Lost 13 lbs. and Gained a Doctorate!

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying being back to the daily grind. I want to restart the blog by talking about what's been going since we last touched base in MARCH. Crazy. I've finished my doctorate (yay!) and I have posted a pic here that we took after graduation while at dinner my fiance and some family members. It was so nice to have everyone around!... During the year, I wrote a massive paper about the OT role in obesity, which will hopefully be published at some point. I presented research at 3 conferences or symposiums - one was an international meeting in Boston! I was a mentor for 8 students for a community OT project, which was a great experince. Now, I'm working on a few more articles for publication on premature infants and brain function, as well as research in the neonatal intensive care unit, doing more research this year and some teaching at the graduate level. Hopefully, I can get a lot accomplished before Matt and I leave for Ireland in ONE YEAR...

In addition to finishing school and working towards greater health, I'm also going to be selling Juice Plus, which I LOVE. I'm actually taking this business over to Ireland with me, since it's international, which I'm really excited about. Juice Plus is an evidence-based fruits and vegetables supplement that is known to absolutely produce results in terms of overall health and wellness. I take it myself (not just promoting it!!) and if anyone has any questions, please let me know and I would love to talk/email with you about it and get you set up. If you decide to purchase from me, I will even throw in a complimentary, personal lifestyle analysis for you. I believe in Juice Plus 100% and will spotlight recent research every now and then - hopefully will have results about the maternal health study soon - that will prove to you that it is a great addition to your daily life.

Healthwise, I have also been working on sticking with the challenges I post and create a few of my own personal challenges. My efforts have paid off because when I went for my annual check-up last week, my lab values were great and I have dropped 13 lbs in the past year. I wasn't trying to lose weight, but all of the small changes have added up and it was exciting to see that making small steps toward optimal health WORKS. If you are interested, here are the small changes that I made (that I believe were most beneficial) since the blog started:

- taking the stairs
- adding more fruits and vegetables to my daily diet
- increasing my workout time
- drinking water before eating meals
- being aware of my hunger and only eating when I am hungry, not just for socialization or     boredom
- quitting soda

I hope some of the challenges have helped you since I started the blog. Please let me know if you have suggestions, feedback, topics you want me to cover, ideas for challenges, etc. Also, if you have been working on your health and want to guest blog, contact me.

Look for the next post in a few days! It may not be until after my *BiRtHdAY* on Thursday, because I have several work-related things and some celebrating of my old age to do :) Keep up the good work and have a great week.

Lauren
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