New Year, New You (& Me!)

It's been a long time since I last blogged and I hope that you welcome me back into your routine blog readings so that we can catch up on the time that's passed by.
Wow, life has changed A LOT for me over these past 6 months.  Between dealing with a financial crisis, family up's and down's, new jobs, new beginnings, and new opportunities, I am glad that I went through so much 2011.  Because now 2012 can start fresh and be even better than 2011!  I am so grateful for all that I and my family has been through, because without it, I wouldn't be where I am today, with all of the amazing and incredible people in my life, as well as the amazing opportunities that have presented themselves to us.
2012 is going to be such an incredible year.  I have been able to pursue my passion through continued education thanks to an amazing friend, Robyn, who went with her gut, and called me up to tell me that she had just made my dreams come true.  She was given an opportunity to give a free scholarship to someone of her choice to attend IIN (The Institute for Integrative Nutrition) and she chose me.  She and I had been talking about the school and the education she received from attending IIN, and I knew that it was something I was meant to do.  I read the catalog front to back in 20 minutes and felt like it was written for me.
I had began to find a passion and slight obssession with nutrition when I got pregnant with my son.  I had always been overweight for most of my life, and hadn't paid much attention to how or what I was eating.  It wasn't until I had gotten pregnant, and realized that the little baby growing inside me depended soley on me for nutrition, that I started to really do some research on the good, the bad and the ugly in the world of nutriton.  The only problem was that I was getting information overload.  I would read that one thing was healthy for you and the next article would negate those health benefits and say it was no longer healthy.  So I got discouraged.  I tried my best to eat right, switch many food items, especially dairy to organic, and tried to go with what I felt was right.  When my son was born, I made a vow to teach him how to eat healthy.  He loves his fruits and veggies and even loves smoothies as well.  
I on the other hand, found it difficult to stick with the heathier eating once I came back to working full time.  As any working mother would agree, your child comes first, and so when things get busy you tend to not take care of yourself so that your child has all that he/she needs.  But I was finding that when I let my own nutrition slip, I had a lack of energy, I was tired all the time, and I just wasn't being the best mom I could be.  Throw in hard financial times, and my husband being laid off, and nutrition really took a back seat for me.  It wasn't anyone's fault but my own.  The way I deal with stress is food. We made sure our son was continuing to eat healthy, but I kept finding it to be a hard balance between dealing with stress, work and family.  I still do.  My husband has now found a great job and has been working since October.  Woo hoo!  He gets home earlier than I do, so he feeds our son dinner before I get home usually.  Which means that when I finally get home from work, I rush to eat dinner, I get to play with my son for about an hour, then it's bath time, story time, and bed time.  After that it's my husband and I's time to catch up on each others day, and try to get done what we hadn't gotten done througout the hustle and bustle of the day.
You're probable asking yourself, well then why did you choose to go back to school?  And the answer is, because it's my passion.  It's knowledge that I can pass down to my son, to my family, to my friends.  It's the one decision that I have made recently where I really felt amazingly good about it.  It was like a light went off and someone was shoving me from behind saying, "you have to do this!  This is the opportunity and the education you've been waiting for!"  The best part is that I can finally develop a part time business and have supplemental income.  Something that I've been looking for since our finances took a hit last year.  And I get to help people in the process.
So join me on my journey to obtaining optimal health for myself and my family.  I hope that you'll be an interactive audience and share your experiences with your own health, wellness, and personal journey as well.  Here's to an incredible 2012!