Health and Happiness

I love how living on the island and near the sea inspires me to live a healthier life. It is warm year round and eternally swim suit season, produce is cheap and you are outside all the time. If that's not motivation I don't know what is. I have lost 20lbs now in the year since we moved here, 12 of them since January. I still have long way to go but I'm now at a lower weight then I have been 5 years. I know its horrid to think this way but with every pound I lose I feel happier. Not because I'm shooting for some model thin body I know I will never have, but because every pound down is one pound closer to being off my blood pressure meds. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2006, I've been on meds since 2009. I want more then anything to get off the medication, to get truly healthy and fit to be a good example for my daughter. No one in my family ever worked out as I was growing up. My dad and his brothers were all blessed with tremendous amounts of athleticism and naturally fast metabolisms when they were young, but most of the women in my family were not. I have not had a single grandparent live past 74 yet. Two of them died in their 60's. All had/have weight problems. I want to live a long time, I want to see my grandchildren and children. I want to be able to travel and not have to worry about taking my medication at certain times or whether or not I'm healthy enough to climb up to see certain sites. Its a slow process, I have poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. It makes losing weight extremely hard, I have to work twice as hard to lose half as much. I'm on my way though, and for the first time I feel like I can actually do it. I have Maui to thank for the motivation and I have to say the improvement in my health is one of the best things that has come from moving here.

                                                                         Before June 2012

After June 2013