Coddiwomple Magazine - Fall 2019 - Issue 2

e l p m o w i d d o C living an INSPIRED life

MAGAZINE

LIFE LESSONS Learning from a lifetime of experiences. pg. 7 RECIPES Thai Yellow Curry, Chocolate Protein Sunflower Cups, & Chai Tea.

pg. 20, 22, & 24

KILLING CHUCKY One woman’s fight against a major killer. pg. 28

ISSUE 2

FALL 2019

WHO ARE WE?

CODDIWOMPLE - (V) TO TRAVEL IN A PURPOSEFUL MANNER TOWARDS A VAGUE DESTINATION

AMANDA THOMPSON

SHANNON POTRATZ

LESA LEBEAU

Amanda Thompson is a fitness and healthy lifestyle enthusiast. In 2017 she signed up to compete in a NPC competitions as a figure competitor. She placed 1st place in her divisions at; Vancouver Natural, Washington State Open, Tanji Johnson Classic and the Emerald Cup. She also took the Overall Figure Champion at the Vancouver Natural &; Washington State Open Body Building Championships Her Love for a healthy lifestyle grew and she then got her certification as a personal trainer through ISSA (International sports science association) and now she currently works at Graham Fitness in Washington and also she does online coaching as a coach for Team StayFit with her partner Lisa Brushe.

Chef Lesa LeBeau began her career in 1996 after graduating Culinary school in Southern California. She has worked with many celebrity clients and charities.

Chef LeBeau is versed in many cuisines from around the world and loves teaching and sharing her passion for cooking .

Amanda is currently attempting to attain her IFBB Pro Card which only belongs to an elite group of Body Builders and will be competing on a national level this year. When she is not coaching or training people she enjoys spending time with her husband of 14 years and two children. Together they enjoy camping, swimming, bike riding, and movie nights.

An artistic inevitability... Born in 1972, Shannon Potratz was inspired by his father, himself an exceptional charcoal pencil artist, to pursue a career in art. Constantly encouraged to “do what you love,” there was never a question as to what he wanted to be. Then, in 1977, something happened that cemented his desire to imagine; a little film by a young upstart named George Lucas was unleashed on the world.

Star Wars fueled his imagination and he made it his business to discover all those creative people who breathed life into that universe. His heroes were artists like Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston and Phil Tippet. Later on, he discovered artists like Frank Frazetta, Syd Mead, and Michael Whelan. He sought out everything they did and the creative minds who inspired them. They taught him to bring all of his life experience and personality to every artistic effort. Never stop dreaming, strive to be better, and always look forward. After 25 years as a professional illustrator, he would consider it his greatest accomplishment to inspire young artists today and bring their own imaginations to life.

AThompson131313@gmail.com

folkloreforge.com

LAUREN DENOS

JESSICA HERBIG

TIP METAJAN

Lauren is an artist who specializes in photography and mixes that medium with digital art. She does both commercial and individual personal art. She aims to help others see the beauty in the world around us and likes to help inspire. When she is not working she loves to find adventure and find new challenges to take on.

Jessica is a local creative studio owner and graphic designer. She enjoys designing and collaborating on all manners of print publications and branding.

She’s lived in North Idaho all of her life, and along with her husband and 2 boys, spends her Spring sitting in rainstorms on baseball fields, and loves enjoying the outdoors as much as possible.

Tip Metajan is an author, business coach, social media and affiliate marketing expert. She’s the founder of Honey Butter Company and affiliated companies. Tip lives and breathes positivity and light. She believes that there’s always light to be found in every challenge.

She’s guided many companies and individuals through some of their most challenging steps and helped them come out on top.

www.HerbigDesign.com

www.HoneyButterCompany.com

AdventureBoundMedia.com

Lesa is currently teaching cooking classes at The Culinary Stone in Coeur D Alene, and is very busy with catering and in home private Chef services.

You can catch her on KREM news several times a month sharing her life long passion for the culinary arts...”Food is Love” @Cheflebeau on Instagram

TIFFANI BURKETT

MICHAELA SUMNER

After six years of laying rubber on racetracks and immersing herself in the high octane, adrenaline pumping sport of motorcycle racing, Tiffani was yearning for something new from her life on two wheels. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) losing her comfortable office job was the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.

Michaela has always loved writing, anything from essays and formal documents to short stories and poetry. She loves to achieve an emotional response from those who read her writings and wants people to see the beauty in the world even from what might be the smallest and most insignificant things. She also is a gifted massage therapist with dreams of ownig her own spa. She hopes to bring hope and inspire people inside and out with the combinations of her writing and massage.

At 28 years old, single, unattached, and now unemployed, she took her 2015 Yamaha FZ-07 and built the nimble sport bike into a make-shift adventure motorcycle. She packed it full of camping gear, and set off on an adventure that she had always dreamed about.

When she’s not working or writing, Michaela enjoys playing video games and board games with her friends as well as camping, hiking, and swimming.

You can find her book Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy on Amazon and you can follow her at www.facebook.com/tiffaniburkettFZ07

SELINA CALKINS

BRENDA JANE FIERCE BERGELIN

Selina enjoys drinking tea, reading books and taking long naps by the beach. She loves writing and editing; her passion for it grows every day as she finds words to be a beautiful way for understanding someone else's view of the world. she has a poem published in a poetry book called "treasured" She's been writing her whole life and hopes to have a poetry book published.

By day, Brenda Jane Fierce is a punk ass book jockey at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library. By night, she is a hermitess. She is dating Netflix and lives in Coeur d'Alene with her seven gargoyles.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

07

LIFE LESSONS

12

REWIRE YOUR BRAIN

17

Tory is not famous, and no one you have heard on the news.

Yet, she is someone who helps others, has created an amazing life for herself and has done it overcoming the odds that were not in her favor.

Many people spend their days looking at the things going wrong in their day and in their life. How their coffee got messed up, they can’t find their keys which makes them a few minutes late for work, or stressing about that project that is not quite done.

Okay people, let’s get real. Most of us will have times that we fall off the wagon and sometimes we fall hard! I was in the health field for 20 years and I still have times that I start to go into a downward spiral. This happened to me not too long ago when I had a levator scapulae injury, coupled with an injured trapezius and tendon.

SLIPPING UP: IT’S PART OF THE JOURNEY

22

24

26

On a cold winter night something this bright and colorful will make you dream of tropical days in the sun and ocean shores.

Protein bars can be great to have on hand when you do not have time to eat a real meal, but it is hard to find ready made protein bars with the ingredients that are good for you, or at least to your specific needs.

Making your own chai is great since you have so much control over it. Once you have the idea down you can play around with creating your own version.

THAI YELLOW CURRY

CHOCOLATE PROTEIN SUNFLOWER CUPS

CHAI TEA

30

37

40

46

I suspect my body is trying to murder me. Back in August, my cells put their resources together and made themselves into cancer. Follicular B Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to be exact. Or, as I have dubbed it, Chucky.

ecently I was out looking for a new bathing suit, I have been training for my first triathlon and needed a new one. Now dressing room mirrors are usually pretty unforgiving anyways and usually I look at myself and just get disgusted. I see all my flaws and how much better I need to be and how I should workout more.

BUT not this time.

All of the greatest things I’ve ever done in my life have started with fear, and perhaps that’s why all of the most personally satisfying things I’ve ever done in my life have been a result of conquering that fear.

In order to change your body composition along with losing body fat you need to incorporate weight training as priority.

KILLING CHUCKY

NO BODY IS PERFECT

I’D LOVE TO, BUT...

CARDIO VS. WEIGHTS

FEATURE

LIFE LESSONS

By Michaela Sumner

Tory is not famous, and no one you have heard on the news. Yet, she is someone who helps others, has created an amazing life for

herself and has done it overcoming the odds that were not in her favor. We are telling her story to help you realize that no matter where you come from and where you are right now, you can change things and create a life you love. It is never too late and never too far out of reach.

I was born in 1970 in Everett, Washington. My mother was a crazy hippy feminist and my father was a nice guy, who made bad choices, impaired by his drug habit.

When I was 3 my mother left my father and moved us to Anchorage, Alaska. Here, under the allure of the Last Frontier, she hung out with bikers and drank, professionally. Shortly after we arrived she married her 3rd husband, a banjo playing, pipe smoking,

mountain man. This marriage, like most her relationships was a short-lived affair.

In regards to her drinking, there were incidents, including towing me along to the Anchorage bars, which at that time were open almost 24 hours. Also, the time she forgot to pick me up at kindergarten. The owners of the Montessori program drove me by our tiny and empty home in Mountain View, then took me to their lavish Hillside house. There I was exposed to wonders, including 2 white poodles, a white grand piano, and the culinary delight of a bacon and egg sandwich for breakfast. I believe this event contributed to my mom’s decision to stop drinking. While this was a minor improvement in her personality, the succession of men, careers, moves, trailers, and apartments continued. Instead of towing me to the bars she took me along to AA meeting, dances, and card games. I may have attended more AA meetings and had a better knowledge of the 12 steps than some of the AA members!

I learned early on in life to be self-reliant and appreciates the little things; like bacon and egg breakfast sandwiches and the people willing to help you out. I have been blessed to have many wonderful people cross my path, see something in me and provide support.

I spent most of every summer from the time I was 6 with my paternal Grandmother, Florence, my compass and helped me in so many ways. She was an anchor for me throughout my life. She was strong, quirky, pragmatic and sensitive. We could talk about anything, always there to offer love and advice. She shared stories of growing up on hardscrabble land and nursing through the years. She was my

constant. She kept in touch by writing me regularly, sending postcards, and calling. She was my consistent support and cheerleader. Sometimes I feel her soul skipped a generation and I inherited part of her nature. Though passed, her legacy and love, live on.

My younger sister was born when I was 8 years old. I lived to take care of her, would dress her up, read and play with her and was very often left to tend to her, while our mom was doing her thing. Watching her gave me a sense of purpose and I always felt a need to try and shelter her from the chaos of our life.

When I was 10, we moved from Alaska, when my mother fought for custody of my 2 older half siblings, their father had passed away from cancer. They had both been abused and neglected, and had felt abandoned by my mother. Our mother was in no way able to give them the love and support they needed, to be able to deal with their loss and trauma. My 16 year old brother lived with us less than a year, and my older sister emancipated herself not long after, at the age of 15.

alternative school. I was horribly shy and probably clinically depressed, think Ally Sheedy’s character in The Breakfast Club, and at first did not like the idea. It ended up being one of the best things that has ever happened to me and the experience has shaped me to this day. There were no bells, no lockers, we called our teachers by their first names, many classes were interactive and the school rules were made or modified by all school counsels, where everyone was able to speak up and have a say. This is where I started to feel like I had a voice.

Around this same time I started volunteering at the local animal shelter.

This satisfied my love of animals, gave me some spending money and kept me out of the house. I was eventually hired and worked here through high school, in most areas of the shelter.

I met the amazing Kathy Gliva here, another one of my angels.

I tended to retreat into books and my love of animals.

Kathy rescued many strays, including me.

I had a lifelong fascination with horses and well… she had horses. So I struck up a friendship when I was fourteen. She put me to work with shovels, learning to clean tack, running errands in my mucky barn clothes, and caring for horses during the hard-Alaskan winters. We went on midnight horseback rides and I was able to take her horse, Rueben, to horse camp and 4-H. I learned responsibility and stewardship in exchange for a safe, fun place to be with so, so many animals!

For high school I was encouraged by my mom to apply to an open concept

Kathy and her husband lovingly teased me about my boyfriends, threw a 16th birthday

All of the moving, fighting, and upheaval, caused constant health issues, a fragmented education, and very few friends. Though this experience taught me that no matter how tough you think you have it, there is always someone out there with struggles worse than you that you can’t even imagine.

party for me and they picked me up, last minute, late one Christmas Eve when they realized I was alone. My mom had split town, and I was by myself at a friend’s dorm, as all the students were with family for the holiday, and I had nowhere else to stay. It was wonderful to be able to be with friends for a nice meal and the holiday. I learned so much about life, work, and true compassion from Kathy, her husband Ed, and their menagerie.

I started gaining confidence, making friendships, dating, and planning for the future. Halfway through my senior year my mother informed me she was moving to a rural village. I was not interested in this plan so I stayed behind to finish my year. The compromise was she left my sister, the duplex, and a car that I could use until graduation. The day I graduated she came just for the ceremony, collected my sister and I was on my own. Though I really have felt I was mostly on my own, this was more of a formality. I spent the rest of the summer and fall working and couch surfing with very gracious friends, while waiting to enlist.

The USAF brought me to the beautiful inland Northwest. I spent 4 interesting and fun years in the Air Force, as a plumbing specialist. I enjoyed the work and even the novelty of being known as the 6-foottall blonde plumbing chick. Though the plumbers crack jokes may have worn a little thin. Ha! One of the hardest things I have ever done, in my life, is stand up to my mother. This happened when I was 20. My mom came to see me in Spokane, after travelling to Japan. She wanted to take my younger sister back to Alaska. My sister was again living with me. I had never stood up to her, and her volatile temper. I was now confident in my family, my career path, and my life choices. I set boundaries. No smoking inside my house, no screaming on the phone at midnight, and that my sister planned to stay with. My mom, Val, was furious, she cut her trip early, refused to hug me and boarded a Greyhound bus.

I knew I was in the right, and that helped change my approach to life. I questioned myself much less and was willing to speak up when I felt it was needed, no matter what.

About a year later I received a call from her in the middle of the night saying that I was a great parent to my sister, and a good person. She hadn’t called me at all before this. Two days later I received a call while at work on base. My mother had committed suicide.

At 21 years old I had to make arrangements to return to Alaska to this rural village, to deal with her affairs, her dysfunctional (seventh) husband, and my dysfunctional half siblings. I planned memorials and a funeral for her. I carried her cremated ashes in a box on the plane so she could be interned with her grandmother. It was the end of an era. A larger than life, raunchy, fox fur coat wearing, articulate Mensa member, who even to her last days, I found out, was bootlegging alcohol into a dry village. She had interesting friends, and was remembered by all. She was a character if not a particularly great mother. I grieved that I would never have that “typical” mom and family but my life experiences have taught me that I am capable of handling anything I put my mind to.

After the Air Force I settled in Spokane and went on to finish nursing school, inspired by my four-year-old stepson who had T1 diabetes. He’s been my professional muse. I have worked both in hospitals as a cardiac, cardiac ICU and ICU nurse. I have been a supervisor at the VA hospital and I am currently employed as a diabetes educator which has always been my passion. Nursing has allowed me to help many people, which I love, as far away as Kigali, Rwanda, where I went with an open heart team to recover patients and teach staff.

I personally have bipolar disorder but pay close attention to both my mental and physical health due to the strong family history of mental health and addiction issues. I work to keep tabs on my mental health in the same way someone with a heart condition checks their blood pressure. I am open about my personal journey around this and I am always saddened by the stigma mental illness carries. It’s important to address health issues openly with those you trust.

Life is a series of stepping stones with lessons and people along the way. Some people you learn from what not to do and others offer guidance and support more directly and positively. I am blessed at this juncture of my life to have made the choice to get me to a wonderful marriage, amazing children and fantastic friends. I have the luxury to be able to travel and have hobbies that are enjoyable and help keep me strong. Staying active by swimming and biking helps my stay mentally and physically strong. I am proud of my accomplishments, but none is any greater than the other. Sometimes strength is getting through one day. Anything is really possible.

Through all of this Tory has created a life

she can be happy to call her own. Success with her career and a stable family life that looks nothing like the one she grew up in.

With all of her hardships, she has strived to better herself and those around her.

She has completed 8 sprint tris, 2 Olympic distance tris, and several 50 to 100 mile charity bike rides. She has also been a part of multiple day bike rides; a 188 mile from Seattle to Vancouver British Columbia, and an 80 mile from Troy, Montana to Sandpoint, Idaho. She believes that anything that pushes you to your limits or puts you inside your head, like distance biking or swimming is a mental challenge.

After doing her longest bike ride in 2014, Tory suffered from a back injury at work and affected her aerobically to go 8 miles once she started up again. Despite this injury, Tory still competes in triathlons.

For her, any fitness achievement, big or small, is a trial of will and endurance.

If you are not happy with where you are in your journey, I encourage you to take a look at Tory’s story and realise with determination and dedication you can get to where you want to go. Your happy life does not need to look like anyone else’s, it is your personal journey.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

Henry Ford

4 ways to rewire your brain for positivity

BY TIP METAJAN

Many people spend their days looking at the things going wrong in their day and

in their life. How their coffee got messed up, they can’t find their keys which makes them a few minutes late for work, or stressing about that project that is not quite done. The problem is that people are paying attention to all of this but completely ignoring all of the amazing and positive things that happen every single day! Where there’s pain, look for the gain. Where there’s bad, look for the good. Where there’s sadness, look for the happy. How could seeing more positivity improve your life today? Test out these steps and find out for yourself! #1 Ask How When I was younger, my lens of life was a cloud of negativity. My favorite shirt in high school was a shirt with Grumpy (from Snow White) that had the words “I don’t do perky” on it. As I grew up, I felt that my life wasn’t getting much better from my negative lens. I decided in college that I wanted to change that. I wanted to be the person that would make a random stranger smile and improve the lives of people around me. I didn’t want to be the person that projects their bad day onto anyone else’s.

What I didn’t realize until later was that my view of being positive wasn’t nearly as positive as I thought. I realized that I had more growth to do and positivity to let out once I started being around people with a personal development mentality.

In 2014, I was suffering from a combination of health issues that lead me to being bedridden for a year. During that time I was angry, sad and frustrated. My negativity was at an all time high. After two months of laying in bed, feeling sorry for myself, clinging onto the victim mentality, I decided I needed to rewire my brain. I started asking myself questions like, “How is this good?”, and “How can I look at this differently?”.

Using the word “how” is a powerful way to rewire the brain. When the word “how” is asked, your brain has to seek answers. The brain is a thinking machine. Have you ever thought so much that your brain hurts? That’s when it’s being challenged and stretched. That’s the best time to rewire it for positivity.

Test it out!

Next time you find yourself in a negative situation ask yourself HOW this could be seen in a better way, or How this could turn out to be a good thing.

#2 Exhaust Negativity I started examining every sentence that came out of my mouth. I asked the people around me to keep me accountable. When I had negativity coming out of my mouth, my friends would call me out on it.

What helped me the most were affirmations. Many people are not fond of affirmations because it “doesn’t work” or is “too slow” to work. And they are correct, to an extent. If I’m in front of a mirror, saying the affirmation, “I’m a millionaire and I can afford it all,” while I was barely making rent, then yes, my brain would reject the affirmation. However, if I use the affirmation as a type of reminder until it comes true, that’s different.

I would have days where I wasn’t feeling well and I would tell myself, “I feel better and better with each day.” That affirmation was vague enough for me to start rewiring my brain while making me feel better. It wasn’t necessarily my body feeling better, but my mind feeling better. Once my mind felt better, my body started feeling better as well. It wasn’t necessarily mind over matter, it was also the happy hormones being released into my body while the stress hormones started to dissipate.

Using affirmations, I came up with a 3 to 1 rule. For every negative thought I caught myself thinking or saying, I would say three affirmations to “combat” that negativity.

Eventually, I would tire myself out doing that to the point where my brain said, “Ok! I don’t want to think up three affirmations anymore! I’ll avoid thinking negatively!

Positive thoughts only!”

Test it out!

Every time you have a negative thought think up and say aloud 3 positive affirmations. #3 Grateful not hateful I used to have a terrible relationship with money. For some reason I never had any!

It would come in small amounts and leave me the second it arrived. As you can imagine, that was stressful! It lead me to many negative thoughts and beliefs about money. That negativity lead money to go further and further away. Money is energy.

You receive the amount that you believe you deserve. For me, I was not grateful towards money. It was for bills and that was it. My thought was if the world didn’t have money, life would be easier. So in my world, I didn’t have money! I had a negative, hateful relationship with money.

By the advice of a friend, I started a Gratitude Journal specifically centered around money. The journal would include all the reasons I was grateful for money.

In the beginning, I found it to be easy.

I wrote pages and pages of superficial, materialistic reasons why I was grateful for money. As the days passed, it became more difficult. I had to dig deeper and deeper. At the end of 30 days, I had a totally different relationship with money. Not only was I more grateful for it, I looked at it as my friend instead of my enemy.

Test it out!

This journaling technique can be used for any subject where you want that negativity to become positive. It can be used for people, animals, ideas, thoughts, etc. Set a time limit such as 10 minutes a day. Whatever you write in 10 minutes is what you write. Doesn’t matter if it’s one sentence or ten pages within that time limit. Stick to it for 30 days. One journal per subject. One time limit per subject. #4 Do things that make you happy Let’s get scientific. When we look at happiness from a scientific standpoint, it can be easier to grasp for those that need some logic in happiness. When you are happy, happy hormones are released into your body. Endorphins, serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin are your body’s happy hormones. It’s much easier to rewire your brain for happiness when happy hormones are being released and flood your system.

Someone that sits in their room and thinks like Eeyore will find it more difficult to rewire the brain. However, if that person is sitting and meditating, that’s a different story! It’s also like someone that is on a high from working out, the happy hormones are being released in the body.

Test it out!

Find a few things that make you happy and incorporate them into your schedule.

While you are doing these happy activities, take a little time to think of all the things you love about your life.

Take a look at a habit. What is a habit? In short, something you do over and over.

Habits can be both good and bad. A task such as placing the key in the door and turning it is a habit. Zooming in even closer, we have nerves in our body that send a signal between our brain and body that we now need to insert the key into the door.

That signal is reinforced every time we do

that act. The more we reinforce the act, the stronger the signal becomes and the easier it is for the brain to access that act.

Negativity is the same way. The more we speak, act or think negatively, it is reinforced. How do you change that?

You choose to reinforce the other nerves instead. Using the 3 for 1 rule, you can strengthen positivity, inspiration, motivation, just like any other muscle.

Is rewiring your brain easy? No, but it’s worth it. Once you stretch yourself in that capacity you can never go back to the unstretched state. It takes one decision to make a change and one decision to stick to it. Are you ready to make that decision and live a more positive life?

SLIPPING UP; IT’S PART OF THE JOURNEY

BY LAUREN DENOS

Okay people, let’s get real. Most of us will have times that we fall off the wagon and sometimes we fall hard! I was in the health field

for 20 years and I still have times that I start to go into a downward spiral. This happened to me not too long ago when I had a levator scapulae injury, coupled with an injured trapezius and tendon.

I am a really active person who gets a lot of good positive mental attitude from my exercise, but there I was; laid up with no movement for almost 2 weeks! I was going crazy! I could not even work on writing, no working on my business, nothing! I was in too much pain.

One of the consequences was that I got really lazy about my eating.

I could say I was in too much pain to make my meals but that is just an excuse. I just did not want to bother with prepping my meals.

I could have bought the right things or asked my husband to help me with making the right food but I just did not care. I generally do

not have much dairy, and suddenly I was having cheese on a lot of my food, and I know better. While cheese may be fine for some, it is not my friend. But I also used to teach people to give themselves a break sometimes. There are times when we are not perfect and there are times when we fall off of the wagon. I thought that maybe I needed to cut my own self some slack, and realize that this is only a short period of time and that I will be back to my healthy eating, athletic, adventurous, boundary pushing path soon.

Even though I was not eating as good as usual, I was conscious enough to employ certain tricks to help me do damage control.

Here are some of the tricks that can help you when the “to hell with it all” attitude takes hold: Keep good snacks on hand! I don’t know about you, but when I get in these kinds of moods I want munchies. I want to be able to snack as much as I want.

The way I do this while staying healthy is by getting the kind of snacks that I can eat unlimited quantities of (mostly). I keep crispy green beans on hand or zucchini chips, kale chips or really any veggie chips I can find in the store (that is not deep fried) or I make them at home. They usually still have a little bit of oil on them from the roasting but it is pretty darn low and I feel fine about eating a full bag of green beans.

Eat more frequently so that your hunger is not working against you as well.

When we let ourselves get too hungry it can be the time we make the worst decisions about what we are going to eat. When you are in one of these fall off the wagon moods, you might not make great choices; but if you let yourself go too long without food, that is when the body gets the more urgent need for immediate fuel which many times is just a craving for sugars and processed carbs since they are such fast acting sources of fuel for our body. Couple that with your emotional eating and you have a recipe for some really wild binging.

Drink water all day! If water is not what you are wanting, have a caffeine free tea. Drinking can help relieve some of the feeling of hunger, and if you are in the munchie mood where you just want something to snack on, drinking can help take a little of that edge off. Sometimes when you are in this mood, water is not very satisfying. If that is the case then brew your favorite tea. I love Tazo passion tea. It is caffeine free and all herbal; then if I want it sweet I can add some Stevia and throw it over ice. It is a great alternative to sodas and juices.

Know your best choices of the foods you normally should not eat. For me cheese is the better choice of the foods I should not eat. Grains (especially gluten) are not even options to be cheat foods. This is good to know because you can eat that “forbidden”, or rarely eaten food but you are not eating the worst of the worst (especially when you are allergic to it!)

Eat more frequently so that your hunger is not working against you as well. When we let ourselves get too hungry it can be the time we make the worst decisions about what we are going to eat.

Enjoy it. Do what you can to see the positive in this moment. Enjoy the down time, this stroll off of your healthy path, knowing that you will be back on it soon enough. If you only have an off day once in a while there is no sense in punishing yourself for it. If you do, you are just adding more negative emotions and emotions were probably one of the reasons you are eating this way anyway. There is no need to compound it. You are just having a moment off of your normal health routine; all is fine in the world.

Make sure you are getting your sleep! When you do not get enough sleep your body can over compensate for the lack of energy by asking for excess amounts of calories.

You may feel hungrier than normal. Your energy needs to come from somewhere and if you don’t give your body it’s recharge time it will get that energy from somewhere else.

Sleep is vital!

Have some fun. Go do something. Many times we over eat or give into craving because we are bored so we start to see eating these bad foods as a substitute or a reward.

Instead, go on a walk, go out with some friends (not to a restaurant), go workout, read a book or anything that will give your brain some time away from focusing on eating.

Don’t stay here! If you notice this fall off the wagon going on for too long then it is time to look at what is really going on. Is there a deep emotional issue? If so you need to talk

If you notice this fall off the wagon going on for too long then it is time to look at what is really going on. to someone. If you are just feeling lazy, then look for the lazy solutions like healthier versions of frozen dinners or getting someone else to cook some healthy food. Falling off the healthy path is fine when it happens only once in a while and for a very short period of time but when it goes on too long you need to do something about it, and I am not speaking just for the sake of your waistline, but for the sake of your overall health. Remember your health is meant to support you in your overall goals in life. When you are healthy you have more energy, strength, stamina and mental clarity. When you neglect your health you are neglecting your dreams in life. So take care of yourself and take care of your body, it is the only place you have to live!

thai yellow curry

BY LESA LEBEAU

On a cold winter night something this bright and colorful will make you dream of tropical days in the sun and ocean shores.

• 1/4 c yellow curry paste • 3 cloves minced garlic • 2 tbsp minced ginger • 1 stalk lemon grass • 3 tbsp fish sauce • 2 tbsp sugar • 2 c cubed golden potatoes • 3 chopped carrots • 1 c squash • 1 c greens • I med onion sliced • 1-2 15 oz can coconut cream • 1 1/2 cups Jasmine rice GARNISH (OPTIONAL) • Basil • Mint • Cilantro • Shaved coconut • Sunflower seeds STEPS • Bring 2 3/4 cups of water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Stir in the rice and 3/4 tsp of salt; cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes until all of the water is absorbed.

• In large saucepan add a 2 tbsp oil. Sauté curry paste, onion, garlic and ginger. Cook 3-4 mins.

• Now add veggies. Fish sauce and sugar cooking for 3 minutes minutes. Add cream and simmer at least 30-40 mins.

• Serve over jasmine rice • Pour dressing over dish and garnish. Have fun and be creative!!!

Chocolate Protein Sunflower Cups

BY LAUREN DENOS

I love these because not only are they a great stand by when I can’t get to a regular meal, but they also take care of some of my chocolate cravings, so really it’s a win/win. Protein bars can be great to have on hand when you do not have time to eat a real meal, but it is hard to find ready made protein bars with the ingredients that are good for you, or at least to your specific needs. When you make them yourself you have so much more control.

INGREDIENTS • 9 Tbsp coconut oil • 8 Tbsp cocoa powder • 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp stevia • 1 Pinch of cayenne • 1/2 Cup no sugar added carob chips or chocolate chips • 1/2 Cup coco powder • 6 Tbsp Sunflower butter • 2 Scoops protein powder (I like the vanilla flavored Vega brand) • 1 Cup unsweetened shredded coconut STEPS • Heat up 6 Tbsp coconut oil.

• Take off of the heat and whisk 8 Tbsp cocoa powder with 1 Tbsp stevia and pinch of cayenne. If the chocolate starts to thicken and clump then add a little more coconut oil to it.

• Place 12 cupcake liners into a cupcake tray • Pour the chocolate into each cupcake liner evenly • Place the cupcake tray with the chocolate in the freezer • In a bowl heat up the 6 Tbsp sunflower butter and 3 remaining Tbsp of coconut oil enough so it is easy to stir.

• Add 1 tsp to the sunflower butter mixture and stir well. Let cool just a little bit • Add in the coconut and protein powder, cocoa powder and carob chips, it will get pretty thick.

• Make sure the chocolate from the freezer is set up, if so take it out.

• Press the sunflower butter mixture evenly into each of the cupcake liners, on top of the chocolate layer.

• To make them pretty, you can add some more coconut and/or chocolate chips.

• Keep these in the fridge until you are ready to eat them since the chocolate will melt.

Makes about 12 Protein cups at 219 calories each

CHAI TEA

BY LAUREN DENOS

The spice must flow, he who controls the spice controls the kitchen. Even my anti-health food friends loved this tea. Making your own chai is great since you have so much control over it. Once you have the idea down you can play around with creating your own version. For this tea I use the licorice root as the sweetening agent but you can always trade out the licorice for stevia or honey or even use licorice and stevia together, your choice. The licorice adds a different type of sweetness since it does not hit you right away, but builds.

If you would like an iced version then let the tea cool completely and blend with the coconut milk and about 6 ice cubes.

INGREDIENTS • 30 Cardamom seeds • 16 Whole cloves • 8 Allspice • 1/2 tsp black pepper • 2 – 6’’ Cinnamon sticks or a couple Tbsp of cinnamon pieces • 1 tsp Ginger • 2 Tbsp Licorice root • 1 Tbsp Orange peel • 1-2 Tbsp of tea of your choice, black, rooibos, oolong etc or you can leave the tea out • 1/3 Cup coconut milk STEPS • Put your cardamom, cloves and allspice in a coffee grinder. Pulse just a few times to break all of the spices up just a bit.

• Place all the spices except the cinnamon sticks in a tea ball or reusable tea bag. If you are using cinnamon pieces instead of cinnamon sticks then put them in the tea bag.

• If you are using cinnamon sticks, break them in half and put them straight into the cup.

• Pour 1 cup of boiling water in the cup. Let sit for at least 10 minutes.

Sometimes I will let a cup sit overnight with the tea bag and cinnamon and then heat it up the next day, doing so helps the cinnamon really soak in.

• Take the tea bag and the cinnamon sticks out (reheat if needed) and add in the coconut milk. Top with whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon if you want a pretty presentation.

There are 184 calories per cup if you are using full fat coconut milk. You can always use less or lighter milk if you would like this to be leaner.

He who marvels at the

beauty of the world in

summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration

in winter. - John Burroughs

KILLING CHUCKY

By Brenda Jane Bergelin

I suspect my body is trying to murder me. Back in August, my cells put their resources together and made themselves into cancer. Follicular B Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to be exact. Or, as I have dubbed it, Chucky.

Luckily I am an expert when it comes to murder. You see, I’ve watched enough Greys’ Anatomy to know how to do brain surgery and I’ve watched enough slasher movies to know how to avoid getting killed: Option One: Cower… (SPOILER ALERT) usually ends in death

There are amazing tools available that can make incredible differences in cancer treatment; amazing medications, amazing therapies and brilliant people who will rescue you who want to help. They will save you. There are also bad resources, bad hospitals, bad doctors, and bad tools. It’s okay to get second opinions. To say this isn’t right. Educate yourself.

Option Two: Run… (SPOILER ALERT) usually ends in death

DON’T BLAME YOURSELF

Or Option Three: Kill the killer before he kills you

In quite possible the most motivating demotivating speech of all times, Bill Murray’s message in the 1979 movie Meatballs is clear:

So, that’s what I have been doing these past seven months…Killing Chucky. Here’s what I have learned: YOUR INTUITION KNOWS HER SHIT: Take it from me, if you think something is weird, just get it checked out. I remember the day I first met Chucky. “What the hell?”, I remember saying to myself as I poked and prodded an almond sized lymph node above my left collarbone. Was this here yesterday? Should I be concerned? Could it be a virus? An allergic reaction? A cyst? A bug bite? A…? I tried to dismiss it, but Lady Intuition was persistent. I listened to her and went to urgent care where a doctor listened to me and a specialist listened to her and…well, the rest is Chucky.

Now most of the time? That lump, that pain that shadow on an x-ray will be nothing. But for one in three people in the United States, it will be some form of cancer. Listen to the lady.

EDUCATE YOURSELF: When I first got my cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy wasn’t on my radar. I was going to Hippie my way to health. Herbs. Meditation.

Namaste bitches. And while those things in and of themselves have a place in treatment, in my case Chucky was so invasive he had to be killed with chemotherapy. No one WANTS to do chemotherapy.

Let’s make that clear. But the pros and cons of enduring chemo vs untreated cancer favors chemo. Chemo can be a cure, survival or a reduction in symptoms from the disease.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself,” says Sun Tzu, a Chinese military strategist, Taoist philosopher and general in the 6th century. “In a hundred battles you will never be in peril.” When I went to battle, I became a lymphoma/cancer chemo research beast. Having been on the battlefield I can tell you this: It ain’t your grandma’s cancer anymore. Thirty years ago, cancer was usually a death sentence. If the cancer didn’t murder you, the lifesaving poison chemotherapy would. Doctors used to sedate people so that chemo could be delivered. Nowadays? Chemotherapy drugs come in a variety of ways. Chemo cocktails if you will. It can be delivered through an IV while you sit on a heated, massaging BarcaLounger. It can come in the form of a simple shot or even a pill you take at home.

“It. Just. Doesn’t. Matter.

You do not choose your genetic makeup and some health factors happen due to environmental aspects that you may not have control over. In other words, you may live life by the book and still get cancer. You can juice kale and wheatgrass and organic soy milk and liquid vitamins and protein powder. You can run, and walk and bike and spin and Crossfit. You can floss, and rub crystals and cleanse. You can sleep for 8 hours every night. You can fast for 8 hours. You can Paleo, Keto, and Jenny O. You can avoid gluten and lactose and sugar and second hand smoke and the sun and unfiltered water and stress. You can do all that to exhaustion and you know what?

IT. JUST. DOESN’T. MATTER. That bastard will still get you. Quantum physics has proved that nothing on this earth is certain. So lighten the hell up. I will never forget the sage advice one wizened nurse shared with me: “Shit happens, baby girl. Get used to it.”

SURROUND YOURSELF WITH TRIBE & SARDINES “I won the lottery!”

“I landed my dream job!”

“I’m dating Keanu Reeves!”

These are things you like to announce.

“I’ve got cancer!”

Nope. That ain’t on the list.

Cancer is a game changer. Not only for the person going through it but for everyone whose life that person touches. Family. Friends.

Co-workers. It’s tempting to treat it like that crazy uncle up in the attic and keep it a secret. You don’t want anyone to worry. You don’t want anyone to know you are a walking version of their greatest fear. And you don’t want to bother anyone.

When I found out my treatment wouldn’t make my hair fall out (Thank you, cancer research!!) I was tempted to keep Chucky my

secret. My paramour of maladies. I think I could have pulled it off as long as I didn’t-Oh, I don’t know- DIE! It was my cancer teacher (seriously, there is such a thing) who cast shade on my plan to climb Cancer Kilimanjaro solo. “Do you know what will happen when…not if… but when your family finds out?

They will be so pissed off at you during this time when you will need them the most. They will be hurt that you didn’t trust their strength.” Gulp.

“Don’t play Hide and Seek when you go through cancer. You want to hide. But you need to be sought. And when you are ultimately found? It’s game over.” Gulp.

“You ever play Sardines?” cancer teacher asked. “It’s way better than Hide and Seek. In Sardines, the person who is it goes and hides and everybody goes looking for him. And hide there with him. Pretty soon everyone is hiding together, stacked like puppies in a pile. And in the end? Everyone gets found…” The lady had a point. Sardines did sound better than Hide and Seek. a lot better.

Not gonna lie. Cancer is exhausting and terrifying. It can also be a catalyst to bring some unexpected beautiful gifts. If you let it, you’ll live an adventure tale so gripping that you may discover what you are really made of and what you really live for. You will quickly discover who your tribe is. You can’t do that playing hide and seek. so crack that tin. Play Sardines. Reach out to people who love you. Let them help. Let them drive you to appointments.

Let them play Bananagrams with you during chemo cocktails. Let them clean. Let them bring you dinner.

I recently heard a podcast which featured Connie Lawrence, a clinical social worker and founder of the Cleveland PsychoDrama Institute.

“Cancer, (says Connie), like any trauma is a tear in the fabric of the tribe”. Connie told a story of a primitive tribe. One of the tribe mates was pregnant with twins. Complications happened and the woman gave birth to stillborn twins. The woman collapsed.

Broken. Consumed with grief. Catatonic.

The tribe brought the heart broken mother home, built a fire and declared that they would not move until the woman danced. The

tribe surrounded her, sat with her and didn’t give up. At one point the woman finally erupted in tears of grief. The tribe held on to her and the entire tribe wept and held her until they could dance. And they didn’t stop until she could fully dance with them.

We cannot metabolize cancer by ourselves, we need our tribe to help us dance. Your tribe wants to be your fire, to keep you warm.

Your tribe wants to reinforce you with stitches that will make you a stronger, more beautiful fabric then you were originally. They don’t want you to hide. Your tribe wants to find you, bring you home and dance.

Seven months ago, when I went to chemo cocktails for the first time, I watched as a radiant bald woman in a “F%*#K CANCER” t-shirt rang a brass bell mounted to the hospital wall. “On your last day of chemotherapy, you get to ring the victory bell,” my nurse explained to me as she poked me in the vein to start me on my first of seven rounds of life saving poison. “Keep your eye on the prize.”

On December 27th, 2018, I rang that bell. I rang it three times.

Loud. Really loud. Each clang resonated like thunder. A vibrating prayer. After 180 days of battle I was being airlifted to a safe place.

According to my oncologist, I am “In remission”. Webster defines remission as “a temporary or permanent decrease of a disease”.

Me? I define remission as killing Chucky.

R.I.P. ya filthy animal…

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.

Henry Ford

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No Body Is Perfect

By Lauren Denos

Recently I was out looking for a new bathing suit, I have been training for my first triathlon and needed a new one. Now dressing

room mirrors are usually pretty unforgiving anyways and usually I look at myself and just get disgusted. I see all my flaws and how much better I need to be and how I should workout more. BUT not this time. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I looked at myself in the mirror and thought “hmmm, I look pretty good”. Funny enough, I saw that I am getting some more veins in one of my legs, but instead of letting that part drive me crazy I thought, “eh, I am human”. This was a pretty profound moment for me. I have death with anorexia at an early age and have had body image issues for most of my life. So when did this miraculous change happen you ask?

Well, it changed because of my photography, or rather the subjects in front of my camera. See, I get to deal with some extraordinarily beautiful people, and you know what, none of them are perfect! I mean not perfect in the media sense of “perfect”, they are perfect as far as a beautiful human being goes. What is more, these beautiful people, that most others would like to be all have something they do not like about themselves. It was really eye opening. I

now look at these people punishing themselves because they are not “perfect” and I think “I do not want to be this way” I want to embrace what I have. And when I eat healthy and workout I want to do it because of a sense of joy and living an amazing life instead of being “perfect” in that twisted sense. Working our bodies and being healthy should be a positive thing, not a punishment.

When I’m working behind a lens I look for what is beautiful with

that person. What are their good features, their good angles. Now, yes, I do edit the images and I will perfect the image to whatever level my client would like me to.

But this makes me look at what things CAN be too. Because of this way of looking at people it makes me automatically see how beautiful they are. I see them as their best selves in my mind. This is what you should start doing for yourself, look at your beautiful parts and focus on those. If your lips are your best feature, then relish them!

There are other people out there spending big money to have lips like yours. Does this mean that we should stop striving to be healthier, or a better version of ourselves?

No! It just means that we should put our focus on the things we love about ourselves WHILE continually improving.

Try this experiment, for today start thinking like a photographer and pay attention to the best about yourself AND others and watch how your view changes.

I’D LOVE TO,

By Tiffani Burkett

BUT...

All of the greatest things I’ve ever done in

my life have started with fear, and perhaps that’s why all of the most personally satisfying things I’ve ever done in my life have been a result of conquering that fear.

It was a drab Tuesday morning in Los Angeles. I went in to work, like I did every other day. I spoke with friends about weekend plans, like I did every other week. I fantasized about places I might someday vacation to, like I did every other lunch break. And then the whole company got called into a meeting, unlike every other meeting.

They sat us down in rows, and a man I recognized as the head of the corporate buyout took the stage.

He explained, with an unsettling cheeriness that only the coldest and hardest executive can muster, that they were shutting down our office and moving everything from Los Angeles to San Jose. We all walked out of the room with a wash of conflicting emotions. Many of us had been there for quite a few years, having turned this once small start-up into the company worthy of its buyout. And now, just like that, it was gone?

As I walked into my boss’s office prepared to discuss my fate, I found myself sitting down with a strange degree of contentment. In the hour and a half in which I awaited my turn, I had gone through all seven stages of grief, from denial to hope. I still remember the look on my boss’s face as I smiled, without missing a beat, and I asked for a severance package. I thanked him for being such a pleasure to work with, and I told myself that this wasn’t an end- It was an opportunity.

I ride motorcycles. They’re my whole life. I eat, drink, sleep, breath, and live my two wheeled machines. All of my friends ride, and all of the money that I made went straight into my bikes, either riding, wrenching, or racing them. And like most motorcyclists, my wildest dreams mostly involved the freedom of the open road, wind in my hair, bugs in my teeth, and an endless barrage of the beauty of America soaking my peripheral vision.

I had wanted to ride my motorcycle cross country since the first time I felt the thrill and freedom of riding through the mountains, completely exposed to the wonders of the natural world. As luck would have it, I had just bought a motorcycle that could do precisely that. I had never really traveled. I wasn’t particularly rugged or strong. I regularly battled with anxiety, bugs grossed me out, I was lucky if I was able to navigate even my favorite restaurant well enough to find the bathroom, and I didn’t know the first thing about living off a motorcycle. To say I wasn’t prepared would have been entirely too kind.

But if I waited until I felt “ready,” I would never go. When does anyone ever feel ready for a total upheaval of their life?

I spent my last couple months of employment saving every penny I could, while building my motorcycle into a machine just right for me. I poured over maps and lists of must see places. I researched camping gear, tried to prepare for riding through winters that I never experienced in my sunny hometown, and I set my sights toward a country I’d never seen before.

It was early March when, with the fear, anxiety, hopefulness, and courage that ruled my entire life, I walked out of my office and threw my leg over my motorcycle for what would be the first day of many living off its two little wheels.

Now, even in all of its romance and grandeur, it wasn’t the easiest transition. It turned out, being a lone woman sleeping in a tent in a place I had never been, surrounded by people I didn’t know, and animals I couldn’t predict didn’t feel quite as safe and secure as I could have hoped. In my quest to cross the country, I hadn’t accounted for all the states and parks I wanted to explore that didn’t offer camping, so I found myself, more often than not, scrambling in the late afternoon to find somewhere safe to rest my head. At times, I got caught out after dark with no idea where I was going, other times saw sub-freezing temperatures and powerful winds that didn’t allow me much sleep, and others saw bear boxes that allowed me even less sleep (doubly so when I accidentally forgot string cheese in my pocket).

There was even one moment where I had neglected to realize things like tornado’s weren’t just a plot device in The Wizard of Oz, and I found myself huddling in a gas station, waiting out the raging winds and rains outside, hoping my poor little motorcycle wouldn’t blow away. Those amateur mistakes- I made them all.

Hundreds of miles a day on a motorcycle was proving quite grueling.

But in all of my bumbling and stumbling, as I accepted a speeding ticket in small town Georgia, then cleared the Florida border into the Sunshine state, I started to realize something.

It had been two weeks and getting close to 5000 miles since I left home. And yet here I was, still alive. No, not simply alive- I was smiling. I found myself leaving Miami on Highway 1, navigating around cars, trucks, loose chickens, and key deer at the beginning of April. The air was a balmy 89 degrees, and the humidity was thick enough to eat. Traffic was an unending caravan of slow trucks and tourists. My body was battered, tired, dehydrated, and the threat of a storm lingered in the distance.

One key, then two, then three- I made my way over bridge after bridge from one island to the next before I finally found myself park my bike among a throng of tourists in cute convertibles and massive SUVs. Barely giving myself time to get out of my motorcycle boots and thick armored jacket, I stumbled across the smooth, white sand, and splashed into the warm, calm, crystal clear, turquoise waters of Key West, Florida.

And I laughed.

I made it. This ridiculous pipe dream that I had always seen as something impossible for me somehow just turned into my reality.

That thing that other people could do, but for me was just out of reach. I wasn’t rich enough, I didn’t have the time off, I wasn’t a good enough rider, it was too dangerousthere were a million reasons I told myself I couldn’t do it. A million reasons I was going to deny myself this overwhelming feeling of happiness and accomplishment.

It wasn’t easy. There were tons of things I could have done better, or that I had to learn along the way. But how else could I have learned them if I hadn’t gone out and tried? It was liberating to know that when push came to shove, I could adapt, and I could figure it out. The only thing that was stopping me was, well, me.

I’ve accomplished many things in my life, but I don’t know if anything will ever quite compare to the happiness I felt at that moment, splashing in the Atlantic Ocean still half dressed in base layers and body armor, just laughing at the sky.

For a matter of fact, I loved it so much, years later, I still haven’t successfully settled down. I’ve since met my life partner who now travels with me, I’ve traded stability for odd jobs, book writing, and freelancing, and I’ve seen everything from Alaska to Panama with more still on the horizon.

And I am so, so happy.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

Henry Ford

CARDIO VS. WEIGHTS

By Amanda Thompson “if I only have time for one activity Is it better to do cardio or weight training to lose body fat?” People have

asked me this question more times than I can count, women especially. They want the quickest fix and the most time efficient; I don’t blame them since our lives can get so hectic at times that we don’t always have time to do both. When it comes to losing weight people assume that running on a treadmill like a hamster in a ball for hours on end will help them lose body fat that they want. While we will lose some, that is just the smaller picture. Don’t get me wrong, there are many benefits for doing cardiovascular activity and I will discuss that later, but for now we will look at why weight training is better for losing body fat in the long run. In order to change your body composition along with losing body fat you need to incorporate weight training as priority.

Most people get so caught up on the number on the scale. They think that the best way to keep the number going down is by doing cardio as their only form of exercise, but what they don’t realize is that when doing only cardio, as the scale goes down, they are probably not just losing body fat but are also losing lean muscle mass. When we look at the big picture, the more muscle mass you have the lower body fat you will have and a faster metabolism at rest. And girls, don’t think that you will get all big and bulking by lifting weights, we don’t have enough testosterone to get big and bulky.

Weight training won’t make you big and bulky, too much cake will.

First - After the age of 25 our resting metabolism(RMR) will decrease by 2-4percent each decade which calculated to around 5lbs of muscle mass lost per decade. By incorporating weight training into your workout, you will help preserve muscle mass as we age and help preserve and speed up your RMR. Second - The more muscle mass you have, the more carbs that you digest will be stored in the muscle as stored fuel(glycogen) rather than distributed throughout the body as triglyceride adipose fat or affect blood sugar negatively.

Third - Another reason to weight train rather than cardio is your body composition will change, you may not lose pounds on the scale but you will be losing body fat and gaining muscle, this will keep your metabolism revved up. Like I said

before, the more muscle mass you have the higher you RMR is. With cardio, you may burn more calories in a shorter amount of time but weight training will keep your metabolism revved throughout the day, because you need more energy to move and contract those muscles.

Cardio does have many benefits. It’s good for cardiovascular health, increases blood flow, helps improve lung capacity, it also helps reduce your risk of heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and even diabetes. That being said, totally cutting out cardio is not a good thing. We need both to have a well-rounded workout routine.

As you can see, weight training needs to be performed to help maintain and build lean muscle mass while cardio needs to be done to help with cardiovascular health and overall body health. But at the end of the day, if you only have time for one or the other, your best bang for your buck would be to weight train to help build lean muscle mass.

No matter which way you go, find something you can enjoy and stay consistent with. And remember that by working out you prepare yourself for a more active enjoyable life!