A new season of fitness....and healthy eating!

We are almost two months into 2015 and I wonder where you are with some of your goals for the year. In the beginning of this year I posted about my goals for this year relating to my writing. Those goals are going well and I am learning more and more each day. Another goal I made this year was in relation to my overall health. I didn't share it at the beginning of the year because it was something that I needed to do for me and not share it with others. I am heading into the end of my 40's, the final year coming too soon, and I was as heavy as I was with my heaviest pregnancy. I haven't exercised, other than some walking with friends, in years. I had joined a gym last year with the intention of getting healthier, I failed.

A scripture kept coming to me that made me think deeply about becoming healthier..."Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" 1Corinthians 6:19 If the Holy Spirit lives in me then I need to take care of the vessel He has chosen to dwell in.

In the fall I had seen a fellow baseball wife (who is much younger!) post about her new workout adventure and how she was loving it. She loved it so much that she became a coach and was promoting a Challenge Group that she would be running in January. My exact message to her on FaceBook was "Do you have space in your challenge on Jan 5??? Need to get my fat butt motivated!!!"

I ordered the program and on January 5th I started the #21DayFix by Beach Body. I have bought many programs and joined many gyms and have never followed through with it to reach my goals. On the very first day I knew this program was better than many others that I have done. First and foremost is the Eating Plan that comes with a book to describe options and containers to measure the portions. Then I turned on the 30 minute video. So many times I turn on a video that says it is only XX minutes and they don't tell you there is a 10 minute warm up and another 10 minute cool down. I was SHOCKED that it was actually 30 minutes!!!!!!!! I chose at that time to do the videos with the goal of doing better today than I did yesterday. Each day I get stronger and increase my endurance.

The exercises during the 30 minute videos can be adapted to your experience, tolerance and ability without feeling guilty that you are not 'good enough' to do the exercises. I modified some of the exercises but felt like it had been a great workout! Day 2 was equally challenging and fulfilling as were the rest of the workouts over the next few days.

I used the portion controlled cups to measure the amount of food I could have each day and never felt deprived. I worked out and was too sore to sit down and get back up, but I kept at it. I was not perfect in my eating, having Hooter wings twice in the first 21 days. However, I never cheated more than a few times and those times I stayed in control of portions. This program was creating healthy habits and I was enjoying it!!!! But was it working???

Before the first day I had weighed myself and taken measurements along with pictures. During the first couple of weeks I put on a pair of jeans I hadn't worn in two years and they fit!!!!! I weighed myself daily, because it works for me this way, and the pounds were decreasing! After the first round of the 21 days my life was crazy and I didn't take the time to calculate the inches but when I did, shocked!!!

In all I lost 10 pounds and 11 inches!!!!! SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!

I hope that your New Year's goals are going well. I hope that you have made a commitment to you and want to better you. Are you doing something today better than you did yesterday? Make it your goal to find one thing to do better today than yesterday and commit to it!

Cleaning out....

Well it's that time of year for our house, Spring Training report date is within a week. This is the time where I begin to frantically check off items of to-do's that I listed at the end of the last baseball season. The things I wanted done over the winter that I cannot do by myself.

The problem seems to happen every year, we live life instead of checking off our lists. We do get some things done but leave some until the end of the offseason. This sends me into a frantic 'let's get this done' mindset. This year it was the garage. Some how our clean out of the garage last year didn't look so clean this year. Items had begun to seep into the middle of the garage making it look cluttered and messy. I like an orderly garage!

So I begged the hubby to let's take two days to clean the garage before his departure. Being such a love he agreed, we set aside two free days and got to work. It began easily as we began to take out the interlopers that were hanging around in the middle of the garage. We swept the floor and pulled more out. Once we cleared the things that were in the middle of the garage we could see what a great job we did last year in organizing things in boxes and baskets. The problem came when we began to open some of those boxes and baskets to clean out even more things.

What looked like the above picture a year or more ago was now neatly packed into a box for each kid with their name on it. There were other boxes that had extra plates, glasses and mugs. In each of the boxes there were things from the years of raising children. Each flowing over with memories and stories. Could I get rid of some of these things to make room on the shelves? No I couldn't.

I am coming to the end of my tenure as a stay at home mom. My baby boy will be leaving in the fall to attend New York University. My oldest son is playing professional baseball in the minor leagues and my middle son is finishing his senior year of University and is stressing over the Medical School admissions process. I am very proud of all three of my boys successes and how well they are doing in life. However, that does not prepare me for the next season of my life.

On August 29th when I move my youngest into his dorm my tenure as a stay at home mom ceases. I am not ready at this time to say goodbye to the memories that those boxes hold. I thank God that my hubby understood and in his quiet way returned the boxes to the shelves where they will be safe until the day I can confront the memories and get rid of the 101 Dalmatians plate that has lost a bit of its coloring or the Willie the Sparrow VHS tape that broke but I couldn't dispose of the memory of the hours spent watching with three little boys in my lap and on the arm of the chair, or the plastic red, blue and green cup that they drank out of, or the drawings, pictures and handprints.

For now I have done all the cleaning out I can do. The memories will stay in a safe place until I am ready to wallow in the memories of my babies while relishing in the pride of who they have become.....My quiver is full and I am blessed....

"Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man 
whose quiver is full of them."

Psalm 127:3-4

Doing for others....

Why do we do things for others? Search deep in your heart and truly question why you do things for others? Is it because if you do something for them they will do something for you? Is it because you think they will promote you to others or within your job? Is it to feel good about yourself? Is it for something in return....for a better gift?

How does it feel when you know someone is doing something for you because of the reasons that are listed in the above questions? I know it breaks my heart. Doing something for someone because of selfish intent is a hurtful action. When we do things that benefit us we forget the reason we should be doing good FOR others.

We should do for others because we are children of God. We are His beloved. He first loved us. Experiencing the grace that He has given us allows us to exercise the same love. We cannot love if we are not convinced of God's love for us. Be careful to not do for others out of selfish intent but as God has cared for us.

We are His children! Spread the love that He has so graciously placed in your heart. Don't look for what you can get out of it or how others will react to the love you show. Love because God loves you. Love as if you can lose nothing important. You can't! You have His love once you accept Him and become His child. That cannot be lost! Now take that love and spread it lavishly, pleasing God and God only! Seek to please God when you seek to do something for someone else and only Him.

Are there areas of your life where you can reevaluate how you are doing things for others? What can you do without any thought of yourself only of how pleasing it will be to God? Have there been times when you have done something for someone else expecting a certain reaction and you don't receive it? If not then you don't have kids ;)

The Hardest Job...

When I believe I have a hold on THE HARDEST JOB, 

I find that something new comes about, I learn something!

Growing up I wanted to be a nurse. I began volunteering as a Candy Striper at the hospital at age 11. I figured out a way to continue to volunteer during the school year in the Emergency Room. I saw things no teenager should see or experience. I saw the death of a friend of our family, actually helped take him to the morgue. I was taken 'hostage' in the enclosed nursing station by a drunk driver that had sent a family to the trauma hospital. He had only a cut on his chin from the accident. A police officer subdued him for my safety leaving another cut and the police officer with a broken hand. Even through the traumatic situations in the ER my love grew for Nursing and I graduated with a BSN from Florida Atlantic University, with honors! I became an ICU nurse and had many more interesting experiences.

In 1988 I became the wife of my wonderful husband followed by becoming a mother the first time in 1990. I stepped away from full time  hospital nursing when my second son was two years old and did a variety of positions as a nurse. I became a full time wife and mother. With my hubby's job and crazy travel and moving my job was family manager. We have lived in more than 12 different places in three countries, I handled all of the transactions. During this time I have been to more than a million baseball fields in about a million areas (ok just a little exaggeration but not too much with a hubby in baseball and all three boys playing!).

But no matter the craziness of my nursing career or the craziness of being a family manager THE HARDEST JOB of all has been being a Mother. I love my boys (men) and I love their individual personalities and their talents. What I don't love about THE HARDEST JOB is that each and every time you believe you are ahead of a possible issue something else comes up to bite you in the butt!!!! When they are doing well in school you think, I've got this. Then you get a note from the school that they have detention. When they are excelling in sports and you think they are finally in a groove, they get a new coach. When they are hanging around a good group of friends and you think their character is growing in a new and delightful way, they end up getting in trouble for doing something stupid with said group of friends. When they are strong in their faith and you believe it will never falter, they meet someone that encourages them to question God and His existence.

Now that I am coming to the end of my run as a full time mother at home holding everything together as best I can, I have begun reflecting on all the things I really didn't have a handle on. I have found that no matter what I try to control that things still go in a direction that I never thought it would. In these times of thinking I was in control of THE HARDEST JOB there was something that I totally forgot about and only remembered when I 'failed'.

"He says, "Be still and know that I am God,"" Psalm 46:10a 

I am not God!!!!!!!!!  He loves my children so much more than I do or even can. He has the path laid out for my children's future and He will succeed in prospering them in what He wants them to prosper in. I have learned, during this impending Empty Nest, that I need to rely on Jesus more and me less. I need to embrace Him more and me less. I need to love Him more and release my children to Him as I have many times before but this time not take them back, leave them to Him.

What is your hardest job? What are you holding on to tighter than you are holding on to God? What can you begin to do now to release that to God and let Him be the Mighty Him that only He can be?