Learning

I am constantly amazed at how the human was made to learn. We start learning the instant we take a breath. By four days old, babies can distinguish their native tongue from others, and a newborn can know his mother's face within two days after birth. As we live and breathe we were created to learn and grow. I love a sermon preached by my friend and former pastor, Jillian Chambers, about enlarging our capacity. It’s one of those sermons that stuck with me. She talked about how God has so much to give us, and if we are content to stay at our current capacity, we will miss out on so much more that God has for us. For example, He could be waiting to pour a gallon’s worth of things into us but if we’re only a 20oz coke bottle, the rest is just excess; excess that we miss out on. She talked about enlarging our capacity to receive from God, the more we can receive, the more we can give. I love that! And so today I am endeavoring to “enlarge my capacity” when it pertains to understanding food, and what I can and cannot eat, and why I can or cannot eat it.

You see, today I learned something about myself. I once heard a woman say, “I’m fifty years old, I’m too old to change. I am who I am,” and it made me sad. I hope that I’m never too old to learn new things, and to learn things about myself that will help me change into more what God wants me to be. There is no one in the world perfect enough to say they don’t need to change (even a little). God desires us to continually check ourselves and seek His face so we can grow closer to Him, closer, stronger, better…you get the picture. So, again I say, today I learned something about myself.

This “something” isn’t profound. It isn’t the “thing” that will change my life. But I came to a realization today that I, absolutely, with all that is in me, HATE Italian dressing. I came to this realization when I went to pour some on my 4th salad this week, and I gagged a little. Those of you who know me personally know what happens when I gag even just a little. I have a really sensitive gag reflex, so sensitive, that I can think myself into puking if I just think about the right thing; flan, mayonnaise, someone’s surgical incision (gulp), tongues (I know, weird right?), and now, Italian dressing.

Like I said, not profound, but definitely helpful.

My six day slim down is going pretty well. I’m hungry a lot, and I want Starbucks more than I want a million dollars right now, but pretty well. Although, today I hit a new low when I almost George Castanza-ed a burned bagel out of the trash. I love burnt toast, (and any other bread product)!

So, my menu has consisted of basically protein such as chicken, beef, tuna and veggies, and some fruit. I also have been adding protein powder to my morning shake, yum (not), and raw almonds for snacks, which I’m beginning to dislike greatly as well.

Friday is my last day, I keep telling myself:
Carbs on Saturday

Carbs on Saturday

But not too much, I don’t want to ruin all the hard work I put in this week.

I also found that buying Jake snacks I don’t like is helpful. He can chow down on his nasty white chocolate covered pretzels or corndogs and I don’t’ care one bit!!

Thank you so much for all your support.

amy

Six Day Slim Down

Boy, doesn't that sound fun!! Six day slim down!! So, I recently purchased an exercise video called "Hip Hop Abs", it's actually a series of videos and it came with this guide to jump-starting your metabolism called "6 Day Slim Down". It's basically only vegetables, fruit and meat for 6 days, while you do the specific video they suggest on each day. I'm going to start it Sunday.

I'm going to start it Sunday.

I'm going to start it Sunday.

I figure if I say it enough, I'll actually build up the will power to do it!

I've also decided that my blog isn't funny. Not that it's supposed to be, but it's kind of boring. That's probably because no one knows about it, so today I'm posting a bulletin on my myspace...scary. It's really hard to open yourself up to criticism by admitting that something is hard for you, and that you're going to try really hard to be better at it.

One of my favorite Psalms is a popular one, and I love the entire chapter, so please, take the time to open your Bible and read the whole thing. It is Psalm 139, and I am learning everyday to consider myself this way.

When I look in the mirror and don't like what I see...

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. (Psalm 139:13-18)

And so I open myself up a little more to the world, to scrutiny, to being made fun of or laughed at, and invite you in. It's okay if people see this blog and laugh, or don't like it, because I know what my Father thinks of me.


amy

Time

Time escapes me always. I just realized today that I haven't written anything in over a week...it's so easy to do. Our church's worship conference was this last weekend, as was my 31st birthday. I don't know when I got old, but somehow it happened. It seems like I've been old for a while; not old in the sense that I hobble or can't see or hear (well, the hearing part is true, but that's ear infection trauma...). I've always been somewhat of an "old soul". I don't like to go out late at night, I'd rather sit on the couch wrapped up in my blanket watching Lifetime movies. It seems like just yesterday I was graduating high school, now we're having an almost 15 year reunion next month.

It's crazy how time just flies by.

Even though I only have like one reader right now, I'm sorry that I haven't made the time to write. You can probably guess the if I haven't written, it's because I haven't made any progress...that's true. I just got "Hip Hop Abs" in the mail, and started that. Ouch! We'll see how that goes.

TTFN

amy

Difficult Transformation

Everyday starts the same way, I think to myself, "I'm going to exercise today" and it ends the same way, "I can't believe I ate the whole Ben & Jerry's". Why is it so hard? When I say to myself that I'm going to clean the apartment, I clean the whole thing. When I need to do laundry, I make time to do it, which is a big deal, because I hate doing laundry at my apartment. There is one washer and one dryer per floor, and there are some people in my building, I haven't caught them yet, who think it's appropriate to touch other peoples' laundry and take it out of the washer or dryer to put their stuff in. It's ridiculous!! Every time I went out to check my laundry last night someone had either opened the washer, or opened the dryer, which stops drying, but the timer continues to count down and it's 25 cents for 12 minutes, not cheap!

Anyways, back to the topic at hand... I realized that this "transformation" is going to be a lot more "difficult" than I thought. I looked up the definition of difficult transformation when I named this blog, but apparently I need to study it a little more.

Difficult: needing much effort or skill to accomplish, deal with, or understand ; characterized by or causing hardships or problems.

Transformation: a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance

No one said this would be easy, but I think my problem is that I want it to be easy, so I only do things as though it will be easy. For instance, committing to wake up at 5am with Jake to work out. It sounds kind of easy, however, I make it more difficult by staying up until midnight. Then when 5am comes, I push snooze for 2 hours and sleep in. It's crazy! My brother-in-law preaches that in order to be dedicated to anything, whether it's prayer, worship, Bible-reading, or exercise, you have to start slow. You can't wake up one day and decide to run a marathon, you have to train for it. You have to build a habit: a settled or regular tendency or practice, esp. one that is hard to give up.

So to begin my good habit of exercising, I'm going to commit to work out 2 days this week and next, then the third week ramp it up to 3 whole days. I already did water aerobics this week, which was actually kind of fun, for like 20 minutes, then I spent the other 30 wishing I was done! It's a pretty good work out. You don't realize how good until the next day when you can't lift your arms! To achieve my goal, I need to work out one more day before Sunday, so I will choose tomorrow. I'm home all day with not a lot to do, so I'll exercise. As for food, I've discovered my new favorite breakfast; the vivanno at Starbucks. It's banana and chocolate, 16grams of protein, which I think is really good. And when I can't go to Starbucks, I can mix a Carnations Instant Breakfast in the blender with a banana, it's sooooo good. I also bought some lowfat Ben & Jerry's this week, it's not bad. Baby steps!

amy