Week 4 - Back

Happy Tuesday!!!

So Sunday was our weigh-in:

I lost 2 pounds

Hubs lost 1 pound  

(almost 2, but  he'd rather count is as just 1)

Slowly but surely!  

Brent knows he needs to get his water in.  I know he's working on that!

One of my favorite lunches have been my Medifast Chicken & Wild Rice Soup with crackers in it and ground pepper & dill seasoning.  Yum.

We also went out to a Hibachi grill for a date night last week and I had hibachi chicken and salmon with veggies.  It was okay - I enjoyed it.  Brent was feeling like Hibachi chicken but I'd probably have preferred a steak somewhere.  Heck, I'd prefer some Cafe Rio pork nacho's... but that's not on plan right now so I will enjoy what I gots!!  ;)

The weather has been getting COLD and I have not been running, but I am keeping up with basketball which I love.  Lots of running there.  I hope I can find ways to keep active this winter.  I'm SOO ready for Christmas Music but I'm also trying to enjoy the Thanksgiving time as well.  Life is going SOOOO fast right now.  November just started and It's almost half way through.  

I saw this quote on Facebook and it kind of emulates where I need to be and want to be right now:

GRATITUDE 

turns what we 

HAVE 

into 

ENOUGH!

I love that and it's so true.  When I find myself feeling upset and frustrated, I know I need to humble myself and truly be thankful for all I do have, which is so much!  I know this is true, yet I still find myself feeling bad about this or that.  So it's a daily vigilance for me to be thankful!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Life is GOOOOD!!

XoxoXO ~Margene

What DEFINES You?

I started This month last Thursday with a one hour run.  Sweet!    

But then I didn’t run the whole weekend.  I’m supposed to do my “long runs” on Saturdays.  However, Saturday was my women’s basketball game.  This is the last game I am in town for since I will be out of town for the tournament this friday.  We ended up playing ourselves again for a scrimmage 4 on 4.  My daughter was with me again and for some reason that day, I had my GAME ON!  I scored more than I ever had and had some great steals and layups.  It felt SO GOOD.  I  love playing... I’m so grateful that I can play! 

I have been on plan with my eating all last week and feeling good about my food choices.  Yup.  Lots of water. Doing good.  Then Sunday came and we were invited to a family members house to celebrate a birthday.  I found myself eating rolls with honeybutter - which was not on my plan.  Then... the cake and ice cream came out and I was going to not have any when the hubs decided he wanted some so I let myself have some with him.  Yum.  But dang, I wanted to be on plan!  So..... I’m not going to beat myself up or feel like I blew it.

Because - one decision of weakness 

DOES NOT DEFINE ME!!

I enjoyed the cake and my family.  It’s all good.  (This is progress for me because I have gone into quite the discouraging self-anger in the past when I’ve eaten things off plan.)

I have had my downs and things that I struggle with.  I am trying NOT to focus on them as I don’t want to give any more power and energy to the negative in my life or negative things I feel.  I’ve been trying to be patient in how I interpret things and to allow a few days for the Lord to enlighten my mind and help me see things as they really are.  To not jump to a negative conclusion or take to heart things that allow me to feel hurt.  Letting things go... Choosing to see the positive... Assuming the absolute best in others and myself.  I am a work in progress!

Yesterday morning - I headed out for my run.

God gave me the BLUEST SKY and CLEANEST AIR and as I ran I felt the STRENGTH in my LIMBS and LIFE WAS GOOD.  I ran up the side of the mountain again for that incredible view of the valley.  My heart was so full of gratitude that morning and I LOVED my time to myself and thinking, talking with God, enjoying my tunes, etc.  Before I knew it, an hour had gone by!  I still felt great.  So I kept running!

As I was getting close to my home and running down my street - it felt amazing and surreal to have run for so long.  I thought about how going through the hard times I have - has blessed me with MORE GRATITUDE for what I do have:

I reflected on many of my life’s struggles where the answers came later on - even years and years later.  And since I have been forced to wait for those blessings - they have became more cherished.  I can say that for my children (took us several years to have children), my husband (who I waited for for 2 years while he served a church mission), and my friends (who I prayed for years to find).

So now I am running down my street, in a body I haven’t had since junior high school.  A body I can run in, breath in, enjoy my life in.  I lived in a prison for so long and now I am running free.  

If I had not been in a prison - would I cherish what I have now?  If I had all these blessings right when I first wanted them, would they mean as much to me now?

I can’t imagine that they would.  These challenges have shaped me and endeared me to LIFE.  Life, my family, my friends are all MORE DEAR to me and MORE TREASURED than I ever imagined.

I reached my house and saw that I had run for 1 HOUR 35 Minutes for a total of 
SIX MILES!  
YOWSA!!  New Margene Best!  

Now, I will let THIS good accomplishment DEFINE ME!  
I can do hard things.  
And so can YOU!!

What are YOU going to let DEFINE YOU?

Life is so good.  I hope you find a way to enjoy and find the beauty in YOUR life!

Three Days and my girls and I are ON A PLANE to OREGON!!!  WAHOOOOOOOO!!

XoxOXO ~ Margene


(PS - This is Mango... he is not as impressed!)

12 Days of Christmas...

I got my box of 12 gifts from my new friend and swap buddy over at The Fat Mom blog.  (BTW, I think it should be "The Beautiful Mom" blog or "The Marvelous Mom" blog because those are more fitting word, imho).  I was so excited to take them all out of the box and here they are:

 How cute and fun is that???  When my kiddo's got home from school, they were like "Awe.... I want to do that too!"  (I know, right?  How fun for me, right?  Now stay away from my gifty's... Okay, I didn't really say that but I thought it!)

So I had to sing the 12 days of Christmas and open the first gift today and here it is - this cool recipe book:

I'm already eyeing some recipes in here to try like the chicken nuggets and spaghetti pie.  Sounds fun to make things that are healthy and trick my kids.  I am all for subterfuge and trickery!  he he he...

And I have some more fabulous news... The hubs got next week off and we are going to Utah for Christmas!!  I am so thrilled.  For those of you who follow my blog, you may recall that we were going to Utah a few months ago for a reunion but BOTH our vehicles died and forced us to cancel our trip.  I really miss my sister and brother that live there and we are way excited to go.  I've got so much to do until we leave but it's all happy, fun stuff.  And now, I need to put a plan in motion to stay ON PLAN for this trip and be prepared.  I think I'll be making a ton of my knox blox to get me through the tempting sweets... that's been working really good for me.

I would also like to express my gratitude for those who read and have commented on our blog.  I am always touched by the kind words of encouragement and how you so often share my joy as well.  I have not always felt open to give hugs because I felt that no one would want to hug a heavy person... but I love to hug and would give you each a big hug if I could.  Stay Strong!  Stay focussed.  Be Prepared! (gotta stick that Boy Scout motto in).  Life is Good!   XOXO ~Margene