Good News
The exercising is paying off. I am seven pounds down and many inches off. I'm moving closer to the 40 pounds I want off. I feel good too!

Exercise Does a Body Good!

I started exercising and I am so excited. I feel so good. My body has really been missing this kind of stimulation. I have a lot of work ahead but I am willing to put the time in to assure myself of having good health. At least if I strive for that everything else will fall into place.

Stress Can Kill you!

I pride myself on knowing a lot of things including having the information that stress can kill you. Stress Management is one of the topics that I am often requested to do workshops on throughout the business community. Still I wasn’t prepared to deal with my own level of stress and how not managing it could cause some serious health problems.

Three things happened that set me off. The first was the call from mother informing me that she had just purchased a car for cash and was short of about 2100 dollars and could I bring the money to the dealer right away. Immediately I got angry. I had just spoken to her the week before taking her to look for a car that was affordable to her, not me. We agreed to wait until she called my dad and they went on their own personal search. Actually they got an excellent deal with dad having a background in auto mechanics. But it was how it was done that sent me over the top. I felt disrespected, put out, and everything else. Stress I tell you!

The Guilt Trip from her: All the money I paid for you to go to college.......

Next the abortion. Receiving a call on the day of the abortion to pick the person up from the center because their car would not start and they would not let them leave without a ride. Imagine me showing up at 7:30 a.m. in the morning to an abortion center. There are protesters everywhere screaming at me “to not kill off my race, its genocide, don’t do it, its murder, and what can we do to help?” Imagine walking into a room and seeing it packed with teenagers, married women and their husbands, of all races, many crying, others talking about their choices, etc., and it seems like everyone is talking to me. I am against abortions. I was picking someone up and that someone was with her mother whom I am good friends with. They could not have a cab. Stress I say! Should I have not picked the family up, stayed out of it? I don’t know. They were family friends and I had counseled the teen several years earlier until I transferred her case. The teen was 18, a high school graduate and was with her mother. It was their choice, not mines. I was just picking them up, I didn’t take them. The procedure started the day before.

Stress I tell you!

The third thing that happened:

I got into my car on the hottest day of the year and it would not start. It's only about 2.6 years old, I have never had any problems with it. The car dealer will not honor repairing the car if you allow anyone else to touch it. They are located 45 minutes away. I have to call my husband to come and get me on the parking lot of my favorite store for shopping. I shop when I am stressed out and having to call him, pretty much put my business out there. That was stressful.

So I am learning to deal with not allowing folks to stress me out.

First I am communicating clearly to all that I can't help everybody without destroying me. Then I am done. My family has been warned.

I am going to a Spa for a week in Tennessee to get pampered and treated special. Any money being spent is on me.

Next my husband and I have started a walking program. We are in our fifth day. I am feeling better.

Lesson for me: I have one life. I have to enjoy it and treat myself well if I want to be healthy and happy. Finally I can not be all things to all people and when you try people just start to use you. Finally, I have Learned to say no it is so much healthier.

Now I can smile again: