July was the official start of the Movin’ with Mickey Movement. In case you missed it, let me refresh your memory. My friend Katie over at The Most Delightful Place recently 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 loved her idea and decided I would join in to improve my health before my fall Disney World vacation.

The Plan

I have many things to work on to improve my health. As Katie walks her way to Disney World, I’m going to make healthy changes too, and I’ll keep you posted on 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.

Update 4

I’ve been super busy finishing up my fourth book that will be coming out this holiday season, so am I making any progress on my health goals? Well….let’s take a look at each of my changes individually.

Get at least 6 hours of sleep each night.

I am still doing great on this change. Each night I’ve been sleeping from about 10pm to 5am. It is becoming such a habit now, I’m almost ready to take this goal off the list!

Eat three meals each day.

So this change is definitely still a work in progress. During my last update, I shared that I was having sandwiches for breakfast, because I’m not a big “breakfast food” fan. Well, guess what? I got super burnt out on them, and started getting back into my habit of skipping the meal entirely. Any ideas of something quick and easy to eat in the mornings?

Eat at least one fruit/vegetable at every meal.

Since I’m no longer eating sandwiches, there went the veggies that I was getting. Lots more work to do here!

Take all of my medications each day.

Still doing great on taking my vitamins and kidney stone medications. Another goal that I will soon be removing from the list!

Drink eight glasses of water each day.

I haven’t even tried this one yet. It’s going to be tough. At least I have plenty to work on!

Reduce soda intake to once a week or less.

I’m still working on this change; that’s for sure! I’ve managed to work my way from four sodas a day down to two, but I still have a long way to go until I’m at my goal of one a week.

Exercise at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week.

No progress here yet, but I’m really short on time trying to complete my book before my fall Disney World vacation. I hope to get started on the exercise on November 1.

As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do. But this about the journey not the destination, right?

Katie’s Updates

Click here to read Katie’s first update that includes a great interview and some fantastic training tips!

Click here to read Katie’s second update that includes her progress report. It is so exciting to see how far she has come already!

Click here to read Katie’s third update that includes some great tips for staying on track while cruising. That lucky girl is getting ready to set sail on a Disney Cruise to Hawaii!

Click here to read Katie’s fourth update that includes lots of interesting information about essential oils!

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!

Last month was the official start of the Movin’ with Mickey Movement. In case you missed it, let me refresh your memory. My friend Katie over at The Most Delightful Place recently 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 loved her idea and decided I would join in to improve my health before my fall Disney World vacation.

The Plan

I have many things to work on to improve my health. As Katie walks her way to Disney World, I’m going to make healthy changes too, and I’ll keep you posted on 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.

Update 3

So now that we are a few weeks in, am I making any progress? Well….let’s take a look at each of my changes individually.

Get at least 6 hours of sleep each night.

This is one change where I can say I have made major improvements. Yay, me! I have gone from four hours of sleep a night to about 7. Now that my kids are back in school, I’m on a good schedule of being in bed by 10pm and up at 5am. Here’s what is strange though…I find myself waking up around 3:30am feeling wide awake and ready to get up for the day, but it is way too early. I sleep restlessly for the next hour and a half until the alarm goes off at 5am and then I get up exhausted. Is this a case of too much sleep? Anyone know?

Eat three meals each day.

So this change is definitely still a work in progress. I am doing better; eating at least twice a day and sometimes three times. What I have discovered is that I just don’t like breakfast foods. Eggs? Yuck! Bagels? Gross! Oatmeal? No way! But then I thought, I’m a grown-up; no one says I have to eat breakfast food for breakfast. This has been really helpful. Once I get my kids dropped off at both of their schools, I’ve been coming home and having a half of a sandwich. Hopefully, I can keep this up!

Eat at least one fruit/vegetable at every meal.

I’ve made a little bit of progress here. Although, I’m not a huge veggie fan, I have been adding them to my sandwiches so at least I’m getting a few. More work to do!

Take all of my medications each day.

Another success! I’m finally taking all of the medications and supplements each day. I’m not noticing any improvements by doing this, but it will probably take some time.

Drink eight glasses of water each day.

I haven’t even tried this one yet. It’s going to be tough. At least I have plenty to work on!

Reduce soda intake to once a week or less.

So you might remember from Update 2 that trying to cut out soda cold turkey left me with a nasty migraine for several days. Well, guess what? So did dropping to just one can a day. Once I really started to look at it and add up the ounces, I’m embarrassed to admit, I was drinking 3 to 4 sodas per DAY! Outrageous, I know! Well, in the last two weeks, I’ve been able to cut the amount in half to 2 sodas per day without any headaches. Hopefully, by the time I write Update 4, I’m down to just 1 per day!

Exercise at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week.

No progress in this department yet, but I have read several articles recently that diet makes a more noticeable difference in the way you feel than exercise. I’m not sure that I agree with that, but I’m interested to see if I notice any changes in my fatigue by adjusting my diet first before adding in the exercise. Could be interesting!

As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do. But this about the journey not the destination, right?

Katie’s Updates

Click here to read Katie’s first update that includes a great interview and some fantastic training tips!

Click here to read Katie’s second update that includes her progress report. It is so exciting to see how far she has come already!

Click here to read Katie’s third update that includes some great tips for staying on track while cruising. That lucky girl is getting ready to set sail on a Disney Cruise to Hawaii!

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!

Last month was the official start of the Movin’ with Mickey Movement. In case you missed it, let me refresh your memory. My friend Katie over at The Most Delightful Place recently 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 loved her idea and decided I would join in to improve my health before my fall Disney World vacation.

The Plan

I have many things to work on to improve my health. As Katie walks her way to Disney World, I’m going to make healthy changes too, and I’ll keep you posted on 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.

Update 2

So when my original plan of making one change a week for better health didn’t really work for me, I tried making one change a day to get things rolling more quickly. How did I do? Well….let’s take a look at each of my changes individually.

Get at least 6 hours of sleep each night.

Now this change is one where I have really made some progress. I have gotten at least six hours of sleep each night in the last two weeks. I do notice a difference in how tired I feel throughout the day with just a couple of hours of extra sleep each night. Next up, I would like to get on more of a schedule with regular waking and bed times. This will be much easier when my kiddos head back to school. I won’t have any choice about when I get up. No more staying up late or sleeping in for any of us!

Eat three meals each day.

So this change is definitely still a work in progress. I am doing better; eating at least twice a day and sometimes three times. I still have a hard time getting breakfast in, but I hope it will get easier once my boys are back in school and we are all in more of a routine.

Eat at least one fruit/vegetable at every meal.

I’ve made no progress here. I am not a fan of fruit or veggies so this one is going to be tough.

Take all of my vitamins, thyroid, and kidney stone medications each day.

I’m making small improvements with this change. I’m not taking everything every day, but at least a few days a week I’m getting them all in.

Drink eight glasses of water each day.

Another change that hasn’t seen any significant improvement yet. At least I have plenty to work on!

Reduce soda intake to once a week or less.

This one is proving harder than I thought. I dropped soda cold turkey and ended up with a horrible migraine that lasted for three days until I started taking Tylenol and drinking root beer again. I’m going to need to approach this change differently by weaning myself off the soda if I don’t want to deal with the headaches. First baby step – down to no more than one soda a day for the next couple of weeks.

Exercise at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week.

With the migraine, getting my guys ready to head back to school, and finishing up my next book, there hasn’t really been any time for exercise. Hoping that will change once I submit my book’s final draft on August 14!

As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do. But this about the journey not the destination, right?

Katie’s Kick-Off and Updates

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

Click here to read Katie’s first update that includes a great interview and some fantastic training tips!

Click here to read Katie’s second update that includes her progress report. It is so exciting to see how far she has come already!

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!

A few weeks ago was the official start of the Movin’ with Mickey Movement. In case you missed it, let me refresh your memory. My friend Katie over at The Most Delightful Place recently 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 loved her idea and decided I would join in to improve my health before my fall Disney World vacation.

The Plan

I have many things to work on to improve my health. As Katie walks her way to Disney World, I’m going to make healthy changes too, and I’ll keep you posted on 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.

Update 1

My plan was to make one healthy change per week and to begin with something that I thought would be easy; drinking eight glasses of water per day. Now three weeks into it, I should have made three healthy changes to my every day routine. Do you know what I have accomplished so far? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I drank about four glasses of water the first day, and then it all fell apart. Life got in the way. You know how that is, right? You get busy, tired, stressed, and all of your great plans just get pushed aside. It happens to all of us sometimes. But you know what? I’m going to start over. Tomorrow is a new day! This time I’m going to try a different approach to make the changes. Rather than adding one healthy habit a week, I’m going to add one a day. I tend to get discouraged if I don’t see or feel progress relatively quickly, so I’m afraid the “one change a week” method isn’t going to give me the results I’m looking for quickly enough to keep me motivated. What kind of results am I looking for, you ask? The main thing I would like to get out of these health changes is an improvement in my energy levels. I struggle a lot with fatigue due to an auto-immune disease and hypothyroidism. If just once in a while, I could get out of bed feeling refreshed and ready for the day, it would all be worth it. I’m going to need all of the energy and stamina I can get for my fall Disney World vacation!

Here are the changes I hope to put in place (in no particular order):

• Get at least 6 hours of sleep each night.
• Eat three meals each day.
• Eat at least one fruit/vegetable at every meal.
• Take all of my vitamins, thyroid, and kidney stone medications each day.
• Drink eight glasses of water each day.
• Reduce soda intake to once a week or less.
• Exercise at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week.

It looks so simple when I see it in writing. There are only seven changes here, I can do this. By this time next week, they should all be incorporated into my every day life. Wish me luck, folks! I’ll keep you posted!

Katie’s Kick-Off and First Update

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

Click here to read Katie’s first update that includes a great interview and some fantastic training tips!

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!

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!