September 30, 2007

The Aftermath

I say that jokingly. Our yard sale went well. We had wonderful weather, praise the Lord! We sold quite a bit and had a lot left, so it went to Goodwill. We made enough money to get our kiddies a swingset, which was our plan. This will be a good edition to our backyard since we sold their previous play equipment yesterday, LOL!

My three girls and my sister's two boys busied themselves with sidewalk chalk all day. Let me tell ya, in a place where this a lot of sidewalk/concrete and the kids have to be outside all day, the chalk is great! The downside is, Leiah had a hard time confining her artistic sensibilities to the floor, and decorated the windows, the ice chest, the brick wall, herself and she also enjoyed the taste of the chalk. Yak!

I have been waking up each morning by 5:30- sometimes a little earlier, and once a little later. I have no alarm- I just wake up. It is the Holy Spirit I am sure. Today however, since I knew we would be having church, I used my early morning time to clean up! There were loads of dishes to wash and things to put away, and muffins to bake for breakfast :) (gotta use up those bananas) I may post the recipe soon- I love it!

I just want to ask my readers an honest question. Since I've put up pictures of myself on this blog I know you all can give me an objective opinion. I have always struggled with my weight- I mean in highschool I was athletic and muscled and I still weighed 190lbs and wore size 14 clothes- no fat on my body at all!

After I got married I dieted and lost around 40lbs- still size 14. After I started having babies, I just haven't been able to lose weight. The only thing that I tried that worked was the Southbeach Diet- and it is very rigid and my body didn't like it. (as in I visited the toilet a lot and not for 'number 1') Satan is always hanging this over my head- if I were thinner this would be better yada yada yada...I married a small man and I feel like we're unbalanced.

So, what is your honest opinion? Do I look fat? Do I look ok? If you were me would you be embarrassed and try to lose weight pronto? And, if anyone has been in my shoes, how did you manage to lose the weight with little ones and a budget and a home to keep? I am tired of struggling with finding clothes/fitting myself and just feeing like crud. But it just seems so hard.

I was planning to do things gradually- start drinking more water, eat more raw fruits/veggies, and then eventually cut the carbs to one meal a day. Also I wanted to start up my exercise regimen, now that things are slowing down, finally! Anyways, tell me what you think, be honest but be gentle :)

5 comments:

Molly said...

You are lovely. I truly mean that. I've enjoyed coming to your blog for a while now. You have such a great relationship with the Lord. You have three beautiful girls. There aren't many women who find that modest dressing is important these days and I'm glad you and I share the importance of modesty.

I am like you in many ways and I have a feeling if we lived near each other, we could be friends. I too struggle with my weight. I have four children. After each baby, I was never able to loose the weight and it just kept piling on with each new baby. Then, after each baby, all my energy was on the children, my house, my family, NOT on me.

I have not found the solution yet. What do you do with little money, little time and little energy? I don't know. I wish we could work together. I think loosing weight would make both of us happier in many ways, but until we have the time to devote to ourselves, we need to remember the good things we do have now. We have Christ, we have our beautiful children, good husbands, and friends who love us despite the extra pounds that sit on us.

I say, do what you can. Drink the water and eat the fruits and veggies. Any change in the positive, no matter how small, will help in the long run. Good luck my friend.

Susan said...

I honestly don't think you look bad at all! You have a nice waistline in your pictures and are curvy in the right places. The way I lost the baby pounds was to eat an apple when I got the munchies. It held off the hunger until the meal time. Then I tried to eat in moderation at mealtime which is hard because I love food!

I thought you look very nice and put together.

Anonymous said...

Alright, but you asked for it... :-D

I've seen you in person, so I know the truth... ;-)

I thought and think you are very beautiful. Sure, I think it'd be great if you could lose weight, but you also look fine the way you are.

The things that I've found to help with weight control, is first off, eating a Nourish Traditions diet, and not even counting or worrying about caleries, fat grams, and carbs, etc.

And Two - HARD exercise that builds muscle. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn, even if you're just sitting in a chair reading. :-D

I highly suggest The Firm workout tapes. The guarantee visible results after 10 workouts, and they are so right! It's great when you get visible results that early on, because it motivates you to push on, and work even harder.

Don't lose weight to look good - you already look good. Lose weight for your health, and so that you can better keep up with the kiddos. ;-)

Anneatheart said...

Thank you all very much. I have always worried what other people thought of how I looked- guess because of some mean kids in school.

Candy, I knew you would be frank :) Thanks for your thoughts. I was thinking about the Firm tapes, but I'm afraid of them! LOL!

Susan- I had to laugh when you said I had a nice waist line- what waist? That is my worst part!! Must be the camera angle- I also have a tendency to suck in my gut a lot, so I probably was in the pictures. It's automatic for me to do that now :)

Rachel said...

Hmm, I tend to look at people from the inside. Rarely do I think about the weight when I think about a person. Large or small, dressing nice, fixing yourself and acting courteous makes anyone beautiful! When I saw your pictures I thought how beatiful and happy you looked. Honestly.

I did well with Atkins. I'm currently trying to eat more fruits and veggies, drink more water and move about more.

However you do it...babysteps with small changes will keep you there :)

My kids all loved sidewalk chalk too. they love laying down and having another trace around them and then they 'drew in" their faces, etc. IT was really cute.