Pieces of Pietz

  Day two and I failed. At the end of day one, I had learned my aunt was in the intensive care unit after having a major heart attack. She had coded once, but they were able to revive her. The past year had been rough on her, both medically and emotionally. She had lost her husband, my Uncle Jesse, unexpectedly. Her thirty-three year old son suffered a debilitating  stroke that requires him to now be under a nurses care 24/7. His condition, while stable, hasn't improved. All of these things have weighed heavily on my aunt and our whole family. There was some talk that night that she might not pull through, all we could do was pray and leave it in God's hands. Day two started off strong. I woke up early, got in sixteen ounces of water, checked my messages and my aunt was the same, so I threw on my yoga pants and a tee shirt. My oldest daughter has become my daily walking buddy. We aim for a mile every morning and are planning to get up to two miles a day, fingers crossed. I didn

First, as always, I am not a medical professional, this and any post I share pertaining to anything medically related is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Always contact your doctor for any health concerns or medical advice, especially before starting a weight loss journey!  Have you heard about the 75 Hard Challenge going around on social sites like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube? It's a challenge that helps you rewire the way you think. For some crazy reason, I've decided to commit and start the challenge today!  The challenge is based on Andy Frisella's book, "75 Hard: A Tactical Guide to Winning the War with Yourself" and podcast. To sum it up; 75 days that you devote to abide by five simple rules and if you break any of those rules, you start over from day one. What are the five rules? 1. Stick to a diet. No cheat days and NO ALCOHOL! For me, this would be counting calories. I would need to stay at 1800 calories a day or under but never over.

Once upon a time, I was an athletic, competitive, healthy young woman. Today - I'm carrying around the weight of another person on my small five foot five frame. It's exhausting. There's no one particular reason that I allowed myself to get into this current condition. Several things happened over the years and before I knew it, my doctor was telling me to loose as much weight as I could to avoid needing blood pressure medication.  Five weeks ago, I embarked on a journey to recommit to improving my health. Last year, I had lost fifty pounds in six months. Then, with the additional closures caused by the pandemic and needing to stay home to help our kids with virtual schooling, the pounds packed back on quicker than a drive-thru cheeseburger is ready at the pick-up window! It was a blow to my self-esteem, again. Thinking over it as the weight steadily remained at two-hundred-eighty-eight pounds, I decided to do my own research. THERE ARE SO MANY DIETS OUT THERE!! It is insan

  Hey y'all, welcome to Pieces of Pietz! I want to give a brief introduction of what you can expect here and also share a little bit about myself. To start, I'm what you'd refer to as an elder millennial. Born in that magical window of the early eighties, just shy of generation X. I also fall into some of the lesser than pleasant statistics ; broken home, teen pregnancy, high school drop out, divorcee. When I reached my thirties, I had an epiphany; I was going to stop trying to make up for my past and start living in the present. It was after I made that decision that I met the man of my dreams (or as he would say, he found me), we got hitched, blended our two families into one to become a family of seven and embarked onward to new, happier adventures. Then life happened, as it always does, throwing a monkey wrench in our plans to live in a blissful state of euphoria. My husband, a wounded combat veteran, started to rapidly see a decline in his overall health. Mentally, he