The Daily Dish

Today was the last day of The Daily Dish. It's ending and a new midday news show is beginning on Monday. The show where my career started is officially over.

I was promoted to a bigger show Good Things Utah, and even have my own office (with a door and windows and did I mention a door?). It was a bittersweet day. I was notified almost three weeks ago so I guess I've had time to process it. I was totally sad at first and shed a few tears for the project that I poured so much time, blood, work, sweat, tears, etc into. Bart had to remind me it's the business I'm in.

The Daily Dish might not seem like much to you, but it's where my career as a professional started. It's where I learned and the platform I had to get creative and improve. We had some good times. The last few months have been interesting to say the least, but all-in-all it was a blast working on the show.

I look forward to what GTU will bring.

I can't say enough good things about these two. I was lucky to be their producer and I look forward to keep that going!

Saying goodbye to Brianne when she left the show

What my mornings looked like for the past year

My first few days at work...Did I mention I now have a door? :)

Note to Self

As I'm sitting here watching Utah State play the University of Utah I can't help but think of all the things I have to do. But first let's mention...I'm watching football...by myself....and I'm actually enjoying it. It's amazing what just a few years can do.

Moving on..

These last two weeks have been crazy busy. 

I'm training for a half marathon

I was giving a promotion at work and have been doing double duty 10 hour days 

Class started (and it's going to be a biotch this semester ladies and gentlemen)

We bought a house (yay!) and we're moving on Saturday

I haven't had time to do any of those above things exceptionally well. I've had to leave work even when I'm not completely done to go to the Title company or go run or get to class. I haven't been able to focus on class because I'm more concerned about my job.

Running is a great de-stresser but sometimes waking up at 4 a.m. just isn't going to happen. I don't think Bart and I have enjoyed dinner together for a few weeks. Eating consists of a rice cake with almond butter in the morning and shoving brown rice down on my way out from work headed to class. Snacking on carrots and sipping water.

I'm stressed and I'm tired. Even if I just had to handle 2 of these things at a time, even 3, I think it would be okay. But dealing with all 4 crazy changes and time consuming commitments is overwhelming. 

Tomorrow is my last day of producing two shows and I don't necessarily have anywhere to be in the afternoon so I can stay at work and get caught up. Then my afternoon will consist of packing up and doing laundry and getting ready to move into our new house. I'm so excited for the move, I just wish it wasn't smack dab in the middle of everything else!

So I'll put everything in my day planner and I'll download my class programs. But at the end of the day I will sit and watch the Aggies play. Because sometimes you can't do it all.

I Suppose.....FML

O.M.G.

You know what's great about online classes? They are usually silent. Unless I'm having a jammin sesh. Quiet. Oh the quiet.

Class started this week and bad news. It was full of MP3's..NOOOO!!!! I have to listen to my professor every week. No video. Just audio. and her voice is annoying. of course it is! of course it is. She laughs at herself, is very breathy (you know what I mean) and says ' I suppose' waayyy too much.

Please excuse me, I'm going to cut my ears off now.

Day 143

In just over 20 weeks my life has been turned upside down, sideways and flipped over.  I still remember being just a few days into the program and looking back I realize I had NO IDEA what I was getting into.

5 months ago I went through a series of tests to figure out exactly what was going on with my body. Blood tests, spit test and even a stool sample (gross). The findings were depressing and a little scary. I had high cholesterol, low vitamin D levels, almost non-existant cortisol levels, my blood sugar was all over the place. I was also gaining weight despite regular exercise. My thyroid levels were also low. Plus I had a parasite, a gastrointestinal yeast infection and bad bacteria growing in my stomach/digestive track. I was also sensitive to Whey protein, Hemp (dang, no more smoking weed), Oats, Corn and much more.

It was an overwhelming amount of information to take in. Here I was, only 23 years old, with all of these problems. I cried, and then I became determined. For the first time in my life my health was almost entirely in MY hands. My behavior would change the way I feel. I wasn't going to depend completely on medication and hoped it worked. With the help of nutricuticals my diet could almost completely eliminate every problem I had. I took a Vitamin D supplement for a while and a supplement that helped kill my parasite. I was also giving a prescription for my thyroid. Despite the supplements I had been given, I was told that 80% of my success would come from my diet. By eliminating certain food groups like iodized (table) salt, processed and unnatural sugars, gluten, most dairy products and pretty much anything in a box or bag (minus frozen veggies) I was able to transform my entire life.

If you have been reading about my journey you know it's been hard. It's been one of the hardest things I've had to go through. Because of that, it has also been one of the most rewarding things I have gone through.

Well a few weeks ago I got my blood taken again and here are the new results:

My cholesterol levels dropped more than 40 points with all but 2 of those points being the bad cholesterol. My vitamin D levels are now at a healthy range and my blood sugar has stabilized. Thanks to my medication my thyroid levels have come back to a normal level and I no loner have anything weird growing in my stomach. My body now releases the stress hormone Cortisol so I am able to run further than I ever thought possible. It can now handle the stress. I have lost 25 pounds and my skin has finally cleared up.

After seeing my results my doctor told me there is nothing in those results that we need to work on. He is happy with what he sees. He said at this point it's a matter of learning how to maintain these habits for the rest of my life because that is what will continue to make me healthy. I would like to think that the foundation has been laid to keep on this path but I'm not naive enough to hope that it will ever become extremely easy to live this way.

I will just take it one sweet potato at a time.

Childbirth vs. Running Downhill

I woke up this morning in severe physical pain. in fact it was the pain that woke me up, and it was the pain that kept me in bed for more than an hour. I was afraid of the pain that would come if I attempted to move my body off the comfort of my bed. Over exaggeration? well it's not like I have given birth or anything so no, not an exaggeration.

My body is NOT interested in running downhill. the side effects of said hill are making me rethink this half marathon I've committed to running (did I mention it's 13.1 miles DOWNHILL???) 13 miles? no freakin way. I only ran 7 and I couldn't walk in a straight line this morning. I was shuffling around my house like a fat old person. Bart says it will be worse tomorrow. I want to punch him in the face.

I would like to mention that running 9 miles yesterday morning was HARD. it was one of the harder things I've had to do and I'm honestly not looking forward to running 10, 11 and then 13.1 miles. For some reason it was much much easier to run 8 miles in the middle of the Grand Tetons on a beautiful morning with no one else around than it was to run down Big Cottonwood Canyon with bikers, runners and drivers taking up your space. The fact that the last few miles to our car were UPHILL  didn't help the situation either. But I did it, and I'll do it again next week and the week after that. Because I'm a runner and that's what we do.

On a side note: I drank MILK for the first time in 4 months yesterday. It's time to test out my body's reactions to it and react it did. I gained a few pounds (Bart grabbed my stomach pudge this morning and said "that must be the Milk! it wasn't there yesterday" Gee ,thanks babe.) and my stomach made weird noises all day. That might sound normal to you, but my body doesn't fluctuate in weight throughout the day and my stomach definitely does NOT makes weird noises anymore. It's not the worse reaction to have but now I know milk won't be added to the permanent list of "to-eats".
 







*p.s. if you're tired of reading about my running adventures or Hashimotos stories then feel free to stop reading my blog altogether. my ego isn't big enough to care. This is my little piece of the internet and I can write about whatever.i.want.

USU, COMM & USU

Spring 2009. USU 1360-Integrated Physical Science. Grade: B-

Another USU required course that I didn't do very well in. I remember sitting on the right side of the classroom and halfway down the rows. I hadn't embraced the front row just yet. Science isn't my best subject. And by that I mean I suck at it. This was the typical here is a cell class. Cells have mitochondria and other cool stuff inside them. They all work together like a well oiled machine. Now let's learn about the plant and animal system. We are homo-sapiens (I think....) and this is where we fall in this tree of life. Can you tell how much I learned?? I wish I understood slash cared more about science. But I just don't.

Fall 2012. COMM 5300- Mass Communication Law. Grade: B+

Throughout my whole communications/broadcasting degree I was told that Mass Comm Law was the hardest class you'll take. Take a light load because this one is a biotch. Well either I'm a freakin' genius or I got lucky. I'm going to go with the latter. This was a night class at the U because I had already started by job at ABC4. This was my ONLY class this semester #overachiever so I could focus all my mind powers on passing. It wasn't that hard and I actually learned a lot.  The main thing I learned is that many lawyers conversate the same way. My dad is a lawyer so I have a little bit of experience in this department. If I closed my eyes it was almost like my dad was teaching this class. They just have this attitude and way of speaking (not a bad thing). They also have a way of dealing with confrontation. They deflect and bounce it back onto you. It's annoying and sometimes humiliating.

I blogged about this class when I finished it and I'll steal a few things I learned from that post:

Stuff you may or may not know about Mass Media Law

Promissory Estoppel belongs to the source. Basically they can sue a journalist if a promise of anonymity was made and then broken (pending a few exceptions of course, because this is the legal system we're talking about)

Intellectual Property should be copyrighted once it's in a tangible medium, or you can't really seek damages if someone infringes on your work.

The work you do while employed is considered "work made for hire" and belongs to your employer, not you.

Fanciful Marks are the best kind of Trademarks (the Nike Swoosh wouldn't exist if Nike didn't)

Same-party candidates have to be allowed the exact same amount of air time as their opponents during a primary election

Obscenity is illegal, Indecency is legal

Children's programming can't have more than 12 minutes of commercials per hour during the weekday and 10 minutes of commercials during the weekend


Fall 2009. USU 1330- Civilization: Creative Arts. Grade: C

Don't judge me for getting a C in creative arts. Creative arts is a stupid class with 900 students who don't care what the teacher is saying. I would have to go to plays and sit in the very top row for 5 hours and then write a report. After one of those hellish experiences I learned to check in at the front, and have Bart pick me up around back when I snuck out the other exit. At the time I really felt like my time was more important than furthering my cultural experiences.

Thinspiration

The past month I have been obsessed with pinterest because we're buying a house (yay) and apparently that brings out the craftiness in me. Most things on pinterest are so unreasonable it's ridick (more on that in a later post) and other things on pinterest just piss me off. Like this photo:

"thinspiration" is nothing new. but it's still stupid. How can someone think this is beneficial? Do you really think this will help you be healthier? how is saying "this is the last day I am this fat and unhealthy" healthy at all? I would say every day you say this to yourself you become more and more unhealthy. 

Stop calling yourself fat and stop making impossible goals you will never reach. stop looking at this beautiful person and think you can look just like her. you can't. your body will never look like that. AND THAT'S OKAY!! it doesn't need to look like that. you are beautiful the way you look RIGHT NOW. calling yourself fat and unhealthy is damaging and stupid. stop doing it. love who you are and let that love fuel your goals. not this skinny chick who you will NEVER look like. 

there. I said it. 

COMM, SOC & SPCH

Fall 2011.  COMM 3520- Radio Journalism. Grade: A

This was one of my first classes at the University of Utah after I transferred from Utah State. I ended up registering late so Radio was the only class I could get into that had to do with my major. The rest of the semester was full of other classes the U required to graduate. I really liked this class and I feel like I learned a ton. Just a few months previous I was interning at a radio station in Logan so I kind of had an idea of what I was doing. It's always nice going into a class and having a small understanding of the way things worked.

One of my main projects was creating an in-depth radio story (2-3 minutes) about the new Timponogos Highway that was being put in close to the point of the mountain. (It's now the main road that connects the freeway to Lehi/Alpine). I spent a day with a hard hat on following around a UDOT employee getting Nat sounds of trucks and traffic and interviews. I remember my recorder STOPPED WORKING in the middle of my biggest interview. I had a little inner freak out session and without the person knowing (hopefully) switched over to my iPhone and finished recording. It saved the day!

My professor was kind of a douche and always made the excuse that his other job kept him too busy for the classroom. That is one complaint I have about the University of Utah...a lot of the professors are "too busy" with their real jobs to worry about the class. Me and my $45935 aren't happy about that.

Fall 2010. SOC 1010- Introductory Sociology. Grade: B

Another introductory class I don't remember anything about! Oops. I must have liked it though because I decided to take more Sociology classes right away. I remember my other classes, but this one bites the dust.

Spring 2011. SPCH 5300 Visual Rhetoric. Grade: B+

This class was taught by the same professor who taught my interpersonal communications class. I really liked her, even if she didn't like me all that much. (Let's be honest...you can just tell when teachers don't like you). This was a facinating class. It addressed the aspects of visual communication that most people don't even realize is going on. Why are certain colors used in social campaigns? Why do you like this color of paint for your kitchen but not that one? Why is a picture worth a thousand words? These are all things we talked about. Diagonal lines in a picture gives us a sense of movement. Larger objects have more power, and we sort things by color before we sort them by shape.

I analyzed this photo for 7 pages for my final paper. A little background of this picture: this was a young girl who was immortalized in a single photograph. This is back in 1985 when a volcano erupted in Columbia and over 25 thousand people died. This picture was taken just hours before she died, trapped under debris from a mudslide. The photo was controversial because why wasn't the photographer helping her? Was this too private of a moment to capture? There are opinions on both sides of the issue. The point is that photos tell a story and photos make a point.

This was also the class where I said "you can basically make crap up and still be right/correct" and the teacher heard me. she later wrote me an email saying I should get out of the class if that's all I think visual rhetoric is about. I stand by that comment. You can look at a photo and it's your opinion what you see. There is no right or wrong answer. She didn't like that very much.

8 Miles

I was M.I.A last week from the blogging world but there was plenty of stuff going on! I started the week off sick and spent Wednesday on the couch watching Million Dollar Listings L.A. it's my new guilty pleasure. 

On Thursday we took off to Jackson Hole Wyoming for a little Bowen family reunion! 4 days of camping. I think that's the longest time I've spent in a tent and smelling like a fire. It was a blast. We biked, hiked, swam and floated our way through the weekend. I will post pics of our adventures later. 

The best part of the trip? The 8 MILE run Bart and I went on early Saturday morning. We took off and headed south down a long road with the Grand Tetons on our right and giant trees on our left. It was a beautiful morning and an amazing run. It was full of hills and we totally rocked it! I felt super hard core with my CamelBak and headlamp strapped on. It was my longest run to date and I was so happy. Bart and I were having a great time. I can't tell you how amazing it feels to be able to run long distances. I could have kept going that morning. It was the perfect equation for a successful run!

"Watch and Learn"

I woke up nice and early this morning. I love waking up early on Sundays. It gives me time to study and read with the peace of the morning.

I was reading a talk from this past General Conference "Marriage: Watch and Learn" by Elder L. Whitney Clayton. It was my favorite talk and I love re-reading it. It makes me so thankful to have a marriage similar to what Elder Clayton describes. I've only been married 2 years, but I would like to think the happiness Bart and I share will always be there.

Throughout the talk Elder Clayton talks about happy and successful marriages. I'd like to add my 2 cents to the mix.

"Watch and learn: the best marriage partners regard their marriages as priceless."

To this would I add that not only is marriage priceless, but it's endless! To remember your marriage as an eternal bond makes living day to day a little easier. Bart puts it this way: I know if we can just get through this life together, that's the hard part. We'll be perfect beings in heaven and that's when our marriage will be perfect.

"Watch and learn: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of happy eternal marriages."

 I believe the reason this is so important is because having faith in Christ makes our personal lives better, so why wouldn't it strengthen a marriage? Having a testimony can do nothing but bless you! Sharing that testimony with the person you love can only make the two of you stronger.  Faith in Christ is the foundation of happy marriages because it's the foundation to happy lives.

                           "Watch and learn: repentance and humility build happy marriages." 

I have a personal testimony that this is true. Utilizing the atonement in our lives has been a tremendous blessing! When I first met Bart he wasn't an active member but seeing him use the atonement and seeing that transformation of his person is one of the most tender things I have witnessed. It made me a better person, and the things I have had to repent of has also made me better. We share these experiences and it helps strengthen our testimonies every day.

"Watch and learn: terrific marriages are completely respectful, transparent, and loyal."

This is one of my favorite points he makes. He mentions that husbands treat their wives as total partners, and all decisions are made together. There are no secrets. You both have access to all financial information and know each other's passwords.  They are completely loyal to one another and make each other the most important person in their lives. I'm so blessed to be able to say that this describes our marriage perfectly! I married a wonderful man who is not only loyal as a dog, but he respects me and sees me as his partner. We make decisions together as a family and I never feel inferior to him.

"Watch and learn: successful couples love each other with complete devotion."

Love. Don't underestimate it! and don't let it fade! Bart and I were out together and a cute girl sat down next to me and asked when we were getting married. I told her we had been married for two years and she seemed a little surprised. I told Bart about it and he asked if it was because we still acted like we liked each other. How sad! Do only newlyweds grab each other's butts in public and steal a kiss?  If so, we never got that memo! We are more in love with each other now than when we met 4 years ago and when we got married 2 years ago! Older and "wiser" people will tell you this fades. And to that I give them my middle finger. It doesn't have to fade! Keep that spark alive and show your spouse just how much you love them!

"Marriage is a gift from God to us; the quality of our marriages is a gift from us to Him. I bear testimony of the marvelous plan of our loving Heavenly Father, which provides for eternal, wondrous marriage." -Elder Clayton

6 Miles

I ran 6 miles today. Not only did I run 6 miles, but I ran 6 miles without crying which technically means I accomplished one of my new years resolutions (run a 10K without crying).

13 months ago I ran a 10K and it was the most miserable thing I had ever done. Even after training for 5 months it was hard! not only was it hard, but it was painful. I walked a lot of it and hated every step. At that time I just thought I hadn't worked hard enough. I thought my body just wasn't made to run. Little did I know that I was half correct

My body was too sick to run. It wasn't producing the chemicals bodies need in order to not only improve, but recover. My cortisol levels were pretty much non existent so when I was pushing myself and putting "stress" on my body there was nothing there to back me up. My body was not supporting me! Of course I didn't realize that until 4 months ago. I stopped exercising all together and just 2 months ago I started up again. I could Immediately tell something was better. So THIS is how it feels to have your body function properly! I'm no longer in constant pain when I run, and I can see improvement if I train.

Which leads us today and my 6 miles. Last weekend Bart ran his 3rd Half Marathon

 
I was so proud of him! He is such a stud and trained hard, beating his personal record! My friends Jess and Debbie were there and were talking about the Nebo Half Marathon on September 7th. 6 weeks away....it got me thinking....could I do it? I was currently training for a 10K and the thought of running twice that distance made me a little nervous. I asked Jess what she thought and she told me to run 15 miles this week with a long run of 6 miles and see how I felt. So I did! That was a 4 mile increase from my total weekly distance and I was curious to see how my body was going to handle it.

This past week I ran 3 miles three separate times and then this morning I ran 6 more. And guess what? I didn't cry. I kicked butt. I felt strong. I felt empowered. I felt my body working like it normally should.It gave me the confidence I need to say YES to that Nebo Half Marathon. Next Saturday will be 7 miles, then 8, then 9, 10 and finally the half. I know my body is going to have some aches and pains. But I also know if I don't commit to something like this half, than I'll never have an excuse to train and see what happens.

It's amazing how bodies function when they're healthy. When everything is in order they are a MACHINE! A well oiled machine that is capable of so much. I'm so thankful to have my machine working correctly and I look forward to pushing that machine to places it's never been before.