2015

Ok so first things first... its a new year yay! Its now officially 2015 and well, this ecard had me dying today at work so I had to start my blog off with it. Does anyone remember watching the Maury show specifically the episodes where you found out who and who wasn't the father? Let me just say, I used to spend too much time watching those episodes. Its not like I was waiting around for the Muary show everyday but I definitely did see my fair share of episodes with the famous line, "You are not the father!" Anyways, I got a good laugh so I figured I needed to share. Back to business though... lets take a minute to talk about the new year. The New Year is a time for people to sit and reflect on everything that's happened over the last 12 months of their existence and to really contemplate on what they're doing with their lives. My New Years eve consisted of Cafe Rio, Game of Thrones, and falling asleep by 9:30. With that being said its not like I was up all night contemplating the previous year or dancing my heart out like I have in years past. This year was different. I went to bed early, woke up early, hit the gym, and continued about my routine as if it was just another regular day in the life of Alexis Kaufusi. I didn't really take a moment to stop and think about 2014 as a whole until a three or four days into 2015 when I was going through some pictures from the last year. 2014 was a good year to me. I changed a lot without even really meaning to. I would definitely say besides 2011 (cancer year), that 2014 has been one of the most significant years of my life and let me tell you why.

2014 was the year I took accountability for myself. I came to grips with the good and the bad of my soul as well making life changes that I will forever be grateful for. I made decisions that would change the course of my life, and I learned lessons the hard way (as usual) which in reality helped me grow even more. 2014 is the year I grew up. I went from the young adult living to eat, drink, and be merry to the young adult who wanted to plan for the future and make a life for herself. For a lot of my friends and family they noticed a lot of the changes in me physically. The losing 35+ lbs or the nights spent staying in watching Food Network as opposed to going out. They noticed a change in how I looked and acted. But the biggest change was the change that, really only I noticed. False. My cousin Hillary noticed. But between her and I the change I'm talking about is the change that took place inside my little head and heart. My thoughts, my opinions,  my views, my beliefs, my attitude, everything that makes me me was solidified. There was no more confusion or wavering. There was no more living in denial of who I was anymore and the mistakes I made. I had changed and finally grown into my own skin. So how does one do such a drastic change in just 12 months? It all started with one simple change and from there the rest came easy. 

Left: December 2013 Right: December 2014

Change 1: So last January my father was so kind as to point out that I had gained some weight. I just kind of shrugged him off and continued on with my life because I didn't agree and most of all I didn't want to admit I had let myself go. At the time I was still adjusting to a new job that was stressful, it was the middle of basketball season, and trying to adjust to the new up at 7:00am was hard. At Vivint I didn't work until 10:00 or 11:00. Yes I know I had a million excuses for everything like I usually do. So beginning of February Steve brought it up again and I ignored him again. It didn't hit me until I went to put on my FAVORITE pair of True Religion jeans. These are my good luck jeans something good always happens when I wear them so I save them for special days. I went to put them on and they didn't fit, like at all. These are a pair of jeans that had always been a little big  on me and now I couldn't even get them on. I panicked. Complete disappointment and frustration instantly set in. For the majority of my life I had always had basketball to keep me in shape so I never really thought about what I ate or how much I worked out because I knew I would go to weights and basketball practice and be fine. But I wasn't working out anymore and the bad eating habits started to take its toll on me. So I started working out. I ordered P90X3 and Tony Horton became my best friend. I religiously would do my 30 minute workouts daily and soon noticed a change. Af

ter a while though I kind of got bored so I ordered T25 and after 5-6 months of T25 and P90X3 I had lost 25 lbs and I couldn't have been happier. After that I started lifting and playing basketball everyday and lost another 10 lbs. At this point I was so proud of myself but I wasn't satisfied. I really wanted to get down to my playing weight which meant I needed to lose 10 more pounds but I kind of plateaued off at this point. For all those months I had been consistently losing weight and then all the sudden I stopped. I realized something else needed to change and so change 2 came into play.

Change 2:  So this change came as a result of change 1. I hit a plateau in my working out and I couldn't figure out why. At the time I was having some major stomach issues. Everything I was eating I was throwing up. So I went to the doctor, turns out I had acquired celiac post cancer which is a common side effect of chemotherapy. So basically what that means is I couldn't eat gluten and I had to do the paleo diet for the rest of my life, aka lots of fruits, vegetables, and meat. I didn't realize until this moment how bad my eating habits were. Due to my work and coaching schedule I would eat out a lot but I would eat Taco Bell, Wendy's, In N Out, etc. Places that were open late and had drive-thrus because I was always on the go driving from work to practice to a rec game to home. I immediately cut out all fast food and gluten (mostly). I started doing meal preps, packing snacks for the day, and drinking a lot more water. I soon felt better. I wasn't throwing up all the time and I just felt different but in the best way possible. Before I knew it I had lost another 10 lbs and had reached my goal of getting down to my playing weight. The best part is that the eating habits I created over the last few months have stuck with me. I've had learn new ways to cook chicken to keep things interesting, and I've learned so many new recipes and foods that I can substitute that still taste amazing and that don't have gluten. First off, Waffle Love has gluten free waffles. Second, spaghetti squash instead of pasta has become one of my favorites and tastes better than normal noodles. So change 2 came as a result of change 1 just like change 3. 

Change 3: As I said change 3 was a result of change 1 as well. I was working out roughly 2 hours a day, not as much as I did when I was playing in college obviously, but it was still a lot. I was really pushing my body and sleep became more of a necessity in my life. During the week I would stay up late doing whatever my little heart desired getting 4-6 hours of sleep. Friday nights I normally spent being out all night with friends though suddenly turned into nights staying in because spinning class was the next morning at 8:00. Saturday nights soon turned into movie nights because I was so tired from a 3 hour gym day. And Sunday became a day of rest like it should be catching up on all the sleep I missed throughout the week from late games or late night gym sessions. All the sudden my weekends went from no sleep and going from one party or gathering to next and transformed into these relaxing chill weekends. I had finally learned discipline. After the cancer thing I had the whole, "I'm going to do what I want and live every day like its my last because I have cancer and am going to die young" attitude. This made for lots of fun stories, sleepless weekends, and great memories. But with the recent changes it wasn't working for me anymore. I now have the attitude, "If I exercise regularly and eat right I won't have to worry about dying from cancer because I'll be living a clean healthy life." 

Change 4: The last major change of 2014 I made is probably the most significant. In 2014 I finally found myself. I realized who I am and where I stand and what I believe. I accepted my flaws and stopped denying them for the first time. Ever. I accepted the things that make me different and rather than hating them learned to love them. I learned that just because someone isn't on the path you want them to be on or is on a different path than you doesn't mean its the wrong path. Everyone is different with different opinions and views and beliefs and that regardless of where you stand you need to be respectful. I learned to accept change. I'm one of the most stubborn people in the world and hate hated change. But change is happening everyday and you can either fight against change, a battle you're going to lose, or learn to roll with the punches and make the everyday changes a new and exciting addition to your path of life whatever it may be. I learned to care less about what I couldn't control and not lose sleep over the opinions and thoughts of others. I learned I was more like my mother than I would have liked to admit, but I couldn't pick a better person to be like. I learned its okay to be a strong independent woman in a world and society where that generally isn't the role of women. I learned its okay to be 25, not married, not wanting to be married, or wanting the typical lifestyle for a girl from Provo Utah. Like I said, everyone's different and should be accepted and respected for their differences, not looked down upon for being themselves. Everyone no matter their differences deserves respect and shouldn't be judged for those differences. In 2014 I grew up and realized who I really am and learned to love myself for me. You can't expect those around you to love you if you can't even love yourself.

In 2011 I was blessed to have been able to fight a victorious battle against the dreaded Cancer. After that year I was absolutely positive that would be the most significant year in my life. During that year some big things happened right? I beat a lot of odds and was so sure that from that moment on I was invincible. I mean, good Lord I just beat cancer isn't that basically an automatic go pass Go and collect $200 and live happily ever after? No. I learned that as time went on that who I am wasn't defined by my disease or my ability to live through it or a free pass from life. That was just a stepping stone that helped mold me into who I would later become and 2014 was the year I realized who I had become. I was finally done molding myself into an adult with opinions and views and thoughts. I was done being confused. Even though it took majority of 2014, some ups and downs, some long nights of driving listening to Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, and some long hours at the gym shooting a million free throws to settle my thoughts I finally figured it out. I finally was done wandering on and off my path and found my way. Besides losing weight and finding myself a lot happened in 2014 for not just myself but my family and those around me.

• I got see Lorde live in Seattle
• I had 3 molars pulled the same day Daryl got her wisdom teeth out
• I rediscovered my passion for basketball 
• I got a new coaching job at a new school 
• My childhood best friend Diane had a baby as well as my dear friend Kim
• Corbin came home from his 2 year LDS mission to Seoul Korea
• Michelle broke her foot, Daryl blew her knee out (again), I had bleeding Ulcers, Hilary broke her leg, and Corbin got Type A influenza
• Bronson and Hil celebrated their 1 year anniversary 
• Michelle did a Christmas card for the first time in like, 8 years!
• We went and saw Cher live while in California
• Devin earned a scholarship to BYU to play football and won his 3rd consecutive state championhip
• Daryl played all soccer season on a torn ACL, earned a scholarship to BYU-Hawaii to play soccer, won region for soccer (the last time Timpview won region was when I was playing), and got surgery after a tough loss in State semi finals
• Corbin and I were able to go to Australia and New Zealand for the trip of a lifetime 
• Bronson got moved to linebacker and had a injury filled football season! But he still got some sacks!
• I turned 25!
• Corbin decided to play basketball and is doing great
• Steve is still an avid Spurs fan, did I mention the Lakers beat the Spurs?
• Bronson and I still reign as undefeated Family basketball champions #dreamteam

2014 you were awesome... after 25 years and 3 months though I'm excited to start a new section in my book of life, the section where I'm actually grown up and can make intelligent decisions and good choices. To get this point though I made every wrong choice, decision, and took the hard road but I am so thankful for my stupidity because I learned so much from it and it made me tougher. More than ever, and I can't believe I'm actually saying this because I made fun of everyone for tweeting this, I feel like this is a new year new me. Stupid and cliche but its so true! So far 2015 has been full of well, basketball and more basketball! Let be honest though, I couldn't think of a better way to start off a new year. 

New year. New me... Literally

Gag I feel like I cant end like that but oh well.

Thanks for the good times 2014