In 2006, my life changed. I lay in a hospital bed wondering if I fulfilled all of my goals and dreams. If that was it, was I satisfied? I was twenty-one years old and finished becoming an adult so quickly in those moments.
My life would never be the same. Yet, I consider myself to be so lucky. I was diagnosed with a rare heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome which is heavily responsible for a large majority of sudden cardiac death cases in young people. Somehow I was spared from that fate. I get to lead an amazing life. While I have not let that one traumatic event in my life define me, I have allowed it to inspire me to help others and to go after all of the things that I want in my life. It is better to try and fail than to never try at all. In that regard, do you ever really fail when you put your best effort into something? I don’t believe so.
This website is a collection of things that I want to share with you like blog posts about stuff that I am passionate about, things that I find interesting or just life in general. Everything based on my website is of my own personal opinion.
Heart 2 Heart: Two-Part Series on Heart Health
Learning isn’t always fun, especially when someone keeps throwing statistics and figures at you. I get it, it can be confusing. Infographics aren’t for everyone. What I decided to do was create a realistic atmosphere where people can learn about the affects heart health can have on the body and mind. I’d like to introduce you to a two-part series that I am calling Heart 2 Heart where I will be introducing you to experts in the mental health and fitness fields. It’s free to tune in and you can totally participate. This series will be done through Facebook Live at the Ms. Florida United States Facebook page. Schedule: Friday, July 19th at 6:15pm EST: Licensed Mental Health Counselor Natalie Rosado will be discussing mental health’s impact on the heart. Wednesday, July 24th at 9:00pm EST: Coach Taz of Taz Fitness will be talking about the role of fitness in heart health. I will post the links to the sessions in this post after they have been completed. I hope to see you... read more
Overcoming Your Fear to Workout
When I was twenty-one, I was diagnosed with a rare heart condition. The doctors in the Emergency Room told me if I walked up a set of stairs I could die. A month later I had the surgery to correct my problem. It may have physically corrected the problem but mentally I was still in shambles. I was experiencing PTSD every time I had to walk up the stairs to my then second floor apartment, and crumbling from anxiety anytime I needed to leave my safe space. Over the years I have connected with other WPW patients over social media and we’ve talked about what we went through. I have still never met someone that had surgery prior to when I did, so I’ve never had anyone to measure my experiences with in that regard. However, the people who I connected with that had their surgeries after me, I could tell exactly where they were at in their recovery. It felt good not to be alone. I participate in a group on Facebook called #GoRedGetFit and I asked the ladies if they had fears when they started working out again and what it was that they began doing. For me, after about 7 years of living in fear, I jumped on a treadmill when nobody was around and ran until I couldn’t run anymore (which was 3/4 of a mile!). Our bodies are such amazing things. My desire to workout and get back to something I enjoyed finally trumped my fear of, “What if something bad happens?” My new mentality became, “What if something good happens?” The women in... read more
Review: Jeni’s Ice Cream, Wrigleyville
I feel like the best parts of a vacation are sometimes the ones that you don’t plan and happen to stumble across on accident. Being a big baseball fan, it was so exciting for me to catch a game at historic Wrigley Field. I’m still kind of in that “pinch me” stage and it’s been a few weeks. Following the game, my friends and I were hungry and I am a big dessert fan (if you couldn’t already tell), so we walked into Jeni’s. Oh, the flavors. You can’t walk into Jen’s expecting that you’re going to get a normal flavor. I settled on the Gooey Butter Cake in a cup. My friends haggled me because one of the cool things about Jeni’s is that they are making the cones fresh right in front of you. I needed portion control. However, I would have considered a round two for sure because the ice cream was outstanding. It was just the perfect flavoring of sweet and savory and melted in your mouth. There were many additional flavor combinations such as Lemon & Blueberries and Pistachio & Honey. The Wrigleyville location was super cute and trendy. It was a pretty small space but tons of people were able to pack in there because of the way that the seating was set up. While the line was long when we arrived, the staff was patient and kind to all of the customers. I’d totally go back a bazillion more times if I lived in the area. I’m hoping maybe they bring one a little further south for us Floridians. Turns out they... read more
A Heart Diagnosis and Mental Health
May is Mental Health Awareness month so I wanted to take a moment and dive deeper into what I went through, mentally, with my heart diagnosis. I know talking about mental health is still kind of taboo, but let me tell you something, there is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to panic. It’s okay to feel depressed. These are real emotions. We go through hard times and feel real emotions. We are not robots. I didn’t know that after I received my diagnosis of WPW that I was going to almost have a mental breakdown over it. I literally didn’t understand what was going on with my body. I couldn’t breathe. I was gasping for air. I couldn’t sleep. When I did start to fall asleep, I would have recurring dreams of what I was going through that would wake me up. I starting becoming reclusive. It was better to stay in my apartment in case I had an episode of whatever it was going on with me. When I would go out I had a routine of things I would bring with me. When I would arrive back to my apartment, I would stand at the bottom of stairs staring up at my second floor door. All I could hear in the back of my mind was the doctor telling me if I walked up a flight of stairs I could die. My heart was unpredictable. I became a shell of the Megan that I had been. I started wearing all black. I felt very alone and like nobody understood me... read more
DIY Easter Bunny Wreath
I had gone for tea with a friend one day and noticed that there was a super cute Easter Bunny wreath on the shop’s front door. I took a picture and sent it to my friend Riley who immediately jumped on the idea to create our own. Riley loves crafting just as much as I do and has some amazing ideas so we put our heads together and came up with a plan. We went to our local craft store to pick up some supplies. You’ll Need: • Hot Glue Gun • Grapevine Wreaths in 2 sizes (head & body) • Grapevine to make bunny ears • Ribbon to create your bow, or buy a pre-made bow • Decorative eggs • Your choice of floral pieces • Crafting Wire • Scissors The Eggs I used about 5 bags for the smaller bunny that I made and about 7 bags for the bunny with the bigger belly. Yes, I made two wreaths–one for myself and one for my nephew. With the wreath for my nephew, I wanted to incorporate some blue so I hand painted the eggs to the specific color that I wanted. I would note to pay attention to the finish on the eggs that you are using if you wish to paint them to meet your needs. I used a matte paint but you may want to use a satin or gloss. There are several different egg packages to pick between at Michael’s craft store but for the one bunny I chose the speckled look and for the other I chose the light solid color look. The... read more
