Fitness Challenge

Hey everyone!

Last year I had the wedding to motivate me to get my workouts in and make healthy eating choices. I hate to admit it, but after the wedding I didn't stay on top of it. It's not like I went overboard at the Golden Corral, but I could tell with my decrease in energy I was sliding. Then I tore ligaments in my foot, and I stumbled in my motivation. I was trying to do light workouts. But even yoga was painful, and had to just rest.

My 'Surgiversary' ( the anniversary of my bariatric surgery) was in January, and I wanted to do something to get myself back on track, but needed the accountability factor. I asked my friend Danna if she would be my long distance workout buddy. We decided that we would do 30workouts in 30 days. Anything to get us to move!

Unfortunately everyone in Greenwood had the same idea. The gym was a nightmare, and it just frustrated me. I decided that it was a sign that I needed to shake up my workout routine as well. And that's exactly what I did. I did workouts at home, I walked around downtown with friends, turned up the music and danced while I cleaned house, and went bowling with friends for my birthday. It wasn't about the calorie burn for me, it was about getting back to basics and get out of the workout rut. I have a tendency to look at the clock during exercise, and noticed during this month that I didn't set any time limits so I would just enjoy it, which I did.

I'm not going to lie, a few days were rough. Some days I just wanted to come home and stare at a wall. But thanks to Danna, I did it. It was great knowing someone was there cheering for me. Richard was a great cheerleader as well, and he worked out with me when he could, which was really sweet.

I felt great at the end of the month. I had lost the few pounds I had gained since the wedding, my energy had returned, and I was back to taking my vitamins and watching my water and protein intake. Danna and I decided that we wanted to do a challenge a month to help both of us, and to help me train for my first half marathon in September. This month we posted that we were going to do 60 miles in the month of February. Again, you could run, walk, row, ellipticize, whatever, just as long as you did it. To out surprise, 11 people have joined in! It's great to have a group of guys and gals making an effort to improve their health in their busy lives! Richard and I have been doing laps on our trail, and I did a ton of walking at the Super Bowl festivities. Again, it just feels good to move and have others around me be motivated and encourage each other.

So, tell me, what's your fitness challenge for the month? Are you doing it with support or on your own? What's motivating you? Hit the comments!!

New Name

I really need to get better at this writing thing.

I've been really busy! I've been working on the wedding. All I have to say is: I don't understand how someone could plan a full scale wedding more than once. Even with the help of family and friends, it's been stressful.

Yesterday a box with some of the wedding stuff was at the front door. In it were the groomsmen's gifts, as well as our cake cutter set, and toasting glasses. I figured Richard would pick out the cheapest set, but no, he picked out a really nice set. I was really pleased. I decided that I would like to take the toasting glasses and make a shadowbox to place them in with a picture of us on our wedding day, so we decided to get them engraved.



Although it's not a picture of the full stemware, it's still gorgeous.

The weirdest part of it is seeing my new name. It's like it just hit me.
I know people say that nothing changes when they get married; that it's just a piece of paper that the government recognizes your union. But I guess to me it's a bit different.

I've built my profession under my maiden name. My clients and colleagues know me as Sara Osborn. It's weird to think in a few months that I will have to (in a way) re-create that foundation as Sara Chambers. I know I could always keep my maiden name, hyphenate my name, or keep my maiden name professionally, but I think that would get pretty confusing, and when you go to apply for stuff there's only so many boxes to spell out your name. That would get annoying. I don't see how P. Diddy ( or Puff Daddy, or Diddlie-dee, or whatever his name is this week, has done it so many times.)

I read online that some couples are being "progressive" and mixing up their last names to make one new name. I don't know how it would sound to have my dad introduce us as "Mr. and Mrs. Chamberborn." Nah. Don't like it.

As I've stated before, change is difficult for me, and this is one more change that I will encounter. After the last six months, this should be no big deal. Plus, now that I look at it, I kind of like the sound of it :)

Realistically

Hey guys!
In honor of a few of my friends finishing their graduate programs, and me being out of school and in the "real world" for a year, I thought I would help the newbies to the field by giving them a real world view of what to expect, from someone who has been there. Ready?

1.) You're in LOTS of Debt. Sure, it was great living off your student loans for a few years, but now you have to pay them back - plus interest - and find a job to showcase all that snazzy stuff you've been cramming into your head. Which should be easy, right? Except..

2.) Teachers Lied to you About Jobs Therapy just isn't therapy anymore. Due to the recession, you are expected to do a lot more than just sit and discuss feelings and make sure you are asking open ended questions. A lot of therapy jobs anymore are case management and clinical roles put together, so the corporation can save money. That comes with a bigger caseload, longer hours, and a lot of figuring out how to do it yourself. And they expect it done. By you. Because...

3.) Counselors, Social Workers, and Psychologists Don't Always Play Nice The general public think we are one and the same, but we're really not, and we are quick to point that out if we've been mislabeled. When I first started my new job, everyone asked me how long I had been a Social Worker. No offense to them, but I didn't go to school for two years continuously to be called the wrong thing. With that being said, there's a line of tension between the different types of social service workers. Before you assume your new coworkers are from the same field, ask.

4.) Acadamia vs. Real World The internships that you have probably been doing aren't giving you a realistic picture of what is to be expected. Employers in this day and age like having free workers, so will appease the universities to make sure they get a few of them every year. Once that's over and you step into a paid position, facades are off. No kid gloves. No warm fuzzies. They don't care what theory you are, as long as you work with clients and help them improve. While it's great that you know a lot about cultural differences, there's not enough time to really explore that because they're only allowed so many sessions. And could you please just label all Bipolars as a 2? That way you won't waste so much time changing it back and forth, and payors will cover for the sessions without justification.

5.) You Need to Own 24 of the 26 Letters Behind Your Name to Get Respect And licensure better be one of them.

6.) Your Friends and Family Have Had A Life While You Were Away It's amazing. They've had children, or the children are growing up (and don't know who you are anymore), or they're getting married, or divorced, or they've moved. You hear a "Yeah I would have told you but I knew you were busy the last few years." "Look who decided to rejoin the family!" and "Who is this sitting at the dinner table?" the first few months you start reintegrating yourself into the thing called Life.

7.) Don't Mention Your Profession to Strangers...unless you want to give everyone feedback. I made this mistake during a spa treatment...I'm happy to say that there were some issues worked through, but I felt like I should have been paid instead. If you tell people you're a therapist, you'll always be in that mode, which is exhausting. Likewise...

8.) Get Used to People Who Do Know You To Accuse You of Analyzing Them. I never knew that asking someone what they wanted to eat could be a deep question. Or giving constructive criticism (i.e. "Hey I think we need to fix the dryer") could turn into "I know what you're doing!" Everyone asks questions. Trust me, after a long day I really don't care to analyze and interpret your thoughts. If you really want me to, family or not, it's $120.00 an hour, and I take cash, check, and all major credit cards.

9.) Produce or Perish Unfortunately, productivity is part of the therapeutic vocabulary. Last week I was in a training, and I heard the guy in front of me say "I hope this doesn't go against my productivity for the month." Another person said "I'm doing the best I can, but my numbers still aren't up there, and I'm scared I'm going to lose my job." It's scary to think that mental health has turned that way, but it has. It's discussed weekly, if not daily, about how numbers can improve, how many people should be on a caseload to get that number, and why aren't you doing your part to get your numbers. Which is why it's so important to...

10) Stay Close With Your Grad School Buddies You have went through a traumatic and life changing ordeal with 15 other people. You've laughed, cried, fought, studied, and freaked out together. These are the same people that will understand your frustration better than anyone else. I practically lived at my friend Melissa's house for two years to the point I was invited over to holiday gatherings and birthdays. These are the people who have seen you at your best and your worst, and they're going to stick with you through the ups and downs of the stressful make or break it time after you finish school.

It's a tough but rewarding road. It was a shock being in my program, it was a shock finishing it, as well as starting out on my own. But I love what I do. I have something that no one can take away from me, no matter how high the principle interest goes on my loans.

To all the newbies out there..good luck, and don't sleep with your clients!! :)

Working, Workouts, and Wedding

Hey everyone!

It's been a whirlwind past few weeks. I started at the new job this past Monday (the first few weeks were very repetitious orientation.) At first, I was really hesitant, and thought I had made a bad decision. But then this morning I was speaking to one of the care coordinators, and he shared that the position had been filled but quickly vacated when the new hire didn't have his required education. At that moment I realized it was one of those things that were meant to be. My fellow trainees and new coworkers are very nice, and you can tell that they are there for the client, which is nice. I'm also going through this with another person, so it's been nice to not feel like the odd person out by myself!

The wedding planning has pretty much been put on hold while I learn the ropes of the new job. The job I'm doing is going to be built from scratch, so I've been spending time brainstorming, seeing what resources are available, and how it would work with the population I'm going to serve. We were ahead with all of the planning anyway, so it's not like we're going to be behind. One thing that has really helped us is that we are paying for the vast majority of it ourselves. My parents have all pitched in, which has been helpful, but Richard and I are saving our money to make sure that we walk down the aisle without paying for that aisle for the next 5 years. I just don't understand why people want to slap something like a wedding on credit cards and then be thousands of dollars in debt. It's one day! Why would you want to start your life with someone and be up to your eyeballs in debt?! Makes absolutely no sense to me.

But I digress. The wedding planning had become frustrating to me. My version of doing things differs greatly than Richard's. I am very detail oriented, he's a general idea kind of guy. It causes frustration on both ends, but I think he's worried I'll stroke out and kind of submits. We've gotten the bands, the tuxes, and the honeymoon all figured out. Now we just need to figure out where we are going to put everyone, the cake, and the invites, and the major stuff is done. I really am thankful that I have some awesome bridesmaids and friends who allow me to word vomit all over them when I feel like I'm being swallowed alive in planning. It's nice when you've had people there that have done it before and can tell you what to focus on (the cake), and what doesn't need as much detail (the bridesmaid shoes).

Which brings me to the workouts. I have been doing fairly well with the diet. I had planned on dropping all carbs to help lose weight, but I've been working toward the 5k that's this weekend, and realized that would be asking for medical melodrama. The training isn't going the best, honestly. My foot and knee have been acting up, and one night I had a pretty severe exercise induced asthma attack. Thankfully, the 5k is a walk/jog, so I don't have to run. I plan on walk jogging the entire thing, but not push myself. I literally can't afford an injury right now, and my physical therapist said that my knee is actually declining in strength instead of increasing. He said it's probably from muscle fatigue. I've been trying to find a happy medium, and it seems to be working. I haven't lost any weight, but I haven't gained, and I can still see definition, so I know I'm doing something right. I figure after the 5k I will go back to the bariatric diet I did when I was about 6 months post op, which was not a lot of carbs, and a lot of protein. I also plan on upping the workouts after the 5k, and continue to mix it up so that way my muscles and I aren't bored. I'm doing it partly because of wanting to look good in THE dress, which already fits really nicely, and is actually a little big, but I just really enjoy knowing that I'm doing something for me, and having that me time where I can block it all out and focus on exercise. It's my free indulgence.

Ok, I've rambled. But tell me, what's your (semi) free indulgence? Hit the comments!

A Change Would Do You Good

I hate change.

I am a very routine oriented person. I don't do well when that routine is skewed in any way. I'm surprised my parents didn't think I had a spectrum disorder as a child.

As I've gotten older, I've learned to bend a little bit. I think part of the rigidness came from having the typical only child syndrome. When my parents got remarried, I had to get used to having others schedules to work with. But I didn't go down without a fight; trust me.

With that being said, I also would like to say I am proud of myself for starting to embrace change in the past few years. I still see it as a necessary evil, but you have to change to help you grow, right? As comfortable as I was in certain situations, I wasn't necessarily happy. My previous relationship fits this scenario perfectly; I was very comfortable with the routine, but neither one of us was happy in the relationship, and neither one of us really had the guts to end it. Honestly, for the first three years, I was happy, and saw a future. Once I realized that we wanted very different things, I had to slowly come to the realization that it wasn't meant to be. I had to take a step into the unknown. By myself. Scary.

I've also realized that I have a defense mechanism for change. I call it the Onion. I start my process of change much as if someone would go through the Stages of Grief, and they go in no particular order. First comes the Thought of Change. With this thought comes (in my mind), what this change would look like. At first, it is good; there are rainbows, butterflies, and unicorns. And then, without warning, the butterflies are cannibalistic mosquitoes, the rainbows catch on fire, and the unicorns start charging at you, and that is when I enter the next stage: Panic. I see all of the things that can go wrong, but in my mind, I change it to the thought that it WILL go wrong. This stage is accompanied with a brown bag to hyperventilate in, and poor food choices. After that, I normally go into the third stage: Indecision. This stage could last from hours to infinity. I balance the pros and cons, then I pro and con the pros and cons. I find fault in all of it, and relapse back into stage 2. Once I get that cycle worked out, I start stage 4: Putting It Into Action. This stage always has several baby steps. The issue here is I verbalize and backtrack. I word vomit it out and then change my mind. Physical issues also come into play, and mood swings, as I battle this war within myself. I finish this up with Stage 5: Just Do It!
This is how I handled my move to Indianapolis, and this is how I handled the biggest change in a long time for me, by taking a job outside of my current company. I decided to start working with the homeless that are dealing with some severe mental health and substance abuse issues. I will also build a substance abuse program from the ground up to help these individuals get a fresh start and make better choices. I'm not going to lie, I have some anxiety about the position, and I went through all of the stages before deciding to take it. But I learned in the past few years that I'm not going to better myself if I don't take these chances. Deep down I know I'm capable of doing this, I just need to give myself a chance. I had a great eight years at my current location, and if it wasn't for this experience, I would be walking into a certain suicide mission. I've decided to embrace the challenge instead of walk away and wonder what might have been later. I'm getting out of my own way, and here's hoping for the best.

Life's Quotes

It's been awhile! Hope things are good for everyone!

As many people know, I love to collect quotes. I see them as God's way of giving us an instant pick-me-up. But let's be honest, that can be hard to remember when you are going through a tough time. The last few months I have done a lot of growing. I feel like I've taken all of these tools that I learned in school the past few years and have really been applying them to my life. Some of the things have been tough to look at, but I'm proud of the progress and outcomes.

The quote that has been sticking with me lately is "It's never too late to be what you might have been." This really revealed itself to me this week in the oddest of places: my job.

The past few weeks at my job have been really stressful. We've had a lot of people out of the office, I've been sick, the weather has been bad to commute in, etc. I also re-injured my knee a few weeks ago, and I've been trying to get in a certain number of workouts a week, but it hurts too bad and I have to stop. It's taken a toll on me mentally and physically. The other night Richard was gone and there was a problem with our pipes, and I told him "I can't do anything right. I break stuff, what I do isn't good enough, I feel inadequate." He assured me that it's just my perfectionist side coming out (which is true). But I hate feeling like I'm not doing well in my job. I love what I do, and I hate when I feel like I'm not getting anything across to the people I help.

With this dejected mindset, I walked into work to do my group. When I went to give them a break, one of them came up to me and said she had something to show me. This is what she showed me



Isn't it amazing? The cake was made from scratch. I'm not going to lie, I teared up when I saw it. Here I was, feeling like a total fraud at my job, and I had touched someone. The client told me it was the first time they had made a cake sober in several years, and they finally felt a sense of accomplishment and pride. They were proof that it wasn't too late for them to be what they might have been. They were doing it!

It set a positive tone for the rest of my week, and showed me that it's not too late for me to turn a negative situation around (even one from my own head) and be what I want to be. It was (literally) a sweet reward, and one that I will remember for the rest of my life.


What about you? What is it that you want to be?

I'm Eloping!

Gotcha!!!

But some days I seriously consider it. Usually after I have sat and attempted to figure something wedding related out, like what the different types of flowers are (I know of lillies, roses, tulips, those dandelion thingys that grow like crazy in the spring, and those yellow flowers. That's it!)

So if I am driving myself crazy with wedding details, why do I continue to do it? Richard. He wants to make sure that I get the wedding I want, and is afraid I would be unhappy if I didn't have an actual ceremony. And deep down I know he's right (but don't tell him, I don't want him to have too much credit.) And part of me thinks he's enjoying the planning a bit too much. For someone who didn't care about the details, he sure has input, although I did veto the saloon themed wedding with a KFC catered reception. I have standards!

How do you keep yourself from going crazy? Since I feel I am the only woman I know that has never been married, I get plenty of advice, some welcome, some unwelcomed. It's part of the deal, I guess. And then the "When's your next day off" comment pops out of my mouth and we debate it all over again.

Besides Richard reminding me why we should have a ceremony, another person stops me from just running off to Vegas and calling it done: my Dad. While he is all for whatever I want to do, and I appreciate that, I've always had the vision of him giving me away, and having that first dance together. I know it sounds weird, but when I was little my dad used to do a lot of weddings, and I would go along. I always made him dance with me during the slow songs and tell him it was practice for my big day. I feel like I wouldn't be keeping up my end of the bargain, and the same magic wouldn't be there if we had the reception later.

I guess it comes down to putting it all in perspective. I want to share my joy and happiness of marrying my perfect match with the people who have been there with me through our jouney...and in some cases, both attempts to get to the altar. I just hope y'all like 80's hair bands....