Way Past Time for an Update!

Whoa...I can't believe it's been so long since I updated the blog!  Not that a whole lot of people are reading or anything, but still.....

Anyway, since I last updated in March, I have been to Chicago four times and Los Angeles for work, four days in New York City with my mom and daughter for a girls weekend, and a week in Puerto Rico on a mission trip.  It's been crazy busy!  And a recipe for a diet disaster.  But thankfully, I'm not on a diet :) 

Over the last four months, I have radically changed the way I eat. I've made little changes every two or three weeks and have gradually cut out red meat, refined sugar and white flour, pasta, potatoes and most most cheese. Considering that my favorite meal used to be a big juicy steak with a baked potato loaded with sour cream and cheese, that's a big deal!  And I really should say "avoid" instead of "cut out".  I'm not militant about it...if I am at an event and they are serving hamburgers, I eat a hamburger.  If I am at a restaurant, I make the best choice I can without being "that" person who sends a list of special requests back to the kitchen.  I'm also using a lot of almond milk in place of dairy milk, almond butter, agave nector instead of sugar, brown rice pasta....my cupboard looks like a Whole Foods store!  I never would have believed it.  And I think this is really sustainable.

As far as exercise is concerned, I'm still just riding my exercise bike and doing a little bit of upper body strength work.  But I think it's time to turn it up a small notch so I have an appointment with a personal trainer tomorrow for the first time and I'll start going to the gym maybe once a week.  I just don't have time to go three or four times a week.

Results, you ask?  Well, yea!  I've lost about 65 pounds!  I'm only 17 pounds from my Thanksgiving goal!  So the "obey" is going well!

"Read" has been a little slow.  I've read some great books....some good Elizabeth Chadwich historical fiction and I've started the Bowers Files series by Steven James in Christian Fiction.  I also finally broke down and bought a Kindle. With all of the traveling I have been doing, it was nice not to lug around two or three books everywhere.

And for "Love", I had a great time with my daughter on our mission trip to Puerto Rico. God just blessed the week and I was thankful to experience that with her.  Now we are on to serious planning for her wedding next summer.  My son is still his own little animal...I didn't understand teenage boys when I was a teenager and I don't understand them any better now!  He's working his first summer job so it's fun watching him learn to handle the responsibility that comes with the money.

It's a beautiful day and a beautiful time in my life.  I'm so thankful for the friends who have encouraged, supported and held me accountable during this time!

Different as Night and Day!

My 15yo son came home from school the other day with his results from the Plan Test. It's a sort of "pre-ACT" that gives high school students some test taking practice and predicts the range of their future scores on the real ACT.  He did well and was happy with his score and wanted to compare it to his sister's.  So I dug out the results from the test she took five years ago and we all had a good laugh at the results.  The result sheets lists their scores in each area...English, Math, Social Studies, Science... and then a composite score that combines them all.  Their composite score was almost identical.  But on her's, the individual scores were descending from English to Science, while his was ascending from English to Science.  Both of them were in the 99th percentile for the area of their top scores...her's in English and his in Science!

They also have to answer a bunch of questions when they take the test about different career paths and the answers are used to plot potential careers on a big circle. Of course, all of her suggested careers were on the left side of the circle and all of his were on the right side!

They have been total opposites all of their lives.  But they are each a blessing to me in their own ways.  And I pray that God will continue to show me the way to love them as individuals.  The same way that God shows me that he loves me in unique and personal ways, I want to show that same personal love to each of my grown-up bundles of joy!

Well....here I go!!

Hmmm....my very first blog post!  I want to use this blog to document three big things in my life:

-Love:  I love my husband, my son, my daughter, my family and friends.  I want to learn how to love them more and better. 

-Obey:  I'm on a weight-loss journey. What else is new, huh?  What's new this time is that instead of obsessing about calories consumed and calories burned and weighing every day, I'm focusing on obedience. I'm trying to listen to God more about everything that I do, including what I eat.  Instead of counting calories, I am counting "obediences" and adding them to my pile each and every time I choose to obey.

-Read:   Now that my kids are older, I'm finding a little more free time, so I spend it reading.  I read mostly Christian Fiction and historicial fiction, with a little mystery and romance thrown in there from time to time.

So we'll see how this goes!  It should be fun!