Happy 2019 everyone! I hope that you and your family had a wonderful holiday season. My family enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home with some friends.
I feel that many of our Angel families had a great Christmas as well. Thanks to your generosity we helped 15 families give a merry Christmas to their 30 kids. These children would have had no Christmas at all without you! Could you imagine not being able to give your kids or grand kids a gift for Christmas?
Nah, me either. It would crush me to think I couldn't give my children or now, grand children a gift under the tree because of MY medical condition. Thanks to you and thanks to Arete Chiropractic, who did an Angel Giving Tree in their office, our families celebrated with plenty instead of nothing.
The families without children also had a merry Christmas because of YOU. Some of these families got Market Basket gift cards from an anonymous donor! They were able to buy a feast for their Christmas dinner. Some of these families got an oil or propane delivery to keep them warm, some got their electric bill paid to keep their lights on. An elderly woman from Exeter got a new air of glasses and another got dentures. These two women haven't seen well or eaten a painless meal in many, many months. All this thanks to you!
While Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time for all there was some pain and suffering with nervous moments of anxiety and stress. Some of our families spent the Christmas holiday in the hospital. To them we sent our healing thoughts and prayers. We sent messages of hope via social media. We let them know that they were not alone.
Do you see a common thread here? We have families from all around the area. We have families with many different needs from many different diseases, illnesses or disabilities but the common thread here is YOU. Because you helped Annie's Angels, we are able to continue to help them. YOU are the life blood that keeps Annie's Angels alive. Thank you for your trust and thank you for your continued support.
Speaking of continued support, please scroll down a little and click on the Heavenly Ball flyer. It will take you to our website to purchase your way into the hottest event of the year, the 12th Anniversary Heavenly Ball, Angels Among Us. This event raised $100,000.00 last year and we're working hard to make it another huge success. Please join us! Please get your tickets today. If you're a business owner please consider buying a sponsorship or ad space in our Heavenly Ball program.
If you're a walker or runner or runner/cyclist scroll a little further to the Rye By The Sea 5K Walk/Run & Duathlon flyer. That link will get you all the info you need to walk, run or duathlon your way to helping our families.
On a personal note I want to thank you for nearly twelve years of support, twelve years of helping. I am so blessed to know you all and I truly appreciate you and the support you bring. If I could, I'd mention you all by name. I look forward to happy and healthy new year for us all!
Thanks to YOU we are able to ease some of the stresses that come with a doctors diagnosis. We just
can't do this good work without YOUR support. I ask that you please consider making a tax deductible contribution to
Annie's Angels
or visit the
Our Families
tab on the website and select a particular family to help. Get updates about "your family" on the website or follow them on social media to see how your contributions are working, and thanks again for your continued support.
Sponsor and advertising opportunities are available online!
Ditch the Quick Fix
Cindy May Gibb
New Year New You! UGGGGH If I hear that one more time, I’m going to scream. So, you want to focus on making 2019 YOUR year to get healthy? GREAT!!! I’m all for it. It’s not a new you, the old you is JUST FINE, thank you! Can you improve upon the old you? Sure! And I highly recommend it, for everyone! When we stop improving, we stop growing; and when we stop growing, well….we get bored, right? So absolutely, let’s all focus on bettering ourselves, at the start of the new year, and whenever we are so inspired. Here’s where my **WARNING** comes in……….if you haven’t been already, you are about to be bombarded with tons of quick fix gimmicks when it comes to your fitness, health and well-being and straight up----I implore you, if you do not want to be facing the same challenges you find yourself facing every January when it comes to your health, please do not fall for any of them. I’m keeping it real because quite frankly, isn’t it frustrating to keep taking 2 steps forward, then 3 steps back? Frustrating and discouraging.
News flash: There are no quick fixes. There is no secret formula. There is no short cut.
Why, then, are so many quick fixes dangled in front of us? Because that’s what sells. That’s what we buy. There is so much confusion surrounding the health and wellness industry, we no longer even know what we should be eating, what exercises are best, should we supplement, shouldn’t we supplement, etc…. [Side note about supplementation—is it necessary? Not in my opinion. Is there any benefit to supplementation? Certainly if the supplements have quality ingredients, if you are educated about how they can benefit you, if they save you time and money over the whole food alternative (convenience), if the supplement is able to provide you with what you are lacking from your diet, then YES, by all means supplements can benefit us. If you consume the supplement as just that…a SUPPLEMENT to your whole food, healthy diet, I see great benefit (again, so long the ingredients are of high quality and NOT artificial).]
I digress. Back to all those miracle pills and 7-minute ab exercises that are supposed to get you buff and lean in 2 weeks. Because we all have different genetics, different metabolisms, different stressors, different lifestyles, clearly we all require different approaches to determining what is the best health and wellness path for each of us, agreed? This then lends credence to my point that a quick fix may get us from Point A to Point B quickly, but then what!? We’re screwed. We fall back into old habits and we end up right back where we started….and oftentimes worse off than when we started. Damn!
What’s the solution? EDUCATION. Here’s your first assignment towards a better you: Empower yourself through education about what works best for YOU. What foods, exercises (movements), programs, supplements, etc., work for YOU and are SUSTAINABLE as a LIFESTYLE. Lifestyle, to me, means no deprivation. If you’re barely surviving on kale and carrots, grouchy and unpleasant to be around and basically want to gnaw your own arm off, that is NOT sustainable. I mean, perhaps a bit of focus and a tad of sacrifice (at times) is to be expected as you’re altering old unhealthy habits, but a reasonable amount….otherwise, we set ourselves up to fail. Your second assignment towards a better you: Find a like-minded community of people who share your goals. I mentioned the importance of this in my previous blog. It is scientifically proven that those who surround themselves with others riding the same wavelength achieve greater success in shared endeavors than those who try to go it alone. Humans are not meant to trudge through this life alone! And if you need a tribe of health-minded souls simply trying to make better choices every day, reach out! You can reach me via email at
missionchanginglives@gmail.com
or connect with me on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/cindymay38
Thank you for taking time to read, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
In Health,
Cindy May Gibb
