Amanda 4.25.06

Yesterday was a pretty big accomplishment for me. Tom and i decided to get up in the morning together and do the Biggest Loser dvd. Yesterday i was pretty proud of myself for getting up at 6:15am and working out. Today however was difficult to get up but we determined to put the dvd in tonight and still do our workout. I'm glad that we're able to do the dvd together and help each other out in that way to be physically fit. So far i've been weighing in pretty consistently at 138 lbs. and just need to continue to be consistent with exercise. I know that i've been able to tell that i've lost weight b/c my clothes are fitting better and Tom has been able to tell that i've lost weight too. Hurrah!!! That's always encouraging when you can start to see a difference.

Shannon 4.23.06

Praise the Lord! I actually have a positive post (for once). I got on the scales and lost about another 5 pounds in the last two weeks. Our scale isn't digital so it's hard to be exact, but I know I'm a lot closer to my goal (about 10-15 more to go). As I've mentioned before I'm not as concerned about weight as much as fitting in to my clothes so I don't have to buy new ones! It's always rewarding when I do lose more, because it's like going shopping in my closet (a couple more things that fit! :) The Lord has really helped me to be productive and not be lazy in my daily schedule. At times, I get so frustrated and impatient in the sanctification process, I want to be like Christ right now and not have to struggle with my sinful flesh. Just since the last time I mentioned prayer, I've done a lot better at making healthy decisions for food (didn't indulge in french fries last week when we ate out!) and have been more faithful at exercise. I found a new windsor pilates dvd for abs at Big Lots for $2.00 so I figured the new workout will get me motivated too. Most importantly though, the Lord has really helped me in being faithful in my time in the Word and studying to be more like Hiim. I do feel that my discipline of my body and spiritual disciplines is intricately related. It's easier to exercise and eat right when I'm in the Word and have God's perspective on being a steward of my body. Thanks for the prayers! Continue to pray that I will be diligent and keep working at losing more.

Alicia - 4.20.06

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I hate to continue the discouraging tone of these posts but I too have been bad lately. I felt so slim Sunday morning in my dress and then I slipped downhill by gorging myself during Easter dinner and have 2 helpings of dessert. I continued to regress on Monday when I (home alone and feeling sorry for myself) ate 3 scoops of turtle ice cream as an afternoon snack. Then Matt came home and wanted to treat us to dinner out. We went to Friendly's (which we had heard about but not tried) and almost everything on the menu was fried and fatty. To top things off I've been feeling really tired lately so I haven't done my nightly regimen of sit ups. Why is it that a few days of bad behavior can set me back so far?!

The only shining light in the past week is that I've taken up jogging. I realize if I want to seriously lose some weight I have to do something drastic. Jogging seems drastic to me but I know that if I do it regularly I'll start to see some fast results.

So, pray that God gives me a spirit of perseverance in this jogging endeavor and that He lifts my spirit to look forward and not backward. Onward!

Heather 4.19.06

I haven't posted for awhile because of a couple of reasons!

The 15th came and went. When I stepped on the scale I was so disappointed! I had only lost 2 lbs in one month! YUK! I wanted to lose more like 5 lbs per month.

Kevin saw how frustrated I was so he went out and "measured" a two mile walk in our neighborhood. Since then, he has either walked with me or encouraged me to walk the two miles each night! It has helped me, but I still feel like I failed miserably.

I know I have to move on and keep going, but sometimes, it just seems so unrealistic! Pray that I have the motivation to keep this up and keep on going!

I know I need to lose the weight and with summer upon my doorstep, it is just so frustrating to me to think that I am not where I want to be with my appearance!

Katie - 4.19.06

SOS! Help! Calling for assistance! I haven't been doing so hot lately and need some extra accountability, prayers, maybe a few kicks in the pants. I've managed to maintained my 9-pound weightloss (though I didn't weigh this morning), but have eaten too many sweets in the past 3 days, and not exercised nearly enough. I'm feeling lazy. So, this is what this blog is for. I know ya'll can't come over and take the chocolate out of my hand, help me put my shoes on and make me Walk Away the Pounds, but do pray for me! :)

Just writing this gives me a little motivation and encouragement.

Alicia - Goal accomplished!

Well, I did manage to get my Easter dress on and it looked good - with a sweater over it. It would have been way to tight on my tummy without a sweater. :) Anyways, I'm feeling good that I met my short term goal - I am definitely smaller today than when I bought the dress 2 weeks ago. I feel like now I'm just maintaining the weight I've already lost. I only have 3 more pounds left to reach my goal weight of 138 and I think I'm going to have to work to get rid of those stubborn 3. I am resolving to exercise more regularly this week. The past week I have taken walks with Chloe but not done my abs video since I've been busy with her sewing her easter dress.

Regarding my time in God's Word this week - it's been great! I've read almost every night and I've made time to pray and meditate. A few nights ago I stumbled across an old journal of mine. It was during my Daniel Patz dating phase. Boy was I encouraged by what I read about what God did during that period of my life! I marvel at how good our God is. Through my time with Daniel I can see that God was preparing my heart for Matt. I'd really like to start up a journal again; do any of you journal? Any suggestions for keeping one consistently?

Here's to a good week of devotions and exercise!

Shannon...4.12.06

Sorry I've been a delinquent blogger on this site. I now how have a new goal I'm working towards more specifically. I just found out I will be able to go to my sister's for her shower May 19 and then we'll caravan to NJ to help my parents move in. That has given me a goal to be able to get into my old spring clothes since I'll be meeting new people in my sister's and parent's churches. I know it's vain, but I don't want to buy more clothes, and the ones I have are too snug, so that's my motivation. I lost another 5 lbs somehow or the other, but I'd like to lose another 5-10 this next month however realistic or unrealistic that is - I guess we'll see. I've been struggling to get exercise regularly into my routine, but the Lord has really been convicting me the past couple days about laziness and how I use my time, so I really with his grace want to strive to do better this next month. Please pray for me that I will see this lazy attitude as sin and get my rear in gear!

Katie - 4.12.06

I'm still on the straight & narrow path - even though it's been a while since I posted an update. The big and encouraging news is that I maintained my weight loss during my weeklong visit to Michigan. Hooray! I'm so thankful; the Lord helped me to make some right choices last week, and I was even able to exercise & lift some weights. Would you believe that I forgot my Walk Away the Pounds DVD here at home?!? I was so discouraged when I realized that; I wanted to do the workout with my m-i-l. O well. I don't need that DVD to exercise.

This week has had a tiring start. We got back to Lou Monday evening. Luke & I enjoyed a nice brisk walk around our neighborhood. That's all the exercise I got for that day. Yesterday we went to the zoo's playground in the morning (lots of exercise for Luke; not so much for me.), and last night I made myself walk away the pounds for 2 miles. This morning was Lukie's tube surgery, so we were up at 5:30 and had a frazzled first few hours. (Everything went fine; more about that on my blog.) So, today I hope to do the full hour of my DVD and lift some weights. I haven't lifted since last week! Yikes.

Overall, I'm still very encouraged and motivated. God is so good to me. There is one major area that I really still need prayer & encouragement on - that of spending good time in the Word EACH DAY. Am I the only one who struggles so much with this? My guess would be no. This blog has been such a helpful accountability tool for me; I wish we all lived close so we could do a Bible study together! The idea of doing a book study together and discussing it online keeps coming up in my brain. But, I don't know if everyone would be interested or have the time. Any comments on that?

Have a great day, friends!

Amanda 4.11.06

well, things have been going okay i would say. I was pretty proud of myself today for having grapes with my wrap instead of chips. I'm a junk food junkie...what can i say. I really want to incorporate more fruit into my diet. I'm great with vegetables because i LOVE them and because i grew up having a vegetable at almost every evening meal. But even though i really like fruit, it's not always convenient as say...a bag of chips because you have to clean and cut it all up and it doesn't stay fresh that long. So, i need to be better at eating more fruit.
Other than that, i've been doing well at not eating after 6pm and drinking only water. Of course, exercise is still a struggle...forcing myself to do it. I think i got in about 85 minutes (over the course of 4 days) last week using my tape (that's warm up, work out and cool down) and then Tom and i worked at our church cleaning windows from 9am till almost noon. So, i think i did pretty well getting in that exercise. Today is absolutely beautiful and i'm looking forward to doing some yard work today instead of my tape. It'll be great to be outside!!!
Hope everyone else is doing well and keeping motivated.

Alicia - A goal for Sunday

Hey gals. How are you all doing? Hope you are using the Lord's strength to stay disciplined. I had a good and a bad day. I just checked out a dvd from the library for my abs and I struggled through it this afternoon. Youch! I'm VERY out of shape. I did great eating all day until this evening. I was out grocery shopping and treated myself to one of those fatty cherry pies. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day to choose healthy snacks, right?

My goal for Sunday is to fit into the easter dress I bought from goodwill - size 7. Yikes! I have got some serious sit-ups to do before then. It fits ok just a little tight on the tummy area. If I can wear it modestly Sunday, I'll post a picture for you.

Good Post About Weight Loss

Check out John Canaday's blog for some helpful tips about Weight Loss.

Katie - 4.2.06

Happy April! Spring weather has definitely come to Lou. In the last hour, we've had crazy storms and a siren blaring every few minutes. Thankfully Luke didn't wake up!

I had a very ACTIVE weekend! Saturday was so beautiful and sunny. I had a very early wake-up call that morning from my elderly neighbor (that's another post), so was up at 5:30am (that's right, 5:30 AM!). After a disappointing trip to Starbucks to see Chris (it was disappointing because the line was to the door, and Chris couldn't take a break), we took a walk to a nearby playground - about .5 miles away. Luke loved going down the slide. The walk also involved a couple of hills, which increased the benefit of the walk. In the afternoon, the mailman brought me a wonderful surprise! My sweet sister Janelle, who knows I'm working on health and fiftness, bought me a workout DVD - Walk Away The Pounds Express - a 4 mile walking workout. Have any of you ever heard of these DVDs/Videos? I had heard of them - my mom does them sometimes, and Janelle's been doing them with some girls in her youth group. This particular workout is 1 hour - but it felt so good! Besides walking in place, it involves leg lifts, side steps, kicks, and some other moves that work different muscles. How good of a workout can walking in place be? you may ask. Let me tell you, it works you! I was sweating after 10-15 minutes. So, I would REALLY recommend you checking these workouts out if you can. Ideally, I would like to get another Walk Away The Pounds DVD that is maybe a 2 mile walk (30 minutes) for days that I don't have time for an hour. I know for those of you who work, an hour's probably hard to fit in, but I believe there are several different DVDs with varying lengths. The delievery of Janelle's surprise was so timely because I was feeling like I was losing a little steam. It picked me right up. I pushed past the 5-6 pound plateau and according to the scale this morning, I'm 7 pounds down. Praise God! And I praise God for such a thoughtful sister and friend. To top it all off, Chris and I did our weight routine (that we hadn't done on Friday). So, what a day!

I really need your prayers and encouragement this week, because tomorrow Luke and I are driving up to Michigan to spend the week with Chris parents (and meet Luke's new cousin, Annabelle). My mother-in-law likes to exercise too and would like to exercise with me. So, my two big challenges are eating right and getting some exercise in. I often go to MI and just crash and eat awful and am lethargic and lazy. Please pray with me that I will make right choices! I'm a little scared. I can't lose the ground that I've recently gained - it was too hard. Each time I go to eat, I'm going to try to keep in mind the quote that Heather gave us in her last post: "Life is Choices, Choices have consequences, so make the right Choices."

Hope you're all doing well and have a GREAT Monday.

Blessings - Katie

Alicia - Back from NYC

Hey gals. I have good news to report. God helped me to maintain my good eating habits while on vacation in NYC! I followed Katie's and my mom's advice and indulged a little but not enough to feel bad or heavy. I had a DELICIOUS bacon and blue cheese burger at the Starlight Diner (where the waitstaff sang musical selections while we ate), salads, pasta, eggs, cheesecake, and no McDonald's (though I was tempted to eat at the bright as neon times square mcd's). And I walked off that burger in no time! We walked everyday of the trip until we were all dragging - not just my 76 yr. old grandma.

Now that I'm home, I feel as though I haven't lost or gained any ground on my diet/exercise plan. That's good! At least I'm not feeling flabby and disappointed in my weaknesses. :) Thanks for the prayers and support girls.