A New Year, A New Me...eventually.

First of all, Happy New Year!  I know I'm 10 days late, but as always, I have an excuse reason.  Thanks to my contagious daughter breathing a little too closely to my face on Christmas, I was lucky enough to come down with her cold the last couple of days in December.  That cold left me coughing my head off and sleeping on the couch so as to not wake the Hubster.  After 10 days of misery and exhaustion, I went to the doc and she diagnosed me with a sinus infection AND bronchitis.  She also said that, had I waited to be seen a couple more days, I would have ended up with an ear infection and pneumonia.  I'm glad I went when I did and have been increasingly feeling better with each new day. 

Being sick has been so frustrating!  This last year has been super stressful for me and with the stress, I have battled some health concerns as well as gaining back the 25 lbs I had lost over the past few years.  I feel like I want this year to be a year of new beginnings for me.  I want to finally reach my goal weight and be healthy and confident.  I feel like these extra pounds hold me back from doing so many things and truly enjoying life.  I had told myself to enjoy the holidays because come January 1st, I was hitting he weight-loss train.  Well...fast forward 10 days and I still don't feel entirely back to normal yet and I'm not really supposed to work out for another week if my lungs cooperate with the meds I'm on.  I have taken 1 walk and have done 1 upper body workout in these 10 days, but I've also done my share of eating snacks and cookies and such that I vowed to swear off.  I even made a plan with a dear friend of mine to get back on track together last Monday (a day before I went to the doc) because I thought I would be feeling better by then.  She did great and lost 5 lbs and I did poorly.  But that is where grace comes in.  I'm giving myself grace.  I will lose this weight this year but I need to make sure I give myself time to recover from this bronchitis too.  I'm just frustrated that it all has been postponed temporarily!

So here's my plan...

1.  Weigh in each Monday morning.  To be honest I have broken up with the scale, but it gives me a way to measure progress.  I actually didn't even pay attention to the number on the scale at the doctor's office...I have no clue what it read!  I knew the nurse too and had worked out with her a few years ago at the gym and normally would have been mortified by the whole situation.  But instead I just chatted with her and completely forgot to see what the scale said!  To me that is progress of its own!  I also am going to get nerdy and make a spreadsheet of my weightloss so I can track my progress along the way.  Oh yeah and one of those charts listing each pound I have to lose where you color in each square when you lose it.  I need some visuals! 

2.  Follow the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating the best I can.  I have fallen off the wagon time and time again with THM.  It's not THM's fault...it's entirely mine.  I fail to plan my meals or buy the proper ingredients or just get lazy and want to eat something that doesn't require a lot of dishes and/or preparation in the kitchen.  But the plan works and I feel great when I stay on-plan.  So I'm going to get back at it tomorrow! 

3.  Have accountability/encouragement from a friend.  I have a friend who is also doing THM so we have agreed to hold each other accountable and encourage one another along the way.  This is crucial for me because I often feel so lonely when trying to lose weight!

4.  Work out!  My sister recently told me about Blogilates.com and it's great!  Cassey Ho, the founder of Blogilates, is super encouraging and not at all annoying like some fitness gurus.  Mainly she gives you access to a monthly workout calendar that lists each day's workouts that you should do.  The workouts are found on her YouTube channel.  There are ususally 3 or 4 shorter workouts that you do together for each day.  And the cool thing is that each day of the week (with the exception of Sunday) you focus on a different muscle group/body part.  I love that because it takes the guesswork out of it for me and I don't get tired of the same old workout DVD.  I am also planning to walk a couple of times a week with a neighbor and eventually get back into running once the weather is fit and my lungs are healed.

That's pretty much it.  I'm trying to keep things simple this time around.  Wish me luck! 

Book Review: God For The Rest Of Us by Vince Antonucci

I just finished reading a great book called God For The Rest Of Us by Vince Antonucci.  Vince pastors a church called Verve in Las Vegas; a place where sin runs rampant and people are thought of as unchangeable.  Vince has set out to prove that people in Las Vegas CAN be reached for Christ and their lives CAN be turned around. 

I will be honest and say that I was not super excited about reviewing this book.  I'm not really sure why, although I think it was due to it sounding so basic.  Like just another book on evangelism.  I was wrong.  Don't tell my husband.  This book is really good.  And when I say really, I mean REALLY.  As in I didn't want to put it down.  Throughout this book, Vince tells stories of people he has come in contact with in Las Vegas who live sinful lives.  And how Christ changes them forever.  In Las Vegas there are many different types of people: pimps, addicts, prostitutes, shame-filled, homeless, and many others.  Vince has met them all and has seen God's transforming power in their lives.  In his book each chapter is dedicated to those different types of people.  He tells about his experience with them, and then he uses stories of how Jesus interacted with those same type of people.  Some Christians would says that God doesn't love pimps, prostitutes, or addicts, but Jesus does.  And Vince has seen Jesus's love at work first-hand.  Vince's sense of humor is also evident throughout the book.  He uses various footnotes to make funny comments and give deeper insight to his stories.  I'm a quirky person and love quirky books, so I really enjoyed his footnotes!

This book really changed my thinking.  I knew God loves everyone, but I think I did look at some certain groups of people as unloved by God or unreachable.  God For The Rest Of Us showed me that EVERYONE needs a savior and deep-down desires one whether they realize it or not.  And just because someone lives a certain life does not mean that we should just give up on them and not tell them the life-changing message of Jesus. 

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for this review.

Did you miss me? And our Caribbean cruise recap!

I can't believe it's been 5 months since I last posted!  This year has been unbelievably stressful and time has flown by.  In my last post we had moved into a rental after selling our house.  Well we were there 2 weeks and our landlord told us that he had someone who wanted to buy that house.  Long story short, we didn't know when the purchase would take place so we started looking for a house to buy with intensity!  We found a place about 15 min from our old community and 4 minutes from our son and daughter's school, which was amazing considering the fact that football was starting and we had been driving to the school at least once a day.  We bought the house without a hitch.  We refinished the floors in the living room before moving in which consisted of a week of very late nights.  We moved in the following weekend.  Thinking back to it makes me feel so tired!  Through it all I have learned that we are adaptable as humans.  We have all adjusted well.  I also have recognized the effect that stress can have on our bodies.  My husband ended up getting sick after the moving was done.  In the past year I have gained 20 lbs and started experiencing dizziness and extreme fatigue.  My doctor ran tests that all came back normal and concluded that I may have Meniere's Disease.  And for the first time in my life (aside from being pregnant), my blood pressure was elevated.  So I'm currently taking a water pill to see if that will help my bp and the dizziness.  In the meantime I need to focus on keeping my stress levels down (as much as possible with 3 kids!) and taking better care of my body by eating better and exercising. 

Luckily we had booked a cruise with our friends literally a week before we signed the contract for our new house (we probably never would have booked it knowing we would be moving again so soon!) and we just got back a couple of days ago.  It was amazing and just what we needed...5 days of total relaxation.  We were so relaxed when we got home that we couldn't remember where everyday items were located in our house anymore!  And I'm still having problems getting back into cooking, cleaning, etc since it was all done for me for the past week!  Here are some pictures from our trip:

Here is a picture of our ship.  We cruised on the Carnival Paradise.  I have read it's one of their older ships, but we enjoyed it and didn't get a feel that it was old at all.

Here's our white skin, that hasn't seen strong sunshine in months, soaking up some rays...

On our cruise, there was one Cruise Elegant Dinner so we dressed up a bit.  It was nice to dress up and enjoy a fancy dinner!  The evening dinners were chef-prepared and AMAZING.  We all looked forward to the seeing what was on the menu each night.

Here are our friends that cruised with us, Heath and Jenny.

While at Grand Cayman, we did an excursion.  A boat took us to Stingray City and then on to Rum Point Beach.  Here, we are on our way to Stingray City.

This is Stingray City.  It's out in the ocean on a sandbar where the water is probably 3-4 feet deep.  There are huge stingrays swimming everywhere.  It was awesome and definitely money well spent!

 

Our tour guides, Sedrick and CJ were awesome.  Sedrick made sure that we all had plenty of opportunities for pictures with the rays.  Here he is holding one over his head in order for us to get this shot!

 

Our next step was Rum Point Beach.  The water was such a beautiful blue green! 

Rum Point Beach Club was a great place to hang out and grab some lunch.  We enjoyed Rum Runners, Mango Smoothies, and tried Conch Fritters for the first time.

 

The hammocks were our favorite place!  We have an amazing hammock that we bought from Key West but have never hung up.  After enjoying this one we will definitely be hanging ours up next spring!

I love these signs!!

While riding back to the ship, our tour guides played Soca music.  One song sounded like it said "I Farted"...and apparently most people noticed it but didn't say anything until the very end of the boat ride.  It became our signature song.  We now know it's called "Fallin" by KES.  But it will forever be the I Farted Song.

 

A little towel animal greeted us each night after dinner.  I loved them!

 

The next day we docked at Cozumel, Mexico at Puerto Maya.  We risked our lives trying to get this picture because taxis were constantly driving through here!

 

We got a cab to take us to Sky Reef where we would be spending the day.  This guy was not very friendly, drove VERY fast, and had 2 skeletons dangling from his mirror.  It was a bit scary!

At Sky Reef we paid $15 to get in which included 1 drink, a 5 minute massage, snorkeling gear, tequila tasting, and beach chair and umbrella!  It was a great deal!  Here, the guys were returning from a long snorkeling trip.

We enjoyed some yummy authentic Mexican nachos.

Our men are so sexy....lol

Jenny enjoying her massage.  I kept trying to talk to this lady, but she would only wink and smile....I finally realized she couldn't speak English!

 

Then we headed over for tequila tasting and an overview of tequila.  It was very informative and I learned that I actually like tequila (well not the straight stuff...the heavily flavored stuff!)

Here is Manuel (the guy in front).  He told us all about tequila.  He said it was his birthday...I think he tells everyone that.  lol

We got a cab ride back to Puerto Maya and saw a Mariachi band playing.  I loved it!

Heading back to our boat, this was our view...these boats are HUGE!

 

 Well, that pretty much concludes our trip!  We had a great time and just relaxed the week away.  It was just what the doctor ordered!