Here's an update on where I'm at with my weight loss - I'm down 37 pounds. I know a few of you have asked me what I'm doing and the biggest thing is my brother in law EV - is training me. Personal training is something I never thought I would end up doing but it's worth the work & it is hard work. It's definitley 20% of losing weight. The other 80% of losing weight is what you eat. So I don't know how everyone feels about eating a certain way but if you are interested read on and if not ... then skip it & please don't read. Losing weight is 80% what you put into your body. You need to drink water which we all know - but don't put processed foods in your body. I have stopped drinking pop, juice, alcohol, coffee and have limited my beverages to organic skim milk and good old water. I don't eat processed white flour anymore. I don't eat hardly any food that's been processed. I only eat whole wheat bread w/ whole grains, fresh fruits, fresh veggies, lean meats, proteins, such as egg whites, legumes, and brown rice. Sometimes to add variety I'll eat protein bars or protein shakes - but I carry the protein bars w/ me incase I get into a pinch where I'm hungry and there are no healthy choices. The weight is coming off and for the first time in years I feel good, tired sometimes from working out - but healthy overall. I know I used to drink a big coke and just keep going when I was tired and now I go to bed early when I'm tired. I'm fitting into clothes that I haven't fit into in years? Actually I don't remember when I weighed this amount because I'm guessing it must have been back in high school or shortly there after? I eat 5 times a day - I know there are a few people out there who have been worried that I must have been starving myself to be losing all this weight but that isn't the case. I'm actually able to run for short periods on the treadmill something I've never been able to do before. Not that I actually want to post my start weight and my current weight but my goal is about 63 pounds that I have left to lose. I've gone from a size 22/24 to a size 16. I just want to be a healthy parent for my child and since I'm going to be a single parent, I think having healthy attitudes toward eating and food is going to be important. I don't want to pass down my bad habits to a child. That is just not fair. I know this in not for everyone and this isn't about me trying to be 'perfect' it's about me being the best parent I can possibly be & if it means that I have to wait a little while to get started on my journey because I need to get my head in the right frame of mind and my body in shape then so be it. I know that w/ out the support of the Lord and my family I wouldn't be where I am today. I also know that I can do this! If anyone has specific questions or comments that they'd rather not put down for me in a comment because they are private please feel free to post a comment w/ your email addy attached and I'll email you!
I haven't really blogged much lately it's been more of a post here about prayer requests or something I've done on the weekends. More over not really thoughts on where I'm at with my adoption pursuit. I wanted to tell everyone about my weight loss because right now I know that I'm focusing on the weigh loss and I know that if I can make the weight loss happen, I can raise the money for my adoption and go through the what if's and what will I do. I guess what I'm trying to say is when I started my weight loss track on July 11th - I took a leap of faith & I was forced to trust in God, myself and EV my trainer that if I followed the path laid out for me that I would be able to do what I had started out to do. This does not mean that I'm planning on waiting till I've lost all 63 pounds before I send in my application. Just last night I re-read through my application and I want to send it in, but I'm still concerned about the financial aspects.
Inspiration... on Monday night and Tuesday night of this week, I spent time w/ IV. On Monday night my sister AJ has a volleyball team that she plays on and EV her husband is usually training people in the evenings so IV and I hang out at my house during volleyball (there is a strict no child policy at volleyball - I'm guessing it's a Mom's night away type of thing). IV inspires me and reminds me that it is my dream to be a parent and while I love being her Aunt and I love her more than she'll ever know - it tells me that I can't wait until I'm the mom. On Tuesday night was AJ & EV's anniversary of the first day that they met so I offered to watch IV so that they could have some couple time - a romantic dinner out! So IV spent the night at my house and she is just a joy to have around in all senses of the word Joy. She is learning her signs (all done, more, eat, drink), she's learned to say 'Manda', she can say 'icky' when I change her dirty diaper. She has started to stand on her own in the past few weeks. IV walks between furniture as many as 4-5 steps on her own. She loves the bath and I love doing her hair! I can not wait to be a mother to a child who needs one. IV shows me every day that I was meant to follow my dream of adopting and that when the time is right everything is just going to be wonderful. I believe it will be. I'm going to leave you with a quote that I found on one of the other blogs that I read this past week and some pictures of IV and IV & I together. May all of you be blessed.
This is right after IV had a bath and was all jammied up as I like to call it!
Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. ~Earl Nightingale
*IV always holds my hand when she falls asleep, it's one of the things that I love most about watching her... someday when she's older I can't wait to show her this picture and remind her just how much she is loved and how much love she gives as well.
