My First Sunday Motions

Okay, so no excuse for the two months of not posting.  For right now, I'm going to blame it on the fact that I work for a landscaping firm and we are right smack dab in the middle of the growing season.  That and I've been struggling to balance everything on my plate:  marriage, two kids, a full time job, bill-paying... it has added up and I've wanted nothing to do but pull the covers over my head - literally!

However, I have to take responsibility for myself.  The other day I was reading this article titled "4 Ways to Pour Yourself in Your Pursuits".  One section really thrummed my heart-strings:

“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

Interestingly this sentence is just about all that is said about Jesus in the years leading up to his public ministry. 

Still, it says quite a lot. In preparing to live out his purpose, Jesus grew in four key areas:

• Wisdom: mentally and emotionally
• Stature: physically
• Favor with God: spiritually
• Favor with man: relationally

With this model in mind, invest accordingly.

So this is my challenge to myself - to pursue Godly living based on growing in all of the above areas:  mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and relationally.  My journey towards health impacts all of these areas.  How?  Well, exercise improves my mental and emotional state tremendously (for those who struggle with stress and depression, it is a God-given relief!), physically, spiritually (if you don't think exercise touches your spiritual life, you need to reevaluate disciple.  And it helps me overcome the sins of laziness and gluttony), and relationally.  When I am not stressed-out and depressed, I can be a better wife, mother, and friend.


So anyway, I'm being more proactive in this journey.  Personal goals include getting down to 200 pounds while I'm still thirty (my next birthday is almost four months away), running another 5K by then as well, and as of today, I'm changing my eating plan.  I have tried just about anything and everything and the only way I ever lost weight and kept it off (until I got pregnant with Emily, that is, and abused the eating for two brutally) was by using the principles of the Atkins Revolution and The South Beach Diet.  It works for my body, and I'm tired of trying other things that I just know don't.  So bring on healthier eating!  Also, I'm going to try to do these posts and weigh-ins on Sundays, instead of Mondays, to start the week on right note.

Sunday Motions (Week #1):

Starting Weight: 240

Once Again, It is a Tuesday Monday Motions Post!

I was a bit bummed when I got on the scale yesterday morning; a weight gain of 0.2 pounds.  Not so much disappointed at the numbers, but in myself.  It has been such a struggle to battle getting back on an exercise routine!  I can do pretty good on eating healthy, but know I will never see permanent, long-term weight loss without regular, everyday, good-old-fashioned exercise.

In light of that, I did go out for a jog last night for the first time in two months.  Basically, I'm restarting the Couch to 5K program that I did this past fall that got in my shape to run the Hilton Head Jingle Jingle 5K exactly four months ago.  So basically, four evenings a week of jogging, then on off nights walks will be added (hopefully next week), and I want to start doing a Pilates workout in the mornings once my body starts adjusting to the increased exercise (i.e. I get shin splints very easily, and hope to avoid them at all costs!).  They say it takes 21 days to make a new habit, so over the next three weeks, my goal is to get my exercise habit in full-swing again!

Part of me is gnawing at the bit and wants to go out and jog tonight.  However, I know me.  I can get too obsessive and push too hard, and that is when I deal with injuries and quit exercising all together.  So I'm listening to the ache in my knee and the slight strain in my shins from last night's jog, and outside of going for a walk in the neighborhood after supper with the kids and doing some stretching later, am not going out tonight.  Tomorrow, however, will be a jogging night after church; woohoo!

The Monday Motions:

Last Week's Weight: 237
This Week's Weight: 237.2

Weekly Loss: + .2

 Total Pounds Lost:+ 0.6

Week #4

The Monday Motions (On Tuesday)

So as you will soon see by the following numbers, not such a hot week.  A respiratory infection (read NO EXERCISE) and a trip out of town for the Easter holiday combined to be a destructive combination.  Ugh.  The dreaded weight gain.  Normally, I would have just skipped posting this week and worked my butt off to make it up and never would admit that I had a poor week, but this is about being honest.  I wasn't disciplined and I gained weight this past week.  So here is where things stand:

The Monday Motions:

Last Week's Weight: 234.6
This Week's Weight: 237

Weekly Loss: + 2.4

 Total Pounds Lost:+ 0.4

Week #3

Yet I am still blessed and not discouraged.  It is a new day and a new week and I serve a God who is so much bigger than the scale.  May I learn how to continue to nourish my soul in Him and not try to substitute it with filling my mouth.

Monday's Workout

So maybe I'm not this happy when I'm sweating up a storm doing yard work, nor am I barefoot or wearing a skirt, but I do enjoy the hour or so it takes to do tend our 1/2 acre of yard.  Something about yard work is a bit... I don't know... therapeutic for lack of a better word.  It's very easy to see what you've done and some days, I just need the simplicity of a physically laboring job done well.  Plus, Emily loves to help!  She assisted with the planting of my herb seeds, as well as a few annual flowers, for us to eventually put out.  I know, I know, it's a bit late in the season, but we've been pretty busy!  However, I think this does count as my workout for today, and shall put it on my weekly do-to list.  I think that will make me, and the hubby, very happy indeed!

The Monday Motions:

Last Week's Weight: 235
This Week's Weight: 234.6

Weekly Loss:  -0.4

 Total Pounds Lost: -1.8

Week #2

My doctor started me on an antibiotic today, so hopefully exercise without a major coughing/breathing fit will help!  I am learning that I have to exercise!

Saturday Update

This week has been so-so; not spectacular, but not a full blown crash-and-burn, either.  Deadlines at work, Aunt Flo's visit, and everyone battling respiratory infections has made the exercising non-existent difficult .  As much as I hate it, I think I'm going to have to go back to doing mornings again, and then evenings if I have time.  That way, I know I am getting at least one workout a day!  And I have no excuse doing an exercise video; Emily is usually up anyway, and even though I have several DVDs myself, there is a whole line of my favorite ones on Netflix.

One thing I am please about though is that I have eaten breakfast every day this week, had veggies with my lunches (thank goodness for Green Giant's Just for One options and that they've been on sale at Kroger!) and have started drinking Calli tea again.  I've been doing one cup of coffee in the AM with my Bible study, then brewing my small teapot full of tea and take it with me in a to-go mug to work.  Has really cut down on my coffee there, as well, and upped my energy level.  One cup of coffee around 3, and sometimes a cup of decaf while I make dinner, but I'm trying to do more herbal tea in the evening.  It's more psychological than anything else for me to drink coffee - not sure why...  The Calli tea has also seemed to help me not get nearly as bad as Emily and Jonathan with this respiratory infection, too; that and I started back on grapefruit seed extract again.  Started putting it in Ethan's juice, too, over the weekend; maybe it will help boost his immune system a bit.

I'm getting to the point where I know I have no excuses; I have all the knowledge in the world to help with my weight loss - I just have to do it.  I feel like I'm back at the point where I was my senior year of high school; I had a habit I had struggled with for years that I needed to break and I just hit the day where I said "I'm done with it".  Twelve years later I haven't looked back at it.  I feel like I'm at that point again.  You know, the crossroads.  You have to go one way or another and neutral is going backwards.  Just gaining the momentum to make the big push, I suppose... like the Fred Flintstone car!

No more excuses; time to claim the responsibility to get myself healthy again.

Up & Down

So yesterday wasn't the best day I'd ever had eating wise; it started off well, but ended up attacking the cheese crackers in the afternoon and finished off a huge slice of cake with the kiddos and justified it as snack time.  You would think I wouldn't want to pass these habits onto my children, that this fact in and of itself would be a motivator... instead I brought them in on it.  Dear Jesus, forgive me... help me not to use them as an excuse to eat when and whatever I want.

As for exercise though, I didn't need to go out for a jog or walk; I spent almost three hours walking all over a 40 acre property doing measurements for a landscaping bid that aggravated my shin splints because I was in my generic Walmart brand sneakers.  Also aggregated my allergies.  Bad.  Haven't sneezed so much in ages!

Not the most uplifting post... but that's the way it was.  However, today is a brand new day!  Bring it on!