Just Me...

Update time! 60 Days ago I posted that I hadn't had coffee in 3 days.  I was excited to be alive.  Fast forward, still no coffee and I feel wonderful.  I completed the 24 day challenge feeling awesome.  I have so much more energy, my emotions are more under control and I am focused.  For the past 2 weeks I have been using an energy focused vitamin pack instead of just the general wellness pack and that has improved things even more.  I am down 2% body fat and the weight is ticking off.   I am fitting in clothes I haven't fit into (comfortably) for ages and I just feel more confident.  I smile more and believe I am generally a happier person to be around.  I have noticed that my family and my co-workers are appreciating these changes in focus.  At home, our house is becoming more orderly, we are having fun family game nights and I don't feel so guilty when I take a minute to relax.  At work I have been selected to apply fo...

As you know, I have started a track to a healthy life with Nuvita a few months back and now I am working through the 24 Day Challenge with Advocare.  My husband just finished the first part of the challenge, the cleanse phase, and lost 9lbs. Now I am on day 3.  I haven't had coffee in 3 days...I am alive! I am not planning to cover all of the details of everything I eat/take during this time, but I will say that it is pretty basic nutritional stuff.  The Cleanse focuses on detoxifying your body so that it can absorb and efficiently use the vitamins and minerals in our multivitamins and in the healthy foods we eat.  The only real restrictions in this phase are no dairy, wheat, alcohol and fried foods (duh!).  The phase promotes eating and I am enjoying all of the fruits and veggies that I am having daily plus the nuts and craisins that I have in the afternoon.  I have started working out daily.  My schedule isn't too complicated.  I have a ...

If you have seen The Lion King, you will get this, if not...well go watch it (even if you don't have kids or if they are grown...it is a great show!). Simba has been through a tough road realizing who he is supposed to be and denying it time after time.  When he finally overcomes his enemies and dedicates himself to repairing the damage to his kingdom, wise old Rafiki says "It is time..." Time for what?  How does this story make sense in my life?  I have toyed around back and forth for quite some time on why I need to incorporate exercise and healthy eating in my life.  For the most part I do ok...I maintain and do just enough not ot have to buy bigger clothes or feel like a huge blob at the end of the day, but that is not enough. For one, God gave me this body to do great things and doing "just enough" isn't going to cut it.  Secondly, when I am working to stay in shape and consistently eat healthy I just feel better.  I have more energy, better re...

The last two weeks have been a scheduling chaos.  With school ending, Memorial Day weekend and Jeremy being out of town, let's just say that my eating routine has gone a little haywire.  What perplexes me is that for the past two weigh-ins I have lost 1lb each week. When I first started Weight Watchers, one of the articles that was recommended talked about changing up what you eat every so often.  It talked about how your body gets used to digesting the same foods at the same time of the day so a "dietary confusion" of sorts can help your body kick start metabolism and move off a plateau.  I didn't feel like I was reaching a plateau, but I definitely added some "dietary confusion" into my daily eating.  They say the same for exercise, that "muscle confusion" can help kick start your body into shape more effectively as using different muscles, or even the same muscles in a different way helps to enhance the results of exercise.  This is the corn...

So, I am in week 8 of Weight Watchers.  I am loving the discipline that I have developed toward food. I am eating so many more fresh fruits and vegetables.  I have a pretty standard point value pattern throughout the day and have made some go to low point snacks when I "need" food.  I have been working to plan more of my family's dinners and trying some new recipies.  The kids have not complained once about any of the new foods.  They are usually not too picky, but when food looks different than something that they have seen before, they usually clam up.  This is slowly going away as they accept that they usually enjoy whatever I put on their plate and I won't intentionally give them something to eat that I don't think they will like.  They are even learning that if there is a part of the meal that they don't like (for example, mushrooms in the pasta) they just put them to the side and enjoy the rest. All this to say is that I think that I am well ...

A few weeks back I took the plunge and started Weight Watchers again.   I have tried this a couple of times successfully in the past and it was time to take the bull by the horns again to get back on track.  The first time I did weight watchers, I was about the weight I am now and I wanted to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  I did well with this and then about a year later I got pregnant with my second.  The second time I did weight watchers, I had more to lose.  I lost 25lbs and felt great.  I was on a roll at my previous job and working out was a part of a regular habit of life so I maintained well.  In the Fall of 2010, I changed jobs...that wrecked any exercise and eating habit that I had formed.  My location changes, I was trying to make new friends and impress those at my new job.  I lost track! At first I gained only about 5 lbs and I thought, I can live with this.  I'll get back those 5lbs when I get a bit more ...

I am reading a book right now that I would highly recommend by Andy Andrews.  It is called " The Noticer "...I just finished his book " The Travelers Gift " a week or so ago and would highly recommend it too.  The premise of The Noticer is Perspective.  There are many lessons to glean from the book, but the overall theme is that no matter what the situation, if you take a minute and look at the situation with perspective, your attitude is bound to change.  This got me to thinking that not all perspective is good.  We must seek God to give us the perspective He wants for us, not the perspective we want for ourselves.  We all want an outcome, we all need God's outcome.  Sometimes my perspective doesn't line up, but I get the outcome I want...well, what I think I want anyway.  I was reminded of this when listening to a Joyce Meyer podcast this morning on my drive in.  It was her podcast from Tuesday of this week (I am a bit behind :))... ...

Today I had a big presentation for work scheduled for about 2pm.  The time was an estimate as I was part of the agenda for a weekly 3 hr meeting of our Senior Leadership team.  I wasn't really stressed about the presentation, but I knew I needed the right words and content for the message to be received as it needed to be.  Coming into the meeting I knew that a couple of people were not going to be there that I felt should hear the presentation and that I was 4th out of 5 agenda items.  I knew that whenever my turn came, that there would have been 3 major discussions prior to mine and so short, sweet and impactful were words in my mind. I shot out a quick prayer request to a prayer group I am in on Facebook and quickly felt the relief from prayers being said.  Just knowing that others were asking God to bless me with the right words was soothing to my nerves.  The meeting began at noon and at 1pm, my boss popped in to my workstation and said that they w...

I like to switch things up every 30 days or so.  I had a challenge that I started with Walk Away The Pounds in February and merged into March.  I have been dabbling around for a couple of weeks now with Yoga and other things to keep exercise a part of my schedule, but, for me, having a calendar is a must!  I just don't stay on track without one. Last week a friend of mine of Facebook posted a link to a beginner running program from Women's Health Magazine.  I really never saw myself running again, but like my previous post, I should learn to "never say never"... The workout is a 6 week plan that moves from walking with short 1 min intervals of running to running 30 min straight.  There are 2 things that I really like about this program.  First, it incorporates 2 days of strength training with exercises I can do right at home.  Second, it only works up to 30 min of running.  One of the mistakes I think I made before when I was running w...

A few years ago, we got a treadmill...I said I only wanted to use it for walking...I would "never" be a runner..2 half marathons and several 5ks later... Last summer, I said, I am hanging up my running shoes, I have this leg pain and I am going to just be a walker again,  I "never" want to run another race, just focus on walking...yesterday I downloaded a new workout schedule to get to 30 min running over the next 6 weeks (starting this on Monday) Since my Sophomore year in college when I said I would "never" be able to tolerate teaching other peoples' children, I have maintained that I wouldn't...until yesterday when I put my name in the pot to start teaching in Children's Ministry at our Church... After thinking about this for a while I discovered, that if I just put it out there that I will "never" do something and God really wants me to do it, I will eventually do it.  I think that saying Never is a throwdown  to God in a wa...

This morning, getting out of bed was a bit rough...not so much physically, but mentally.  I woke up and convinced myself that I just needed to stay under the covers all day... I had to really work to determine what would motivate me in getting out of bed (after all, I did have 2 kids to get up, dressed and to school on time...) Here is a glimpse of the converstation I had with myself: Maybe I will get up and get the kids ready and take them to school and then come back home and sleep the day away...I could use a mental health day... No, I am doing this Leslie Sansone challenge, I have to at least get up and do the 2 miles I had planned...or, I could do the 2 miles after I take the kids to school and come back and sleep some more... No, I am going to just get up and do the 2 miles now...all dressed, maybe I could just wear this all day and lounge around the house, no workout needed, I think I have a sore throat anyway....Kelli has had a runny nose, maybe I am getting what ...

I have never really "given up" anything for Lent before.  Last year, I tried to do this 40 Bags in 40 Days thing and I did really well for about a week and then...well, off the path I went :) Earlier this year I saw a post on Facebook from a friend who was going to do a 40 Days of Water project during the Lenten season.  Essentially participants would drink nothing but water each day of lent except Sundays when they could have whatever they wanted to drink.  I seriously thought about participating in this...a lot...I told people I was thinking about doing it...I contemplated how my body would react based on the fact that I really drink so little water each day and not having caffeine has potential side-affects on my family and friends :).  I really thought about it...my son even reminded me this past weekend about it asking when I was only going to be allowed to drink water.  I thought about it, but decided, no. I am not going to participate and here is why....

Several years back I bought a Knifty Knitter Loom Set and some yarn to make a hat.  I can't remember exactly if I bought the loom to do charity work or I just wanted some sort of craft to do and the needles looked like a little more work than I wanted to do at the time.  I do knit with needles now and I have to say that it is much easier than it looks once you get the hang of it.  I even knit one of those blue and white scarves for the Super Bowl this year with needles.  Anyway, back to the topic...As I started enjoying knitting these hats, I became addicted to buying sale yarn...any yarn on clearance at Walmart magically made it into my bag...no project in mind...no idea if I even had enough yarn of one color or type to do anything with...I just loved buying the stuff.  I started buying books of patterns for loom knitting and knitting with sticks.  I made some crafts as gifts..made a whole bunch of hats :), a few dishcloths...

Do you have that soft touch...you know, the one where when people come to you to talk you are open arms and accepting?  In some circumstances, I hold my own well with this, but in most circumstances I don't.  I am a natural born problem solver.  My attention immediately goes to "fixer" and not "feather-pillow"... I have received several reviews over the years asking me to work on my skills in this area.  Essentially, the thought is that being a softer, listening, patient person will make the other party feel better and want to help me.  I have been told that this will help others feel a need to support the work I am trying to accomplish with them.  I will look more like a team player, etc... At home and with family, I am softer than at work, but not all that great at it.  I want to be a good listener.  I don't cry for the most part unless I am fed up with trying to be able to have a compassionate heart and it just isn't happening.  I want...

I am back and ready for round two of my 30 Day Workout Schedules...I have started a workout calendar of Leslie Sansones Walk Away the Pounds and I am loving it.  What surprises me is that the workouts feel different to me this time around.  I have done most all the DVD's I have at least once before this month, but it feels like muscles that I toned doing the TransFIRMation series in January are hard at work this month too!  It is exciting to be able to kick higher and to be able to use more hand weights.  I can feel my muscles burning.  I love it! I will admit that I did not start the month exactly on task.  I did the 1st day and then decided to take the weekend off.  I was feeling...blech...and exercise would have probably helped, but...well, the excuses set in for a couple of days "got so busy doing something else, I didn't have time", "I forgot", "my legs are still sore and tired from my 5hr walking stint at the NFL Experience (it was awesome...

I am celebrating today!  At the end of December, Jeremy took the kids on a trip out of state and I was working from home.  I knew I wanted to have a more dedicated focus to fitness in 2012 so I decided to dust off the old "TransFIRMation" DVD's from The FIRM.  There are 4 DVD's and adjustable weights that come with the set (1lb to 8lb each).  (note:  these were purchased between kids as I tried to "get my body back"...I think I did one workout and shelved the whole thing :), needless to say, there was much dust...)  Anyway, they also came with a booklet that described each of the DVD's in the set and also a handy calendar (you must know that I LOVE CALENDARS to tell me what to do every day).  The calendar was a 30 day that gave the appropriate workouts to do 5 days a week and called for 2 days of rest.  I was bored after finishing my work for the day and so I gave the first DVD a shot.  I loved it.  It was a 25 min sculpting DVD...

I was thinking about this word this morning.  I realize that I have a hesitation in starting (and finishing) things because I am afraid of the response of others and that I won't feel that they are perfect.  What is perfect? The idea that dawned on me was that since I am not perfect, I can't define perfection.  God is the only one who can do this.  He showed us many examples of perfect through His Son, Jesus, but I know that, because of original sin, I am only perfected when I meet my Creator in the death of my earthly body. That doesn't mean we don't try, but I have to stop hesitating doing/finishing things because of "my" definition of perfect.  God has put me here for a purpose.  Sometimes I will make mistakes.  Most of the time things won't be perfect.  The joy is that God is always there for me.  One thing that our pastor eluded to this weekend in his sermon was the concept that we must not work to invite God into our plans, but we...

I am so thankful to be given the opportunity to work from home with my current job.  I have standardized on working from home every Friday unless there is a major meeting in the office.  In my old job, I could work from home, but there wasn't the flexibility that I have where I am now.  I get so much more done at home.  I am able to work on things without interruptions from others.  I also have the ability to throw the occasional load of laundry in or put something in the crock pot for dinner at the right time :)  One of the biggest bonuses to working from home occasionally is not having to battle traffic into downtown.  It saves me 90 mins of commute time each day that I work from home.  I save on gas and it is better for the environment.  I am so blessed to have this opportunity.  Another side benefit is that when I am in the office, I am making the most of my face-to-face connections.  People don't seem to mind that I am workin...

It has been going on since I returned from my mission trip to Guatemala in October of last year.  I just can't seem to find the same passion for work that I had before I went on the trip.  There are a lot of things that really just don't matter as much in the grand scheme of things anymore.  Someone recently told me this was more clearly defined as Reverse Culture Shock.  It makes sense.  I spent so much time preparing myself for how I would feel in a new culture for the 1 week I traveled to Guatemala.  I wanted to be open to the experience, God allowed that.  However; I didn't spend any time leading up to the trip or even during the trip trying to anticipate what it would be like to come back to a world where not much had changed. Sounds sad and depressing...right? Wrong.  As a matter of fact, I am happier than I ever have been.  Burdens have been lifted that I didn't even know existed in the first place.  I have been able to d...

Comic books come to life and earthly secrets are revealed in this fiction selection from Jon Lewis .  I really enjoyed this book.  I am a big fan of Twilight and The Hunger Games so a fiction book about a teenage boy adventuring into an experience involving non-human characters appeals to me.  I read this book in the span of less than a week.  I couldn't put it down.  It wasn't too deep, but it covered all the bases of a good wholesome adventure.  Even though it was published by Thomas Nelson, it wasn't a "churchy" book.  Sure there were themes in the book where you understood that the characters involved were Christian, but it wasn't a major theme.  I think that this book would be enjoyed by a teen/young adult audience as well as the adult audience that likes this genre of writing.  The characters were developed well and the writer's descriptive words gave me the sense that I could picture the major players and scenes in my head s...

Yes, I guess the Daily Word themes will have to stop someday, but they are too fun to do so I will keep being a dork and putting words together with the day of the week...:) I am Thrilled today because I won 2 tickets to the NFL Experience downtown Indy next Friday the 3rd... I am Thrilled because I will be avoiding 90 min of traffic tomorrow by working from home ok...no more... In all seriousness, I am so happy that we had a good turn out at the small groups open house last night at my church .  I am looking forward to great things to come this year in coordinating this ministry area :) It is odd that 90% of the "things we have as major initiatives in 2012" are things on MY plate...pressure, no way, I will take the challenge...God is on my side! <><

Last night, like Jacob, I wrestled with God...I tried to give him something and "he wouldn't take it"... I know that he will take what I am not capable of handling according to His Will so apparently his "not taking it away" meant that I needed to do some more processing...Processing for me means prayer and sleep...I get sleepy when life gets blechy... Upon awaking, I knew what I had to do.  I have done the things that God has shown me to do and I have been blessed by response after response to my prayer...my heart is light, I know He is with me and is pleased with me. The biggest lesson that I have learned from this is that sometimes doing God's Will will result in blechy feelings (we are only humans after all), but with fervent prayer and dedication to hearing God's Will for the next steps (only in His timing might I remind you...frustrating to my human mind :)) blessings will pour out abundantly. God is so much bigger than anything I could ever ha...

Sometimes we just need music....

Feeling good about my exercise and eating...downloade My Fitness Pal last week and have lost .5 lbs.  I only set it to lose 1lb per week so it is working!  My first week isn't done until Wednesday, but my weigh in is on Sunday.  Good stuff!  Working on developing more discipline and self control.  I have asked God to help me prioritize the things I need to do so that I am not doing busywork and am doing His Will.  A hard job that I can't do alone, but only through the grace and love and power of Jesus Christ working through me, the goal will be accomplished. Watched the pictures of the cruse liner that crashed and capsized off the coast of Italy and realized that it was the same size as the liner that my family and I took to Alaska a couple of years back.  Wow.  I also watched a video on MSN today...get the tissues...it is awesome: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/grandpa-gets-great-surprise/200foo9x <><

The Firm...Hard Core Fusion...Kicked my behind!!  Downloaded My Fitness Pal...wow, really puts what I eat into perspective Trying to manage things minute by minute today...crazy how things are going at work.  Good stuff and year is kicking off right, but man, it is busy! Still haven't figured out what to knit yet.  Thought I had it and then I realized that a goal I set this year was to use the craft stuff that I have and not buy anything new until the yarn surplus that is taking over my craft room is gone!  Thus, still thinking... Looking forward to not having to deal with traffic Friday when I work at home...it is getting crazier and crazier and when the weather gets worse...watch out! <><

Caved in and downloaded Angry Birds last night on my phone...I feel like the last one to the show, but I am totally addicted.  Austin and I had fun going through the initial levels last night...Balance Ashli Balance...it's all about balance...(keep telling myself that as I reach for the phone again...:)) I am listening to someone tell another co-worker about an email that came out today with a crazy deadline...I am smiling (and sad for this person at the same time) because right before Christmas I advised the person doing the complaining that I had a feeling that it was coming...maybe she will start listening to me :) I did a new FIRM workout this morning.  Crazy moves...it was fun, but it is going to take me a time or two..like the others did...before I am in a groove with it....so glad I re-discovered these workouts...they are right up my alley... We got new carpet at my office, it looks awesome, and because we had to shift the cubicles around to get it put in, our ...

Back to work today...haven't been in the office since 12/23.  They replaced carpet so I worked from home for a few days and then took a week vacation :)  The carpet looks great and they even re-worked my space so that I have more privacy at my workstation.  I have been doing The Firm TransFIRMation workouts for about 10 days now...I love them.  I am starting to notice changes in my body...no pounds lost yet, but I am sure that if I would have measured to begin with, I would notice a decrease in inches...Good stuff! I have stew beef, green beans and ro-tel tomatoes in the crock-pot for dinner tonight...served with rice...yummy! I am trying to find a new project to knit.  I want to knit something big like a sweater this time... I am excited for an upcoming women's retreat I am part of a planning team for at church...should be a great time.  The planning team is a great group of women to work with. I am also looking forward to leading small group ministr...