.My Journey the Last Four Months.

I want to start this post by praising the Lord my God.
He has used my blog and the blogging community in ways I never expected.
He has shown me love by providing you, my loyal readers.
Your words of wisdom, love, advice, and encouragement have touched my heart.
You have given me a reason to write, to share my heart, and to create.

Thank you.

After writing a post about my weight, my relationship with boys, and my spiritual walk, my life has changed AGAIN!
As I typed the words to my story four months ago, my heart and stomach ached.
I still remembered the pain of what happened.
But now..
I am healed.
Writing my story down and actually reading it opened my eyes to how truly awesome our God is..how He saved me..how He healed me..how He sent me you, my blogging friends.
Your comments and emails flooded every emotion inside of me.
I was, and still am, in awe of how much you cared about me, someone who most of you have never met.

Now I am here, typing once again, feeling the butterflies in my stomach and the joy in my heart.
I have accomplished a goal..a big goal, one that you helped with.
I have lost weight as I mentioned here but it is so much more than that.
I am on the path of getting healthy.
Physically.
Emotionally.
and Spiritually.
This time around, losing the weight was easy because my head and my heart were with Jesus and my husband.
I wanted to lose weight for them not me..for them.
I was nervous my old eating tendencies would take over and my old weight loss pattern would start to show his ugly face.

It never happened.

In the beginning, there were feelings of guilt after eating a little dessert and my husband, my best friend, called me out on it the moment he saw what was happening.
Adam talked me through it and the Lord gave him the words to help me get over those feelings quickly and learn it was indeed okay to treat yourself.
My diet was changing before my eyes and my body was loving the fresh fruits and veggies it was receiving.
The more fruit I ate, the more my body craved them.
It was amazing.
Every morning I would enjoy a slim fast shake blended up with one banana and ice as well as a cup of Greek yogurt or grapefruit on the side.
For my morning snack, I would choose between a variety of healthy granola bars and more fresh fruit like apples and peaches.
At lunchtime, I would prepare myself a hearty turkey and provolone sandwich, a salad filled with fresh vegetables, or another slimfast shake.
Afternoon snack normally consisted of an apple and peanut butter..they were made for eachother.
Dinner, regardless of eating in or out, was always pretty light and filled with as few ingredients as possible to prevent a lot of chemicals from entering my body.
I will admit, dessert became my absolute favorite: Greek yogurt with fresh berries and Kashi cereal all mixed together with a cup of herbal tea.
The foods I was eating were simply delicious and I was drinking water nonstop during my days.

And then it came to exercising.

My exercise routine is one to joke about.
In my past, I struggled with exercising excessively and burning more calories than I was putting into my body.
I was hesitant these struggles would come back but quickly after beginning my high intensity 12 minute work out..I knew this would not be a problem.
I remembered how much I hate working out!
True story.
I will hike a mountain no problem, but having to pop in a dvd and exercise in my living room just made me cringe and realized I much prefered my sleep in the mornings.
I am happy and proud to report I did completed 5 full weeks of working out every morning.
5 weeks..that is longer than a month people! (As I pat myself on the back)
My body was changing a little everyday and I knew my hard work was paying off.
Old clothing began fitting and I found getting dressed in the mornings was enjoyable.
If only I kept up with the work out..

I may, just may, have abs.

But let's be real.
5 weeks remember?
No abs but definitely a smaller waist line and tummy!
I am beyond happy to report my heathlier eating habits and diet have remained consistent during the last four months.
I have more energy and accomplish more each day.
I have been taking vitamin supplements and learning more about my body and what it needs.
My prayer life has taken up the majority of my days by simply turning my thoughts into a conversation with God, giving everything to Him and thanking Him as I lay in bed at night for the wonders He is working inside of me.
My body is complicated, filled with cysts and migraines, but I know I am on the path to finding a cure for those things.
Getting healthy is a slow process, one that takes determination and patience.

God is providing that and so much more.

My emotions have been different the last four months.
They have been relatively the same and have avoided the crazy emotional roller coasters.
The hubs has approved ;)
My heart has been filled with the fruits of the Spirit.
It is the most incredible experience watching as your body is transforming in front of your eyes.
I am proud and so is my husband..and my Savior.
My body is His temple and it is up to me to keep it that way.
I am not fully there, but like I said, it is a process and I am well on my way!

I want to leave you with a few powerful verses found in Galatians Chapter 5.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires   what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

 ¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.


Thank you.