Where Did The Time Go?

Today is my 34th Birthday.

That's right.  34 years old.  12,410 days.  That is a lot of time I've spent on this blue and green cosmic ball circling around a bright yellow star.  And for the last 2,920 days (or the last eight years, give or take a few days), I have weighted over 200 pounds.

Just writing that sentence brought tears to my eyes.  *sigh*

The week we found out I had conceived with our now 7 year-old daughter, I went to the local YMCA for my morning workout and in the ladies' locker room, weighed in at 198 pounds.  That number has stayed in my head for a long time.  That is my pre-pregnancy weight and I've come within 15 pounds of it two different times over the past two years but then, life happens.  Illness.  Job change.  A move.  And I gain it back.

It's an ugly cycle.

It's been a year since I last posted.  A lot has happened in that time.  For starters, our family completely uprooted and moved halfway across the country to a rural town in Colorado, just a couple of hours from where I grew up.  We are homeschooling.  Emily is seven and Ethan is nearly five.  My husband no longer works in a formal ministry capacity, but instead enriches the lives of high-school and college-aged students from his office at our local college as the Distance Education Technology Coordinator.  I'm back in school, this time pursing a degree in nursing and working the night shift as a nurses aide in a local nursing home.  We stay incredibly busy but LOVE being right smack in the middle of family - grandparents, great-grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins... it is quite a list!  We are praying over a burden God placed on our hearts almost three years ago to work with pregnant single mothers and wonder/struggle with wanting to see that come fully to fruition.  But most of all, we are blessed.  In love, in life, in friends, and in family.

But...

This is one area of my life I am still struggling in.  The past month or so has been difficult for me as I examine my health.  I'm facing a surgery in the next few months to repair a small issue that's been progressively nagging me since my appendectomy/cholecystectomy in 2013.  I have develop some severe food allergies, including an anaphylactic reaction to soy products.  And since I work nights, my normal body rhythms are completely out of wack ALL THE TIME, but at this point I would not trade the time I get to spend with my kiddos during the day.

So now what?  I've been making strides towards better health.  I saw the doctor two weeks ago and I was down nine pounds since my last visit.  Learning to say no to foods that contain 1) soy, 2) gluten, and 3) nuts has been a trial for me and has really made me see my addiction to food.  Do you want to know what contains soy?  EVERYTHING.  If it comes in a box, can, jar, bottle or is in the deli or freezer section of the grocery store, it probably has soy.  And in a small town, it is a challenge finding simple items such as salsa or coffee creamer or a salad dressing that doesn't contain soy is hard.  Fast food is out of the question, unless it is oatmeal from McDonalds or Potato Ole's from Taco Johns.  So a LOT of freshly prepared foods is what we do now.  But this isn't a blog about my food allergies - I will post more on that on another day.  Where I meant to go with that rabbit trail was that this journey with food allergies has made me see my emotional and even spiritual connection with food and God is working on my heart.

Today I want not to say "New Year, New Me" like a broken recording January 1st recording, but a time to look forward to the next 365 days.  God is doing a new thing and I look forward to sharing that with you.  There will be ups-and-downs on this journey to better health, but I am excited to see what I will be posting on October 16, 2017.  Will you join me?  There may be days of joy and victory and days of tears and defeat, but it is my goal to regularly chronicle this year as I journey around the sun towards the age of 35.

Good things ARE happening,

Debbie