How I Lost 25lbs!

*Disclosure: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

I almost feel bad about writing this post because it seems every other site on the web (especially around this time of year) is about how to lose weight.

I don't feel bad when I realize how my weight loss journey began. It began by me reading and listening to as much information as I could on how to lose the weight. As frustrating as it can be sometimes to read and listen to all of the different testimonies and steps and new fangled ways to lose weight, it can be a very important step if you are just starting out on your journey for the first time. It helps you in two ways. First, you get to hear more than one option on how it's done and secondly, I believe that it feeds your heart. I believe that everytime you read or hear someone's story it feeds your faith and gives you the faith and strength that you need to believe in yourself to take the first step down your road to healthier weight.

So when I think of it that way, I don't mind being one more voice in the wind to encourage at least one person to get to where they want to be.

Now on to my story:

After hearing and reading and thinking, I found my path and here it is...

In my 20s and before I had kids I didn't have to think about what I was putting into my body although I now believe that we should always be mindful of that at every age. Even though I didn't have to think about it, I remained active. Mostly because I'd been in the military and was used to running and moderate weight training so I continued that and it worked easily and perfectly. I'm sure most women can relate to that pre-kid, high metabolism phase of life.

After my first child I lost 40 of the 50lbs that I'd gained by doing nothing and the 10 lbs that I kept still landed me in a healthy weight range for my height, which is 5' 7.5". After my second child, not one pound budged ultimately and I found myself faced with having to lose weight for the first time. I tried running again and I loved it. I could run 5k distance with ease but would only drop 7-8 lbs. I hadn't changed my eating enough to drop any more than that.

I also ordered a famously marketed dvd off t.v. I built my stamina and strength but only lost 7-8lbs. I then got serious and attempted the eating plan that came with the dvd. That lasted as long as it possibly could before I was bored with it and wanted more. For 3 years I tried several different recipes for success.

In the meantime, I kept reading, listening and desiring to lose the weight. One of the books that helped me a LOT was this book by Bob Greene:

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Then one morning after eating 3 peices of pizza the night before and getting on the scale and seeing 181 lbs. I got up and walked around my nieghborhood for 30 solid minutes. It totaled 6 laps around. I did it everyday for a week and added more fiber to my diet. I didn't change anything else about my eating just yet. I felt great! I got on the scale at the end of that week and saw that I'd lost 2 lbs. That excited me to no end.

I added more laps and kept eating more fiber and dropping 2-3 pounds per week. It literally felt like magic everytime I stepped on the scale and saw weight loss week after week. After a month, I decided to change my eating a little more. I started to control the portions of my favorite meals. I didn't stop eating those things. I didn't make a special dinner for me and a "regular" dinner for my family. Instead of a whole manwich sandwich, I'd eat half (with cheese) and double up on my broccoli. I was satisfied both in quantity and with flavor so I didn't have that feeling of deprivation and starvation.

Over the course of time, I was walking 24 laps around my neighborhood (which is 6 miles) 5 days per week. I would also go to a beautiful park about 5 miles from my house and walk there on Saturdays for 7.5 miles. The weight continued to come off. I had one plateau that lasted 2 weeks. It was discouraging but I kept going blindly hoping that it was temporary...and it was.

The end result was 25 lbs. in 4 months!

I still walk to this day because every time I stop, I gain 5 or six pounds back after about 8 weeks. LOL! It's funny to write about but not funny to go through.

I'm thankful though that I've learned what works for my body and lifestyle. With the kids and being a one car family; going to the gym at my husband's job (for free) was just not an option anymore. Not to mention that I am not drawn to strenuous exercise as much as I was in my 20s.

I am such an advocate of walking. Once the weight started to come off faithfully, I said to myself and others, that I'd never run again because I didn't have to to lose weight. Truth be told though, I still do sometimes run. Sometimes when I'm walking my legs just want to go faster, my muscles want to dig in deeper, my heart longs to beat harder and so I do. It's not often that I do, but I do it from time to time. Sometimes, I start my walk with a one lap jog to get my heart rate up quickly. And honestly speaking, there's nothing wrong with a deep grind every now and then. At any rate, I enjoy walking so much that I also have ordered a few walking dvds in order to stay home with the kids but still get my walk in. I didn't know such a thing existed until a very close friend of mine mentioned them to me. I have never seen them marketed on t.v. before but once I ordered my first one, I've been hooked. My favorite is this one:

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I have two more but this one is by far my favorite.

In this post, I hope you hear that:

• There is not one set way to lose weight.
• You have to do what works for your body and lifestyle.
• You do have to change your eating habits but not drastically and you can make bigger changes overtime.
•  You will have to go into maintenance mode once you've reached your goal.

Well, thanks for reading. Hope it was helpful.

Stephanie

Baby's First Haircut

This week was EVENTFUL.

As for learning, Chelsea is learning to tell time to the hour by analog time. She is also learning to read the digital clock and how to count by 5s.

Madison 's just finishing up her Abeka math, Learning parts of speech with Rod and Staff second grade English (which I love). In science, she is learning about how sound travels through vibrations. We had a spelling test this week and also learned how to use tally marks to count.

We have started building a long house for History. I know, you may think I mean log house but actually a long house can be made from logs and most often was. But a long house is just what it says it is; a long log cabin that Native American and the first Settlers built for them and their families to live in (not together). Usually up to 25 people would live in these houses. This project is due on December 10th and we are trying to settle on what material we will use in order to have the "log" effect. We are thinking popsicle sticks and painting them brown. My only reservation is, that's what we did for the shoebox ship with the exception of the brown paint.

The big event of the week was Madison getting her first haircut. I am not exaggerating when I say this felt like a dagger to my heart. First of all, her hair has been growing since birth, never been cut. Secondly, she has natural spiral curls and third, her hair was about 24 inches long if not more.

Here's proof!

Over the holidays, I was so busy baking and decorating and cooking. Two days before Thanksgiving, I was baking and they were out back making mudpies. They came into the house muddy from their elbows down to their fingers and their boots covered in mud. I sent them straight to the tub for a bath!

Normally I would condition and comb through her hair immediately to keep the curls from turning on each other. Well last week I just didn't have the time or the energy due to holiday preparations to care for her hair (it takes quite a long time b/c of the length) . As expected, her lovely curls did turn on each other with vengeance I might add. It tangled up in a manner that we have never experienced before. After a couple of days of avoiding it (I will NEVER do that again) and 3 days of trying to detangle it and using every conditioner and product that was suggested to me (I will never do that again), I waved my white flag and took her to her first salon visit. It was not a good one as she had to get about 20 inches of hair cut off after the lovely stylist spent about 4 hours trying to comb through it. She literally treated Madison as if she was her own child. Her heart was truly into it and that was priceless to me.

How Did it All Go?

Madison cried, I was stressed but in the end we were happy to admit that it was a very cute hairstyle. 

Our Lesson?

It may sound silly or cliche'. But I had to realize that my daughter is not her hair! She is beautiful with or without it. She is special because God saw fit for her to be born and given to me and I love her because of the spirit and heart within her. She's smart, kind and compassionate (like her father), she loves hard (like her mother) and she has a lot to offer this world. A pure work of God's art!

Pics from the week...

The End.

Sharing at the Weekly Wrap Up on WUH

A Few Ideas You Can Share with Your Kids about Christmas

My husband and I have close friends who have completely turned their back on the way that we celebrate Christmas in America. I have no problem with that; besides...we are in America!!! You get to change your mind and speak your peace. That is part of what has made this a great country to live in.

When I think about how we celebrate such a fun Holiday, I do feel that it is overly commercial and that it goes by way too fast. I remember last year, the day after Christmas, a very popular clothing store with purposefully kitschy commercials started advertising Christmas is over so come get these deals or something. I just felt like, "Slow down!!! My kids are still opening presents already!" They weren't, but come on! Really? The very next day you start promoting your Spring collection or whatever it was. O.k. rant over.

I get why people feel that they don't want to put up a tree, don't want to tell their kids about Santa, don't want to buy presents. I get it. But when I think about my childhood Christmases, which included all of the pomp and circumstance with maybe a little less commercialism but not very much, I can't imagine taking those things away from my kids.

So, I have put together a few thoughts on ways to explain some of the things that we do at Christmas time to our kids so that we don't feel like we are lying to them about the true meaning of Christmas and simultaneously not stripping it down to just sitting around the table staring at each other on December 25th. Just kidding...here goes...bear with me please.

Is Santa real?
A friend told me that once your kid is old enough to ask this question, they are old enough to know the truth. Problem with us is, our kid has been asking since she was 4 because a close friend of ours told her kids (who are close friends with our kids) that Santa was not real. Of course she told my kid (with fervor, i might add) and so there we were, faced with ending a harmless holiday tradition or figuring out a way to maintain the excitement of going to bed in anticipation of what might happen during the night while they are asleep.

Well, that didn't happen. What we ended up telling them is that Santa is not real but that we celebrate Christmas with the idea of a Santa because it is fun, and to help us remember the importance of giving to others. So, in our house, we still talk about Santa coming and what will Santa bring, but they are quick to remind me that Santa is just an "idea". LOL!

Why do we give presents?
We've never been asked this because our kids could care less as to "why" they get gifts, just so long as they get them. However, in an attempt to keep our holiday traditions Christ-centered, I told them that on the night that Jesus was born, wise men brought him three precious gifts, so we give gifts to each other to honor that act of love and appreciation that the wise men showed to our Saviour on the night of His birth.

When I told them what the gifts were, they said "myrrh?" "What's myrrh?" And they laughed way too much at how silly they thought the word sounded. SMH

Christmas tree
This is a biggie for some of our friends; they read some information on pagan rituals and decided that they couldn't stand to see a Christmas tree in their house ever again. Totally fine. I admire people who are able to change long term habits. I think it is extremely admirable. It's difficult for me to decide to cancel cable and begin to use a streaming service like ROKU because I'm so used to the background noise of the t.v.

With this one, I told our kids that we bring in a tree and put a star at the top because of the bright star that was in the sky on the night of Jesus' birth to guide the wise men to the manger where Jesus was. I told them that it is to remind us of His birth.

The same explanation would work if you place an angel on your tree as it was an angel who announced Jesus' birth.

I believe that it does not matter how you celebrate Christmas, with or without these things. It only matters that in our hearts and actions, we remember why this holiday is on the calendar at all. Had Jesus not been born, we wouldn't even have a Christmas holiday. That along makes it all about Him in my mind.

My husband's grandmother, who is in her late 80's, still to this day gathers her whole family around on Christmas Eve to tell everyone why we celebrate Christmas. I understand that she's been doing this for over 40 years now, and thankfully so, she has passed down her heritage of faith for generations, even to my little girls.

In short, with or without all of the trimmings...Jesus is alive and that's plenty reason to celebrate!