Wait. Didn’t we already do this?

So. Once upon a time there was a guy and a girl who were overweight. They started exercising and eating healthy and keeping track of calories.

After about 3 months the guy lost 35 pounds and the girl lost 25 pounds. They kept it mostly off for almost a year and a half. They even each ran a half marathon and had their hopes set on running a full marathon.

(You can read all about it under the category “weight loss”.)

And then they got lazy and started eating anything and everything under the sun and didn’t exercise as much.

And then the girl’s parents had to go and die and the girl decided she would drown her sorrow in chocolate, bread and pop. Mmmmm, bread.

Sorry, stay on track.

Well finally the time has come for this guy and girl, um I guess that’s me and Pat, to get serious about losing weight again. So here’s the plan:

-No pop. Lots and lots of water.
-Keep track of calories using Livestrong app.
-Don’t just keep track of calories but eat healthy, balanced, real food.
-Exercise, beginning with Jillian’s 30 Day Shred and eventually running again.
-Begin reading Made to Crave devotional again. Maybe this third time it’ll sink in!
-Keep a journal on this here blog.

Unfortunately (or not) our scale is not working so we’ll have to share our starting weight later. But lucky for you (or not) we do have beginning pictures.

Pat: he’s guessing his weight to be 220.

Missy: I’m guessing I’m at 155-160.

And hey. Maybe someone else out there is needing to lose weight or get healthy. We’d love for you to join along with us! Leave a comment so we can help encourage you!

We’re definitely not experts but we’ll also share food ideas, exercise ideas and hopefully some encouragement along the way. Especially for the women reading I encourage you to get the Made to Crave devotional. And it’s applicable to other addictions too, not just food.

So 6:00 am and Jillian yelling at me will be here soon! I better get to bed! Thanks for joining us on this journey. Again.

Made to crave. And we’re not talking about twinkies.

I’m coming up for an Anatomy class/studying breather and I thought I’d blog a little.

But before I do that I have to tell you that today I learned how labor contractions are an example of a positive feedback mechanism and I know now exactly how and why I had contractions for 3 days. I almost raised my hand and asked why my positive feedback mechanism was so slow but I didn’t.

Anyway.

A few weeks ago I purchased a new devotional called Made to Crave Devotional by Lysa TerKeurst. It’s based off of her book, Made to Crave, which I haven’t read yet.  This devo. Oh my word. Fabulous.

I think y’all know about my struggles with weight loss and exercise and, um possibly a little bit with food. Ok, alot of struggles with food. Last year when I finally lost weight and got down to a healthy weight alot of it was because I addressed some of the food addiction issues I have.  Unfortunately the holidays came and I kinda threw everything I learned out the window.  After the holidays I got back on track as far as exercise goes, but unfortunately still haven’t done as well as far as the food goes.  Now this year, with the holidays come and gone once again, I really want to find a consistent healthy balance of the food choices I’m making.

Most of the time? Most of the time, I make good choices. We eat healthy and limit the bad stuff.  But all those other times. When I’m stressed or mad or sad or tired. Those times are usually when I make very bad food choices.  Instead of dealing with those feelings. Instead of talking about things with my husband. Instead of going to the Lord when I need filled up. I go to food.  The most frustrating thing is that I know I’m doing it too.

But thankfully this devotional has really helped direct me back to a better focus.  I already know the triggers that send me over the edge and cause me to make bad food choices. But this has given me the encouragement to then take that next step. And make choices that are good for me and good for my soul. Choices that won’t leave me feeling guilty and discouraged.

The other thing I love about this devotional is that it’s not just about food. The encouragement and message really can apply to so many areas of our life. Whatever our struggle is, and let’s be honest ok? We all have struggles. We all have addictions.  The Truth of God’s Word and the devotionals by Lysa bring you back to the One who can help you through. Whatever it is you’re dealing with.

I encourage you to invest in this devotional, if you don’t already have one. I got mine on my Kindle for PC (free to download) and it was only $5.00.  The devos are not long and always focused on God’s word.

And now I’ll get back to studying. And maybe a little snack too. But no twinkies today. We’ll save those to celebrate when I pass Anatomy!

That’s what Papa does

A few days after Caleb’s birthday I found him with a toothpick/candle in his mouth.

I told him that we don’t put toothpicks in our mouth like that.

He said, “That’s what Papa does.”

And in other news…

~One week until I start school. Just a tad bit nervous. But I’m more excited I think. It’s been so long that I just have no idea what to expect. And I guess that’s ok.

~Caleb has bronchitis. We were in the ER two weeks ago with a croupy cough and he was having trouble breathing. Since then he’s had a horrible cough and can’t sleep too well because he can’t breath when he lays down. Blood work yesterday showed an infection so we got antibiotics and hopefully that’ll help. We also got a prescription for a neb in case we need it. Doctor said it’s possible he has RSV too but was leaning towards bronchitis.

~We took our Christmas decorations down today. So sad. I love having my house decorated during Christmas. Probably because the rest of the year I have next to nothing as far as decor goes. Angel asked me, “Is Christmas over?” And then I failed miserably at trying to explain that we celebrate Jesus birthday all year long but we only have decorations during December.

~We’re not done with Christmas around here though. I still need to post about our immediate family’s Christmas and my family’s Christmas and show you the awesome (or not) pictures we took. And then we had a New Year’s Eve party and I need to show you those pictures. Although it’s mostly just the girls whooping up on the guys during games.  I should probably be nice to the guys and not show you. (Or not.)

~Have I mentioned that I love kale? Have I mentioned that it’s a super food? Don’t let it scare you. A few recipes I’ve used it in lately…

Turkey and rice soup… chopped up leftover turkey from Christmas (don’t worry it was in the freezer!), brown rice, chicken broth, carrots, celery, garlic, and of course kale!  Yum!

Lasagna… I’ve been wanting to try this recipe and so I had goat cheese and ricotta cheese in the fridge. I used gluten-free noodles (couldn’t tell the difference) and the sauce was ground turkey, spaghetti sauce, onions and mushrooms. The cheese mixture was goat cheese, ricotta cheese, a little bit of cottage cheese, and chopped up kale.  (We don’t use egg in our lasagna of course and it turns out just fine). I also used colby jack cheese on each layer. It was very cheesy and the boys loved it. I thought it was ok but the goat cheese was a little too tangy for me. Angel didn’t like it at first but then we had it for lunch the next day and she ate some and said she like it.

~Less than a month to decide if we’re going to run the Twin Cities marathon in October. Registration is the first week of February and it fills up pretty fast. Pat is all revved up to go. I’m a little hesitant because I work that same weekend so would have to find someone to switch with me. I don’t think that would be a problem though. I think my biggest concern is that I’ll be going to school too.  I was thinking I would record my notes and then listen while I run. So it’d be just like studying. Right?

~I often read this blog and on her last post she said this,

“There’s a lot going on all around me right now – too much to get real serious in this post. But I want you to know that Jesus is my life, my hope, my reason. He is who makes this family’s life abundant. I’m so thankful that He came into this world to be God with us.”

This really resonated with me.  While I always try to be completely real on my blog, it’s of course only a glimpse into my life. There’s alot more in my life, in the life of my family and friends that causes me to fall on my knees and often weighs heavy on my heart.  I’m so thankful that Jesus is my life, my hope, my reason. I pray He is yours too.

The state of the union

A little history:

March-April: I started having mood swings – more than normal – basically feeling completely psycho.  Because of new insurance I had to see a new doctor for my yearly physical and was dismissed of having pre menopausal symptoms.

May: Called dismissive doctor and talked to her nurse.  Told nurse that I was ready to jump off a cliff. Nurse talked to doctor and received a prescription for Zoloft to get me through until I saw the doctor.

June: Saw doctor. Dismissed my thoughts of pre menopause (again) and offered no explanation of what was going on.  No blood work. No questions. No answers. Nada. Said didn’t want me to even think about going off Zoloft for at least a year.

(Can you sense my annoyance with dismissive doctor?)

July-August: Talked to friends. Weighed pros of cons of being on Zoloft. I was frustrated that while I did feel better I didn’t have any answer as to what was going on. Also wanted to look into “natural” methods of treatment.  Also considered part or all of this being spiritual warfare.

August: Saw hormone specialist. I couldn’t afford testing but was recommended that I start taking progesterone cream and vitamins.  Other symptoms had been getting worse (night sweats, v-dryness, sex drive tanked). Decided to wean myself off the Zoloft.

September: Started taking progesterone cream, vitamins and occasionally Frankencense (a natural remedy given to me by a trusted friend).

Middle of September-Middle of October: Psycho Missy was back and in full force.  Felt as bad as I’d ever felt. Talked to a friend who recommended I see a mid-wife. This was the same mid-wife another friend had suggested I see. I made an appointment to see her but then canceled last minute.  I think I just felt stupid. I’m obviously never going to have another baby (at least biologically) and the person who made my appointment seemed a little confused as to why I was wanting to see her.

On October 6th I read this blog post.  The psychotic, hormonal imbalanced brain started turning.  I was having so many of the symptoms that Amy talked about.  For the longest time I’ve dealt with stomach issues. I’ve always had headaches, joint pain, neck pain, body aches.  But I’ve also always had a bad back so associated it with that.

I decided to give it a try and eat gluten-free for a few weeks to see how I felt. It certainly wouldn’t hurt me. Well, except for the NO BREAD and NO CAKE and NO COOKIES thing.

Wow. I could not believe the almost immediate change to how I felt.  I was also surprised that when after being gluten-free for a few days when I did eat gluten (either accidentally or on purpose) I felt horrible.   Shortly after this decision I had a playdate with a couple of friends and got some great encouragement, advice and resource information.  I’ve been doing alot of reading. Dare I say it? I think I’m turning into a foodie. Crunchy. Earthy.  If I’m being real I’d have to admit that there has always been a part of me who thought those foodie crunchy earthy people were a little extreme.

Well hello extreme, it’s a pleasure to meet you.

But.

About a week after being gluten-free I got real sick. That was two weeks ago. Stomach cramps, severe nausea, headache, neck ache, body aches. I didn’t think I had eaten anything gluten and chalked it up to a stomach bug. But then this weekend I had the exact same thing only worse and it lasted longer.  Is it just a fluke and it is a stomach bug? Is it related to me eating no gluten?

I broke down (quite literally in the shower one morning when I was sick) and called my old doctor. The doctor I’ve seen for almost twenty years and I trust like crazy. Even though I’ll have to pay more I just needed to run everything by someone I trusted and who knew my history.

That appointment was yesterday.  I prayed and prayed that he wouldn’t be in a rush and thanks to the Lord, he wasn’t.  He was surprised to see me and we had such a nice visit.  He explained things (take a lesson dismissive doctor) and ordered some blood work, much of which probably won’t give us any answers but at least will rule out things.  We did talk about the Zoloft and he said if the progesterone cream or natural remedies works, that’s great. But that sometimes there’s nothing that will affect the serotonin levels in our brain, other than a prescription.  I know he’s not pushing it on me, but just reassuring that it still could be an option.

He also gave me a referral to a doctor that’s in my network. I didn’t even have to ask and don’t know that I would have because I felt stupid asking for a referral for a competitor.  But he knows it’s more expensive and that it just makes more sense to develop a relationship with someone in my network.

We talked a little about the gluten-free thing. He said he’d certainly test me but to wait and see how the other blood work comes back.  I’d have to go back to eating gluten for about two weeks in order to get tested and that makes me want to vomit.  But if I continue to suspect I might have an intolerance I suppose I should get tested.

Overall though, besides the two episodes of being sick, I’ve felt so great the past two-three weeks.  Almost all of my symptoms are either gone or have seen improvement.  I’ve even started weaning myself off the Coke (gasp!).

We shall see.  Until I go an entire month of feeling good the jury is still out.   The holidays are fast approaching and I’m already hyperventilating about not having gravy with my turkey and mashed potatoes.  Although since Thanksgiving is at our house this year I suppose I can make whatever I want.  Mmmm, kale. (BWAHAHAHA)

And the moral of the story?

God’s Word is a balm to my soul. Eat your fruit and veggies.  Not eating bread, pasta and cake won’t kill you. Trusted doctors are treasures hard to find. Patient, understanding husband is amazing.  Encouraging friends help me stay away from the cliff.  Two miracle babies are getting closer to having a healthy happy mama.

A great recipe for tender

Tonight on my supper break I called home to see how the family was managing without me.

(Just fine in case you’re wondering.)

Pat shared with me a funny story from supper. I had made something for them in the crock pot.

Pat: This is so tender isn’t it!

Angel: Mmmm. I love tender. This tender is so amazing!

HAHAHAHAHA!!

I think I’ve taken eleven too many cough drops because I couldn’t stop laughing for like ten minutes.  My Angel girl is so funny (and literal).

Since I made such amazing tender, aka pork chops, I thought I’d share the recipe with you.

3 large pork chops or any variety of pork you’ve got on hand
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce

I put a little salt and pepper on the chops and heated up some EVOO in a frying pan. I seared the pork chops and then put them in a crock pot. While the chops were searing I mixed up the two soups and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl.  After putting the chops into the crock pot I poured the soup mixture on top.  Cook on low for about 2 hours and high for 3 hours.  

Or high for 4 hours. Or low for 6-8 hours. Or however long you’d like. I totally winged that part.  Well I guess I winged the entire recipe.  Serve with rice or noodles.

I realize this is like the easiest recipe known to man but some days it’s good to have a little inspiration.  Enjoy the tender!