The truth shall set you free

John 8:32

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

I have often wondered why people resist the truth, get offended by it, or just plain ignore it. I am not just talking about things of a biblical nature, but also our every day life. It seems now a days, you can't tell a friend that they have bad breath with out offending them. I believe its a good thing to be told you have bad breath. A bit embarrassing, but at least you were informed so you could change it and stop breathing your foul breath on those around you. Which brings me to the heart of the matter, change. I believe that when truth is brought out and light shed on it, it requires people to evaluate their lives and change them.What keeps people from changing? Pride.

1 Peter 5:5

for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

So next time the truth is shed on your life, are you going to humble yourself and change or are you going to be the person with bad breath going through the world stinking it up? 

Summer is finally here

Its finally summer!! A time where my kids should be enjoying time off from school and being able to enjoy more time outside playing with the dog or enjoying the local swimming hole. So what are we doing this summer? School. That's right, school. Somehow we have gotten extremely behind. Now I knew this was true for my two youngest in school, but I didn't think my oldest was that far behind also. My youngest both learn concepts very differently and it takes time for them to grasp the material. Which is why I am glad that I home school them. They would not have done well in a public school system. My son has difficulty with being distracted. The school system, instead of teaching him how to overcome and deal with it, would have wanted him to go on medication. America's answer for everything, medication. But I digress. My daughter doesn't seem to grasp the idea of reading by phonics, but rather learns by memorizing the words. So I am unsure of how she would have done in public school. I am happy to say she is finally grasping the concept of reading and is getting better each day. So, it looks like our summer will be filled with school in the morning and trying to squeeze in a little time for fun in the afternoon.

How fast does time fly

I know that it has been a while since my last post, but I did not realize that it has been over a month. Wow, time sure flies by when you are busy. So how is my journey into a new me going? Pretty good. This last month didn't provide the results that I wished for, but I didn't fall off the wagon either. I still lost weight, just not that much. Why wasn't my month as successful a previous months? My son developed a sudden interest in food.


The other day, I was taking my son to the dentist to get a stubborn baby tooth pulled. On our way, we passed by IHOP. My son, a product of commercialism, immediately said, "IHOP; come hungry, leave happy." His comment got us talking about the restaurant. I asked him did he know what IHOP stood for? His answer was "No." When I told him it stood for International House of Pancakes, the look of happiness and "I so want to go there" appeared on his face. Now, my son has a one track mind. When an idea gets in his head, he will talk about it until you are tired of hearing him talk about it. He generally won't stop talking about it until he either gets his answer, he gets to do what he is talking about, or you finally tell him to change the subject. Well, as you can imagine, for the next few weeks I heard nothing but "I want to eat at IHOP.", "I can eat 40 pancakes.", "When are we going to eat at IHOP?". His inncessant talking worked. We agreed to take him and the rest of the family to IHOP. Because by now, all the kids were wanting to go.We eventually found the time to take the kids to IHOP, where I ate a whole days worth of points in one meal. But it was worth it. The pure enjoyment on my kid's faces was the best part, because honestly I wouldn't classify IHOP as good eating. My son still talks about going to IHOP. He says, "He left happy." We have since then taken the kids to breakfast at Hardees. That was my son's next obsession. But my husband and I are happy to oblige his new found obsession. It means he is getting over being picky. Now if I can only get my daughter to gain an interest in food.

Well.....

Its been a good week for me. I think I have finally found my motivation for exercising. A dog leash!!! Yup, a dog leash. My new exercise partner is my sweet dog who loves to go walking. When she sees the leash, she knows she is getting out of the backyard. She likes it because she can sniff all those new smells. I plan to walk her every day. I hope to also be getting together with my good friend once a week to exercise, but life keeps intervening. Which is how life is, it seems. I can proudly say I have lost 27 pounds in three months. Enough weight that people are finally noticing. :)

On a totally different note, I had a blast Friday night at a a local church's Women's meeting. A good friend of mine was going and I asked to tag along with her. I am so glad that I did. It just confirmed the calling God has on my life. I love how the Holy Spirit just moves and gives me wisdom in these situations. I can't wait until the next meeting.

Exercising

Since I have started a new lifestyle of healthier eating, I know I am supposed to exercise. So why am I not doing so? I know the benefits. I certainly feel better when I do exercise. I just can't find the motivation for doing so. I have to admit that when I think of exercising, I do so with apathy. I have exercised in the past. Actually found out that Zumba was a lot of fun. I probably would still be taking Zumba classes, but the instructor, for good reason, had to quit.

Now I am trying to find a way in which to motivate me to exercise. I am going to try and set small goals for myself. Not find excuses to skip exercising, which are unfortunately way too easy to do. Maybe by making my goals public, I will hopefully succeed. So my first goal is to start by exercising once a week. Doesn't sound to hard. Now to see if this week proves to be a successful week as far as exercising is concerned. I will let you know.

Weight Watchers

This blog is in part is about my weight loss journey, so I thought I needed to write about my struggle with losing weight. After years of yo-yo dieting, which did nothing BUT put weight on, I finally decided I needed help to get the weight off. I have tried many diets out there, Atkins, Dr. Oz's, many of those diets that say you can eat only certain foods and they have all failed. They failed me because they told me what I could eat and what I couldn't eat. I like food and being restricted from my favorites only made me want them more. Seeing a number on the scales that was horrifying to me, I knew I needed to do something drastic. Drastic for me is to pay someone to teach me and help me lose weight. I was told by my gynecologist after the birth of my youngest that Weight Watchers would help me the most to lose my pregnancy weight. But at the time, I wasn't willing to spend money to lose weight. I thought I knew how to. Nine weeks on Weight Watchers has taught me I knew very little on what food choices was good and what was not so good.

So how did I finally decide to join WW? A friend of mine on Facebook joined and was doing good. She had lost a good amount of weight and was keeping at it. I then decided to look into WW. Everyone I talked with told me stories of how they knew someone who had lost weight and kept it off. I realized that this program might actually work for me. I talked with my hubby and he said lets give it a three month trial period. If I lose weight, then I will keep it up, if I don't lose, then I try something else. Well I am in my 10th week with WW, and I am loving it. I love how I don't feel deprived. I can eat what I want, even bad foods like Pizza Hut pizza, but there are consequences for my bad choices. I can see those consequences because I have less points to use which means less choices of food for me. But the good thing is WW realizes that at times we want those foods that are not that good for us and gives splurge points. I am so thankful for my splurge points. It has helped me enjoy holidays like Christmas and good times like last night's BCS Championship game. I am a person that when I find a good thing I like to tell everyone about it. If you are a person who needs to lose weight, I would seriously consider giving WW a shot. It might just be the best thing you have ever done.

My First Blog

I have thought about starting a blog for some time. My husband has encouraged me so that I can document and express my journey losing weight. I don't want this to be just about losing weight, I want it to be about life also. So for whatever it is worth, here it goes.

We have recently acquired a puppy. Now I am not a dog lover by any means, but the kids have been begging for a pet. The cutest puppy walked into our lives last week. I never thought that I would get so attached to her and so fast. I think it helps that she is extremely smart for a dog. I haven't had to do much in training her. She sleeps in her dog house with no problem, poops where I want her to and doesn't get all hyper and go crazy barking at everything. My only complaint would be that she keeps finding ways to get under my house. But that is a different story. I can say that I am happy that she walked into our lives. My kids love to play outside now, and they are getting over there skittishness over dogs. All and all, a good thing.

On a side note, I am proud to say that in nine weeks, I have lost 20 pounds. Woot!!!