Making a Change, with God's strength

I decided to make a change...again.  Thank goodness for His new mercies every morning!

As I sat reading over our new bible study and preparing to facilitate this coming Tuesday, I realized several things. 
First of all, I am NOT a teacher.  I don't like to teach, I don't want to teach.  I already knew this, but was just reminded again.  I will bake you cookies any day of the week, but I will not teach.  Unless, of course, I'm asked.  Which I was.  So, here I am, preparing to "teach" our new bible study.  Teach really isn't the right word though.  I like to think of it as facilitating.  Merriam-Webster defines it as:  to make easier.  to help bring about.  I define it as:  reading the questions and letting others answer.  :)  I can read.  I can do this...with God's strength!  Moses is my best friend through this.  I keep remembering his words in Exodus 4:10-12
But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
THAT, my friends, is comforting to me!

I have also started a new weight loss program to hopefully get me off this ginormous plateau I've been walking on for the past two years.  I have taken my doctor's suggestion and finally bit the bullet and paid lots of money for someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong.  Not really what I wanted to do, but I wanted answers, so here I am.

I sat praying this morning, and one of my favorite verses kept creeping into my mind.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.  Phil 4:13 

It got me thinking about God's strength.  When I think of strength, I think of someone flexing their arm muscles, because this is what I was taught in Sunday school, and I've watched it being taught in vacation bible school and Sunday school since.  But there is so much more we can take from this one verse and God's strength. 

For me, I am praying for both His physical strength and His spiritual strength.
I need His physical strength to help keep me on my weight loss journey and to guide me when I want to stray.  To give me the energy I need to be physically active.  To give me the strength I need when I want to give up. 
I need His spiritual strength to help me grow closer to Him.  To search for Him in all I do.  To learn the things He wants me to learn and to open my eyes so that I will see all these things.  He is working in our lives every day, every hour, every minute, but do we stop and realize that this is all from Him?  I know I don't. 

So, today my prayer is for strength that only comes from Him.  To do the things He wants me to do.  To learn the things He wants me to learn.  To slow down and really listen to what He wants for me. To become more like Him. 

As I was thinking of God's strength, I did a search on it in the bible and came across more of these wonderful verses about his strength:

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  1 Peter 5:10


  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  2 Corinthians 12:10


...but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40:31

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  Psalm 73:26

May you find a "word" or an attribute of God's that gives you comfort this week also!

A new beginning...again!

I feel like I just keep repeating the cycle. 
Fall. 
A new beginning. 
     The kids start back to school.  The leaves begin to turn to beautiful colors, new bible studies begin, the evenings begin getting cooler and cooler as the days go buy.  The thought of holidays fill my mind.  But the biggest change that seems to be repeating each fall, is the fact that I really need to focus on my health.  Eating healthy.  Getting my fitness minutes in.  And, if I'm lucky, losing weight.  Luckily, over the summer I did not gain any weight, but I didn't really lose any either.  (I really don't consider 2 pounds losing weight). 
     Now that the kids have been in school for several weeks and I've gotten into a semi-routine, it's time for me to be dedicated to getting my workouts in.  Not that I haven't exercised this summer.  It's just been in different forms.  Hiking, walking outside, running errands all day with kids, swimming, etc.  So now to decide if I want to do one of my MANY workout dvds, one of my workouts on our Xbox Kinect, or have a visit with my trusty friend downstairs, Henry (the treadmill).  I guess I will decide in the morning. 
     Still so frustrated at the fact that I have logged 5884 minutes of exercise for the year and my goal was 2700 for the entire year and I haven't been losing any more weight.
     Let the "new beginning" begin.

May = CRAZY MONTH!

OH, so much going on in May it's making my head spin trying to get it all under control.  Softball, baseball, end of school, parties, company coming, meetings, graduation, doctor appointments, commitments at church, yard work, driving kids here and there, snacks for this, snacks for that, vacation planning, etc.  (not to mention our every day daily to dos.....I can feel our budget flying by me...heading for the window) 
Our family calendar looks like an ink pen exploded on it since it's so full of to-dos, appointments, etc.

With all that is going on, I'm still finding time to fit my workouts in.  I am now officially at 3663 fitness minutes for the year.  Have I lost any weight?  NOPE!  Really, really wish I new what was going on.  I've tried so many things to try to break this plateau and it's just not budging.  Really frustrating.  This is how anal I've become about my food intake and exercise:  I had a little heartburn last night so I decided I needed to take a few Tums.  Before I put them in my mouth though....I checked to see how many calories were in them and if I had enough calories left for the day to take them.  Wow!  Stupid, I know.

I guess I better go start checking a few things off of today's to-do list.
mow back yard
make snacks for small group
make sure baseball uniform is clean
clean kitchen
make graduation cards
make an early dinner before the crazy evening starts of picking up kids, taking kids to practice and then small group
fold laundry

Whew, I'm worn out just looking at our calendar and thinking about getting it all done. 

This Week's Happenings in our Happy Abode

What a crazy past two weeks, and I don't think things will slow down until at least after Memorial Weekend. 

Our oldest, Cody, decided to join the Air Force. So last week I took him to downtown Denver to the MEPS office so he could take his ASVAB and do his physical the following day.  He passed both and has been sworn in as an E1 Airman!  So exciting, but yet so sad for his mom.  Not sure I'm ready for my kids to be old enough to leave home.  (I guess I'll need to be when they call him and tell him it's time for him to leave).

 I passed my exercise goal of 2700 minutes and as of today, I have 3154 minutes for the year, and it's only the end of April.  I guess I can't say I'm not trying, even though I'm not losing.

Graduation is less than a month away, along with the end of school for the other two kids.  I have already started preparing for the party, company, etc.  So much to think about and do. 

I've been wanting new counter tops in our kitchen since the day we moved in.  With graduation and a family vacation to Florida within the next few months granite just wasn't in the budget.  I found this product called Giani Granite.  It's a paint for your counter tops.  I did lots of research on this product and didn't find any bad feedback; and so many positive reviews.  So what could I lose?  I went and purchased the product and now I have a whole new kitchen!  It was so easy and quick and what a difference it made to my kitchen.  My daughter even said, "it looks like a fancy kitchen".  YEAH!
Here are the before and afters of my kitchen redo:

Before - The ugly white counter tops

Step 1 - the primer

Half way done. 



All done!  My beautiful new kitchen!

 It's been a little difficult not having the use of my counter tops...and can't use them for 3 days, but it's all worth it. 

Now to go scan some pictures and then get my craft on and make some invitations for the youth high school senior dinner.  Whew!  Gotta love this busy time of year!

What I Learned from David

Our small group is studying King David.  I have, what I believe to be, a learning disability in that I cannot retain the information that I read for more than...oh, a half second.  I get frustrated reading any book, because I lose track of who's who and what happened 20 seconds ago.  This is also true when I read the bible.  I can read a book in the bible and forget what happened or who did what, when.  So in my frustration, I quit.  Well, I've really been trying to learn more about David....and so many other fascinating characters in 1 Samuel. 

A week ago a friend and I had coffee and were discussing King David, our small group, and the Bible.  I told her my frustrations and that I just wasn't getting it.  I went so far as to tell her I just don't get why we need to study the Old Testament at all, it just confuses me and is just a bunch of stories of people who follow God for a while, fall away, follow God, fall away, etc.  Which is true of people then, and people now.  So why study it.  (this is all coming from the fact that I have a hard time with remembering what I read)

So, this morning, determined to dig in so that I might participate (or at least understand a LITTLE of what was being said at small group tonight) I opened up to 1 Samuel 17 and began to read the wonderful "Sunday school story" of David and Goliath.  I took notes....LOTS of notes.  Reread when I didn't comprehend the first time.  Made diagrams.  Looked up some things.  Reread.  Looked back over my notes.  And then something happened.  I was learning so much more about this story!  God, through David, taught me several lessons in all of this that I have missed so many times before by just hearing this "Sunday school" story.  Encouraging lessons!

This past week I've been struggling with why I haven't been losing weight.  Because of this, I've been feeling like I'm not important.  I'm just a stay-at-home mom who is trying to lose weight and nobody even notices how hard I'm trying,  picks up after people, cleans up after people, cooks, washes, vacuums, etc with hardly anyone noticing the things that I'm doing.  (or so it seems)  Isn't that where David was before "the big show"?  He was just a little brother, who tended to get picked on and ignored while his brothers were fighting in battles.  He was just a shephard boy taking care of sheep.  BUT....by being a shephard, he learned to defend his sheep by keeping the lions and bears away.  Little did he know, he was preparing to fight the giant! 

Later on in chapter 18, as David played his harp for Saul, Saul flung a couple of spears at David trying to kill him!  But David dodged the spears twice!  A reminder that bad things can, and do, happen to people who are just trying to do good.  When people are doing good things for God, Satan likes to interfere and tries to ruin it. 

I wonder what "giant" God is preparing for me to battle?  I sure hope I'm ready. 

Let's show Satan who is in charge!  With God on our side, Satan doesn't have a chance!

Looking for answers

And the journey continues.....

I finally went to the doctor today.  I have been working out faithfully (3-5 times a week) for over a year now, eating just the right amount of calories I've been told to eat and I haven't lost a single pound!!!  Yeah, I lose a pound or two here, and then gain a pound or two there...but really I stay within 2 pounds of where I left off after losing my original 50 pounds.  Frustrating?  Very!

I finally decided I needed to find out if there was some medical reason for my VERY LONG plateau.  So the doctor suggested several things for me to try to change things up a little bit, most of which cost way too much money that I don't have.  Some of which include:  Metabolic Research Center, Weight Watchers, and to hire a personal trainer.  Needless to say, those three suggestions got put on the back shelf of my brain to only use when we win the lottery.  (we don't play, so I guess the dust will collect on those suggestions).  Other suggestions were to lift weights, run, and train for a 5K.  Those I can do.  We have a treadmill and a bowflex in our "workout room" in our basement that I can easily utilize.  Another thought the doctor had was that my thyroid is not working correctly.  Both my mom and my grandma have dealt with this so it would not be a surprise if this was a problem I have to deal with as well.  So I got to have my blood drawn and will find out in a few days if that is an issue.  Until then.....Jenni. will. run.

I dusted off poor, poor Henry (my treadmill) whom I hadn't visited since we got the Kinect for our Xbox and also dusted off the Bowflex.  I ran/walked 2 miles and did 20 minutes of strength training.  Will this curve ball in my fitness routine be enough to break my plateau? 

To be continued.....

Goals

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter holiday and celebrated our Risen Savior!  After all, that IS what Easter is all about. 

We had a great church service and then headed to the in-laws where we had a wonderful meal prepared by my mother-in-law.  Then a nice relaxing day spent talking and remembering years past. 

What I have realized in the past week:  that I'm OBSESSED with being healthy and being accountable to myself.  I'm my biggest accountability partner. 

Several days ago I asked Jason if he wanted to do the Biggest Loser workout with me so we were preparing to get started when the phone rang.  He was so excited for the distraction and the excuse to not workout.  I was mad.  He hung up the phone and we began our workout.  He stayed with it for the most part.  Then I asked him if he wanted to do a little Zumba.  He not-so-eagerly agreed.  So we were half way through and the phone rang again.  Again, he was excited for the excuse to walk away.  Well, let's just explain a little why this frustrated me.  We have an XBox Kinect.  We were doing Zumba on our Kinect and any time a player walks away from the screen, it stops the game.  Yep.  Right in the middle of the workout, he walked "off the screen" and that was the end of our Zumba time.  You are allowed to pause the game, but he did not wait for me to do this before walking away.  I was not happy the rest of the night.  OBSESSED.  (or maybe this is just very important to me?)

Although the food was amazing yesterday, I was thinking the entire time about how many calories were on my plate and how long I was going to have to workout to lose those pounds I was about to gain.  OBSESSED!  (or...maybe this is just very important to me?)

The frustrating part:  I have struggled all my life with being the "fat girl".  My husband is fairly skinny and can eat whatever he wants and sits around playing video games or watching TV.  He has no idea how hard I am trying to get healthy and look better.  He just doesn't understand.  He tells me he loves me no matter what.  Which is wonderful, but I want this!  So as I struggle, sweat, and watch everything I put in my mouth, thinking about it constantly, he is oblivious.  I am NOT bashing my husband.  If I were skinny and never had to worry about my weight like him, I'd be oblivious too.  I've tried to explain it, but he just doesn't completely understand.  This is why I was frustrated when he walked away from MY exercise time.


On a brighter note:
I shared a while back about my fitness goals and how I made my goal last year.  Well, to my surprise, I have almost met my goal of this year, AND it's only April!!!  I hadn't really been paying much attention to my goal number, although it's displayed right on the side of my SparkPeople page every day.  I happened to glance at it this morning and was shocked how close I am already!  For the past three months, I have exceeded my monthly fitness goals and have way over 500 minutes/month. 

My yearly goal is 2700 fitness minutes.  At www.sparkpeople.com you can input your weight and how much you want to lose and it designs a program for you with set fitness minutes. (I bumped it up from last year thinking it would be a challenge)  As of today, I am at 2473.  I can't wait to blow right by that 2700!

Note to self:  I'm doing this for me.  Workout on your own.  Worry about doing it for ME!

Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it. – Unknown


Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live. - JimRohn

I would rather say "I did it!" than "I gave up."


KEEP MOVING!