Asking the right questions

I remember, back in elementary learning about the 5 W’s plus H. They were: Who, What, Where, Why, and How. These were the important questions you were to answer when writing an article or paper on something.

For months I have been asking God what am I suppose to be doing with my life. And for months I have felt like God has been silent on the whole issue. Then just recently, like a lightening bolt, the answer hit me–I am suppose to be glorifying God and bringing him honor. Wow, just like that I had answered what. However, I still felt a little like, um okay God, what does that look like.

Then it occurred to me. Maybe I was asking the wrong question. Maybe I wasn’t to ask What but How? Yes, that is the new question I am praying. And while I believe I have the answer, I’m stilling praying about it for now.

So are you asking for the right question for whatever you are wondering about?

Just because

Honestly, I know I don’t use this and I really have no rhyme or reason for writing this post.  But I came here to this site that I’ve had for so long and just felt I needed to write something.  Anything.  Just because.  I had no idea until I looked back at my history how many posts I had actually created on here.  Nor how long I had actually had this blog.  And so here I am writing this just because post.

Intentional

It’s time.  It’s time to explain what I meant when I said “I don’t want To be at the end of February and feel like I have not done anything for the first 2 months of the year”

By now I’m sure you have seen people post about their “one word” for the year.  I’ve seen it for a few years now but never felt compelled to have one.  Until this year.  This year as 2015 was going out and 2016 was rolling in I felt the word Intentional contininuing to roll through and around my mind.  I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it though.  I could definately see areas that it could apply to in my life but I wasn’t sure about sharing it or making a fuss about it.  Still as January came to a close and I felt like all the day to day stuff kept me living in the moment instead of seeing the big picture I knew that I had to do something about.

According to the American College Dictionary:

Intentional- adjective-done with intention or on purpose

It’s pretty simple and yet, not so much.  It’s so easy to live in the day to day hassles and in the blink of an eye the month, the season, the year is gone.  Well meaning loved ones with years of wisdom and experience will often tell a new mom not to blink because that baby she is hold will be grown-up just that fast.  Oh we as new mothers don’t see it, not until it’s too late anyways but it’s true.  We are so caught up on at first changing diapers and sleepless nights that we long for the days that we get 4 hours of sleep at one shot or don’t need to carry an arsenal of baby gear for a simple outing to the grandparents house. But whoosh, oh so quickly those days are gone and we can’t have them back and we can’t undo the wrongs or make better the bad.

So where am I going with this.  As I said, I felt the intentional rattling around my brain a lot and knew I needed to apply it to most if not all aspects of my life.  Intentional in my marriage, my child-rearing/homeschooling, my job/career choices, even my choice to have a healthier life style.  The old saying goes if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.  I don’t want that to continue to be my habit.  And yes, old habits die hard, but I don’t want 2016 to slip away and at the end I simply say I survived another year.  No, no, I want to say I thrived, my marriage is thriving, my children are thriving because we are doing intentional things to make it so.

Please hear me on this also, there is a difference between having good intentions and being intentional.  I won’t bring up the old say about good intentions but suffice to say, I know this is something that has to have follow through or alas I will be no better off.

Time for another healthy habits update

So another week has quickly gone by, how did that happen?  So where am I this week?  Well, I’m pretty happy with what I accomplished the past few days.

For the most part I have stuck to my goal of having at least 2 THM approved meals a day normal an approved snack too.  I’m still struggling with dinner and after dinner time especially nights I work.  But this is a journey and so far I’m happy with the changes I have made.

I also have exercised 5 times this week!  Yep, I’m feeling that in various muscles.  I did however quit New Rules of lifting for  women.  I’m just not there yet and instead of getting discouraged about I dope died to start fitness blender low impact program allowing for sometimes doing different cardio than theirs.  I felt challenged and yet not so beat up that I kept going all week and feel like I can complete this program.

Like I said, overall a good week.

Healthy habits update

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So I missed posting last week.  I had a post all started, see

But I never got it finished.  Currently, I start things on my tablet and then finish them on the desktop which is shared by 7 of us.  Needless to say, I’m praying for my own laptop and I think that will be one of my first purchases with my affiliate sales money (if I ever make any money that way 😉).

So I guess you could say the with Winter Jonas I really just settled nicely into my hobbit hole and enjoyed the comforts of my pantries.  At the same time though, I knew it wasn’t what I was suppose to be doing and be came more convinced of getting back on track.  I have decided on trying trim healthy mama after enjoying a few recipes from their new cookbook.  I’m working on reading through their new book and am going to take the baby step approach of getting like one meal under my belt and then adding another meal and snack or something along those lines.  I knew at the beginning of the year that this was a journey and not just a  day outing.  So I’m going to take my time and make adjustments slowly and steadily.

I have gotten back into my exercising.  I’m shooting for 5 out of 7 days in a week.  I’m going for weight lifting and cardio.  So far I’m doing well with it.  I added a new workout video to my collection and have a few more in my sights.  Variety is the spice of life after all.  I am attempting to follow a lifting program.  I hesitate to share what it is but this is to help be stay accountable so here it is.  I’m attempting to follow the New Rules for Lifting.  I had attempted it a few years ago and got through like stage 2 or 3 before bombing out.  (That’s about when I felt I was lacking variety- yes, I get bored very easily with some stuff, what can I say) .

So there’s my plan.  I don’t want To be at the end of February and feel like I have not done anything for the first 2 months of the year.  There’s more to that sentence but I’ll share more about that in another post.

Week 3 update

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I didn’t want to write this post.  I want to be honest with you and to be honest with you have to be honest about how my week was.  Short story my week was horrible.

Last week I shared about hitting a few bumps but still being in the wagon and moving forward.  Well, those bumps caught up to me and bumped me out of the wagon and into a hole.

Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort

—J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit

Yes, that is how I feel.  I have fallen back into my comfortable little hobbit hole complete with pantries.  As I reflected on this past week, I realized how much I could relate this story to The Hobbit.  After all, Bilbo was quite happy to live in his hobbit hole, never leaving the shire.  Gandalf invited complete strangers to his house which made poor Bilbo so uncomfortable he was beside himself and very sure he wouldn’t go on the journey.  But then, then something change and he left in such haste that he even forgot a pocket hanky.

I wanted a picture of a hobbit hole for here but this will have to do.

I need to leave my hobbit hole and the shire of poor eating and unhealthy habits and head into a land that although unknown, has to lead to a change in me.  And we all know that Bilbo wasn’t the same after his journey.

I’m hoping this will be a turning point, that even though it was a rough week, I won’t throw in the towel completely.  I will try to push through and still make changes.  I’m being honest and real here for a few reasons.

1. In this day of social media we see so much of everyone’s “perfect” days, I want others to know they are not alone in their struggles.
2. I’m not sure if anyone reads this but I want what they read here to be what they might hear from me in person if we might talk in person
3. This is just as much for my accountability as it is anything else.

So the only thing that has survived this week is my exercising.  I’m on track to finish the Reach program next Friday.  This is really working on some weak areas in my body so while I’m not seeing any changes yet I do know it’s doing something.  Everything else, well it was left at the door f my hobbit hole.

Until next week, keep putting one foot in front of the other, even if sometimes it’s 2 steps forward and 3 steps back.

Preparing

They are calling for snow in these parts this weekend.  No one is saying any amounts yet but everyone is sure of snow.  The temperatures will certainly stay cold enough for it to stick.  For the last few months I’ve been trying to go grocery shopping once a week on Saturday.  However, knowing of the possibly of snow I don’t foresee that being realistic this week.  So my first thoughts were to go on Thursday.  More consideration on this thought and I decided I didn’t want to be in the grocery store with all my neighbors on Thursday.  So I decided to go today for the stuff I would need to get through the weekend and then I’ll do my regular shopping next Monday or Tuesday.

  
In all of this though I pondered the Proverbs 31 woman. After all, she didn’t have a weather man to tell of the future forecast (not that they are always right anyways) but still, it’s nice to have a heads up.  Really as I’m typing this my mind is drifting far down the path of how she wouldn’t be going to the grocery store anyways, she would have grown and stored her food and meal planning probably wasn’t needed because well, variety wasn’t exactly common.  But I digress.  My original thought was on how she prepared and planned.  I’m sure she had days where she was turning lemons into lemonade but the woman was prepared.  It’s just left me, well, pondering and searching.

She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet Proverbs 31:21

Healthy Habit weekly update #2

So here we are, 2 weeks into the New Year and well, it’s been a rough week.  I knew the weekend would be because the weekend is a different rountine and I planned accordingly.  However, I did not plan for 2 “cheat” days or for starting to feel sick during this week.  So, the oil pulling temporarily has fallen to the way side, not overly upset about that.  The warm lemon water has been, I think a 5/7 so that’s not horrible.  The soda crept in (which is at the very least bad if not horrible) and I think that count came to 2 cans and 1 bottle.  However, I’m not falling off the wagon.  I’m simply taking the bump in the road and moving on.  I know this is a process, and as the old saying goes “Roman wasn’t build in a day.”  Also, despite maybe not liking what it will tell me I have continued to keep track of all that I’m eating using my fitness pal and I have only missed one workout of the Fitness Blender workout program I am using.

Small bunny trail  here-  I love Fitness Blender.  Free workouts for everyone.  You can find a workout video for you whether you are a 10 year couch potatoe or a great althete.  I know I am severely out of shape so I’m starting with their REACH program.  Yes, I paid for the workout plan but I didn’t have to.  The videos are all free, I just wanted a plan to follow.  And trust me, it is still challenging me but in a good way.  My point is don’t let cost or ability be a factor.

And now back to the weekly update.  The scale has moved some since the start of the year but not enough for me to say I actually lost weight.  I would say more that hormones and water has shifted, if that makes sense.  What is changing is my mind set, which is a good thing to startto change.  I could have let my 2 “cheat” days roll into 4, 5, 6… Like before or just thrown in the towel all together like before but I’m not.  I hit a bump but I’m still in the wagon.

Healthy habits update 1

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Well here it is one week into the new year and I can say confidently I have failed at some things but learned from them as well.

First I have failed at the 17 day diet gal’s winter challenge.  Yep it’s only day 2 but I’m pretty sure I’m a drop out.  I tried doing the transistional smoothie day and that bombed.  You see it finally decided to cold here in my neck of the woods and as I run cold to begin with I just couldn’t bring myself to drink cold liquids all day.  Still I tried to shake that off, reminding myself that it was optional and the first day of the challenge would be different.  Umm yeah, that was a fail too.  Lots went wrong and I learned from them but I just couldn’t get over them.  I have decided I need to learn to deal with some of my triggers first before I go on such a restrictive diet.  I don’t want to blow something and then best myself up and “medicate” with food for the screw up.  So I’m not continuing with the challenge right now.

However, not everything is a failure.  I have been starting my day with warm lemon water.  I learned about this many years ago through a book study.  I can’t say I feel any different doing it but it has seems to help break the soda habit.  Which leads to my next healthy habit break through – I haven’t had a soda of any kind since Sunday.  I was starting my day with ginger ale and then sometimes having a Coke too.  I must say that I would really like one right now but I’m trying to resist.  Also I have started oil pulling.  Yeah, I don’t know.  It certainly isn’t something I purposely looked up or anything.  It was more I saw it several times on my Pinterest feed, read a few times and thought, eh what the heck, we will give it a try and see what happens.  I know my teeth are less then healthy and if this can help then I have lost nothing.  I’m also drinking more water and green tea.  That was another area I was failing with the 17 day diet, I was not able to get 64 ounces of water and 3-4 cups of green a day.  It just isn’t happening.

So there you have, my update as of one week into 2016.

Happy New Year

So here it, 2016.  I have many things running through my head.  I’m not normally so reflect or forward thinking at New Year’s but this year am.  Why I’m not ready to share everything going through my mind there is one thing I need to share.  I need to share for accountability and for an outlet and just well because I do.

I need to lose weight.  Unhealthy habits and laziness are leading to places I don’t like.  I stepped on the scale today and saw I weight I haven’t seen since shortly having having my last child 6 years ago and while I knew changes needed to be made, that cement the fact that changes need to be made.

I’m not expecting to do this quickly.  I want to be realistic about this.  Therefore my big picture goal would be to hit my goal weight by my anniversary in August.  That’s just about a pound a week.  I will frequently need to remind myself that this is slow and steady kind of race.

My first attempt  goal at losing weigh will be to make it through the 17 day diet gal’s challenge. The transistional day is Tuesday, and the challenge starts Wednesday.  I want to make it through cycle 1 and see how I feel when that is done.  I also checked out the 17 Day Diet book from the library to have the additional resource even though her blog is pretty in-depth. If I make through the first 17 days and seem to be having success or even just feeling better I’ll continue to cycle 2.

One thing you are to do on the 17 day diet is to start the day with warm lemon water.  Not the first I have heard or nor tried doing this.  So to start the year off right and get ready for the challenge that’s what I did today.  You are also suppose to drink 3-4 cups of green tea so I’m going to try to start that awhile too.

I am hoping to give weekly updates on how the “race” is going.  I’m sure sometimes they will be raw and emotional and filled with highs and lows.  

Here is to a healthy 2016!