Beautiful Blooms Require Work

Growing up my Mom had the most beautiful gardens.  She still does.  She cares for them in a meticulous manner.  She weeds them and ensures that no plant is chocking the life out of another plant.  She waters them and provides them with the necessary nutrients that they need to grow to their full potential.

My Mom really enjoys gardening.  She knows what it takes to make a garden grow.

I, on the other hand, would LOVE to have a beautiful garden with beautiful flowers blooming but I want nothing to do with the work involved in taking care of it.  The thought of being outdoors weeding and pruning and cutting and digging is not my idea of fun.

As Lysa TerKeurst says, "I want the flowers but not the work.  Isn't that the way it is with many things in life -- we want the results but have no desire to put in the work required?"  (Made to Crave pg. 35).

Now take a look at how you care for yourself.  We wash ourselves to ensure that we are clean on the outside.  Some times we even take special care in how we style our hair and we may even put on some makeup.  A splash of perfume and something nice to wear and we are ready to face the day.

However, what are you putting into your body to care for it?

Just like a gardener wouldn't feed their plants something that would potentially harm them, we too need to be aware of the "deadly" foods that we are putting into our bodies.

We need to be willing to do the work in order to cultivate a healthier version of ourselves.

I am sure that we all wish that we could snap our fingers and voila!  A smarter, better, healthier version of ourselves would appear.  However, we all know that it is something only possible in our dreams.

Besides, if we could do that, then what would become of our relationship with God that we have been so strongly working towards?  We may be a physically healthier version of ourselves but we would not be a spiritually healthier version of ourselves.

This journey is going to take everything you can put into it and then some.  At times it may even require your blood, sweat and tears.  But keep your eyes fixed on the destination that you are working towards.

I cannot say how long this journey is going to take you because for each person it is different.  I have been on this journey for almost 4 years and with each day I grow healthier both physically and spiritually.  I have had my set backs.  I have shed many tears and yes, there was even some blood involved.  However, I can see my destination and I know that I will be a much stronger person once I get there.

I'll Praise You With The Dance!

Dear Friends, today I want to dance!

The sun is shining, the air is cool, and the skies are blue!  My heart and my soul are filled in so many unbelievable ways!

I can feel God working in my life as my heart becomes less troubled and begins to feel more at ease.

Oh how I want to kick up my feet and dance for Jesus!

God has been making my heart and my spirit joyful in a time when I feel like I could be discouraged and downcast.  Life seems to have been filled with many trials and tribulations lately but through God's grace I am managing to over come them.

Do you find that when things get tough and unexpected situations arise it is much easier to turn away from the journey and turn to what we think gives us comfort?  Do you find that the temptation to turn to that pint of ice cream or chocolate bar bears down on you stronger than before?

It does for me.

It is like every fiber in my being, everything part of me is drawn to those things that I know will only leave me with an empty feeling of satisfaction and an extreme amount of guilt.  I find myself taking steps towards the cupboard or the fridge where the the snacks are "hiding" only to snap back to reality and turn in the opposite direction.

Oh how easy it is, dear friends, to fall on our knees before God and pray when things in our life are going as expected!  Yet how easy it is for us to turn away from the great comforter and deliverer when we feel like we have been handed the short end of the stick.

Dear Friends, may I continue to encourage you to press on!  Continue to break down the mountain of bricks of temptations and cravings and turn them into a pathway of prayer!  Your rewards will be great!

The Dreaded Bathing Suit

Bathing Suit Season.

Dreaded, horrible, scary . . . . bathing suit season.

At least, that is how I used to feel.

The thought of putting on a bathing suit terrified me.  How could I allow people to see stretch marks, cellulite, jiggly legs and dare I mention my tummy!  Oh man!  That fact alone would have me run screaming from the nearest beach or pool!

I have never been a fan of "bearing all" in order to go swimming.  One pieces wouldn't do it for me as it still could not hide the rolls.  Tankinis were always a no go because my tummy would hang out the bottom.  I hated the idea of wearing a t-shirt over my bathing suit because it just made me feel like a beached whale!

A lot of that has changed in the last year though.  I have started to look at myself in a different light and have started realizing that I have a lot more to live for than caring what other people think about the way that I look in a bathing suit.

I want to be able to enjoy the time at the beach or the pool with my children.  I don't want to be chained down by my appearance or by those evil and nasty thoughts that swirl through my mind.

I didn't like feeling embarrassed or feeling fat.  I didn't want to be a woman that people went home and talked about amongst their friends.

Have you ever felt that way?  It is such a gut wrenching feeling.  It brings you down and draws you into this deep dark place.

I really disliked being in that state of mind.

Yet here I sit, 8 pounds away from my goal and I am an extremely happy person.  Not only because of the fact that I have lost weight (I mean, that is an occasion in and of itself to be happy about it) but because I am finally starting to feel good in my body.  I still feel like I have a long ways to go.  Not just weight wise, but personal appreciation wise.

I have found it interesting to learn that despite not being able to exercise these last few weeks (and still not being able to exercise as my knee is still slightly swollen and agitated) that I am still losing weight.  It goes to show that weight loss is not just about how much you exercise, but also about diet or how and what you eat.

Don't get me wrong.  Exercise is IMPORTANT!  I will never deny or doubt that.  It is great for raising your endorphins and making you feel better about yourself.  It has a way of lifting moods and raising spirits and helping you to get through your day or work out stress in a healthy manner.  Not to mention all the other health benefits that are associated with exercise.

However, no amount of exercise is going to do us any good if we continue to eat in the same manner that we had been before.  Not amount of exercise can justify that donut you ate the other day or that bowl of chips you ate on Saturday.

Losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise.  I always thought that I needed to work my pretty little tail off in order to lose weight.  The downside was that I was not really paying attention to what I was eating or how much I was eating.  I may have seen muscle developing but the numbers on the scale were stuck.

Since I have started with the South Beach Diet and since having this knee injury I am beginning to realize more and more the truth to all of this.  Not to mention the power of prayer!  Every day I am so thankful for this new found relationship with God that I have been given.

Dear Friends, might I remind you, at the end of all, to not get discouraged!  Keep at it and know that there are many out there who are cheering you on!  Me included!!!!!

Oh!  That dreaded bathing suit?  We are slowly learning to become friends.  I haven't quite ventured out too far with it yet, but we are getting there.  Who knows, maybe by the end of the summer I will have made it to the public beach without hesitation and without fear!

I Long to be Closer

It would be so nice to be able to sit down and write to you all and say that I was faithful to my eating plans this week and not once did I waiver off of my diet.

That would be WAY off the mark!

There will be no denial here!  I will be honest with each and everyone of you in hopes that you too will be honest with yourself and with others that are holding you accountable.

Yet even though I wavered, I can be honest and say that may waivers were more like a slip off the road and not a huge tumble!  For this I will be joyful and I will give THANKS!

As some of you may know, I have been doing the South Beach Diet and it has been providing me with some good results.  Okay, I will be honest, AMAZING results considering the 21 days that I had gone without even dropping a single, lonely, solitary pound!

Unfortunately I hit a rough patch about mid week though.  I am not entirely sure what was causing it nor am I convinced that it wasn't a tactic from Satan trying to deter me from everything that I had been and WILL continue to do.

I just had one of those days where, from the moment I stepped out of bed, my heart was heavy and burdened. I am an extreme emotional eater and find that in cases like that I turn almost automatically towards food.  It is like a place of solitude for me.  Well, at least it had been before.

I found that this time, though, I spent in prayer before God.  I asked for many things that day:  clarity, understanding, power, courage and even satisfaction.

I cried . . . I pleaded . . . I begged.

And God provided.  Those temptations to eat were replaced with a heart that was earnestly seeking to Praise Him.  The temptations to binge on foods that I know I would regret in the morning were filled with a longing to want to be closer to my Heavenly Father.

I will admit that I had a tiny, little handful of Teddy Grahams.  I know that it probably was not the best snack to choose.  However, in the end I did not sit with an entire bag of Teddy Grahams in front of me and I most certainly did not go back for a second handful.

So for that I am joyful!

It has been and will continue to be a long, never ending journey for me.  It is not like I am going to reach what I hope will be my goal weight and say that I will no longer battle with food addictions and temptations. Yet I know that through our Heavenly Father, he will give me the strength that I need to continue on.  It is only through HIM that all of this has been possible.

As I write to you today, I am currently down 6 lbs and I am that much closer to my goal of being a healthier version of me.  I hope that God will continue to grant me a life much bigger than anything I could have ever anticipated.  It is my hope that "HE is not finished with me yet!"

What are some of your successes this week?  I would absolutely love to hear them!

Sweet Success!

Dear friends, the day is finally here where I can share some sweet success stories with you all!  I almost thought that this day would never come!

It has been a great week for me.  I have fought through many temptations thanks to our heavenly Father.  I will admit, there were many prayers said throughout the course of the week just to find the strength to not over eat and to ensure that I was making healthy choices for me.

My poor children may not understand the need for me to go hide in my room for 5 minutes during random times throughout the day, but it truly has been worth it.

Despite the fact that I am fighting a cold (it has not yet reached the surface but you can tell that it is there trying to make its unwelcome presence known!) I have fought through laziness and have found myself exercising more often.

Okay, I will admit, maybe it helps that my husband is training for a bike race that he is in this coming Saturday and he has been helping to keep me motivated (even though he probably doesn't even know it).  Still, I find this to be a big success for me.  I am lazy and I know it.  So to be able to say that we are on the morning of Day 4 for the week and I have already done some form of workout 3 times, makes me one happy woman!

Before I share my most exciting success story with you, let me start off by admitting that I have not fared well in my weigh scale addiction.  I may not be weighing myself every morning, but I am certainly on there every other day hoping beyond hope that those numbers will change.  So, as I stepped out of the shower this morning I did just that, but guess what?

THE NUMBERS CHANGED!

I am beyond ecstatic, to say the least.  It may only be a three pound weight loss, but to me this is amazing!  I take joy in the small things and this weight loss not only makes me happy inside, but it also certifies that I am making healthier choices for me.

Dear friends, I have not seen myself this happy in quite some time.  This truly is a joyous and momentous occasion for me.  It is a true sign that I need to keep going.  That I need to continue pushing through.

Thank you for your kind words over the last few weeks.  I greatly appreciate knowing that my words are touching other people's lives.