.I am in love.

Friends, I am here again with a full heart. 

For the past year I have been dedicated to improving my health: My spiritual, mental, and physical health. Thus beginning a new journey.

This journey was between me and God. This journey's purpose was to treat my body as a temple, the way my Heavenly Father created it to be. This journey required steadfast prayer, commitment, faith, hope, and bravery. My journey?--To lose weight.

Almost a year ago I shared my heart on this blog. It was scary but I did it. I felt the Lord tugging at me to do so to reach people I may never get the chance to meet in person. I wrote about a very hard, depressing, embarrassing, and low time in my life: Heartache resulting in an eating disorder.

The past year I have faced my greatest fears. Fear is something different for everyone and for me, it involved doctors, specialists, MRI machines, appointments, results, and so on. My body needed to lose weight but more importantly, it needed to function properly. By this I mean to have a body that did not suffer from headaches, debilitating migraines, and ovarian cysts. For those of you not familiar with the pain, agony, and depression that coincide with these ailments, let me tell you: THEY ARE BRUTAL TO YOUR BODY. Brutal to your physical body, mental body, and spiritual body.

I have attended more doctors and specialists in the past year than I would have hoped to see in my life. I did it. I went through with the waiting period, the horrible exam period, and the most feared: the result period. God gave me strength, He provided me with a desire to go to these appointments, He gave me the ability to laugh after fainting at a few of these appointments, He gave me a heart filled with joy, and He gave me the most loving and attentive husband.

What I was not expecting were answers and though I did not receive an answer for everything, I did find two answers: My severe intolerance to Wheat/Gluten and my need for eye glasses. 

My chiropractor was the first to introduce me to the wheat-migraine relationship and my skepticism was put to rest after reading this blog. I felt the Lord provided me with these two completely different paths in order for me to do further testing to understand my body. I had expensive, in depth blood work completed to find food intolerances and was given my first answer to healing: Cut out gluten from your diet!

It seemed too easy that simply changing your diet would improve your physical health and not just in the weight loss department, but how your body functions as a whole. Going gluten-free was intimidating and stressful in the beginning but little by little God proved I could do it, and do it well. I have been gluten-free 5 months now and feel encouraged in every aspect of the word.

I have officially lost and kept off 30lbs since May 2011.

I have made a lifestyle change. My diet is 100% gluten-free and I plan to continue. The best part is not the weight loss, it's how my body feels and how it is functioning. My migraines have improved to what feels like 85% and keep getting better. The only time I feel a strong headache or migraine is around my monthly cycle which is caused by the changes in my hormone levels. You know what?--I'll take it! I gladly accept one bad headache a month that lasts 2 days compared to two week long migraines and waking up every single morning with a headache.

Friends, I am thrilled.

I used to ask Adam to rub my head close to every night and would even wake him at times to help me get medicine, an icepack, or to simply rub again. The other night I felt a slight discomfort in my head so I asked him to rub it and he paused, smiled, and said, "Woah Katie. Your gluten thing really is working, I haven't had to rub your head in months!" Hearing him say this made my heart just about burst! God was blessing Adam through my healing for everything he has done for me. Our marriage is strengthening because of my health and how I feel. Praise Jesus!

My body is still producing cysts but I am able to detect when and where this is happening and learning what my body needs. God is comforting me with familiar pain and allowing my body and brain to fully communicate. It is an amazing thing. I am hopeful healing will come regarding the cysts and to be frank, hopeful a pregnancy will assist in preventing the cysts as well as regulating my body's cycle.

I also had intensive eye examinations completed and had a scare for glaucoma but after further testing, the results came back negative! The eye doctor did find my need for glasses and I was not surprised. When I am driving and on the computer I feel my eyes ache resulting in a pressure headache. My blogging has slowed down a lot in the last few months and this is because I went through a time period when I simply could not be on the computer, it caused too much pain. Well, another simple answer as glasses has fixed this!

As the title says, "I am in love." Do you know what I am talking about?--My body! I am in love with my body for being created by God's masterful hands. I have not always treated it as I should but now, now I am striving to view myself as a temple..the temple it was created to be. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."

I am working each day to give my body what it needs. Little things like exercise, eating healthy whole foods, and a good night's rest. I am continuing to have regular check ups at my gynecologist and keeping a journal of when my body produces cysts and headaches. I am remembering to praise God for answered prayer. I am smiling more, laughing more, enjoying my house, job, and husband more.

Life is good friends.

To celebrate my current weight loss and health, I bought myself another dress and this time, a little black dress. Now I simply need lessons on how to "pose" to show off an outfit. I got rather shy and ended the mini photoshoot short.  Glad the hubs got a candid at the end, it's actually my favorite!

Happy Living--Happy Health

and remember

--Little Things Bring Smiles--