30x30 check in - Month 1

Friends! I apologize for going m.i.a. for a while there. I feel like I’ve been writing a blog in my head and then never sitting down to type it out – I’m sorry!

First and foremost, I’m officially one month into my 30x30 challenge, and I’m so very excited to report that I weighed in today at 236… for a grand total of 7 pounds lost in January! I’m excited to kick off the year with a good loss… knowing full well that every month won’t hold such high numbers (I’m hopeful that they will, but also realistic!). 23 more to go by July 1st!

I also wanted to report in on some exciting non-scale-related victories.

1)People are starting to notice! I’ve had a couple teachers ask if I’m losing weight and then ask what I’m doing. It’s so fun to be asked for advice on losing weight and working out. I never thought I’d be asked for such advice!

2)A couple weeks ago I saw a cool pair of pants on the clearance rack at Kohl’s. They were a size smaller than the pants I’ve been wearing, but decided that since they were so cheap, I’d try them. And… THEY FIT! Hooray!

3) I’m starting to create my own workouts. My time (for now) with Michael is drawing close to an end. I’ll be with him until the end of February, and then I’ll be on my own until I can afford him again. So, in preparation, he has been having me create my Thursday workouts. 2 weeks ago he helped talk me through how to make it, and then last week he told me to come with a workout prepared and we’d go from there! I felt like a little kid turning in a research paper on Thursday, but he said it was a great workout. Turns out it was a hard workout… and one that lead to the next victory!

4)I jogged .3 miles on the treadmill last week! I say I want to be a runner, but honestly, nothing scares me more than being pushed to run. I like to jog for a short bit, then slow back down, then repeat. But in the workout that I planned last week, I had 4 sections that included the treadmill. Basically there were 4 rounds – the first one was .4 miles, then some other movements, then .3 (and the other movements), then .2 and .1. After the first round, before getting back on the treadmill for the .3, Michael said, “here’s what you’re going to do. You’re gonna get on the treadmill, close your eyes, and take 2 deep breaths. Then we’re gonna set the treadmill at a jogging pace. And you’re not going to slow it down until you’re done.” WHAT!? I thought he was crazy. I’ve been trying to work up to jogging .25 miles, and here he was telling me I was going to jog .3. Yeah, right, Michael. Well, what do ya know… I did it. I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest, but I did it! I could hardly believe it. Michael said he wouldn’t have asked me to do it if he didn’t believe I could do it. Kinda makes me wonder when I’ll start to fully believe in myself as much as he does. Something to ponder…

Well, there are more I’d like to share, but I know if I make this post too long, I’ll lose you. So, I will hold my other thoughts until a later date. Thanks for checking in – I’ll leave you all with a great quote I recently read…

“Act. It’s of God. (Philippians 2:13) If you do rather than lamenting what you can’t do, you will do more than you thought you could.” - John Piper

Make War!

Anyone who knows me at all knows that music plays a huge part in my life. The right song can stir up things in me that I didn't even know existed. There are quite a few songs that have already been special to me in just the last 4 months of this journey. Back at the beginning, my friend Cole suggested I listen to this song. I don't think I can thank him enough for his perfect suggestion. My favorite part of the song is the first 30 seconds. Pastor John Piper starts out the song with this...

"I hear so many Christians, murmuring about their imperfections, and their failures, and their addiction, and their shortcomings. And I see so little war! Murmur, murmur, murmur. Why am I this way? Make war!"

Dang. I feel like I should just leave it at that. I don't want to be a lazy Christian sitting around, looking at my little pet sin and doing nothing about it. Yes, Jesus has defeated both sin AND death, but while I'm here on this earth, I need to be fighting day in and day out. Check it: in the Bible, Paul says, "I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me." (Romans 7:23) If sin's going to be warring on me, you better believe I need to war right back. I'm ever so thankful that Jesus is on my side in the ring with me.

I've said enough... I'll let Tedashii say it the way he does best!

intervals, birthday cake, and 4 month update

There's a lot swimming around in this head of mine right now, but for now I have three things I am excited to share with you all!

1) Intervals... I have been reading about training / working out using intervals, and Michael has definitely used intervals in my workouts before, but typically when I work out on my own, I go for the old stand by of working out (on the treadmill or elliptical) at a decent pace for a long period of time. Yesterday, I decided to try intervals on my own. According to my reading, there are all kinds of advantages to intense interval training as opposed to longer, less intense training, but yesterday the one that I most was thinking of was that you're in and out faster, and I only had a brief time frame to work out in! Here's the gist of it... after a brief warm up, I set the elliptical on a level of 3 (to begin) and booked it as hard & fast as I could for one minute. One minute... anyone can do that, right? I got up to 13 mph for a little bit! The point is to be pretty much exhausted after one minute (& trust me, I was!). Then you bring the pace down and keep moving, but not super fast for 2 minutes. Then... you go again, for 8-10 rounds (at least that's what this article said). I had 30 minutes, so I did 10 rounds. I switched up the intensity sometimes during the sprint, to make things a little harder/different. Oh my gosh. I was dead after those 30 minutes! Much more dead than after an hour of less intensity. I'll definitely be doing this more often. I'm always looking for ways to change up my workout. Any suggestions??

2) Birthday cake... Last night was a friend's birthday party. They went to a restaurant for dinner that has very little healthy choices, so though I love my friends, I decided not to go. Besides, I was still recovering from the intervals! I also knew they were going to hang out after dinner, so I decided to catch up with them post dinner. But... I knew there was going to be cake there. And Costco cake at that. I'm not really a cake fan, but for some reason, I love Costco cake. I knew today was weigh in day, and didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that, so... I took some time to make myself look as nice as I could... nice enough at least that I felt awesome. hehe ;) The way I figured, if I feel like I look great, I'm not going to want to eat the cake that helps me look not so great. And? It worked! I was surprised with not just cake, but ice cream! My biggest temptation. But... I looked good... and I didn't even care about the cake OR the ice cream. Love it!

3) 4 month update... It was September 15th that I weighed in and decided to never ever see that number again. Today is January 15th... I lost 4 pounds this month, bringing the total to 20 pounds! (As for the 30x30 challenge, I'll update on that at the end of the month.) I picked up Cadey's 20 pound bag of dog food today and thought, "dang... that's how much of me is gone!" GONE!

thoughts on the Biggest Loser

“I came here thinking that my journey was gonna be a weight loss journey, but it’s really turned out to be much more, and I’m not even sure how to define the kind of journey it’s become yet.” -Biggest Loser contestant who’s name I can’t remember (oops)

One of the guys on this season’s Biggest Loser said this, and though I have absolutely no idea what it must be like to seriously get your butt kicked multiple times a day and have someone monitoring your food intake at all times, I can relate to what he’s saying.

Anyone who watches BL knows that Bob and Jillian don’t shy away from getting into the crap in people’s lives. Sometimes it’s a bit extreme (hey, it’s a show) but as I truck along on this journey, I’m realizing that it really is necessary to deal with more than just a number on a scale. Most of the time, I go to the gym and go through my workout. But I’m thankful that Michael doesn’t just stop with the workout and tell me to have a good day. He asks me about my life and checks in. He knows when I’m not focused and he finds out why. He encourages me to keep fighting, often when I’m not so sure I want to.

The first time I ran (farther/faster than I thought I could) I just about cried… I realized that I’m used to giving up when I’m tired, but Michael wouldn’t let me! Gosh… that did a number on my emotions. I don’t want to be a quitter, so why am I? Another day I took a tumble while doing a box jump. (That was embarrassing.) No more “just about” crying. I lost it. There was Michael, again, being his awesome self… pushing just enough to get me to talk, but not so much (thank God he’s not Jillian) that I wanted to punch him. I was so mad at myself for not being able to do the stupid jump, but Michael used the opportunity to remind me that I don’t want to be the person who can’t do whatever it is I want to do. Phew! What a moment. And yes, I did stop crying and got back up and finished the workout! (But he lowered the box. hehe)

Anyway… I’m rambling today, so I apologize. I just caught up last night on this new season of BL, and thought I’d share a little of my thoughts on it. I know, I know… 10+ pounds in a week is not normal, but I watch the show knowing that, so I don’t get sad when I step on the scale and only see -1. I do love seeing what other people are capable of. If a 500+ lb person can jog for 30 seconds at 5 mph, then I can jog farther and/or faster… no excuses. I get pretty excited when I see them do a movement/exercise that I’ve done in the gym. And I’ve definitely learned that the emotional rollercoaster they show on TV is not just for TV. I’m pretty sure I’ve only skimmed the surface of the emotions that come into play in this journey. Yikes!

So what about you? Anyone out there watch it? Why or why not? Thoughts?

And on that note… I have an appointment with destiny! (aka… Michael/the gym)

The gist...

How is it that I came to this point… this point of being sick and tired of the way I was treating my body? Well… I’m terrible at making stories (even short ones) short, but I’ll try my best!

I have been considerably overweight my entire life… I’d say from about 1st grade on. I’ve done every diet (good and bad) out there and have some “success” stories from them. I’ve always wanted to lose weight… but I just haven’t had the drive.

Somewhere around three years ago, JD (my pastor at the Summit) preached a sermon series on the 7 deadly sins. As we’re all aware, gluttony and sloth are 2 of them… that hit me… hard. I want to honor Jesus, and I was smacked in the face with the blunt reality (gotta love JD), that I wasn’t. I would love to say that I changed immediately after hearing these truths, but I didn’t. It wasn’t really until at least 2 years later that I started really caring. JD (there he is again) preached about having idols in your life, and even mentioned food being one of them. That was it. I was done pretending I was fine. Again, I wish I could say that I was changed immediately, but at least this time I started caring. I started asking my small group to pray for me. I started reading an excellent book called “Love to Eat, Hate to Eat,” by Elyse Fitzpatrick. I started reading my friend Kim’s blogs, which focused around her journey to becoming healthier and more Christ centered. At times I felt like I was moving in the right direction, but eventually I’d wander… this was such a frustrating time for me… I wanted to want this… but honestly? I just didn’t care as much as I knew I needed to.

At the beginning of 2010, I joined an amazing women’s small group. After getting to know my struggles, they went to work praying for me. They’d occasionally ask how I was doing, but more than anything, they prayed. And one day… I snapped.

Yep. Snapped. I got word of yet another lady that I know having gastric bypass surgery. She ended her email saying, “tomorrow begins a brand new day!” Something about that infuriated me. Not at this woman, but at the fact that this surgery is becoming way too popular as the quick fix to obesity. I decided at that moment, that I will not ever have this surgery. It’s not happening. Period. Around this same time, I also started thinking more about the fact that if God calls me to go back overseas, I didn’t feel physically ready at all, and that wasn’t ok with me. Also, around the same time (coincidence? I think not.) a friend mentioned I should check out his gym. So I did. And I joined. Within a week. Within about another week, I’d hired Michael, the personal trainer (yeah, never saw that one coming)… I’ll spotlight him in a future blog. A few lines here will never do him justice. That was around the middle of September, 2010. The past few months have been simply amazing. I’ve had ups and downs, but the ups have FAR outweighed the downs. I’ve lost about 16 pounds, and have gained strength, health/fitness knowledge, and determination.

I’m fully aware that this journey has only just begun. There will be challenging moments, but I am finally in a place where I am surrounded by people who love and encourage me on an almost daily basis. God has richly blessed me. I love knowing I’m living in a way that glorifies Him.

30x30

Every January 1st, the vast majority of people make New Year's Resolutions. These resolutions sometimes get a bad rap, probably because most of us don't really intend to keep said resolutions... and I must admit, I'm typically one of those people.

This year will be different. This year, as of January 1st, I have 6 months until my 30th birthday (July 1st). This year I am pushing myself to lose 30 pounds by my 30th birthday (hence, "30x30"). In a future blog, I plan to recap the general story of the fire that was lit under my tail about 3 1/2 months ago, which lead to me joining a new gym and hiring a personal trainer. For now, I'm simply putting this out there... on the oh-so public internet so that you, my friends, are all aware of this decision. No turning back now!

The ugly facts... today I weighed in at 243 (hey, better than the 259 back in Sept...) July 1st I'll need to be 213 (or less!).

I'm more than excited about this challenge in my life. In the last few months, the Lord has already taught me so very much about discipline and taking care of the only body He gave me. I can't wait to see what the next 6 months hold!