Why I've Joined TOPS

I had never heard of TOPS before. (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly). Evidently they have been around a long time, since 1948. Who knew?

Well, my neighbor and friend Shonda had heard of them long ago and just recently came across their website. We went and checked it out. It was a little weird at first. The mass of the crowd are 70 year old ladies. They had a pledge they said and a song of encouragement and hand holding during the song, at the end. Not my cup of tea at all. Still, I returned last night and Shonda and I joined. Why?

Well, because I simply cannot afford Weight Watchers which averages 40 dollars a month. This group is 26 for a year membership and 8 bucks a month. When they get more people they can lower the monthly to five. That is what most of them are. This one just was not making the rent on the building.

I am joining because I need the accountability for my yo-yo health goals. You do weigh in each time and the meetings are once a week. You do have to say if you lost or gained and if you lost they clap for you and if you gained they chant "we're glad you're here". Yes, I was employing my sense of humor. :)

Last night it was more fun and I actually enjoyed being around all these elderly ladies. I don't hang out in that crowd very often. There are a few men in there to and a few in their 50's but Shonda and I are a definite dive down on the average age scale.

Many have come and gone out of the TOPS group and gained every time they left. Another is an example to them all as she joined 25 years ago, met her goal, and has attended to maintain for the remaining years. She has stayed within her range that whole time. That range would be no more than three lbs above your goal, and no more than seven lbs under.

So, I'm taking the plunge. It sure helps to keep you focused. I'm going to keep an exercise meter in mileage on the blog.

There site is here if anyone is interested.

Sardines For Breakfast

My dad was eating a lot of sardines when he was fighting cancer. Turns out they are one of the healthiest little cheap foods you can eat.
I've been talking to a lot of people who really won't get healthy because they just don't like stuff. I'm not a purist, and as I've said, I gag at bragging about being pure in diet, but if it's in your budget and making your life better why not give it a try. So, I've been trying to narrow down some superfoods that we can afford. I'm tired of life in a bottle or pill so I'm thinking, if I'm going to eat anyway, why not adjust my pallet to the things that I'd supplement to get benefit from anyway. Other wise you end up eating bad (which may cost you a lot to do anyway with processed foods, and pre-packaged, or chemically stabilized etc.) and then spending tons of money on vitamis. I guess you could say I'm looking for a bang for my buck.
This morning I had a weird craving for sardines and crackers for breakfast! What can I say, I walked an hour and was feeling outdorsie. I always keep some sardines for earthquake type emergencies. I pulled some out and then began to wonder if I was killing my diet by having them. I googled it and that's when I started to understand why it was recommended to my dad to eat. Look at this! We women need b-12 a lot, Vitamin D a lot, and Calcium a lot. Look at those levels! 150% of your B-12, 120% of your D, and 24% (some brands have more) for your Calcium! Look on the link at the great fatty acids and omegas too! And it's so cheap! That wedge of lemon looks so good, I think I'll try it next time. BTW, my fears of going off my diet were crazy when I found out that they are helpful in weight loss. Protein in general is needed more in our diets.

Just one tip. Don't look down too much while you are eating.

The problem is getting over how it looks. I have them on about six saltine crackers because the pinch of salt makes them better. I am going to look into other ways to have them. My kids even sometimes like them with crackers but I usually have to salt them a bit.

Other things I'm adding:

-Hummus (I've been doing for a while but now it's the only thing I'll dip my veggies in or put on my sandwich)

-Berries- Frozen Strawberries and Blueberries are on my list for shopping this next paycheck.

-Sweet Potatoes- I'm exploring how to get this into our diet more.

-Cooked Kale Greens- Just keep forgetting they are out there. We've had them before and liked them but I just forget.

-Sweet Red Pepper- We've done it before but I'm upping the amounts because it's a very healthy veggie the kids like.

-Spinach- starting to use it more in salads. My kids actually like it raw in salad and cooked in dips.

-Green Tea- Keeping a warm pot for the afternoon when I don't feel like drinking water because I'm cold but I need fluids. Use the rest for dinner over ice and with lemon.

Any ideas for more super foods on a budget?

NOTE: I realize this should have been over at my Good, Better, Best blog but I thought it was too interesting to get lost in the shuffle. Maybe I'll copy it over there. :)

My New Favorite Sandwich

Some of you know I'm trying hard to cut certain foods. I've cut out cheese and am trying not to do mayo. So, I have a new favorite Sandwich. It is SOOOOOO good.
It's just thin ham, hummus, lettuce and sliced cucumber. A little bit of comfort in a world of self deprivation!
The hummus serves the creamy that the cheese and mayo would give and the cucumber gives a lot of moisture. I personally had it on TJ's flourless multi-grain bread which is my favorite.
It would be good with a cooked portabella too but I don't buy those usually.

It's Two Miles and I'll Take It!

Yeah! Drum roll in my head right now.....

I am back on the monster (my not-so-loving pet name for the treadmill). Triumphantly finished two miles. I have been at my half way point in this weight loss (baby fat I call it nicely) goal for a long time. The last two months have been distracting! Yesterday I turned our last school stuff to the teacher, today I fill out paperwork for next year and I can turn to other goals! I was so glad to walk just the two miles!

My friend and neighbor, Shonda, is starting the Arbonne system too. She wanted to set up a wager and so we have. Four week challenge, winner gets 80 bucks, looser gets 20. That way, the looser does not get discouraged and is somewhat rewarded too! I'm happy to say, the eight week challenge in January really worked great for me (lost 19-20 lbs) and I won it! So, my prize that I picked was 150$ worth of Arbonne product. We started the new challenge today.

Good news is that in this time I have not gained anything except some water weight. That's encouraging and speaks much of the Arbonne system. (ask me if you have questions) Yet, a key ingredient for me is the exercise. It's crucial.

After we break in July and half of August (we are supposed to be going on vacation...if our car gets fixed well enough), we start another four week challenge. I have about 20lbs to go to my final goal. It feels good to say it's only 20 lbs.

Time To Jump Into May

Thank you Kristen for discussing Bronte/Austen with me, LOL. That was fun. I was thinking when I was done responding how wonderful it is that we can have opinions on temporal things and yet it does not affect our love for the brethren because we have bigger fish to fry!

Namely, eternity!

So, May is dedicated to Heaven. Yes, I will putter around about everyday things too. But Heaven will be in my heart this month and therefore on my fingertips (rather than tongue:). Oh, the joy set before us! I start to ache inside and my chest starts to feel like it will burst when I think of heaven. I love how John Piper talks to his daughter about heaven. She honestly says that she does not want to go until she gets married. That was me. I even told God that. "Lord, I love you but I want to get married and have babies first!". I seemed to think that was better than heaven and something heaven can wait for. In my naivety I did not understand that the sin nature is a battle all the way through those stages of life and the same struggle I had to obey my parents then, would be the struggle to obey God the rest of my life. What I did not understand was that this is not a burden, but a joyful privilege! I am just beginning to understand these truths and God is showing me how he wants me to have the joy of heaven in the everyday life as well. But that's a rabbit trail.

So, I now burst for heaven, I long for it like nothing else. Longing for heaven is longing for Jesus. The last year I have related to Mary who poured her perfume on his feet and just longed to stay there. I long to be with my Savior. How deep my love has grown for Him! Not the iconic Jesus of religion, the Jesus of the universe, the creator and sustainer of my every breath! The giver of my joy, the helper and teacher of my heart (by way of His Holy Spirit), the holder of my purified position before the Father. My Jesus! Heaven is you!

And so much more...... that is what I want to talk about this month.

If anyone wants to read along with me, I will be reading Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven". I will be reading 16 pages a day and reflecting on scripture about heaven that is presented. Alcorn is a great C.S. Lewis fan and parallels a great deal with the imagery of the Narnia Chronicles. So, for fun I will also be reading those to the kids. I look forward to another run through them and especially "The Last Battle" which is so wonderful a parallel of heaven. Lewis GOT heaven. John Piper has said that Alcorn "Gets" heaven, and I agree. Even his wonderful reflections are not near the surface of the reality awaiting us:

" THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM." 1 Cor 2:9

If you can get excited about what has been revealed to man's heart.... oh, how excited you would be if you knew fully! I don't think our brains now could handle it.

So, walk with me....

Today I start my two month dedication back on the Figure 8 system and hour a day of walking. I commit to it because we are on break and that is a better time. I have 20lbs left to loose. I will be starting up another accountability site for those interested in joining me in similar goals and needing accountability. It will be a password site private only to the sisters who are struggling!:)

I'll come back here and let you know when it's going. I will continue to update my meters here and will be re-setting the walking back to zero. I covet prayers. I long to pray for others who are working on these goals.

"Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor." Ecc 4:9

(Looking at this pic above reminds me of an experience I had the other day. I walked out of Albertson's and there was a dark sky with a brilliant rainbow. Everyone in the parking lot was looking up at it. There was not alternative, it screamed out in glory! I thought to myself "what do they think when they see it?" "Do they hear God crying out 'I'm Here, and I love you! I've made a way! I plan to keep my promises!" Or do they see a scientific chance meeting of molecules. Sadly, I think it's the later.

Don't forget to do the polls on the side bar! Thank you!

(And don't forget to share a favorite recipe for The Cupboard on this post)

This Journey I'm On

I've been learning a lot the past week about baby steps to change. I'm not big on change inwardly. I love outward change, spontaneous moves to shake things up a bit, adventures, but get me down to the inside of me and my habits and you've hit a brick wall. Yeah God that He is stronger than my will!
(if you don't want to hear my story, you can skip down to the important stuff)
I have struggled with weight ever since my first pregnancy. I never dreamed I would, I was so skinny. I have no younger siblings, and I was never around pregnant women having babies (or if I was, I was too much of a tom-boy to notice). When we conceived Princess on our honeymoon I was not fearful at all. I was not fearful because I had not a clue what was going to happen to my body. I remember the day like it was yesterday ,that I looked in the mirror at six months pregnant and freaked out because overnight I developed all these purple streaks accross my previously newlywed hips! I called my mom. "What are these!?" I asked, feeling like I'd been taken over by something. "Honey, those are called stretch marks." And so my life began to change forever. Would I have gone back? No, I loved that I was expecting, but the shock of what was happening to me was hard.

I also took an attitude of "pregnancy liberty" when it came to food. If I craved a cheeseburger (or three) I ate them. If I wanted a Snickers bar, Rick ran across the street to fetch. Neither of us knew what we were doing. I was one of those dumb women who thought that someone removed the cushions magically at the hospital and I would still come home in my size six jeans and tiny knitted top. Oh, poor naive girl that I was!

I gained fifty lbs. Only ten were gone when I came home with my beautiful baby girl. She was seven point nine of them. I was not too worried, I was enjoying my fullness in other areas that I had never had before, and I was distracted by babyhood. I went from "pregnancy liberty" to "nursing liberty" with my eating and was almost worse because I was so hungry all the time. The hunger was of course, for carbs. Again, I had never been close to anyone who had been through this that I could glean wisdom from. Exercise became less and less an option with each pregnancy because I was so sick w/ Lilo and then on bed rest, and again on three months bedrest w/ Superkid. I felt like a beached whale at the end of his. That was a precious time for me though as I spent time leaning on the Lord and talking to my baby boy through the day as we were left home by ourselves to rest. He would wiggle, I would talk, good times.

I'm not making excuses for my weight gain; I just want to visit where my mindset was so I can praise God for how much He has taught me since then.

When Princess was about 26 months old, I decided to focus heavily on regaining my health. Rick's friend and Sister were both getting married up north and my mom said she would take me shopping for a whole suit dress outfit if I reached my goal weight. I did it but with the help of the then popular "Metabolife". Now of course, it's main ingredient "ephedra" (sp?) has been banned. It worked but made me very jittery all the time and a little cranky even.

I dropped near thirty lbs and enjoyed it for two-three months until.......yes, I got pregnant. I was happy to be so, we had been trying for eight months. Lilo's pregnancy was different. I did not eat as much but I was also very ill the whole way. Still with bad nausea and eventually weeks on end of bronchitis, I still at the end put that glorious fifty on. Oh, the magic of hormones!

Ever since then I have not been able to focus enough to go back down that thirty or so lbs. I have gone down ten to fifteen and up again many times but I have not put change into my lifestlye enough for a return to healthy weight.

The me before kids did not crave things. I was not a big eater and believe it or not I did not like sweets too much. Rich foods I could only handle a bite of. I attribute this to the way I was raised w/o sugar and on whole foods. I didn't like it much, but it did have an effect on my health. Pregnancy, and marriage to a chocolate/all sweets lover changed my metabolism in a drastic way.

So, now that my mom is paying the money for me to use the Arbonne Figure 8 system. I am feeling like I need to be a good steward of her money and give her a good return for her investment. It's good because it gives me a drive to focus. My personality requires an all or nothing stance for big change. I don't really like that I'm this way, I would rather be more consistent and patient, but I'm learning these along the way too. Exercise is my largest bane. I was never athletic...NEVER. Yet, to make a great change it is so important. Not only does it get my body into the mode it needs to be, it also releases those endorphins that help my mood and stamina in the day with the kids and even my responses to my husband. It's crutial and yet so hard to do.

I'd like to share what the Lord is teaching me if you'll let me. I've been wanting to write these out for myself but you may find it useful if the Lord has been laying similar things on your heart.
Steps in the Journey:
1. Prayer- "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." Psalm 37:4-
I need to pray about this as any other area of my life. I pray over homeschool, groceries, marriage, parenting, money......why would I not pray about health? My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so God is very interested in what I'm doing to damage it or make it strong. He want's to be involved and leading as in everything else. The desire of my heart is to get to a healthy weight, I delight that He is with me, I trust HIM to do this in HIS time. I pray that my motives will remain pure, and I pray for all the following items trusting His Sovereign will and His Holy Spirit's aid.
2. Prioritize- I need to map out what is priority. I need to do this often because it changes. Some things always stay at the top but many others fluctuate. Different seasons of life create different priorities for different people. This may not be on the front burner all the time, but let's try to keep it on the stove shall we?! This is a crucial step that involves step #1. Why? Because my priorities may not be God's and so I need to seek Him. When our kids are little we don't have as much time for this. Ask God to show you how and if He want's you to take this time. It may only be ten minutes, but if it is that, it's a start. You may also have to put this above napping, reading or TV time for a while until you get closer back on track.
3. Plan- "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time." That is a good quote for me. Planning is not my strong point because I have a spontaneous personality. I have finally come to peace with the fact that, in general, I am not a scheduled person. I am however learning to find a routieen. I like routieen because it can move inside time and really is more like a process of accomplishing priorities, which is why step #2 is crucial before this step. Timing is everything, and so it is true with this. For me, morning is crutial during this intense time of kicking off my goals (what I mean by that is that I am committing this two months to really stress this area of my life so that I can firmly develop some healthy habits- again this is an aspect of my rather intense personality and may not be the best for someone else), later I may find that I can fit it in anywhere. If I do the morning, it's done. I am not a morning person so I am praising God that he is doing a work in me in this area. I get up to have coffee w/ Rick, see he gets off to work w/ all he needs, spend some quiet time w/ the Lord, and then exercise.
Another planning need is food. This is crucial because if I don't have a plan, it's easier to grab the nearest thing which is usually corn chips and peanut butter and jelly.
4. Prepare- This is where I need to remove obstacles both mental and physical that will stop me and bring in what is helpful to the goal. Examples: Make my time, their time. My kids like to wake up slow so it works good for me to be ready w/ something for them to watch at about seven am when I am ready to walk. This is their only TV time so it becomes special to them which makes them want to sit still. (You may have different circumstances such as tiny ones where this is not as easy especially if you don't have older children able to watch them in a playpen or whatever- so, here you refer back to what your priorities were and perhaps give up your nap or part of it so you can walk while the littles nap, and the olders watch) The best way may be for you to exercise with your children (this does not work for me, a treadmill is better because it removes a lot of obstacles like weather, kids don't feel good, etc. Don't think that money has to be a hindarance either, I bought mine for 10$ at a garage sale and it works great). I am preparing good viewing as well. This includes educational or biblical themes. That way they are watching and getting something. Yesterday they watched the IMAX "Deep Sea" movie from the library and it was beautiful. Veggie Tales, Superbook, Greatest Bible Adventures (Hannah Barbara series), National Geographic's (or Christian versions), Boz the Bear, all are good choices.
Get on the library computer system and you'll be amazed what you can find.
Preparing myself means I don't shower till I'm done walking (is that preparing or the lack there of?:*). I exercise in my pj's w/ the only change being a sports bra added. That way I don't dirty up more sweaty laundry. Nightgowns not recommended :)
It also means favorite music. I made a CD from songs (many of which were on last month's playlist)that mean a lot to me and get me moving. I always end up having a worshipful time because of the music I choose. I would be happy to mail anyone a copy of this CD (it is formulated for exercise but is also great for housework or driving) if you email me- my treat.
5. Push (yourself)- I encourage my girls to do their school and clean their room even when they don't want to. I need to do that for getting on that treadmill. I may not want to for the first 20 min even (as was the case this morning) but I always get felling better as my body adjusts, and I'm ALWAYS glad I did it when I get off. This is a great testimony to my kids that mommy is pushing herself for what is good just as I'm asking them to do. I can also let them know I'm in prayer to have the strength of the Holy Spirit.
Pushing yourself includes you pallet (your tastebuds) as well. I push my kids to eat their healthy foods, should I not push me too!? Hey, if the bushmen in Africa can adjust to grub worms then I can switch to mustard only on my sandwich w/o complaint. Their tongue is the same as mine.
6. Patience- I have to remember that this is a journey, not a "beam me up Scotty" sort of thing. Results take time. Some are immediate: I feel energized, I think more clearly etc. Others take patience. If I went to MacDonald's and downed 12 double cheese burgers I would not be 10 lbs. heavier when I walked out the door. Eventually it would show up. Taking it off is the same way. I cannot expect to get off the treadmill, go look in the mirror and be amazed.
I have to also be patient w/ the change of plans. What I want to do may not work out and I need to be okay with that. This brings me back to step #1.
7. Persevere- Here is where I fail. I get interrupted by life and fail to get back on track. This also brings me to #1. A good support group is necessary. My husband is very supportive in helping me if he can but I am also need accountability to someone. "Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor" Ecclesiastes 4:9 I have learned from experience to go to someone who is strong enough to tell you the truth and is just as committed to the goals as you are.
8. Praise- I need to remember to praise God for every step toward improvement in this journey. I have to remember that this is not MY work, it is HIS. I have to lean heavily on the Holy Spirit and obey His convictions. I have to open my eyes to see what God has done and thank Him for it. He is the vine, I am the branch, and apart from Him I can do nothing. I find that my exercise time becomes a wonderful time of reflecting on the Lord. My music helps with that. I find myself praising him that I'm even on the darn thing to begin with.