Spike Diet giveaway

this guy's story is pretty cool, no nonsense.  check out his current giveaway, and the rest of his blog.

http://spikediet.blogspot.com/2010/09/time-for-giveaway.html

0.8 pounds from half way :)

Other areas of my life first
I know not everyone cares about the weight loss, so here's what else is going on in my life.  The promotion at work is still in the works.  We have someone we're in the process of hiring to take over the HR and ISO stuff so I can focus on the inventory and logistics stuff.  Long process.  Still have mixed emotions about it all.  I know there's areas of HR that I'll miss, but I'm excited about the advancement opportunity.

Summer is just about over, and MS didn't kick my butt too hard.  Very much looking forward to the 60-70 degree weather though!  Allergies, however, continue to kick my butt!

God is moving and preparing us for work!  Things at church are picking up.  I recently started a new small group, leading it this time.  I also signed up to be a part of the tech team, helping with visuals.  I feel like I got a year 'off' to heal and get my spiritual strength back up, now it's time to get to work!  I love that He never gives up on us, even though we soooo deserve it.  His grace is enough!

Going (back to) Denver this weekend!  This time for ladies' retreat/conference.  Going to Vegas in Oct to actually stay at our timeshare, then KC later in Oct for another outreach.  I love to travel, can you tell?!?! ;) 

Weight loss
My current goal is to get down to 150, as of this morning I am at 187.8.  The highest weight I have recorded is 224.  So to be 1/2 way, I need to lose 0.8 more pounds :)  That makes me happy!  

I plateaued for a little while, um, about 3 months actually.  So aggravating!  It didn't help that I was weighing myself constantly, hoping it would go down.  I thought I could put the scale away for a month, not so much.  I lasted a week.  I've learned that I need to weigh every morning just to keep myself accountable daily.  BUT I can't let myself get upset when it goes up a little.  Water weight - lost and gained - is a very real thing and can throw a person off course.  Best measurable of all, for me, is that none of my cloths fit anymore :)  Since I didn't measure myself in the beginning of all this, I have no real idea of how many inches I've lost so far.  I know from Aug to Sept I lost 4, and only 0.4 lbs.

The reason I said 'my current goal' is because once I get to 150, I might want to lose more, or concentrate more on strength.  We'll see how I feel about it all when (not if) I get there.  Next Spring is the plan on that BTW :)

Halloween 10k in less than 5 weeks!  Haven't been training like I should, but not doing too bad either.  Shin splints are the worse thing ever!!

As I've learned from a lot of my friends on MFP (myfitnesspal.com) and from others I know who are losing or have lost weight, most people want to know how we do it.  Ready for the honest truth??  Hard work and determination.  Ouch, yeah, I know, it sucks.  But NO pill, NO special diet, NO miraculous exercise machine can do it.  Yeah, you could lose a lot of weight real quick w/one or all of those, but it won't last.  Sorry.  Its a lifestyle change.  But you know what else????  I still eat the things I love.  Just less or I make up for it in working out.  I've done some studying on it and come to the conclusion that I will allow myself 'cheat' or 'spike' days.  Trick has been to only allow these about once every 7 - 10 days.  I stick to around 1500 calories a day, usually going over a little.  Every now and then I go over 2000, gasp!  I know.  But 36 pounds lighter and an unknown number of pants sizes less... it works for me.  Kinda tricks my metabolism.


I feel like I'm pretty open and honest about the way I'm losing weight, and any other area of my life.  So ask me if you have questions :)

Stupid scale! Go away!

I'm gonna try something new for the month of Sept... I'm putting the scale away in a closet and burying it.  Not to be seen again until Oct 1!  I'm obsessed, I 'peek' everyday, and sometimes a few times a day.  I know better, water weight makes it go up and down every time.  So, I'll be at 34lbs lost for the next 4 weeks, and that's OK!  I will measure up tonight with a much more accurate scale - a tape measure! :)

September already?

August was an interesting month, I think.  Mostly because of a mission trip to Denver and witnessing all that God did.  I'm part of a denomination called Foursquare and we planted 4 new churches in Denver.  To help kick them off, we did outreaches on a Friday and Saturday.  Since I now consider myself a missionary and want to do more and more, this seemed like a wonderful opportunity that was much closer, much cheaper and much shorter than Scotland, or any of the other countries on my 'wish list'.  Most of the group (40ish) left Thursday morning, but I had to work (short on vacation time b/c of Scotland) so I flew out in the afternoon.  There was some miscommunication and my pastor thought I was coming out Friday.  I sent him a message to let him know that the flight was delayed 40 minutes, and he was thinking I was a day early.  The flight ended up being about an hour late, but in God's amazing timing, after we got off the plane, took the tram to baggage, got baggage and went potty, I only had to wait about 10 minutes for one the vans to come pick me up!  How cool is that?

The outreaches were, well, chaos! But I really think God's will thrives in the midst of our chaos sometimes.  He works things out so well, that you have to just stand back and thank Him for putting it all together.  Anyway, well over 100 people committed or recommitted their lives to Christ :)

I spent the majority of the time doing photography.  I have a new passion!!!  And apparently a natural gifting in it!  I also worked as an alter worker, praying with people when they came forward, giving them Bibles and encouraging them.  Pretty cool stuff!  I did learn something about myself in the middle of it all, I've never prayed with someone to receive Christ.  I was with a group of ladies praying with a girl who was wanting salvation, she said she didn't think she had done it right, so I was just going to have her repeat after me (not that there's really any 'correct' formal prayer to pray, but sometimes we just need a little direction)  Anyway, my mind went completely blank.  I felt so stupid.  I asked one of the other ladies to pray with her.  Now I'm past it and know I just freaked out.  All the 'formulas' I've read about or learned in church or school just didn't seem to fit.  There is no formula, just believe that Jesus was crucified and died for your sins, that He rose from the dead to give you new life, choose to live for Him for the rest of your life and thank Him for it.  We really make this salvation thing way too hard ;)

So, I'm a little over 8 months into the weight loss... August kinda stunk for that.  Overall, I only lost 0.6 from Aug 1 to Sept 1.  I did, however, start strength training and am going a lot longer on the treadmill.  So, I'm building muscle :)

September looks to be really busy!  I start leading a small group/Bible study next Tuesday, we're having a fasting and prayer meeting every Wednesday this month (starting next week), I'm going to Denver for a retreat, training for the 10k in October, getting outside to enjoy the cooler temps, hiring someone at work to take over part of my job so I can get my promotion and I'm sure there will be more :)