finally clean of sugar!

do you know that sugar is an addiction? well, it is. here is one of the many articles on this subject.
i am one of the people with this problem. well, i was. i had to have sugary snacks all the time. i didn't feel full if i didn't have at least one dessert-like food item at least once a day. usually several a day. i would even eat a bowl of cereal or some chocolate chips to get a fix. i stopped keeping cookies and other sweet snacks in my home, but that didn't stop me. i told myself several times i was going to stop but never followed through. my husband and i counted calories on our phones, and that helped us see exactly how much we were consuming, but it didn't help me with my little problem (which i didn't think was a problem!). but that didn't help me lose some extra weight i had gained. i just kept going up and down. one day i googled "how to stop eating so much sugar" and soo many articles about sugar addiction came up. i took in all i could, and it hit me that i had a problem. i determined to go home and never eat sugar again, went home and ate a powdered donut my husband had bought. good job!
a couple days later i was eating a candy bar and suddenly felt guilty. i went home, read some more articles, and decided to go seven days without eating any sugar at all. i tell about those seven days in the video below, and about how i felt afterwards.  i feel great now, i feel like i'm in control of my body and what i eat, not the other way around. the key to weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight is diet. more so than exercise! i hope this video inspires you if you feel like you have a similar problem! you too can feel this way!

decompressing

summer is flying by! this summer i was selected to sit on a grand jury for 5 weeks. only 2 weeks left now! it has been a really amazing and educational experience! i am learning a lot, hearing some terrible things, and feeling like i'm contributing something to society. but it also rearranges my schedule and this throws me off.
this week has been a little bit stressful. this weekend will be the third in a row i have an event to help out with. i haven't been able to have lunch with my husband as much as i usually get to. the weather is terrible. the sun is gone, it's even chilly!
 we have a wedding this saturday that my husband is ushering in and i'm helping with the setup/teardown. last night we set up the reception area and tonight is the rehearsal. i din't get very much sleep last night because i had to work early.  we didn't have much of a dinner because we had to go right to the church. same thing tonight.
i suppose i am a routine person, so if one or all of my routine is disrupted, i get a little stressed and quite anxious. then i don't feel like doing anything! so i've just been going around, doing the bare minimum but not accomplishing much. not working out. not folding the laundry.

but, life goes on of course. life is made of exciting moments, new adventures, lessons, helping others with something like wedding plans. there isn't a lot of room for routines. yet, i need something to hold onto! something to keep me grounded in all the crazy things that come our way.
since i was feeling a little stressed, i decided i needed to clean up the apartment. just a little bit. pick up the clothes, do the dishes and do a quick vacuum. a messy, cluttered home makes me more stressed than i already am. does this happen to you?
with order restored, i know that, even though we won't be home for most of tomorrow, when we wake up everything will be nice and clean. and when we get home, we will come home to a clean, uncluttered, stress-free home. cleaning your apartment might not be your idea of stress relief, it might not seem like the answer, but it works for me. it's how i decompress this bottled up anxiety i
am holding onto.
my husband will be coming home a little early, so we can have a routine real donner!
now with a few hours till dinner, i can work out! *sigh* i feel better already!

Loving Me for Me

i think i am finally figuring out the person i am, and learning to be ok with that person.

my personality type is melancholy. melancholies are introverted, reserved, thoughtful. they are artistic and creative in poetry and art. melancholies tend to worry or focus on problems and the downside of things. they do not do well at social functions. they would much rather spend time alone.

 i am not an outgoing person, i am not very social, i love to stay at home and do my own thing. i have friends, and i love them. i love spending time with my family. but I have to force myself to call my friends, go to parties, and invite people over for dinner. I would much rather spend time at home with my husband doing my own thing. my husband is also this way, which works out great.

"penny" moments

new video up. are you embracing the little moments every day has to offer? you should be! take in your daily dose of serendipity today!

ps- in this video you can see how my flexi rods turned out!

to live is christ, to die is gain!

**warning** sad post

these past couple weeks have been difficult for my family. on sunday april 29, my grandfather passed away. he went into the ICU on friday and they determined he had suffered a heart attack and they couldn't do anything but make him comfortable. to my family, this was a shock but at the same time, it wasn't. my papa had alzheimer's. so in a way, for the past year or so, we were already saying goodbye as we watched him slip away. but when my dad called me on friday saying they were going to the hospital, i just thought he would be back in action and in church next sunday. the next sunday, in the middle of our church service, he went on to heaven. my sisters and I gathered around his bed on saturday night and sang him hymns. i will always treasure that time.
at first i was fine. i was happy that he was in heaven and not hooked up to machines and in discomfort. then reality sank in. there is a huge void left in my life. he had a smile and laugh like no other. he was brilliant, wise, and kind. my papa wasn't just another old man. he was a minister, a scholar, a teacher, a christian. you only had to meet him once to see the love of jesus reflected in his smile.
he taught me to love the word of god, the value of praying for your family every day, and the how beautiful and important a relationship with god can be. he didn't sit me down and drill these ideals into me. he showed me in his everyday life. he left me a great legacy, not an inheritance of wealth or land, but a legacy of ministry that began with his parents and continued with my mom and dad and will, lord willing, continue with me. i have a goodly heritage! now he has reached the end we are aiming for. i am so so happy for him!
because of the prayers of my grandfather, i know i was kept from harm. because of those prayers my mind and heart are looking to jesus.
i feel that right now, 2 weeks later, i am fine, i have accepted the truth. i know i will go through periods of sorrow in the months to come. my husband's grandfather died almost 2 years ago, and my other grandmother died a month after him. i know how it feels, but every person leaves a different mark on you. you have to mourn for everyone in a different way.

if you are going through loss right now, i know no words can soothe your pain, but i want to share a scripture with you that has been helpful to me:

  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18