The importance of always moving forward.

I think many people are very negative and it's difficult for me to spend any amount of time with them. When I think about people who were my friends in the past, they tended to be people who I believe were using my positive energy and outlook to feel better about their situations or personality types. I think about people who I liked and thought were inspirational and they weren't necessarily the coolest people, but they were always active and in retrospect, always moving forward.

Because this past year has revolved so much around my health and becoming more active or just coping with junk that comes up (like a hubby losing his job), I've struggled the last two months with depression. Sometimes you don't realize it until you are on the other side of it though and I only realized it in the last two weeks.

I had been doing outrageously well with working out and eating. All of a sudden everything changes and I just turned into a slug. I've only truly retreated into old eating habits two or three times though and the good work that I did earlier in the year helped so that I haven't completely ruined all my progress i.e. my clothes still fit.

For being a quick observer in so many other aspects of my life, when it comes to depression, sometimes I'm slow to realize what is going on. Jim also told me in the last two weeks he thinks losing his job hurt him more than he thought. I knew it would but it's hard to say that to someone when you know they just have to figure it out.

Of course it doesn't help that this time of year is cloudy, rainy, and just blah. I tell you what though, one of the things that I have really grown to love about Georgia is that the winters aren't nearly as harsh as Kansas. Lots of pine trees and other year-round greens make the landscape just a tad colorful, enough to cling to until everything starts to refresh at the end of February.

So I'm taking a Vitamin D supplement based on an article in the Scientific American earlier this year (and the advice of my sister who had visited a nutritionist and told her the same thing) so we'll see if that helps any. I don't expect it to affect any depression from the result of being whiney about changes in my life but if it can help lessen the seasonal blues I typically have from the lack of sunshine, that would be nice.

This week I'm starting a multi-week challenge through the Leslie Sansone Walk at Home program. If you dislike going outside to workout and want something that is gentle enough to do by yourself or challenging if you want it to be, I highly recommend her walks. When I first tried one I thought, 'how can walking in place be a workout?' but its more than that.

Walking reminds me that my body isn't broken and can be repaired. It reminds me to keep looking and moving forward but at the same time to enjoy the trip.