I want to share a little bit about my story and why sharing my knowledge of taking care of oneself is so important to me. I lost my son who would be 12 years old now. With that goes the absence of beautiful moments; watching your child in the school play, on the baseball field, helping him study math (and I am horrible at math), hearing him scream throughout the house as he plays with his friends on a Friday night, or simply sitting at the dinner table listening to stories about his day and getting the giggles…the list is looooong.

How do you deal with it? While most of you have not lost a child (super grateful for that), you have your own tragedies to try to manage. Many of these life experiences don’t go away, but rather you learn to live with them. But HOW do you get better?

I asked myself (about 6 months after I lost my son) “Do you want to be happy or miserable?”

Clearly the answer is happy. But how, in this tough world, do I do that?

First, if your belief is in God, you need to start there. If it isn’t, consider putting it there. (I’m not here to preach, but I have to tell the story the right way, and it took me a few years to come back to this place…another story for another time).

Second, YOU HAVE CHOICES! You do, really. Boy, have I made some stupid ones. But I have made some great ones too. One that has given me my life back  is that I chose to take care of myself. I am working on a book in which I remind the reader that I know that I have a free ticket to let go of all my strength and allow other things to take over– everyone would understand. “She lost her baby boy when he was 4 1/2 months old…” Here’s the thing, guys: I don’t want that ticket. The ticket I want is the one that allows me to come into your heart and help you achieve YOUR HAPPINESS (your own utopia)!

My intention to be happy turned into me accomplishing things I never imagined. I never thought I would run a marathon much less become a runner. I never, ever thought that would turn into being a triathlete doing Ironman races. And I did not clearly see that I would understand the beauty and sensation of feeling so good through my food choices— seriously, I grew up eating my mama’s awesome fried chicken and biscuits with sausage gravy (or chocolate gravy sometimes!) in that completely blissful yeehaw country style!

For those of you that think you cannot do this, YOU ARE WRONG! YOU CAN AND YOU WILL, but you have to make the choice and then hold on to that choice every wonderful day. You can start small though some like to go cold turkey, but just start. You will be amazed at what happens. It gets easier. And don’t worry; if you hate running, you can do something else.

If you want hands on help, let me know. Regardless, I will continue to share ideas on my blog and through social media and hope that it helps you have the strength you are looking for so that eventually it becomes a lifestyle…a lifestyle that feels good.

Much love and happiness to all of you. Together we can get there and then we get to see more smiles, something that always yields another smile, and another and another…

One more thing to note: I want to THANK ALL OF YOU for giving me the strength to share. 

Happy New Year and may 2015 be the beginning (or a continuation) to your beautiful life and purpose!