Professional Dreams

My fast approaching graduation has caused me to reflect on my professional dreams. My bachelor’s degree will be in Business Management with an emphasis in Human Resources. I love people and I love to help people realize their potential and plan for their futures so I think Human Resources is a great choice for me. I hope to get into a medical or hospitality setting because they are both of interest to me. So I am looking forward to the next phase in my professional career and hope that when the time comes, I am able to find the kind of job I am looking for.

So even though I am passionate about Human Resources and looking forward to a career in the field, is it my dream job? I can definitely say no to that. Until a few years ago my career dreams were still in the medical field. I had always thought I would be a doctor. My two top choices would have been Pediatric Oncology or Veterinary Medicine. Now these two are very different from each other but both reflect passions in my life; helping children and pets. As I grow older, I have let go of those dreams and accepted the fact that those careers were not in the blueprints of my life.

In the past few years my professional dreams have changed and I have new aspirations. I am very interested in owning my own bakery. Now this dream seems a little out of line with my current journey but I have a twist that makes it not only innovative but also desirable in today’s world. I would like to own a traditional bakery that also offers healthy options. I would provide nutritional information and even Weight Watcher points for each item. I would make traditional bakery goods but also have the healthy options for people to chose from. In addition, I would have a second bakery case, a little lower to the ground in it's own part of the bakery that would be filled with homemade, healthy dog treats! It is a way for me to combine my baking passion with my healthy lifestyle and incorporate my intense love of dogs!

My final paper in my Business class is to be a strategy paper for a company of my choosing. I emailed the instructor and told him of my “pipe dream” and asked if the paper could be about that. He encouraged me to do this and said that he too wrote a paper similar to this about one of his dreams a few years back and he is now only months away from making it a reality. It gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe someday I will see my vision turn into a reality. Not unlike the visions I have of a healthier me in the very near future!

The weekend has been good! I ate a little more than I planned at the restaurant yesterday but I was pleased with my choices and stayed within my plan. I ordered a bowl of steamed broccoli as an appetizer. It was a great way to fill up before my meal and eat less of the main meal. I ordered a grilled chicken wrap that was fairly low in points and I allowed myself to eat some of the waffle fries that came with it. I ate only half and was proud of that! Oh yeah and I had a piece of the bread that is served at the table. But I only had one piece!! I used to eat the entire basket by myself because I am a bread lover!

Today I had a bigger breakfast and it was good! I had two pancakes. One pancake I had with light syrup and fresh strawberries. The other with a smear of Nutella and banana slices. I also had four sausage links and a glass of light orange juice (Trop50 which is pretty good). The whole meal was a little high in points but I just had a much smaller lunch and still had enough points left for a great dinner. Dinner was a slice of ham, stuffed baked potato and baked asparagus! It was very delicious and I still have 4 points left for an evening snack.

Mom and I went to the fitness center today. I walked for a half hour at a 3.0 but turned up the intensity during commercials breaks. I would walk at a 3.3 during commercials while watching the end of the movie Enchanted. I felt like I worked harder today and it felt great. I was working up a good sweat and challenging myself to go longer and harder than I thought I could at the higher speeds.

All in all, I feel it was a great weekend. I am looking forward to the week ahead because every week I get through is another closer to vacation! It seems to be going so slow and I am getting so excited. I will be taking my computer with so that I can keep up with my school work while I am gone (and my blog too). It’s only a week but I need to make sure my work gets done and turned in by the due dates. I am going to do as much ahead of time that I can but will need to do a little bit of it during the week.

Well, it’s Sunday night and I have a line up of cooking shows to watch so I’ll say good night for now.

Have a Healthy Day!

~Heidi

PS – Thank you so much for the nice comments and encouragement! It really is the glue that is holding this journey together. I could not do this alone and it means the world to me to have support from so many people. Feel free to share this blog with any and everyone you think might enjoy it. I am at peace with where I am at in life and excited about my future. I will share my thoughts, successes and even failures with anyone that wants to listen!