water each day. This is going to be a hard one for me, because many days I don’t actually drink anything until I eat lunch around 1pm and that is often a soda. Honestly, I sometimes go days without drinking any water at all. For me this is really problematic, because I have something called Sponge Medullary Kidney Disease. It is actually more of a birth defect than disease. My kidneys are not shaped correctly and because of this form kidney stones easily. I often have several stones a month and anyone that has ever had even one kidney stone knows how unpleasant that is. The good news is that even though I will always develop stones, the more water that I drink the fewer stones I will have. Wish me luck, folks! Although, I know drinking water is what I’m supposed to be doing, I get busy and forget. Before I know it hours have passed! I’m hoping that getting this drinking water habit in place before my next Disney World vacation will pay off by helping me to stay hydrated and to have fewer kidney stones during my trip. Now where’s that water bottle…. 🙂

Katie’s Kick-Off

Click here to read Katie’s official kick off article for her Movin’ with Mickey feature!

Love The Graphic?

Do you love Katie’s graphic for Movin’ with Mickey as much as I do? It was designed by our friend Chris from On A Roll Designs. She is a fabulous artist that also just happens to be the person that creates all of the artwork for my website as well. If you have any graphic art needs, please check out her Facebook page and Etsy shop. And be sure to tell her I sent you!

Do you hope to improve your health before your next Disney World vacation? Are you ready to join the Movin’ with Mickey Movement? Please leave a comment and let us know what you’ll be working on.
We would love to share this journey with you!