My Vision....for health

My motivation isn't to look like the past - 

It's to change the future... Twenty years from now, I don't want is to be squirming in bed with my thumb continuously pressing the call light, wondering if staff will come before I pee the sheets.

I am not a patient person.

I won't wait for help.

The nursing home staff will catch me ambulating unattended. They'll put alarms on my bed and on my chair and every time I try and get up the bells and whistles will go off...

This is not a good vision. I prefer to imagine myself wearing a blue plaid housedress with pockets stuffed with tissues, flask and ciggerettes and joining others on field trips to casinos, shopping malls, light houses, plays and ...

So, I am not going to think of my journey as a diet or a fitness program. I am going to think of this as prevention, creating good practices and correcting some less desirable habits

My plan for the future does not include a long term care policies...but I did make my daughter promise, if I go to a skilled nursing facility to tell them I can have a two glasses of wine daily and I smoke. (Which I currently haven't done for over twenty years, but I might want to take it up when I'm sitting around in my plaid house dress.)

Monday's blog will be about My Vision....for Health 

I know there is a lot of talk about evidence based practices...

So, how will I know if the vision board makes a difference.

For 2 years I have been using a FitBit app and an app to count calories and I have gained 5 pounds, so instead of 10 pounds to lose I have 15 pounds.  

And you don't have to be a mathematician to figure out gaining 5 pounds a year x 20 years is 100 pounds.

I also have some pain and stiffness. I can not sit cross legged on the floor and I can not get up off the floor without using my hand.

So at the end of 2016, if I weigh less than the weight I wrote on the back on my vision board and if I can sit comfortably cross legged and can get up off the floor with out assistance of my hand, I am going to conclude the vision board was effective.

If not, I will have to begin research on how to disable alarms.  

My Health Vision Board is a work in progress and I am currently displaying my my art work on the refrigerator.

A Year of Vision and Luck

2016 A Year of Vision and Luck 

Besides a Rainbow in my backyard the universe has been giving me signs.

Let me back track… When I worked for CenterPointe Energy in Leak Detection (2002-2007) 

I had a Vision Board.
We also had a Vision Board in Robbinsdale, La Crosse and Waukee, IA.

Now when we packed the truck to head west - the Vision Board didn’t make the cut.


So, then the Universe sent me a message on creating another board by way of an invitation from a woman in Rockaway Beach who has invited people to come and make a Vision Board or to color.

While looking for photos of my Vision Boards I ran across a couple of old emails.


Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 5:40 PM

I wrote my wish was….
living life with no fear and no regrets...


Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 8:45 AM
Subject: Decided to create a 5 year plan...

My Five Year Plan….

At 55, I’m going to sell my house, quit my job and rent a place on one of the Hawaiian Islands for a year and try to make a living from writing. After one year I’ll decide if I like life on the Island – I’ll purchase a place to live. If not I’ll try Texas for a year, if not Florida…If I can’t make a living writing – I’ll do office work or ? – whatever…


The best thing about vision and goals - sometimes it’s not exact…but it can be pretty close.

I am not in Hawaii, but I do have an ocean a block away, I am writing and 56.

So, we have Vision and now for Luck. I won a free class “What Career Do You Want?” taught by Indie Publishing Specialist Maggie Lynch.

I will be posting a picture of my "New Vision Board"

What if...

What if.. Do you ever wonder where you'd be if you made different choices.

For 27 years, I worked for CenterPointe Energy and one day my boss said, "You're not happy here. You should quit."

And I did.

Four years later my daughter said, "you're not happy working in an office, you should be come an occupational therapy assistant."

So, I quit my job at the City of Golden Valley, sold my house, moved in with Rich in La Crosse, WI.  and became a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant.

I worked with children with Autism in La Crosse, until I received an email with an job offer in Waukee, IA.  I worked for over a year in a skilled nursing facility until Rich said, "I'm not happy in Iowa. We should move to the coast and you should write."

So, we did.

2016 is all about writing.

I have been writing my whole life. I love writing, it makes me very happy. I have previously dabbled with writing and have had success with getting published, but writing is no longer easy and I struggle to get the words on the page.

I am not sure if it is because I do not have a routine.

Do I need to establish a schedule?
Do I need to join a writer's group?
Do I need to find a critic partner?

But I never wonder, "What if..."

Hmmmm