How about a weekly recap?

Before I fill you in on my quick recap I must share these images from the the sunset this evening!

First, these pictures do it NO justice. Second, how can anyone look at all these marvelous colors and doubt in a magnificent, powerful God!

Ok, on to the real purpose of this Saturday night blog post. 

How was my week?

I got 8 walks in for a total of 19.5 miles! That may not seem like a lot to some, but for me that is pretty awesome. I have the added incentive of a step challenge at work. I have no idea what the prizes are and honestly, I don't care. That isn't what motivates me. I signed up so I would have to write down my steps each day and turn them in to someone. Regardless of how well I do compared to others, I don't want to turn in "lazy" numbers. I even got over 15,000 steps one day this week! That's a new fitbit record for me. Next week however will not quite be the same, I have to attend a two day meeting for work out of town, so I know I can count on lots of driving an sitting. But, I'll figure out next week when it gets here, as for this week I think I've done well. I'm not too worried about my pace each walk because the majority of my evening walks involve two large dogs who enjoy a more leisurely stroll. I try to get in a few longer walks a week without them, or go back for a little extra afterwards.

 I have also even been giving "jogging" a shot, I use the term loosely as its pace would easily be a fast walk for most. I nearly did a lap of jogging tonight without stopping. I think if it hadn't been for that amazing sunset I probably would have done it, however I did stop a couple of times to try to get a perfect shot, it was just changing so much with each passing minute I couldn't stop ooooing and awwing. I think this cooler weather will help a lot with this goal. Unfortunately along with this cooler weather comes shorter nights so I'm going to have to get a little more creative with when and how I get my walks in.

What did you do this week?

Makeover!

I have been completely neglecting my poor blog lately. This whole working mom thing is just consuming all of my time. If I'm not working there are games, practices, laundry, working out and other chores that need to be done. Not that I think you don't know that and deal with the same thing. It's just that for the past four years, I really didn't have to deal with that. Working part time allowed me time to get everything done in a timely fashion and well, I kind of liked it like that. But back to my poor blog. I felt kind of bad for not having touched in over a month so I I decided it could use a makeover.

As I've mentioned dozens of times lately, back in June 2013 it became very clear to me that God was insisting I begin taking better care of myself. It's been a very slow process. But I've never given up. (I hit the 60 pound down mark this week!) I've struggled with whether or not to share my successes and my struggles or to muddle through the journey just me and Jesus. And for now my mind says share everything! That was the original point of the blog anyway. To help me from maybe oversharing things people don't care about on other social media sites. It's an outlet people can choose whether or not they want to click on the link and find out more. (So if you're reading this... Thanks for clicking the link!)

But lately I've been struggling a whole lot. Not with the food and fitness part of getting healthy. But the making sure God is in control part of the journey. And this is easily the most important part of the journey. I just keep asking myself; How can I be messing this part up? Yet I don't do much else to address the problem.Without the spiritual part of the journey, without God's guidance, this journey is pointless. So after completing a three week challenge group with some fun people on Facebook, I decided I do so much better at anything when I have an outlet to share and keep me accountable.

So welcome to my new made over blog. I'm hoping this new focus on faith, my faith, and fitness, will help me desire the spiritual part of this journey more and more. I pray that this will also be encouraging to someone else. My posts now will primarily focus on my journey to get healthy and hopefully you'll stick with me for this part of the journey. I'm sure I'll toss in many other tidbits about life along the way so even if fitness bores you, go ahead and check in once in awhile. As we head into fall working out and healthy eating becomes so much more difficult for me. Fruits and veggies aren't in season any more. There are so many yummy comfort foods and baked goods I enjoyed making. The weather gradually becomes iffier. The day gets shorter and eventually it'll be dark when I go to work and when I get home. BUT... I am not giving up. I am not in a hurry. I refuse to give up.

I'm 10 pounds away from halfway and that is providing me with lots of motivation right now. However I realize it may take me until the end of the year to get there. Unfortunately I looked back and it took me over 4 months to lose the last ten. I just kept losing the same 5-10 pounds over and over. Every time I've lost weight before that would have been the end. I would have made peace with staying there. That peace would have eventually led to slowly gaining it all back and more. It has taken much prayer to not let myself accept where I was. I used to hate walking, but I've slowly learned to love it, especially since I went back to work. It is a garuanteed time to get quiet and talk to God. I need that! Even though I'm struggling, He still listens. He still speaks. He is still in control.