Life style change!

As I look back at pictures from almost 5 years ago when Josh and I were dating, I think man I looked skinny. The funny thing, is that then I thought I need to loose weight. As I began taking birth control before getting married I began gaining weight. After marriage I gained even more and of course during my pregnancy I gained more than that! Before getting married I weighed around 140 lbs and got up to over 200 lbs during my pregnancy. After having Jude I went back down to 170 lbs within the first six weeks after delivery. However, I have remained at that weight for the past year and a half almost. I have decided to change my life style in order to hopefully get back down to my pre marriage weight. It is not an image thing so much as it is wanting to feel healthy and good about myself. Not to mention I work at a cardiac center and feel as if I need to be healthy to work there. I am trying to make a life style change because I know that if I just diet for a little while the weight will only come back and come back quicker. Not only that but I will probably gain more weight. I have always thought well I will never be back down to my old weight so I just didn’t even try. I have found encouragement through old friends and random stories online of people who felt the same way but chose to make a change and are now at a healthy weight. I have decided to cut out most carbs and sugars. I no longer eat breads, pastas, rice, etc, and I have cut out sweets which is killing me. However, day by day I feel better and better and can see and feel the weight coming off. I started on Tuesday and weight 171 lbs. Today (Sunday) I weighed myself and weighed in at 163 lbs. I am so excited to see the weight almost falling off and I know that it wont continue to fall off that quickly but I am encouraged. I have also been trying to run in our neighborhood or exercise inside when it is raining. I found that it has really been easier than I thought to eat food without bread or pasta. I am excited to try a cauliflower pizza crust and cauliflower buns this week. Hopefully I will be able to follow up on how good it was. I also have found a few recipes for sweets that don’t have flour or sugar which I am really excited to try because I definitely have a sweet tooth. I wanted to blog this experience in hope of keeping myself accountable, and hopefully I will be an encouragement to others. I didn’t want to try the quick fix of taking medicine. I wanted to know that I am loosing weight a healthy way and loosing it because I have worked hard at it. I need people to hold me accountable so if any one is willing please feel free to do so and if any one has any great recipes please feel free to send those to me as well. I look forward to posting more and hopefully in the next few months I will have reached my goal weight. 

Does anyone know how to stop time?

Almost three years ago, as I was getting ready to be walked down the aisle by my dad, he pulled me aside with tears in his eyes to tell me how proud he was of me and how much he was going to miss me. Although I know he was proud and at the same time sad, I remember thinking why are you so upset, I’m not going anywhere. I was also filled with joy and excitement of it being my wedding day and was nervous as I was getting ready to walk down the aisle. Even if I wasn’t overwhelmed with what was to come, I don’t think I could have felt what he was feeling without having a child of my own. 

I now have a child of my own and although he is only 15 months old, he is growing way to fast. At times I think I still have at least 17 years with him and that is a long time. At other times, I think about how quick the past year has gone by, in fact how quick the past 10 years has gone by. I think the reality has set in more the past few months because I have a cousin who is graduating this weekend and I remember him being born. How did the past 18 years slip by so quick? Not only that but, a young girl that I use to watch at a day care just turned 13 and I watched her when she was 3. I feel like it was only last year when I worked at the daycare but no it has already been 10 years! That can’t be right! I graduated college 2 years ago. Really? I honestly can hardly remember high school or college, it was such a blur. I am quickly realizing that James 4:14 is very true. I think the part that saddens me the most is that I know far to soon Jude will be grown and leaving to start his own family. It almost brings me to tears thinking about it. I am not sure why it saddens me so much. I’m sure it is partly selfish desires to want to keep him to myself as long as possible and partly due to the fact that he will loose his innocence and that I won’t be able to protect him the way I can now. I feel so overwhelmed and blessed at the same time to be able to teach him and raise him to love the Lord.I find myself tearing up often as I think about how fast he is growing and times I hold him a little closer and a little longer just because I can at that moment. Now I know at that moment on my wedding day exactly how my dad felt. So with all of that being said can someone please tell me how to stop time or at least slow it down a lot?