My Goals

We were told at the beginning of this journey to actually write down our goals.  So here are mine.

The areas I would like to improve the most about my body and fitness levels are:

I have always love aerobics and cardio, but when it came to strength training, I suck. I have zero upper body strength and always have. Push-ups are my nemesis. Also, I want to be able to breathe when I am doing cardio. I want to run and play with my kids and not have to sit or put them off.

Identify the biggest problems or barriers in your path that may prevent you from reaching your fitness goals.

I am a procrastinator through and through. I tend to fill up my time with the urgent and not necessarily the important. I also have a hard time with putting myself first. With one car everybody else's activities take priority over mine: kids sports, meetings, and such. I am good at coming up with valid reasons why I can't work out.

In what ways are you responsible for these situations?

I try to not put myself in situations that I am good at. I fill up my time with extra curricualr activites that I am succesful at and make me feel like I have accomplished something. When I do any kind of working out, I feel like a big dufus. Emphasis on big. I realize now that this is pride rearing its ugly head. I pray that the Lord helps me with this pride issue.

Imagine that you have the ability to reach any fitness goals you could ever set yourself. What do you look like? What size clothes do you wear?

I wear a 10-12, but size is a realative thing. I would like to be a good healthy weight. I don't care much about what I look like, I just want to be healthy and not embarrass my kids. I want to feel comfortable in my clothes.

What are your most common excuses for not eating right or exercising?

Too tired, too busy, not enough time, too expensive to eat healthy, too far away, who will watch Lizzie, etc. It's not hard. Excuses are readily available.

What are some things that you can do to offset your justifications or reasons?

To steal a slogan from a popular shoe brand, "Just Do It!" Find a way. If it is truly important it will become a priority.

My sister has been truly my biggest cheerleader. She has offered to come and work out with me. She keeps calling me to see how each workout has gone. She makes sure that I am staying healthy. She has taken my daughter and she keeps telling me that I can do it.

Whatever the outcome of this Biggest Loser Challenge is, it doesn't matter. I am already a winner. I have made some great friends. I have felt the "gentle nudging" of my God dealing with my pride issues. I have learned that being humble means hauling my big behind up a hill in a screwed-up crab crawl while someone takes my picture or asking someone else for help when I find something challenging.

I want to be an example of a Godly woman caring for His temple while I am here on this earth for my children and my grand-children.

Here are the lyrics to the song below.  It is on my workout ipod.  Powerful stuff!

"Fly"

When last place is where I've been
It's hard to find the strength to start again

Sometimes it seems like I can never win

I'm held back by the weight of the crowd

Can't move to find my way out

You give me faith to get my feet of the ground

'Cause it's not easy

Trying to fly against the wind

When I keep on falling back to where I've been

Start over again

I'm overwhelmed when there's too much

Hiding the view to all that you've done

I step back to see how far we've come

And you're always with me (when I'm)

Trying to fly agains the wind

But I keep on falling back to where I've been

Trying to fly against the wind

Start over again

When last place is where I've been

You give me what I need to start again

Trying to fly against the wind

But I keep on falling back to where I've been

Trying to fly against the wind

And you keep on coming back for me again... over and over again

Having Fun with Food

One of the best things for me about trying to eat healthy is creating new recipes.  One of the reasons that I weight ###lbs is that I love food.  I love the whole experience of food: scanning the Internet for recipe ideas, planning my twist on the recipe, making it, smelling it, seeing how beautiful it looks, and lastly savoring the tasting experience.  I even have a little food dance that I do when I eat something really yummy.  I didn't know that I did this until my husband pointed it out to me. (Evidently this is one of my endearing qualities as far as Eric is concerned.)  This is part of the reason that losing weight is hard for me.  I love food. 

All of those thin people out there think of their food as fuel.  They eat something to nourish them whether they find it tastes fabulous or not.  I like to make food that is rich and yummy with things like butter and bacon fat and all things artery clogging.  I like to make food that is so amazing that I want to swim in it. Unfortunately, my life is hectic and so I also really like eating out.  Again at places that cook those amazing yummy foods with butter and bacon fat and that come with five carbohydrates on a plate.  Now that I want to run out and eat something a shouldn't, let me tell you the reason for this post.  I am experimenting and creating some healthy flavorful dishes, because if it doesn't taste good I'm and not wasting the calories eating them.

White Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad

1 can navy beans, drained and rinsed

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 small Vidalia onion or 1/4 large

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 lemon

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1.  Chop onion and juice the 1/2 lemon onto the onions. (This is supposed to take the bitter edge off of the onion.) Add the rosemary, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to create a dressing.

2.  Add the beans and the cherry tomatoes and mix well.

3.  Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours to let the flavors come together before eating. (I left mine overnight in the fridge,  and it was excellent the next day.)

I created this recipe for a Fourth of July cook-out.  It was a hit with the healthy eating crowd as well as others  I brought healthy dishes to pass so I could make sure that there was something there for me to be able to eat.  I was very prepared and proud of myself.  I brought a gallon pitcher so I could make sugar-free raspberry lemonade.  I made the White Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad and a Chicken Cabbage Salad, the recipe will be posted soon.

I am having so much fun coming up with new foods and flavor combinations.  When I made the decision to eat healthier I took my family along with me.  My son Joshua has come along kicking and screaming.  It's not quite that bad, but for the first time that I can remember, he ate salad the other day for dinner.  He also informed me that my new recipe endeavour: a chicken breast, tomato, onion, and mushroom concoction made in the slow cooker (not a great recipe name) was awesome.  I try!

Enjoy the video below.  I couldn't get it to go away so I guess it is meant to be here.

Still Going Strong

I have to say that the workouts are brutal, but more than my body is being shaped.    It's amazing to me how something as simple as saying I want to lose some weight and getting involved in Metro's Biggest Loser has had such an impact on my entire life.

I have never been much for being a "team player".  It's not that I don't get along with people.  I just prefer to work alone.  I like to be in charge, the captain of the ship, the master of my own destiny so to speak and so on and on.  I like to quietly do my thing in the background.  I don't like attention drawn to me.  And, I especially don't feel comfortable asking for help. Then viola, I meet my deadline or pull off my event whatever it may be.  I don't want criticism and I don't want praise.  I kinda thought of myself as humble, but guess what. . . It's really pride.  Who Knew?  Not me.

My team members, "Go Blue!", have been phenomenal.  I can't thank them enough for their care and support.  They have been encouraging and fabulous.  When I'm down on the ground after some sort of eastern mysticism pretzel twist and having a hard time hauling my fat you know what up off of the ground, it's not unusual to have a hand extended to help me up.  My first reaction is, "No I got this," or "I'm fine."  PRIDE You know what?  I've been taking the hand.  It's taken awhile for me to understand that I am hiding behind a firewall.  The Lord has been breaking down this wall one sprint at a time.

Below is a video of a song that I have on my ipod.  Its reality for my life has hit me hard these past couple of weeks.  I can't do it: my workouts, my life, my anything, by myself.  I need Jesus and I need other people as well.