FINALLY

YEAH!!! I'm super pumped, we finally decided on a location for our business. It's a 1200 square foot space on the first level of an office building. There are two smaller rooms and one bigger room AND it fits our budget. I can't wait to actually sign the lease! (we can't technically sign the lease until we graduate.) My business partner are and I want to specialize in woman's health and pediatrics so it was important to have a similar business in the same building and THERE IS! If anyone has ever heard of Momtalk.com it's a forum women can go to to exchange ideas etc about raising children.

Also, the website is looking fantastic. It's still pretty basic but if you want to get an idea of what it's going to look like, got to http://accelandbewell.health.officelive.com. (remeber it's still basic.)

Anyways, my internship is ... eh, still ... blah! But, I'm getting a ton of activity taking X-rays and working with some pregnant women. Since it's a male run clinic, they all kind of freak-out when a pregnant woman walks through the door and they throw them at me because that's what I'm interested in. Typical. But since the rest of the internship kind of sucks, that's definitely a huge plus! It makes my day whenever I get to work with pregnant women.

Our business plan is also still coming along. It's a hard process. Thank goodness I only have to do this ONCE and when it's done, it's done.

Well, that's all for now. I've been so busy that I only have time to sneak in 3 workouts a week so my weight has kind of stayed steady. I still plan on losing about 10-15 more pounds but I think with everything that's going on, it might have to wait until I graduate. But, continuing to work out definitely helps me coup with all these other stresses I have.

Have a good week and remember ...
Accel and Be Well
Mama Beal

Accel and Be Well

It's been a while, I know, I know ... (sorry).

So, considering my last blog entry, it's obvious I've been sucked dry of my time, energy and yes, I was suckered into buying one of those pyramid scheme detoxes my Doc was selling. I can now say I am an "Associate" in the Isagenics Pyramid Scheme but I did NOT pay the $200 they were going to charge for this detox, I only spent $50. (Which is still a lot but anywho ... stickin' it to the man ... maybe.)

I attempted to do the detox on Saturday (key word "attempted") and UNsuccessfully finished it on ... Saturday (no, not one week later, I stopped the same day I started.) So, lesson learned and the moral of the story is, do not join pyramid scheme. Live and Learn!

Like I said in my past blog, this new internship is more about sticking up for myself and growing emotionally and mentally more than learning the trade. And this Detox thing has completely made me grow emotionally/mentally.

It was a reminder about why I want to be a health care provider.
I want to be a health care provider to HELP people. I want help people to strive to Accel in their Health as well as their every day lives.

It was a reminder as to how I do NOT want to run my practice.
I do NOT want to get into Chiropractic to make money. Of course all careers should have the benefit of making money but I believe that if you love what you do, truely believe in it and do your best, the money will just come. You shouldn't have to "work" for the money, it will come to you if you are doing right by what you believe.

It was a reminder as to what I believe in.
I truely believe every person needs chiropractic and can benefit from chiropractic. If I didn't truely believe this, I honestly wouldn't be able to promote it. I believe in HONESTY and CHIROPRACTIC.

Through all of this, I feel like I am perservering through the tests I've been put up to during this internship. But, through it all, our business plan is coming together and we are narrowing down our location of our future business. We are even finishing our website and have come up with our practice name "Accel and Be Well Chiropractic." Once the website is complete I will post a link.

Accel and Be Well
~Mama Beal

Morals/Values/Money/BAD BUSINESS!

As you can maybe tell, recently I haven't really been myself. Infact, I've been MIA in the blogging world as well as facebook etc. I have SERIOUSLY been way more stressed out recently than I have in a long time. It's a different type of stress too, nothing like the pressures of studying for board exams or completing assignments. The stress I'vce been feeling recently has been stress involving my morals and values. Let me explain ...

My new internship is a completely different environment than I've ever been in. The last two places I've been were environments that really promoted health and the doctors really seemed genuine about how they treated their patients. This new internship is not that way. The doctor is known as a "personal injury" doctor, (aka ambulence chaser), he makes a LOT of money and when a person walks in his door, he sees them as walking dollar signs instead of people. He basically does everything he can to make-a-buck. So, not only does he see the patient's as walking dollar signs but he also sees the interns as HUGE money makers. He's always wanting us to work late, work over lunch, promote his practice on the weekends by doing spinal screenings and bring in new patients for him all at the high cost of FREE. Now, I have an excuse because I have a family at home that requires my attention but he still ropes me into the long hours and free promotions for his clinic and while I appreciate the oportunity I get to learn something new, a few days ago, he was asking me to go against my morals for his own benefit.

The Doctor had us stay over our lunch hour to listen to another doctor promote a detox that she uses for her patients. The detox was sounding pretty good and I was really interested in it so I was hoping it would be something I'd want to do until I heard it was $200. At that point, I decided it wasn't for me and that I wasn't going to do it. But, the catch was that the doctor really wanted to make some money off of the interns so he brought me into his office (one-on-one) to talk about the detox. When I told him that I wouldnt be able to pay for it, he told me that he would make it work out that the other interns working with me would essentially pay my portion and my detox would be free of charge to me and that this choice would be "just between the two of us." "WARNING WARNING" (INSERT BIG FLASHING RED LIGHTS HERE). He then proceeded to tell me how much more beneficial I was to him than the other two interns and that he chose me specially because he thought I would be more of a success then them. (WHAT THE HECK!!! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? He was forcing me to decide if my values/morals and friendships with these other interns were worth $200 all so he could make a few bucks off of them.)

I had to think quickly on my feet and I told him how unfair I thought it was and that if I was going to get a deal that the other interns should get one as well. After I left his office, I quickly gathered the other interns and told them what had happened because I wanted them to be prepared for him to talk with them. He's a master manipulator and a VERY good business man. I knew, going into this practice that it would challenge me being put in a different environment but I never thought my morals or values would be challenged. I know I did the right thing but I also have to work with this kniving jerk for the next two months. Well, I guess I am learning from the best but what I learn from this experience will not be how I apply it in real life.

Trying to stay strong
~Mama Beal

PS, so to say the least, I've been really stressed out and having a hard time fitting in all of my work outs. I've been consistantly doing 3 times a week at least but, they're REALLY hard to find a time to fit them in. Sorry I've been MIA recently.

WAY TOO LONG!!!

Oh my GOSH!!! I can't even begin to tell you how busy I've been recently. Christmas has come and gone as well as the beginning of the new year. I haven't purposefully been neglecting to blog, the time has just gotten away from me. Let me begin ...

Christmas was a whirlwind of presents and family. When you have kids, the holidays seem to go by so much faster. Not to mention, we had 3 christmas' to go to this year. PLUS, we couldn't go to church because, where do you find a babysitter on Christmas Eve?

I passed my part 4 boards exams WOOHOO!!! I'm super pumped. I found out the results the DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS! Wow,were the heck was the national board examiners thinking? At least I passed.

We tried our hardest to get to a New Years Eve party this year but we couldn't find anything to do that we wouldn't fall asleep at so we were, unfortunately in bed by 10:30 that night. An elderly lady at my internship told me I looked tired a day or so later, implying that I'd been out partying, and when I told her that I fell asleep before the ball dropped, she looked at me like I was crazy.

I started a new internship after the new year which had me working myself to the bone for the first week so that I got accustomed to the new procedures etc. This last week has been much easier and I've settled in well but going through these big changes in our routine throws off the whole family. Abby's daycare schedule changes which not only puts stress on Abby and me but it also indirectly affects Jason's schedule as well.

I tried my hardest to achieve my goal from the last blog but sadly I failed. Not by much though. I kept up my exercises pretty well through the holidays, I just slipped up once or twice by not going because of all the other activities we had on the table. BUT, on a positive note, I've had to tighten my belt 1 hole even though the scale hasn't changed PLUS, one of my friends joined the work out facility that Jason and I go to so I have a new work out buddy which is a huge motivator.

Well that's it for now, I know it's a lot to read but try living it. Oye.

Toodles~
Mama Beal

GOALS: revisited

Today my business partner and I had a meeting with a banker, accountant and real estate agent to help us step in the right direction for developing a business plan. The meeting was a success and we came away with tons of ideas and thoughts buzzing through our heads. After we were done with the meeting, we organized our thoughts and re-established our goals and came up with smaller, stepping-stone type goals to help us achieve the OVERALL goal of owning a business. It's a messy process so staying organized is key.

After all this, I hit the gym and continued to mull over my thoughts and I came up with the idea that accomplishing my goal to get healthy is like going through the process of setting up a business. Instead of a Chiropractic office, my HEALTH is the business. I set long term goals to achieve, such as my long term goal of losing 20 pounds. Then, in order to achieve the big goals, I set smaller goals to help me achieve the bigger goals. So, since this blog is all about holding myself accountable, I've decided to share with you one of my smaller goals for this month.

ACCOUNTABILITY CHECK!!!
This month, my goal is to get to the gym 4 times per week until Christmas. On December 23-24, I'll let you know if I achieve this goal.

Do you have any short term goals you'd like to be held accountable for before Christmas?

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SONG OF THE RUN: "Womanizer" by Brittany Spears (gotta give the girl props, it's got a good beat to run to.)

New Motivation

My clinic hours are Mondays and Fridays all day and this last Monday, I was doing what I do best ... treating patients. Like any other job, it can sometimes be monotonous; the typical headache patient, the weekend warrior with low back problems, but on Monday I had a patient that made an impression on me.

My doc warned me before she came in that she was going to be in a wheel chair so we'd need to use a different room than we normally use. (This isn't anything new, we usually see at least 1 patient who is in a wheel chair per week.) Then she told me that this patient had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

When she told me this, I suddenly became very nervous to be treating her because ALS is a disease in which there is no cure. People with ALS are young (40's), their minds stay intact but as the disease progresses, their nerves that supply the body information in order to function, die. They are essentially prisoners in their own body until their heart and lungs stop functioning. Typically, all of the people who come to see us, have an ideal in mind that we are going to help them get better. Usually when I leave the room I say, "well, I hope you feel better soon!" Not in this case.

A year ago, this particular patient was diagnosed with ALS and today (Monday) she could barely talk. You could see in her eyes how sad, frustrated, depressed and terrified she was. All I could think about was how we sometimes take life for granted. She would do ANYTHING to rid herself of her ALS ... but she can't. She rely's on someone else to do EVERYTHING for her even though, she mentally knows she was once able to do it all by herself less than a year ago.

And here I am ... taking for granted the oportunity to be a health person, skipping a work out here or there, complaining about how hard it is to get up and GO. If she could have the oportunity to work out again or get up and GO again, she would do it in a heart beat. What seems like MINOR and combersom details to me, she would jump at the chance to do just once more.

So ... it's been on my mind and I've been trying to do better about taking for granted my ability to work out. I forget sometimes that I'm lucky to be capable of what I can do because others aren't quite so blessed.

~Mama Beal

Pants

Continueing with the subject of body image, I would like to talk about a pair of pants I bought about 3 months ago.

I purchased a pair of tight fitting running pants about 3 months ago and have YET to wear them out of the house. (Don't worry Jason, they were only a few bucks so it wasn't a huge waste of money.) I see people at the gym wearing the EXACT same pants but for some reason, I can't bring myself to wear them. I'm slowly gaining the confidence to wear them but, not yet. They'll have to sit in my drawer for a few more weeks. I'll let everyone know when I wear them for the first time.

Anyone else out there ever had clothing they've purchased and never worn? I'm sure I'm not the only one.

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SONG OF THE RUN: (I didn't have a favorite song of the run, I think I need to reload my Ipod.)