I Get It aNew

My husband once told me, after I found out he's started smoking again after attempting to quit again, "It just doesn't feel natural."

At that time, I almost immediately thought of a particular verse, "The natural man is an enemy to God and has been since the fall of Adam and will be forever."  Okay, so maybe that's not a word-for-word quote.  I'm not checking it.  I've written it straight from my heart.  Feel free to correct me.  If you do, make sure to share the actual book, chapter and verse number because I don't have that memorized yet.  Thank you, in advance.

As I begin June, I approach the same day in June that, to me, officially culminates 1 month of work toward shedding excess weight.  I'm very pleased with what I have accomplished to this point and hope and pray the success will continue.

If you haven't yet heard, I hope you'll read THIS  (make sure to read my comment underneath) and watch my two YouTube updates, which I am embedding here.

First

Second

I get it... in a new way.  What my husband was saying.  Eating this way (much less amounts and different food) doesn't feel normal.  And I rejoice in it when I'm focused.  I work hard not to think about it too much, really.  Normal, for me, has been super unhealthy.  And to become healthy... in pursuit of optimal health... I must become something new.  Just like our awesome Savior says!

I'm going to share more about how I've decided to tackle this whole subject in my next YouTube.  I've sorta broached the subject in one or both of the two above... I'd love to hear what you think!

Thank you, by the way, for sticking with me here and reading what I have to say.  I'm working hard to get more balanced and re-regularize my posting here.  I appreciate, more than you can know, those who read what I share.  :)  Let me know what you think.  I really do enjoy real comments.

Dance!

Today the girls and I watched an episode of DANCING WITH THE STARS. The girls LOVED it. I should have guessed they would be gah-gah over it, but I guess I wasn't really thinking. Had I thought about it, I might not have watched it with them because they were sort of wild with dancing like the show for at least 30 minutes after it was over.

I really should have remembered that Ria loved it when we watched it almost 2 years ago. That was around the time she fell in love with Ballet (she happened to see a full-on ballet on PBS and talked about it constantly after that). As a matter of fact, about a week after seeing THE ballet on PBS Ria's Grama Farrell, Mimi, gave her a pair of cute little pink high top tennis shoes. She immediately named them her "RinaRina" shoes! ^_^ Anyway, it was hilarious to watch my two little girly girls dancing around the house today. Kat was going for arabesques quite frequently (always holding on to something, of course), while Ria was busy working on trying to dance like the TV and getting her Tondous perfected. :) They are adorable!

Don't mistake me, though, they are fighting to help Daddy work on the car (literally!) and love to muck it up with the best of them! After they play on our lanai (back patio that is enclosed), they come in looking like they did some dust rolls. You know, the way cows and horses will roll in the dust to help protect them from the bugs? Anyway... they are covered from top to toe!

Today was the last day of official dance class for Ria. It was kinda sad. Next week is THE big week! We have stage rehersal on Tuesday, dress rehersal on Friday, and THE BIG EVENT on Saturday. We're very excited! ^_^

I planned to walk the bridge today, but didn't because I just felt REALLY sick to my tummy when I was heading out that way. It went away after I turned to go South... so I think I was getting a message NOT to go that way. Regardless, I walked 74 minutes today. Yesterday I did 40 minutes of intervals and completed my walk at 79 minutes! ^_^ I feel so good when I walk even just 5 minutes over 60. :)

Monday I went visiting teaching and both my companion and the sister we visited commented quite a lot about how nice I look and how much weight I've lost. I will reiterate my lovely news of yesterday: I've lost 2 pounds in the last two weeks. So, really, it's not a lot on the scale, but it's obviously showing up nicely on my bod. :) Yesterday a few of the ladies at Play in the Park commented on my appearance. And today a couple more in dance class made the same/similar comments. So, I'm feeling like the work is paying off visibly. That pleases me very greatly! It would be much more difficult to continue if there was no discernable change!

Starting to Look Preggie and COOKIES Revisited

I've mentioned the walking I'm doing. Well, it is visibly paying off, it seems! The numbers on the scale took a turn down this morning. YEAY! Prior to this, of course, they were just very steady at the same reading. Which, really, means that I was gaining baby weight and losing my own. Also, YEAY, but even though I've felt the difference, I also thought that perhaps it was wishful thinking because no one else noticed.

Well, yesterday and today I've received the lovely comment we all yearn to hear when working on improving our appearance from FAT to FIT. Both ladies basically said, "It looks like you're losing weight!" I almost think that the scale didn't move downward because I was doing just enough overeating before because I was afraid my midwife would not approve whole-heartedly (as both of my previous midwives seemed slightly worried that I didn't gain any weight until the last month) in me losing weight during pregnancy. But Karen truly understands the dynamic of fat pregnant girls. She is fabulous and COMPLETELY encourages me to work out and eat right and since I'm really heavy she understands that it's TOTALLY safe for the scale to move down as long as the uterus keeps expanding. Since I AM eating regularly and sometimes still overeating by a lot, I really don't have anything to worry about regarding the baby getting enough nutrients. So, I'm super excited.

Also, combined with the comment that it looked like I was losing weight, Sage mentioned that before I just looked like myself, but now it looks like I'm me and preggie. Which, interpreted, means to me that the preggie belly is differentiated from the general fatness of me. ^_^ heehee

I've been craving and eating homemade chocolate chip cookies (I've mentioned this, I know). I almost bought some Chips A'hoy at the grocery store, but standing there next to them I just felt this overwhelming "NO!" it just had to be homemade. So, believing that cravings really DO have an important role in nutrition (contrary to a lot of research, doctors, and scientists), I set out to make them myself. I also already went into this whole experience in THE COOKIE FIASCO entry.

Well, I have to revisit this issue because I think these cookies, recipe compliments of my best friend Heidi Monteith (whose blog you can skippy to and get the recipe should you want it) get better with time! They were better cool than they were warm (to me!) and they are better today than they were the day I made them (once again: my opinion). So, I think I've found a tie for my favorite homemade chocolate chip cookies!!!

I must admit that I've been sort of annoyed that my cravings went from citrus, to olives (both pretty healthy), to COOKIES!!! But... there may be hope because I've been feeling hankerins for spinach made by Jessie with this awesome seasoning (he brought home a LOAD of the seasoning for me!) and grapes. YEAY!!! Return of the healthy munchies. The cookies are actually starting to taste too sweet to me. Once again, YEAY!!! ^_^

So, the challenge is to continue my walking into the third tri-mester and beyond. This is definitely a challenge for me because I'm only now (32 freakin years old!) learning how important the whole concept of "Enduring to the End" is for and to me personally. I've been pretty good at being consistent with my students (as a teacher), my husband, and my children... but not myself. :( I'm working to change myself in MANY ways. Like I told my friend Heather, "I'm 32, man! I'm gunna OWN this year!!! I'm gunna ROCK it and love it and love myself!" And, so far, I really feel like I'm moving in the right direction. Another "YEAY!!"

Yesterday I walked the bridge again and it was great except for this horrible patch on my side of the bridge. Which, of course, means I went through it TWICE! I walked through a cloud of NOSEEUMS. Have you encountered these horrible little bugs??? Well, if you come visit me during the summer (or now) I can introduce you and you will be amazed and feel exceeding respect for my determination to improve my fitness. You see, if you haven't encountered these horrible bugs, you have NO CLUE! The ones I have here are tiny little spots of light brown and BITE THE HECK OUT OF YOU!!!!!!!! Oh, MY!

I almost forgot about them, actually. I remembered that lovebug mating season is fast approaching and thought I might take a break from the bridge to avoid those harmless buggers. (I didn't want to breath them or swallow them and didn't want the girls to do either likely outcome of walking amid them, either!) The lovebugs get SO thick out on A1A that you literally cannot walk, run, ride, bike, or drive without getting them ALL over!!! Seriously gross if you don't like bugs so much. (And, if you weren't sure, I DO NOT!!!)

Well, the NOSEEUMS are MUCH MUCH much MUCH worse!! As I mentioned they are tiny and they bite. Well, as if that's not bad enough, (for a bug-almost-aphobe) the bites hurt/itch immediately. The hurt/itch does fadepretty quickly. Not so bad. After initially thinking maybe I should turn around, I decided I could deal with the immediate pain and annoyance because I COMPLETELY FORGOT the after-effect. You see, I woke up around 5:30-6am because I itched so baddly and CONSTANTLY that I could not rest at all! That is REALLY annoying AND the regular effect of those bits on me. Of course, I totally remember all this NOW!

You may not have known me or perhaps didn't know about my experience with itchiness just before I got preggie with Ria. I was cleaning up in the yard and pulled down some vines from the shed behind our trailer. The result of which was a truly horrible case of Poison Ivy. I mean, so bad that many people wanted me to go-to-the-Doc-and-get-steriods kind of BAD! I was also miserable because I ABSOLUTELY hate pointless things, especially pain. (I really don't love buying garbage bags, toilet paper, and even often wish we didn't need to eat cause it just turns into POOP!) All of that leads logically to why the pain of labor is TOTALLY do-able for me. For ONE: I understand some reasons that drugs are bad during labor AND for another: I get to have a result for the pain (a GORGEOUS little baby!!). Anyway... I've been majorly going offtrack a lot. Hopefully not troubling to you!

Jessie thought it would be fun/funny to take pictures of me

when I was suffering with Poison Ivy.

He thought I looked so funny... at least one of us had a good time with it!

By the way,

the big face is because of swelling

not because I was this fat at the time these pictures were taken!

Basically, I think I'm going to give the bridge a couple day's rest unless I can get up early to walk it. (I walked to the park over the bridge this morning at around 9:30am and was not troubled by the NOSEEUMS. So maybe we will attempt our long walk in the early part of the day?) Sage brought me home to avoid the boiling heat of the middle of the day SUN. She's SO sweet!! Regardless, though, I'll still be walking and there are a few good little hills down the street, so I'll definitely be climbing it and every other East/West street with some upanddown to it. :)

Until next time:
HAVE AN AWESOME LIFE!