All for Him!

If you've been here since the beginning of my journey, you know that I believe that God wants me to be a better steward of the body he's given me for my time here on this earth. I have not done a very good job of honoring that body.

Until now.

I am not there yet; however, I am close. And I know that this was possible (80 lbs in 7 months!) only by the grace of God. It took changes in my spiritual thinking to truly gain the wisdom that I needed to make real changes in my eating habits. And you know what? God noticed. He has been with me every step of the journey and now He wants to use me and my weight loss to motivate and inspire others that they can do it too!

A couple weeks ago the senior pastor of my church and employer (Eagle Brook Church) approached me and two other women at the office to interview us about our successful weight loss journeys. All 3 of us are currently on SlimGenics and enjoying success. It was an amazing opportunity to sit down and watch my pastor furiously take notes as we talked in preparation for an upcoming message on doing things you can't do.

That message was this weekend. I sat in the worship center with family and friends at my side for 2 separate services and I cried both times as he told my story and showed before and after pictures for all 14,000ish people attending this weekend to see.

God is amazing and I want to publicly thank and acknowledge all He's done in my life for me and through me and I pray that there will be others out there who might be inspired and start a similar journey of their own.

If anyone is interested in watching the message delivered by Bob Merritt this weekend, here is the link. He starts talking about the 3 of us just before 18 minutes in, but I highly suggest watching the entire message to hear it in the context he prepared it.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been here supporting me and praying for me! I know I'm not there yet, but I'm confident that I will be there and I will be there soon. In the meantime, I'm praying for all of you as well.

Preferred Rates!!

So I haven't had health insurance at all since I left my full-time job when my son was born, because I've been too heavy to qualify for individual insurance.

Well, we've recently started working with an AWESOME financial planner through Thrivent Financial (they are a fabulous Christian non-profit organization = financial planning services are FREE!!) and they found us a great PPO health insurance plan for the whole family that costs only about $45/mo more than we have been paying for just Mike & Zach! Sweet!!

I know I'm definitely not too heavy to qualify anymore, but here's what I DIDN'T know: my weight is now low enough that I actually even qualify for PREFERRED rates!!

Now, I'm only in by about 1.5 lbs, but I don't care! That's enough!! And I'm not done with this journey, but it still feels great to know that I'm healthy enough for even the greedy insurance industry!

Oh, and just another little thing. I hit my 80-lb milestone today too! 80.75 lbs total; 2.25 lbs on the week!

I May Never Have Apple Cider Vinegar Again...

...after I'm done with this diet!!

Last week I had another good week - lost 2.75 lbs putting me at 78.5 total. Yay!

Then... it just stopped. I weighed exactly the same thing on Tuesday as I did last Friday. So, today is Day 1 of a 2-day breaker that has me using Apple Cider Vinegar 3 times/day. I don't have to do shots or anything (I have to use it with food), but still - I'm SO OVER ACV!! Just the smell of it reminds me of the times I HAVE done shots of it. Haha!!

Add in the raw parsley I have to put in my salad twice a day (gross!!) and I can't wait for tomorrow to be over and this breaker behind me! I haven't really disliked one, until this one. 

Thank the good Lord that it's only 2 days. I can do this!!

Despite Pizza, Another Good Week & Milestone Down!

I didn't expect this week to be one of my better ones, considering the cheese bread and pizza dinner I had on Monday night, but luckily I was surprised!

Just had my final weigh-in of the week at my SlimGenics center and my total loss for the week is 2.5 lbs, putting me past a HUGE milestone with a total loss of 75.75 lbs!! WOOHOO!

I think the key really is not letting one bad choice turn into 2, 5, 10, etc... I've gone off plan enough times during this journey to see that as long as I get right back on and don't let it become endless bad choices on top of bad choices, I don't have to pay too much on the scale and it actually comes off quickly after getting back on track and acts like a little quick start.

I am so thankful for this program - I have less than 25 lbs to go and that feels incredible!

Skipping Meals Leads to Bad Choices!

Sooooo... today's weigh in showed a GAIN of .75 lbs. Was this a surprise to me? Not even one little bit!

Yesterday, we spent the ENTIRE DAY at a car dealership. And I mean entire day. We got there at 9:15 am and left with our new car around 4:30 pm. Ugh. I brought one snack with me, figuring we would be there all morning. Little did I know that my 10:00 am snack would be the last time I ate before dinner!!

So, exhausted mentally and starving physically, we took the easy route and went to Carbone's Pizza for dinner. Started by splitting a dinner salad with blue cheese dressing and a 1/2 order of cheese bread. Then ate the pizza. YUMMY!

Here's the kicker - if I had last night to do over, I would do it again! We had fun with Zach shoving pizza in his mouth and the dinner was fantastic (albeit we were way too full when we left and I don't like THAT feeling - I would eat less pizza if I did it over) and it was totally worth the .75 lbs on the scale.

I fully believe that we need nights like that from time to time and it's unrealistic to go months on end without them. Of course, I just had a week off plan while on vacation less than a month ago, but we don't have to mention that, do we? ;-)

Either way, I got back on plan this morning and, of course, did my 2 tbsp shot of Apple Cider Vinegar with breakfast. I laughed with Mike saying that there would indeed come a day when I wouldn't need to drink that awful stuff just because I had pizza the night before.

I can't wait for that day and I have to stick to the plan to bring it here sooner rather than later! :-)

Oh, and on a side note, sat with my favorite SlimGenics counselor today and she told me that tomorrow was her last day. Happy for her and her new job, but sad that she won't be there anymore. She rocked!