Weight Loss Thursday (just the facts)

Ok…not a lot of time today. But I thought I’d post a quickie for those wondering what my progress was this past week.

I have to say, I am pretty pleased. I went on a serious exercise strike for the past week and a half do to all sorts of things going on. I haven’t gotten back into my exercise regimen, as it seems like I am rarely home to do it. At any rate, this morning I had lost another 2.2 lbs, bringing my overall total to 25.8 lbs lost.

I am really, really happy with my results! Now…goals for this week. Make my daily date with Jillian again or start hitting road for a 2 mile trek!! Hopefully I can get myself back in the groove, because I do love the way I feel after getting that bit of exercise into my day!! 🙂

Imagine 2010

What an incredible weekend.  After over a year of planning, Imagine 2010 finally arrived!  I don’t even know where to start.  The majority of the group met at 6:30 Friday morning at the church to begin our weekend.  Surprisingly everyone was awake and happy as they loaded their luggage and boarded the bus.  At 7, or shortly after, we closed the doors and headed for KC.  The ride was great, we could talk and laugh and have a great time together. 

We arrived and got everyone inside.  Unfortunately, the pre-conference doesn’t have assigned seats, so it’s nearly impossible to keep a group of 60 + together inside the Sprint Center, with 5,000 other women.  However, everyone was fine and with at least one other person and everyone seems to have a great time!! 🙂  I know I did!  Sheila Walsh was great as always, and Marcus Buckingham was better than he was in Dallas!  I really liked him!!  He showed us that most people believe that between their strengths and their weaknessed if given the chance to work on them, they should work on their weaknesses.  Marcus says….pick the strengths!  In your children….figure out where they naturally excel and ask them to step it up on those things.  Let them know that you see the greatness in them, and help them hone it in. 

We left the pre-conference, boarded the bus and headed to our hotel.  It was great.  The staff was ready for us, that had everyone pre checked in and all I had to do was hand out room keys.  I love it when things are made so easy for us.  Everyone only had a few minutes to go relax.  Amy, Jenay and I headed straight to the banquet room to get ready for our group dinner.  We had to put out doorprizes and get everyones name ready for the drawing.  Everything went insanely well.  Better than I ever could have hoped, to be honest.  Everyone gathered in the banquet room….we visited until everyone had arrived.  Then we prayed and ate dinner.  It was awesome, I thought the Embassy did an incredible job!!!   The dinner was great, the company was even better!  Mrs. Gillilan, one of our high school teachers stopped by with her daughter, Hayley to visit for a little while.  It was fun to see them both!  We gave away a BUNCH of doorprizes, and had a great time!!

The evening conference was great.  We got to hear Lisa Harper, who is very funny and a great inspration.  By the way Tara….Lisa says….burn your spanx ladies! 🙂  We also got to hear Mary Mary in concert, and they were awesome. 

The evening conference was over around 10 and we headed back to the hotel.  I was tired exhausted!!  On the way back to the hotel, I was sitting with Terry Gilmore, and she asked me if I was going to go work out.  A little reluctantly, I said, “I’ll go if you go” and she agreed.  So I ran up to my room to change clothes.  I walk in and instantly notice that there are two huge glasses of milk and 6 gigantic cookies on a platter with a note from Priscilla (my hotel contact) thanking us for choosing to stay at the Embassy.  I changed clothes and quickly scribbled a note to Amy telling her I was going to the fitness center and to enjoy the milk and cookies, praying they would be gone by the time I returned.  I also had a ridiculous headache so I ran up to my Mom’s room to get some tylenol before going to meet Terry.  In the meantime, I talked her and Nancy into coming down with us.  I ran down to meet Terry and they come a few minutes later.  Mom and Nancy used the spin biker and Terry and I hit the treadmills.  I haven’t been on a treadmill since before I had children.  I walk on the road….not a machine.  So it took a little bit to get in rthym, but once I did it was great.  Plus it was fun to do it while I could chat with some great women!!

Around 11:45 p.m., I think, I headed back to my room.  I walk in and Amy and Jenay look at me, giggle and say, “we ordered pizza.”  Seriously….what is wrong with these people.  Filling my room with junk food.  Ugh, I have a hard enough time!!  I said, “I think I am going to grab a shower.”  When I got out of the shower, I could smell the pizza.  It smelled amazing.  So I went out to join the girls for some overdo girltalk…and I couldn’t resist.  I had to have a piece of pizza….but of course justified it with the 2 miles I had just put in.  Not the greatest philosophy, but oh well!! 🙂  It did taste really good.

I knew we would, exactly, go to bed early….but who knows….  We talked for hours.  It was great.  I was laughing harder than I’ve laughed in I can’t remember when.  Luci Swindoll told us this week that we should fall over in a heap laughing at least once a day.  That’s just what we did.  It was so uplifting! 🙂  Finally about 2:30 a.m. we decided that, maybe, we should get a little rest.  But, even as we got into bed and turned out the lights, we were still chatting and laughing.  We finally all went to sleep, and thankfully the hotel was really comfortable, and I slept great.  Though it wasn’t quite enough.

Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast.  It was good, I thought.  Loaded our luggage all back into the bus and and headed over for Day 2 of the conference.  It was amazing.  The morning was a little tough.  We heard from Karen James telling the story of her life and tragedy of losing her husband, Kelly, in the Mount Hood climb a few years ago.  I think everyone in the arena was in tears with her.  It is such a sad, but such an amazing story.  We also saw Nicole Johnson perform a drama touching on the reality of abortion and not dealing with the hurt, and shame and guilt that something like that can bring to the surface.  More tears!!!!  Natalie Grant performed, amazing!!!  She is one of the most talented women I have ever seen!!  I love her music, it was great.  She sang her song, Held (my favorite of her)….more tears.  Ha.  Don’t get me wrong, there also was a huge amount of laughter.  🙂

As the conference got close to the end….during breaks women from our group kept coming up and telling Amy or I what an amazing time they had….how they were putting the 2011 conference on their calendars and they would “be there!”  I have been so blessed through this process!  God has shown himself in amazing ways to me during the planning of this event, as well as DURING the actual event.  I was moved in many, many ways and am SO thankful that because of learning to trust God with more and more, I was able to enjoy the speakers and the music and the worship….instead of worrying about every little detail.  God is SOOO GOOOOD! 🙂 

After the conference we got everyone loaded on the bus…and headed homeward.  Everyone was talking and laughing and enjoying the ride back.  I spent part of it reading over evaluations that we had asked the women who were in our group to fill out.  Most of the comments were very good, most everyone seemed to have a great time and even be planning to join us again in 2011.  That was very encouraging to me!  We stopped at Concordia to get some dinner, which took a little while, but everyone finally got something to eat and loaded back up.  I ended up changing seats at this time, and was sitting with Susanne Wills from Callaway Christian Church.  I was glad to get a moment to sit with her, as I hadn’t gotten much chance to talk to them all weekend.  They had a great time also, and as Susanne and I talked, she started asking me questions about what I did as a group leader, and what did it entail.  She told me that she had been feeling God nudge her toward signing up to be a group leader.  I told her if she was filling his pull, then she might as well give in.  I had already tried resisting and it wasn’t an effective choice.  So, I emailed our KC rep, Stephanie as soon as we got home last night, and am waiting for her reply regarding our addition of a group contract.  We already expected the group to be bigger in 2011, but it may be considerably bigger, with the addition of another bus.  God is incredible!  To God be the GLORY…all of the GLORY!  He is the only reason why we had such a wonderful weekend.  HE is the reason that everything went smoothly…and I am SO thankful that HE is in control!  So as we close out of Imagine 2010, we look forward to Over The Top 2011.  Hope you will decide to join us!

My one week Jillian strike

This week has been nuts, with getting ready for Women of Faith, delivering tshirts and tickets and goodies bags every morning while Hayden is at pre-school, and then other things in the afternoons while the kids are napping (or not napping, as I believe Hayden is trying to give up his afternoon nap….*sigh*).

At any rate, I decided I was taking a one week Jillian vacation, because I needed a break…and because I REALLY was busy this week.  I don’t use BUSY as an excuse, as everyone is busy and if it’s something that is a priority to you, then you will make it work.  Unfortunately this week, I just needed to be able to focus on other things.  Anyway, it has been a nice little vacation from Jillian.  I am going to start again when we get back from Women of Faith, and I will still give you my stats for the past week.

I am SO thankful that weight loss is 80% nutrition…otherwise I’d be in big trouble!! 🙂  So I weighed in this morning…a little frightened at what I might find, but I was pleasantly surprised.  After my 0.4 lb weight loss last week, I was really hoping to see some better progress!!  This week I lost 3.2 lbs, bringing my total to 23.6 lbs.  I was really happy with that number.

But, then it made me wonder….how that happens.  Last week I bumped my Jillian workout up a level, I was keeping track of my calories and my nutrition and barely any weight loss.  This week, I am running around like  a crazy woman, but skipping the JM workouts and I lose 3.2 lbs.  Strange….but happy for good progress! 🙂

Women of Faith journey

Women of Faith is very important to me…if you didn’t already know that! 😉  It’s a long story and I won’t get into all that here, I will just share the newest info for now. 

Last year at Women of Faith, I took a group of 35 women to St. Lousi.  By the time we got into the arena, I wasn’t really in the best mood.  I was happy we were there, but we had a few little glitches and some complaining and I was just glad that everyone had to be quiet and listen now! 🙂  Don’t get me wrong, I was very happy they were there….but I think the devil was working on me and I wasn’t taking it very well!

Anyway, we weren’t very far into the conference and they started talking about group leaders who bring 50 + women to these events.  I was listening, but believe me…bringing a group of 50+ women was NOT on my list of things to do…ever!!  My Mom, however, who is sitting next to me begins to elbow me.  I give her a look and whisper, “NO WAY!”  She just smiles at me, like she knows something I don’t.  They continue to talk about these larger groups and their group leaders and then how, if you agree to bring 50 women to a 2010 WoF event they will fly you, all expenses paid, to Dallas, TX to a special group leaders conference.  My Mom elbows me again.  I start to growl at her, but again I just look at her and shake my head no. 

  This goes on through most of the day Friday.  I am still resisting, eventhough I know at this point it isn’t just my Mom elbowing me.  God is nudging me as well.  I keep telling him…”it isn’t me God.  I am sure there is someone MUCH more capable, more organized and better than I would be at this!!  It’s NOT me!!”  By Friday afternoon, I finally agreed to go to an informational meeting for possible group leaders.  I asked several questions and got some contact email addresses to some women who had brought huge groups before, they were very helpful.  Friday night I had a group contract for 50 tickets. 

  Surprisingly I felt very confident about it.  Believe me, it was a little daunting, but I knew God was behind it.  Because, I didn’t really want anything to do with it…until I felt like I had no choice.  Thanks God! 🙂  That night, Amy and I were talking about it…and by Saturday afternoon we had a double contract for 100 tickets.  Not exactly sure how that happened, but we were still pretty confident that we were following God’s lead and it was all good. 

  And it was!  God is truly amazing.  I prayed more than ever…mostly during my morning circuit runs.  Surprisingly it wasn’t so much that we get rid of all these tickets, but more about the women who were signing up, that we invite the women that God wants in those seats, that the women be open to the invitation so that they wouldn’t miss out on the message he had for them.  I would love to say we had to buy more tickets, which we didn’t.  But we do have a group of 96 women attending WoF in Kansas City with us. 

  We were over 100 women at one time, but we had several women back out at different times.  We actually had 10 women back out just recently.  Had all of those women been able to come we would have had just enough tickets, as we actually ended up with 106 total seats from promotional things.  If all the women who said they wanted to come but had an honest conflict in their schedule, we would have been buying more tickets.  Isn’t God amazing??  I am truly in awe of what he’s done in this event.  I am in awe of the women joining us, the connections that have been made through planning this event.  God is absolutely incredible!  I don’t know how to say it to do him justice, but He is AMAZING.  I am thankful that he nudged me enough to jump into this.  I am even more thankful that Amy jumped in to it with me!  I would have been in a world of hurt without her there to keep me grounded and remembering that God had it all under control we just needed to trust him! 

  Now this weekend we have been working towards is just a few days away.  I am so excited.  The shirts are done and sorted and tagged, the goodie bags are filled and ready to be passed out, the tickets are assigned and sorted, the bus is scheduled, the dinner is catered, the hotel is ready for us and I am ready to get there!! 

  Since I started going to Women of Faith almost 10 years ago, it has always been my “sanity weekend”…even moreso since I’ve had children, and for whatever reason, God has placed it on my heart to bring all women to Women of Faith and let them experience that joy!!   So, I will continue to coordinate a group no matter how big, or how small. I will continue to invite every woman I know, and lots that I don’t know to come and join us for an amazing weekend with the King!  So…come join us!!  It might be a little late for this year…but I promise, we’re taking a group next year.  First weekend in Novemer, 2011.  Anita Renfroe is going to be there….you really don’t want to miss it! 😉

Addicted to the scale

This has happened to me before.  I start working out, eating right and I get a little bit obsessed with the scale.  I am not sure why…  I know that if I weigh every day I am going to make myself crazy.  I know if I weigh at night I am going to go to bed mad at myself.  But, for whatever reason, I can’t seem to stop myself!!

Why do I do these things to myself?  I know the outcome…I know it’s not even accurate to weigh every day, so why keep doing it?

I have no idea…but I am regretting it.   I don’t know, maybe it’s good for my motivation!  I have weighed a couple of times this week expecting progress….and nothing, in fact a little gain at a couple of those scale dates!  I am so annoyed!  I am working out, eating right, I even started using www.myfitnesspal.com to track my calories.  I am coming in under my calories every day and nothing!  NOTHING!!???!!???  Ugh. 

I am  dreading my “official” weigh in tomorrow morning!!!

Ok…so last night I went for it.  Last night at 11 p.m. I decided to change up my workout and do level 2 on the Jillian Michaels DVD.  I flippin’ hate her….just in case I haven’t said that lately.  She is awful!!!  Who knew I could hate anything more than jumping jacks and push ups??  Introduce walk out push ups and plank jacks.  Is she serious??  Holy cow I am sore this morning.

So, I weighed in…and it wasn’t great, but I did lose another 0.4 lbs.  At least it was something!!  I am not super excited, but I am content with it for now.  On to the next week and tonight another date with Jillian and her cruel and unusual punishment strategies to help me lose weight.  I can’t wait…*sigh* 🙂

New shoes… Thursday Weigh In

Alright…it’s Thursday again!!  Weigh in day!! 

But, before I get into the details of that…I recently noticed that I am going to have to buy some new shoes.  Do you know why????

Because apprently all this weight I’ve lost, I am losing in my feet.  Seriously??  What is with that?  It’s good ya know, but I would much rather it fall off some other places., so I can buy new clothes, not new flip flops!!!

It’s a little aggravating also, because they are my favorite pair of flip flops!!  But anyway, maybe as soon as my feet get skinny…the rest of me will start down that path as well!  Ha.

So…as of this morning I had lost another 2.2 lbs., bringing my total weight loss to exactly 20 lbs since I started the exercise regimen.  I am really happy with those numbers despite the fact that I can’t keep my shoes on my feet! 🙂

The beginning of the end…

You have GOT to be kidding me.  Emilie is just barely 5 months, ok, 5 months and one week, and at this exact moment she is up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, like she’s trying to figure out how to take off!!!  I know this CANNOT be happening!!!  It is way to early, right???  RIGHT????

Can I just take a moment to remember all of the baby things that I love….

her baby stretches….you know, the full body ones when their back arches and they stretch everything.  I love that!

Gummy, toothless, smiles. 

When you lay that baby on the blanket on the floor, and she’s still there when you come back from the bathroom, or the deep freeze, or where ever. (it’s been awhile on that one since she started rolling over at 2 months, I think she is determined to catch up to Hayden and Katie).

Those sweet baby coos and gurgles, that will all too soon be replaced with (“you just tooted in my face” Hayden to Katie just now…*sigh*)

The fact that she enjoys being held and snuggled.

When she takes her bottle and goes into a milk coma, mouth opened, sound asleep, with milk in the corners of her mouth.  Sooo sweet!

The way her face lights up with a gigantic smile when you just talk to her.

The way she looked SO little for so long because she had her legs pulled up tight to her.  Then one day she looks like she grew a foot overnight, because she’s finally starting to stretch her legs out.

The way she would sleep on my chest with her bottom pooched out. 

That’s all that I can think of right this moment!!  She is now crying, because she is hungry…so I better go feed the poor little one!  My baby is growing tooooo fast!!

Thursday Weigh In…Progress

I have been working out with Jillian Michael for 3 – 4 weeks I believe.  Don’t you love how I act like she’s my REAL personal trainer?  Yeah right, I’d be afraid that she’d beat me into dust if she was here in person!!

Anyway, a little background…if you didn’t know, I was hit by a drunk driver several years ago, as I left work to head home from Columbia. 

Seriously…5 p.m. and you’re drunk???  I do realize the light was green, however traffic was backed up and there was a giant, yellow school bus in front of me…and it’s wasn’t moving!!!  He didn’t even slow down, just rammed me.  Luckily as he hit me, traffic began to move and the bus lurched forward before I got sandwiched between them.  Ugh.  That is really another story for another day, but at any rate I walked away from that with some severe back issues.  I went through physical therapy for a year or so, and it was very helpful, until I stopped.  Afterwards, I’d see my Dr. about the pain and she would just want to medicate me or give me injections (which I didn’t think was the answer)…so I just learned to live with it. 

Fast forward a couple of years, Hayden was just a few months old and one morning I got out of bed and I couldn’t stand up straight!  Uh oh…not good!  I started seeing a chiropractor, which did help, if I went at least every month, after seeing him 3 days a week for a couple of months.  When I first went to him I was in bad shape.  He couldn’t even touch my lower back without me going thru the roof.

So over the last 4 years I have continued to see the chiropractor when the pain gets unbearable.  All this time I couldn’t even lay on my back on a hard floor, there was so much inflammation it was ridiculous, and frustrating!!  Aaron couldn’t even touch my lower back either.  It was pretty awful.

So, back to the Jillian deal.  3-4 weeks on the Jillian train, when at first I couldn’t even attempt to do the reverse ab workout, or the bicycle ab workout and now I am doing them with no pain in my back.  Exercise really is an amazing thing.  25 minutes a day with Jillian and my back is worlds better.  Better than it’s been since the accident, which was seriously 7+ years ago.

So my question is…what happened that made us such a lazy society?  Where did we go wrong?  We can see the benefits of exercise, it’s not rocket science…it’s common sense!!  If you exercise and take care of the body God gave you, you will feel so much better!  Why is it still so hard to get up off the couch and do it?  We can see how dangerous obesity is…why do we do this to ourselves? 

I can’t understand, how we can have the facts, but still choose to look the other way and continue killing ourselves.  Sometimes even when the results are right in front of our face.  Hopefully if I ever get complacent again, I can come back and read this post and remember how dumb that is!!

So anyway…I know you are all dying to know.  I lost 5 lbs since last Thursday’s weigh in.  Exactly 5, which I think is crazy.  I have lost 17.8 lbs so far.  Apparently, I have been killing it this week and I didn’t even know I was hitting it so hard.  But, wooo hooo!  I am very excited and proud of my progress…and thankful for my energy and my healing back!!  Get up and do something, ya’ll! 🙂

I pray they remember the good days…

I love my kids, more than most anything.  They mean the world to me…and I would be lost without them.  However, there are days when I pray that God would shield them from my parenting mistakes and help them to only remember the good.

I actually have hope that this is possible.  I have asked my Grandma countless times about her trials of raising 6 boys, virtually by herself, as my Grandpa was on the road working most of the time to provide for this large family.  She has always maintained that she doesn’t remember the hard times, or the frustration, she only remembers the laughing and wrestling (that was a pastime in their home, every meal was followed by a wrestling match in the living room between Grandpa and 6 boys, Grandma placed herself firmly in front on the television and near the lamp with a broom stick and whacked them to keep them from breaking something).

I think about the life she lived and know there must have been hard times.  Harder than I could ever imagine, yet she doesn’t remember them.  All she remembers is the good.  If you ask my Dad, or any of his brothers, they state the same.  Sure they are full of hysterical stories about pranks and the ornery stunts they pulled…but they never speak of yelling or anger…just happiness, love and hard work.

Even I, when I think back to my childhood only remember good times.  I know I broke rules and got into trouble, I know that my parents spanked us when we needed it.  But I cannot vividly remember one of those instances.  Why is that?  Is it just because the good out weighs the not so great?  I can’t ever say I had it bad (I have wonderful parents who I love more than I can even explain with words), and to be honest I am thankful for my parents view on discipline.  I know that the way I was raised has made me who I am today.  I appreciate that they gave us boundaries…they expected us to be polite and respectful of others, to show love and to work hard.

I pray that I can pass on half of these things to my children.  However, on those days when my voice seems to rise with each passing moment and I get so frustrated with the every day…I pray that my children would only remember the great times, the laughter and the good times.  The times we snuggled up to read a book together, singing songs, playing games and running outside.  I pray the remember the times when I really stopped to listen to what they were saying, rather than hurrying them along to get everything on my agenda accomplished. 

Why is it so hard to slow down and enjoy the real blessings in our lives?  Why can’t we just stop and enjoy our kids being kids?  They won’t stay little very long, and some day I know I’ll wish these days back. 

Lord, please let them remember the good times, the fun and the love.  Lord, please block out the days I yell and fuss at them over silly things, block out the times when I put them off so I can get one more menial task completed before I give them a few minutes of myself.  Help me to stop the daily grind and to really play with them.  Help me take the time to talk to them, and to really listen.  Help me make them feel as important as they are to me!

Thursday Weigh In (a day late)

Alright, so the past 6 weeks I have been working out fairly religously.  Usually at least 6 days a week, if not 7. 

My workouts vary from walking 2 miles or more depending on time…to this brutal Jillian Michaels DVD.  For the past two days I have done both.  I love it, sometimes it’s hard to find the time, but I have found that if it’s something you WANT to do, then you work it out.  If it’s something that you really aren’t that interested in, then you can find about 1,000 reasons why you just can’t do it.  That is really a blog for another day, but it’s something that I continue to come back to in my life.

So anyway, back to the exercise.  I feel amazing when I get exercise in every day, and it annoys me if I can’t find a moment to get it in.  A day when all of the kids decide NOT to nap at the same time.  One day I was doing the Jillian Michaels workout and Katie comes in to where I am exercising.  Doing various types of crunches.  Do you know how hard it is to do crunches when your two year old is trying to sit on your chest, or lay across you?  It just doesn’t work…then Katie loses her mind because I am telling her to get off of me for 5 more minutes so I can just finish the workout.  And if you read my blog…then you KNOW how she reacts to that.  Ugh! 🙂

So, after 6 weeks of really hard work I have lost 14.2 lbs.  I am really happy with that result.  It’s nice that the better results I see, the more I want to work out.  I love that feeling, I love the motivation I feel.  Someday I wish I could walk in the daylight, or that I had a better place to work out, but all in all, it is working!!  Praise the Lord!! 

None of it would be possible without God…I pray before I go to bed at night that when my alarm sounds at 5:15 a.m. that I will be truly awake and alert.  If I am the slightest bit sleepy it’s more likely that I’ll shut the alarm off and drift back to sleep for the next two hours.  Only to awake and realize that I have 2 hours to get myself and 3 children up, fed, dressed and in the truck to get Hayden to school.  It’s never a pleasant day when I oversleep like that.  I feel MUCH better when I get out at 5 a.m. and get my walk in, start my day early, we make it to school on time, there is considerably less yelling and everyone is in a much happier mood.  So WHY is it so hard to pull myself out of bed, when I KNOW it will make my day easier and happier?  I don’t get it.

At any rate, after 6 weeks of really hard work, I am seeing real progress, and it’s encouraging. 

Tara…I am not sure how interesting a weekly weight loss blog from me will be.  I fear they will all begin to sound the same.  I hate Jillian Michaels…she is the devil!!!  Push ups and jumping jacks make me want to break something.  I’ll try though! 🙂