Let's Be Crazy Together

Welcome to Mental Health Monday!  This was born out of a session on Depression, Anxiety and Healthy Living from Fitbloggin’ 15.  Every 1st and 3rd Monday there will be a link up for writers to share their experiences with Mental illness – either from their own experience or from the experience of helping and walking with others.  The goal is to reach out to the world and let people know that they are not alone in their struggles.  You are never alone.  Join us – link up, visit new blogs, support others.  Speak out:  “I am crazy…CRAZY AWESOME!”

I have shared some here about my recent adventures with anxiety. While in Denver at FitBloggin, I cried lots of tears and had a lot of revelations about my emotions and especially the way I treat and talk to and about myself. I'm excited about this link-up. It is way overdue that we start talking about these issues. One biggie for me was realizing that I'm not alone in this. Mental health issues are looked down on as something horrible and negative, when in reality the majority of people deal with mental issues of one kind or another. And it is an illness, just like cancer or diabetes. Many times we "crazy" people are told to just get over it. Would you say that to someone who was diagnosed with cancer? It is time for the stigmas attached to mental illness to stop. It is time we are accepted exactly how we are and not made to feel like we are less than worthy because of our issues. 

So that was not what I had planned to write, but it came out so it must be important. 

What I really wanted to share was this list of words that describe how I feel a lot of days, words I tell myself and words I know a lot of us deal with everyday. 

Fat

Ugly

Worthless

Lazy

Crazy

Isolated

Lonely

Unworthy 

Tired

Hopeless

Ashamed

Embarrassed

Unmotivated

Unstylish

Unpopular

Disgusting

Obese

Unattractive 

Undeserving

Disaster

I think I could go on and on and on with this lost, but you get the point. We are so hard on ourselves. 

Would we walk up to another person and say any of those things to them when they are struggling?

No, then why do we bully ourselves like we do?

Unfortunately, I don't have the answer. I'm working on it everyday. I'm not ashamed to say that I'm taking medication and getting counseling for my anxiety and self-hate. 

This session at FitBloggin has opened the door for us to start talking about these issues more. And the token we received is my anchor each and every time I start to use those words on the list. 

Losing weight and getting in shape will mean nothing if my insides are still broken. This journey is about so much more than just losing pounds and I'm just figuring that out. 

I encourage you to follow this link-up and read the posts others are writing about this issue. 

WE ARE NOT ALONE!

Sending you all love and healthy wishes!

Keep Losing,

Kari

My Baby!!!!!

This was my little 5 pound miracle baby! 15 years ago, I was going through a lot of stuff and stress, and God blessed me with my Robbie on July 4, 2000. My firecracker baby. Getting him into this world was not easy by any means, but I wouldn't change a single thing. 

This weekend we celebrated with family. Here are a few pics:

Robbie's Tardis cake! Which resulted in my entire family looking like this:

Which resulted in another interesting color after digestion! Sorry, TMI

After eating and swimming, we went to the community band concert to watch Robbie play drums. 

And then onto the fireworks 

Robbie was such a good cousin to Mac and held his ears on the loud ones!

There may be too many men in our family!

This morning we headed to church where Robbie did such an amazing job on the drums! I am so proud of the man he is becoming. 

Robbie's papaw, my late husband's father, gave Robbie a bag full of his daddy's things from when he was little. Robbie loved these memories of his daddy, especially this one:

If you knew my first husband, you would know that Robbie is SO MUCH like him! I know Jesse would be proud of his son. 

And, I'll leave you with a picture of my nephew with my fur baby

Cash has loved him since he was in his Mommy's tummy!!!

AMAZING WEEKEND!

Sending you all love and healthy wishes!

Keep Losing,

Kari

Goodbye June, Hello July

July already????

This summer has gone too quickly already. It sucks I have spent most of it in a boot! 

BUT:

Look at how well it is healing! I have been without my boot the past two days (even though at have a surgery show to wear still when I work out). It still hurts some, but the doctor said it could take a full year to completely heal. I go back July 15 for another X-ray to make sure the metal is fusing with the bone. And hopefully, he will release me to go back to normal exercise!

I'm ready for this month. I'm refocused after FitBloggin and ready to get back on the right path! So here are my July goals:

1.  Track everything I eat

2.  Meet my step goal (7509 for now) 5 out of 7 days a week

3.  Blog at least 3 times per week

4.  State one positive affirmation each day

5.  Eat at home 5 out of 7 days a week 

I would love if you would all share your goals with me!

Tomorrow I go back to the gym after 2 weeks of vacation! I am so ready to get back into a routine now that we are back home and getting settled back in. My hubby and boys are coming up with a family fitness challenge starting next week! I'll share the details here once we have it all lined out. I'm so excited to get everyone together surrounding health and fitness and not just TV and eating out. 

Oh and I got my nails done today for the Fourth of July:

Well, I'm off for now!!!!

Sending you all love and healthy wishes!

Keep Losing,

Kari