I am sorry, I had to take a break and get myself focused. However, I haven't stopped, and I've been quite busy really. There's been a lot going on and honestly, I've been living out the every step's a victory   mantra. There's been lots of struggles and tons of ups and downs. But I have to say each step toward a healthy, whole life is still victorious. As a matter of fact, revisiting that is why I decided to get the blog back up and going again. I did get a website set up, you can check it out if you'd like. I still have to get the blog up and going on the site It won't be like this one, it will have more general information about healthy eating, exercising and things that are not as much about my own journey, it'll be more educational. Check out the Every Step's A Victory site and let me know what you think so far. For me life continues to be a struggle, I think that may hold true for most people who deal with a chronic condition. It seem...

Whoo Hoo!!! Finally my blood pressure is down to where it should be. It's taken quite a while to get it there - now to make it stay. I've been watching what I eat and guarding it closely and gently exercising. It's been slowly coming back down so this morning I was pleasantly surprised by these beautiful numbers!! This struggle is real! It's difficult to not get frustrated when you are doing everything right and it refuses to come down or just inches down. Just a real reminder that I have to stay on top of symptoms if I want to keep doing what I love to do. To be totally honest, I was very worried last week that my running days were over. My heart rate kept spiking and at the weirdest times. It would shoot up to 120 while I was sleeping!! Not like that's super dangerous or anything - just odd and frustrating. I got on the treadmill for a walk  and it would shoot up to 180 and be all over the place up-and-down-and-up again. Then last week it started settling do...

I found this picture on my memories on Facebook this morning. It's my second race ever. My nephew, Jakob, came down to Louisiana from Oklahoma to run it with me. He had been at my first race the month before and figured he could do that too. So he did! When this picture came up this morning 7 years of memories flooded my mind! I had no idea at the time that I would still be running today. The future was actually very fuzzy at that time and I was barely making it day-by-day. My son and I were staying in a nursing home in a small town nearby and I honestly had no idea what to expect. I had just found running and had fallen in love with it. I'm happy to say that we are still involved in quite the love affair. lol I didn't know I'd reestablish myself and build a home back in Oklahoma and become a full-time caregiver for my son. I didn't know I'd face my own health issues in the coming years. I didn't know I'd run 20 half marathons. I never  dreamed I...

So I have taken this week off after the great overdo of last week. I have walked a couple of miles here and there but have kept it real low key. I'm happy to say my blood pressure is back within a safe range, although it's not perfect yet. My weight hasn't changed in 3 days (and that's monumental); and my heart rate has stopped spiking. It settled down about Tuesday but I'm still being nice. I've been changing my diet over the last few weeks. I've done some experimenting and testing to see what really works for me and what doesn't. We are all individual and have to figure out what does work for us. Even those of us with similar conditions have to figure out our own bio-individuality. So my conclusions include these tidbits: Salt is a no-no, period. My body cannot handle prepared foods, at all. Fast food is poison to me. I can live without a lot of grains/breads. I can eat whole grains like rice and whole oats. I do well with more fruits; and...

This weekend I did a 5K that served as a stark reminder that I do have a heart condition and I do need to take it easier than I really want to. I really don't even like admitting I'm dealing with CHF or any kind of heart issue. I've tried to talk all my doctors out of that diagnosis and no one will budge off of it. Saturday's race has helped me refocus and I'm spending this week resting and regrouping. Here's how it all went down. My blood pressure has been running a bit high and was up a little at my cardiologist appointment last week. He didn't offer me any meds for it as he knows I want to manage it, if possible, with diet and exercise. I was also given some paperwork for being overweight . That kind of hurt my feelings. lol. But I am barely at that marker and if I lose one pound I'm not in the overweight category. (Side note - I've lost 5 pounds since then! lol) Some of it can be water retention - which should also be a clue I pay attention...

Over the weekend I did a local 5K. I really didn't think about it at the time, but after I got home I realized it was the weekend I'd done my very first 5K 7 years ago. My first race ever was the Peach Festival 5K in Louisiana. I left that race to go straight to the computer and find another one. I was in love! This was my 84th 5K. I've now done 137 races altogether. That includes twenty 10Ks, twenty half marathons and one full marathon. Considering the life-challenges makes each finish line I cross just a little bit sweeter. This race was HOT! I figured they didn't know what they were doing when I saw the race didn't start until 9 o'clock - in the middle of June. That's a winter race time - not the middle of the summer race time! I was right too. And..they didn't have a drop of water on the course; not one water stop. It was also billed as the "Bands on the Run" and the whole reason I signed up for this race was they said they would have...