So…healthy living, huh?  Let me give you a little background on my struggles…

I was born in Boston, MA, 26 years ago to a 16-year-old mother.  As can be expected with teenagers, she likely didn’t take great care of herself during the pregnancy, because I have ADD, hypothyroidism, and (most likely) PCOS, all of which can be directly linked to poor prenatal care, and none of which were diagnosed until I was in my low twenties.

I was adopted when I was 5.5 months old, and was raised in NH as an only child.  Around the time I was adopted, my dad had taken over a burgeoning company, and was often away on business.  My mom hated (hates) cooking, so most of my dinners consisted of cheerios, soups, pizza, and subs.  All of this was well and good until I hit puberty, and my perfect storm of health conditions kicked in. 

I don’t know how much you know about any of these conditions, but ADD makes you unmotivated, hypothyroidism means that your metabolism is basically broken, and PCOS makes it super easy to put on weight and nearly impossible to take it off.  Awesome. 

Thanks to a combination of laziness, love of cookies and pizza, and undiagnosed medical problems, my weight continued to creep up and up and up until it finally plateaued during the past few years.  Unfortunately, it’s begun creeping up again recently, and this time I am DONE. 

Realization hit me last week when I couldn’t fit into my snowpants, that I need to make a few life changes in order to get fit and be able to live the life I want.  It’s going to be a really tough road considering the biology that I’m fighting against, but I think that slowly but surely, I will get there.

So on that note, here are my health and wellness goals for 2012:

- Do SOMETHING active at least five days a week.  This can mean a long walk, a trip to the gym, or a workout DVD.  The trick is to get moving more often.

- Watch portion sizes.  Just because my boyfriend eats two fajitas at dinner doesn’t mean that I should too. 

- Incorporate veggies into as many meals and snacks as possible.  We’re already pretty good at doing this, but we could amp up the veggie intake from 3 a day to 5+ a day.

- Take vitamins everyday.  Self-explanatory.

- GET SOME SLEEP.  The bf and I have very different schedules, and I have to stop letting myself get sucked into late night tv and need to be IN BED, ready to sleep, by 11 each night.

Is there anything you think I should add?  Feel free to let me know what you think: eugoogs at gmail dot com.

XOXO - Christine

I apologize for the obnoxious photo that accompanies this post, but I’m still debating whether or not I want to include the bf’s name and face in my posts.  He’s currently in law school and will need to get a job someday, so we’ll see what happens.  For now, I’ll refer to him by his nickname, Captain Bobo, which comes from the episode of “How I Met Your Mother” in which Marshall may or may not have been mugged by a monkey of the same name.

Moving right along…as I said in the last post, I would like to use this platform to do some good for my fellow ladies and, to me, that means giving out some semi-harsh advice.  In order for you to agree that my advice is worthwhile, I feel that you should know a bit about the struggles I went through and the dbags I’ve dated.  In that spirit, I will post stories every few days detailing the time from my high school boyfriend to the present.  Believe me, some of them are too juicy for words, while others are sadly too boring to waste time on.

If you ever have a question, concern, or are in need of advice, don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you right away.  You can also email me at eugoogs at gmail dot com.  Not sure why tumblr makes me write it out like that, but there you go.

XOXO - Christine

Next up:  Struggles with healthy living.

Well hello there, welcome to the about-to-be much improved version of my blog!  As we enter the new year, I’ve made several resolutions, one of which is to blog on a regular basis.  I’ve made this goal in part because I like to share what’s happening in my life with whomever cares to listen, and also in part because I think it will help with my overarching mission to work on my self-discipline in general, which will in turn aid me in accomplishing many of my other life goals for 2012.

 Going forward, I would like to continue the blog in the same sort of direction - sharing things with you that interest me, inspire me, and make me laugh.  In addition, I’d like to add two new topics of discussion - love and health.  I’m by no means an expert on either, but I think I’ve figured out some things about love and life in the past few years, and if sharing that knowledge helps even one of you, then it’s worth it. 

I struggled for a long time in my quest for love and dated every kind of douchebag under the sun until I met my truly fantastic boyfriend, so I feel that I might have a little authority in the dating department - not because I found love, but because I went through the same things that you may be going through now, and came out on the other side a little wiser for the wear.  I apologize in advance if I ever seem a bit lecture-y, but it’s so easy to give hard and fast advice when you’re not the one invested in the situation. 

In terms of health, fitness, eating right, etc., this is an area where I know plenty, but do very little of it.  There will be a separate post about my struggles with all of these things, but suffice it to say that I’m ready to begin what is bound to be a long and strenuous journey to get to where I want to be.

Thanks to those of you who still check in every so often to see if I’ve posted, and welcome to those of you who are just joining in!

Best wishes to all of us in the new year…

XOXO - Christine

WANT.

Love me some peonies!  Bought these beauties at Trader Joe’s and arranged them in my mom’s vintage pewter pitcher.  Peonies are by far my favorite flower since they’re so large, vibrant, and bloom overnight; too bad they’re only really in season for May and June.

Had this delicious meal with my mom earlier in the week - broiled haddock with grilled zucchinni and summer squash, along with a yummy side salad.  Now that it’s summertime, I’m trying to focus way more on eating fresh, healthy foods, and swapping fries for these veggies didn’t taste like a trade-off at all!