MsRikki.com

Lost 1.2 lbs….for a total of 8.4 lost in 3 weeks!

I will admit, I felt a twinge of disappointment. Disappointment, NOT discouragement. Nothing is going to make me quit. As I said last week, as long as the weight is going down, I’m happy.

I went back to the 2 mile walk, BUT I added the weights to it. Yes, I fixed my DVD. Toothpaste works wonders! I knew I could not do 3 miles with weights and I want to use the weights go build up muscle as I lose the weight. I’ll get to the 3 mile again soon!

I ordered The Firm’s TransFIRMation system on Overstock.com at a GREAT price! I want to build up a library of exercise videos so that I don’t get bored. And as I said….build up muscle as I lose weight. The Firm is a little more difficult, so we’ll see how that goes.

Anybody heard of Zumba? It’s an exercise routine, but more like Latin dancing than straight up working out. I want to get that one next…but my wallet says NO.

My new addiction: Air popped popcorn! The picture above is the air popper that I have, thanks to my daddy! Air popped popcorn is a great snack on the WW program. Now…ain’t no way I can eat tasteless popcorn. I found a great company that offers a lot of different seasonings for popcorn: No More Naked Popcorn.

I bought White Cheddar, Kettle Corn, Apple Cinnamon, Parmesan & Garlic, and Chocolate Marshmallow. They have a special: Buy 4, get one free. You can get them at Wal-Mart and some grocery stores, but the selection is limited. My store had the White Cheddar, Parm & Garlic, and Butter..but none of the others. All in all, I paid $21 for 5 bottles of seasoning that will last me quite a while. Don’t even THINK about ordering it from Amazon: The shipping isn’t worth it!

I tried the Kettle Corn this afternoon..it was pretty good, a nice touch of sweet. I said I’m addicted to popcorn..so I may just make more before I go to bed. LOL!

Another new item: Diet Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper. YUM! And it goes with my popcorn just fine!

I lost 1.8 pounds!

I thought I’d lose more because of the amount of exercise I did this week. BUT, I am in no way unhappy. As long as the number keeps going DOWN, I’m a happy camper!

I did get up and do the 3 mile again today, and plan on doing it tomorrow.

Last week, my meeting leader, Joanne, asked us to come up with a way to motivate us to stay on plan for those days when we want to throw in the towel. What I did was create a photo album. It holds 4×6 photos, so I can carry it with me everywhere. I put a few pictures of my son first, since it was his innocent request that got me started on this journey. After those, I put the pictures that I’ve taken recently that I hate the way I look in (see Before Pics and Gallery). I left lots of room to add pictures as I lose. So, every month I’ll add a new picture to it. Although I don’t foresee a day when I won’t want to do this, just in case, it’s INSTANT motivation!

Alright..off to have a snack (fat free/sugar free chocolate pudding: It’s good, really it is!) and then off to bed…after I finish laughing at American Idol. Oh yes. I’m a huge fan!

Had to do the 3 mile.  I made it!  And at 5:40AM to boot!

My intention was to do the Walk Away The Pounds 1-Mile walk for a month, just so I could get used to exercising again.  However, my DVD had other ideas.  I put it in today and clicked on the 1 mile….it would act like it was starting, but go right back to the menu.  I had two choices: Do the 2 mile or not exercise?  Wait a minute. NOT EXERCISE?  Yeah..so I really had no choice but to do the 2 mile.  I did it, no problem.  Of course, right before the cool down, the DVD stopped. I think it has a scratch on it.  My next choice is the 3 mile.  THREE MILE?

I don’t think I’m ready!

Spent a lot of time yesterday on the site.  Got the gallery up.  I really love Wordpress!  The plugins that are available are awesome.  Anyway, check the site out, tell me what you think.

I forced myself to get up this morning and begin exercising.  I just couldn’t get out of the bed to start before work this week, so I told myself that doing it today (Saturday) was a MUST.  I dusted off my Walk Away The Pounds DVD and got started. I haven’t done it in almost 4 years, but it came back to me quickly.  I started with the 1-mile walk since it’s been a long time since I’ve exercised anything.  I actually got through it easier than I thought. I didn’t even break a sweat until the very end!

I think I’ll do this for about a month, then I’ll switch to the 2-mile.  My goal is to get up and do this EVERY morning, weekends included.   I am SO serious about taking the remaining 95 lbs. OFF!

Sometime this week, I’m going to add a gallery with current pictures, which I’ll upgrade as I lose weight.

Last year sometime, my son and I were discussing something..and I don’t recall what. What I do recall is that at the end of that conversation, my son looked up at me with his big brown eyes (think about the cat from Shrek LOL) and innocently said, “Mommy, can you do some exercise? I don’t want you to be fat.”

WOW.

I told him sure, we’ll see, something like that. But what he said stuck with me. For the last half of 2007, I’d been very displeased with how I look. I normally like pictures of me, but I haven’t liked one in at least 6 months. I don’t like what I see in the mirror. It’s not like I suddenly gained weight. I suppose it’s that I FINALLY am seeing what’s in the mirror versus the self-image I have in my mind. It didn’t help that I have Type 2 diabetes that was not being easily controlled. On top of THAT, my doctor has me taking Zocor for my cholesterol, which he says is “not bad”, but he wants to get it in check now.

I am 36 (soon to be 37) years old. And I felt like an old lady. I have to take a pill and a shot for my diabetes, both twice a day. Gotta take the Zocor at bedtime. I had no energy, and I hated looking in the mirror. Something had to be done!

On January 10, I walked (yes, walked!) right on down to Weight Watchers and signed up. I had done it before and lost 30 lbs., so I knew it would work for me. Back then, I did the Flex plan and counted points. This time, I didn’t have the desire to count, so I chose the Core plan. Eat what I want of foods that are Core foods. Works for me. I started the plan on January 12. I didn’t exercise that week…I can only do one change at a time. Core isn’t that hard to do, it just takes some getting used to, as it was a complete change from the way I had been eating.

Fast forward to yesterday, January 16: I went to my meeting a day early because I had a Dr. appt. today. How bout I lost 5.4 pounds!!! That’s in 5 days! Without exercise! I couldn’t believe it! When I went home and told my son how much I lost, you would have thought I’d just bought him a Wii or something. He was so happy and excited! Now he checks up on me: “Mommy, did you take your pill? Your shot? What are you eating?” I don’t mind though.

Today, I went to the Dr. I knew he’d check my blood sugar levels. In the past 3 months, it’s been coming down, but it still wasn’t down low enough. Still over 200. Last month, he said he’d check again this month and increase the dosage of my shot if necessary. So..the nurse sticks my finger, and the glucose monitor read: 97!!!!

97? Say who? Say what? That’s NORMAL! I was SO excited! Needless to say, my shot dosage was not increased. In fact, I now have to monitor by blood sugar to make sure it’s not too LOW!

I decided that it was time for me to take this weight off. But if I needed any more incentive, this week was IT! The look on my son’s face ALONE would keep me going for months. He has no idea how much he pushes me.

5.4 down, 94.6 to go!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” – Ephesians 1:3-4

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. “– Ephesians 2:10

“For the grace of God has appeared, brining salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” – Titus 2:11-12

I am using a book by John Macarthur, Drawing Near: Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith to help me dig deeper into studying and applying God’s word. I’ve had it for a few weeks now, but I’ve decided to write about what I’m reading to enable me to really think about it. It does me no good to read everyday and not give it any more thought.

Today’s reading is titled: The Measure of True Success. Right at the beginning it says:

God is more interested in your faithfulness

than in your accomplishments.

This culture measures success by our status, wealth, and possessions. However, God is not impressed by any of that. God measures our success by how faithful we are to His will. His will very often directly contradicts what the world says is successful. He tells us not to give thought to our possessions, to be content with what we have, to seek His approval rather than man’s approval. This is not easy to do, but it is what He requires.

If I am to be what God wants me to be, my focus has to be on being a success in HIS eyes, not in the eyes of people. I truly have to not care about what anybody else thinks of me, as long as I’m pleasing him. Now, I often say I don’t give a rip about what anybody else thinks of me, and for the most part it’s true. But I have to admit: I’m human, and at times, I’d love for others to approve of me. At those times, I have to ask myself: WHAT IS MY GOAL? Is it to hear the compliments and accolades of those around me, or is it to stand before God when it’s my turn (and we ALL will have a turn) and hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant? (Matthew 25:21). I can honestly say it’s the latter. Approval from other people is nice, but it does not satisfy me. Approval from others will change like the wind. I’d much rather work toward pleasing God, who does not change. God, who works out everything for my good. God, who knew me before I was in my mother’s womb. God, who I will stand in front of and give an account for everything I did in my life. There’s really no comparison.

So how do I do that? First, I need to be more consistent in my obedience of His word. This means, I have to be more consistent in my STUDY of his word. I have to be more consistent in communication with him. I have to make a conscience effort to pray EVERYDAY, and not just God bless me and mine, but sitting still and meditating on His word and asking him to guide me in living it out. And as the scriptures above say, I need to resolve to live holy and blameless before Him. I need to live my life to do the good works He has prepared for me to do. I need to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live a self-controlled, upright, and godly life. I cannot do these things in my own power. I will have to fully rely on His grace and His Spirit within me to make this possible in any way.

Following Christ in this world is not easy…..but it’s what I am committed to doing. I’ve given up making New Year’s Resolutions. What I’m talking about here is not about the New Year at all. It’s just about wanting to be faithful to God.

That’s the success I’m pursuing.