Memories and pictures

Happy Thanksgiving!
I was looking through our family picture archives last night watching my hair and shape change through the years. LOL! I came across this picture from 4 years ago, that honestly I don't even remember posing for.
As I sit here, and yearn to be thin again, I am thankful for the years of health God has given me.

My children saw some pictures of me, I do not yet know which ones they saw, and they said MOM you were HUGE!!! I laughed because it means that I must not be as HUGE now! I have not regained the weight I have lost in the past couple of months, Praise God.
I have not lost any more either though. LOL.

Kristi and I faithfully weigh ourselves every Sunday, and cringe or cheer depending on the results. I think we had both thought we would be able to shed weight as easily as getting a haircut! I know the class competition is over in February, but this will be a lifetime for me to achieve the goal and to stay with it.
I am so glad that losing weight and living for Christ is very similar... how you ask? There is always a second chance!
I will leave you with the picture that I found, and hope ya'll have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Kristi- It's definitely CHEAT day! LOL

Break Through

Hello to all my weight loss buddies.
I finally reached a very important milestone that I have struggled to get past for 2 months. I am happy to say that I have lost 13 pounds so far!
Two special people took me shopping today for my birthday. I was not sure if this was because I am not at the height of fashion, or if they were just being nice. I was somewhat reluctant to try on a store full of clothes, and parade them to the critical eye. I am very self conscious of my weight, but also of my appearance. It's a great day when I actually feel like I look good.
What was really encouraging was that the size in clothing that I am used to wearing was actually too big on me now! It was nice to pick out smaller sizes, and to see what mixed and matched to make a great outfit.
They proceeded to close the store down around us, as I was trying on all sorts of ensembles.
Amongst the three of us, we picked THE special outfit. I was happy to come home, and model it for my family.
My husband decided that from now on he will give those 2 stylist friends of mine the money, and tell them to take me shopping!
I came home, and started removing from my closet all the clothes that were in that larger size, that I now know do NOT fit me anymore!
I will pack them up and put them in a box for the Philippines(our church's current mission project). Maybe some pregnant women over there would like some large comfy clothes to wear.

Blahggy Blues

Well, as you have noticed the past couple of weeks, Kristi and I have had our weight loss blues. We have Not seen alot of progress, and have just been getting depressed or thinking of giving up. This has been reflected in our lack of blog posting as well.
Today we met for Sunday school, and I prayed and begged God to "puh- lease" let me lose 1 more lb.!
It is my birthday today, and I wanted to see some sort of reward for my hard work these past few months.
I stepped on that scale and guess what?! It said I lost 1.5 lbs!!! Here, I actually believed that scale was broken! Kristi also lost a pound!!!
Three Cheers for us!!
Hip Hip Hoorrray!
Of course, since we have been in a slump, we were both wondering why and how we managed to lose this miracle pound.
Thank you God for answering prayer and giving us hope!
Ya'll have a blessed week, and maybe we will get back into the swing of things now, both in losing weight and posting our progress.

Winners or Losers

I have this short little motivational book called Winners and Losers. I was looking in it the other day for some inspirational thoughts for Kristi. She and I are both having a hard time with this diet. I have lost the same couple pounds now for the past month. They have become faithful friends almost. I see them come, and I see them go, and sometimes they just sit there, and don't move an inch. Yes, I know it sounds as if my pounds are almost human, but when you carry them around all the time they get quite attached ;).
I got to thinking, as I read that book from cover to cover trying to find something that would encourage and inspire us to break through our dietary slump. We are winners if we become losers, well at least in this aspect. I think it's about the only time we can win by losing.
So Kristi and all you poor people trying to ride the roller coaster of weight management right along with us... be a Loser - you'll win in the end!

Feeling Better, Yes, Better Indeed!

When we were on vacation, I gained five pounds. I think most of that was water retention from the packaged foods we ate and also eating out. But still...five pounds!! I had to take it off before I started counting my weight loss again. Before vacation I had lost seven pounds. So that five pound gain was a blow to my spirits.

Thanks to my weight loss buddy, Rebecca, and her encouragement, along with the encouragement of my hubby, I hung in there and lost those five pounds. But the best part about it, is that on top of those five pounds, I've lost two more. Bringing my total weight loss to nine pounds. WOO HOO!

I believe a lot of that is due to my workout routine. Which is a lot of walking on the treadmill. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep that up though. I've decided to just keep it up and let my ankle tell me when it's time to stop. Bruce wrapped it tight the other day and that seemed to help a lot. So I'll keep doing that.

Anyway, stepping on the scale this morning made me want to shout, but I believe I only squealed.

Depressed

Well, being on vacation with my family who opted out of dieting during that time was not good for me! I'm not blaming my failure on them. I could have done better. But the temptation was so strong. I did gain weight and I was ready to give up all together Thursday morning. But my sweetie pie encouraged me and I decided that after the wedding and the birthday party I would start over. Now that they're over, I am in full swing again. He gained eight pounds over vacation and lost six his first night back to work. Do you know how long it would take me to lose six pounds? lol I think that's why it was so depressig. I don't think we have anything too tempting for several weeks now. So, that's good.

I was feeling quite depressed but woke up with a good attitude this morning. I keep telling myself, This is not a diet plan. But rather a change of life. There's no time limit of when I have to lose a certain amount of weight. It's just about losing weight. It's hard to remember that sometimes. Just the word diet sends my head into a frenzy.

Of Apples and Veggies

I had several friends that went to the mountains after bus ministry Saturday. They were supposed to bring me back apples from an apple orchard they were picnicing near, but said they couldn't find any good ones. Most were rotten so I was bummed. But right now, Hannah is in the kitchen peeling apples off of my friend, Freida's, apple trees, preparing them to make unsweetened applesauce. Freida picked them from her trees yesterday and brought me two bags FULL of big, beautiful apples. Thank you, Freida!!

I love steamed veggies. I figured out that if I put my serving of veggies in a ziploc baggie with a little water, zipped shut with a small hole for air to escape, it steams them to perfection. A little salt and...mmmm, good!