Goal Setting

Okay....not like I haven't done this at least a hundred times, but I need to do some Goal Setting! One of my heros, Dave Ramsey, talks a lot about Goal Setting. He said on a podcast I listened to the other night that if you set definable, measurable, clear goals with a timeline you are well on your way to success, and in the top 5% of people...now, exactly what that "top 5%" is, I am not sure, but hey, it still sounds like a good thing to be! I have been thinking about these goals some, and not saying they won't evolve and be adjusted here and there, but I have to start somewhere, so I will start now. Not to be like a mid-life crisis person or anything, but I just am not really happy with my life right now. I will be turning 40 in about 5 months, and the title of my blog really resonates with me: This is your life, Stacy, are you who you wanna be? Well, actually no. I am far from who I want to be, truth be told. In some areas I think I am doing all right, making lots of progress even, but in so many others, I am so far from who I want to be, and so far from where I even have been before. I want to regain the parts of me that have been lost through the years of bad marriage....I want to regain the parts of me that have been lost through poor financial behavior. I want to lose the parts of me that have been gained in food taken in mindlessly to fill whatever needs aren't being filled elsewhere. I have the next 5 months until I turn 40 to make a legit beginning again...and hopefully can carry the goals to completion and/or continuing progress. I only have this one life....its a gift from my God, and what I do with it is my gift to Him...not to be cliche or velveeta-cheesy about it, but it is so true. I need to honor Him with this gift of life...and be who He designed me to be...not this messed up mess that I have allowed my circumstances to make me into. So: Here goes: Over the next 5 months, here are some goals I want to begin working on:
1. Spiritual: I want to spend some time in God's Word each day...even if it is only a verse or two! I want to be in the Word. I would like to memorize a new verse at least every 2 weeks. That would be about 10 new verses between now and the big 4-0. I also want to keep up with my prayer list. I want to make sure I cover the whole thing at least once each week. ( I really want to do more than that, but I am trying to do something that is do-able, so as not to get discouraged.)
2. Family: I want to love better. Even if I do not feel loved, I want to choose to love. After all, I promised that I would. I must make it a daily choice. I do it already by cooking, cleaning, earning a paycheck, and taking care of all the home stuff, but I need to be kinder in my words and for sure in my thoughts and attitudes. Loving my kids is easy....crazy about them. I want to love them better though with my time. I want to give them as much of it as I can. I know this isn't measurable really, but I do want to make a concerted effort to love well.
3. Finances: We will be nearly debt-free by the time I hit 40. Would love to make it by the end of 2012. In order to do that, we will need to --eat at home. --use a grocery list. --not impulse buy stuff. --go easy on the gifts. --stay the course. We have paid our debt down over the last several years from nearly 100K down to a little less than 30K....we WILL get there!
4. Intellectual: I love to read. Have been doing a lot of it. Need to keep that up! I would like to challenge myself to read at least 1 nonfiction book per week. I am probably reading 2-3 books most weeks, but need to make at least one of them something I can learn from.
5. Physical: Okay, here we go again..but it is the thorn in my flesh, dontcha know! I want to lose 10 pounds/month minimum (should be do-able) from now until the big 4-0, continuing on after that until I have lost a total of at least 100 pounds. I have got to do it to be me again, and to get healthy. I have got to do it to be there for my kids. I have got to do it to honor the Temple the Lord has given me...it's His house after all!

So, there!! A place to begin. Lets hope I can keep at it and bring this together. Not in my strength, but in His, of course!

"Book" Review--Word of Promise New Testament, Audio Bible

The Word of Promise New Testament Audio Bible is a dramatized, audio version of the New King James Version (NKJV) of the New Testament. Many famous voices are heard in this Bible, including Jim Caviezel as Jesus, Marisa Tomei as Mary Magdalene, Stacey Keach as Paul, and Lou Gossett, Jr. as John, as well as a host of others. It is a word-for-word rendering of the Scriptures, complete with sound effects and background instrumental music to accompany the narration.

I enjoyed listening to this Bible a great deal. It brings the Scriptures to life without being cheesy, as many audio recordings can be. The voices are believable and helped me to visualize the stories in a way that was different than when I simply read. As the Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing", and this is a great way to hear the Word. I enjoyed both the segments of dialogue and the telling of stories with realistic sounds you would expect to hear in the background of the setting of the stories, as well as the narration of the Epistles. I would recommend this audio version of the New Testament wholeheartedly to anyone who would like a fresh way to hear the Word.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

It's REALLY that big?!!!

Okay, so obviously, I haven 't been on the wagon with the eating and exercising, as evidenced by the fact I have been remiss (again) at blogging. And, let me say....it is terribly depressing! I got a view today of my butt in the mirror with my jammies on before I went to sleep, and it was like...holy cow! I knew it was big, but I had NO IDEA it was THAT big!!! What a wake-up call! I am really, really in need of some discipline. I will be turning 40 in about 5 months....wonder how far I can make it in that amount of time? Wonder if I can get some discipline about me? Because what I am doing now just simply isn't happening. And I sure would love to be well on my way by the time that 4-0 hits! So, do I have a plan? Well, not really...but I do know a ton of stuff about what I SHOULD and SHOULD NOT be doing....so, time to ditch the excuses and pull it together....lets do this!

Aww crap!

Well, here I am again..not quite as long of a lag time as the last hiatus, but still a lag nevertheless. I am not back with great news to report, in fact, I am pretty frustrated after weighing today. Back at 249....aaarrgghh!!! So much for my great aspirations! I get so frustrated, because it feels like I will never get this weight off. Two steps forward and three back. I really am sick of the roller coaster. Some things are getting better. I am finished with my job at church now, which is actually a blessing in regained time. I am thankful to have that time back to spend with my family and regaining some sense of control in my life, by getting the house in better order, etc. Things are looking up in that area. Money is a challenge, in that I gave up a significant amount of income to regain that time. But, hopefully only a little over a year left to pay on debt, and life will level out financially. I really am looking forward to that! Money is a challenge as far as eating right is concerned too. It is expensive to eat healthy! Well, maybe not totally, but it definitely is cheaper to get things like fries, sugar, etc. So, I am looking at incorporating a lot more of one of my favorites: beans. I keep reading all sorts of wonderful things about beans. They are cheap too! I never met a bean I didn't like. Of course, I do enjoy them with rice and meats, but I am going to try, I think, to do more substituting beans as a main course. I am good with this, and I am thinking my kids may be okay with it too, as they aren't real into meat. Now the husband is a whole 'nother story though! He definitely feels the need for meat. I do on occasion, but I am thinking I could probably do like one meat day a week and be fine. If he doesn't have meat at each meal, he starts to get grumpier than usual! Will have to figure out how to work around that one. I am exercising, which is good....gotta get that part together at least!

Anyhow...I am not exactly sure what I am after, other than healthy eating, but I will try to formulate in my mind what we need to do and carry it out and blog back again. I know the Lord didn't design me to be obese...which means there is a way to get past this. Freedom, Lord....I pray for Your freedom, so that I can be the daughter of the King You designed me to be...Help me, Jesus!

Well, heck!

You can tell I have been off the wagon, as evidenced by my lack of blog posts! If I have nothing good to say about how I have been doing in the weight loss department, it makes me not want to write! But, alas, this is about accountability and honesty, so here I am, fessin up...AGAIN! I haven't been like out and out awful, but I haven't exactly been good either. I did get a treadmill a couple of weeks ago, which I am totally excited about. Have been trying to get to running again. I have been exercising, just not getting the eating under control. My quantities have been too big, South Beach went out the window after the boys' birthday (which was a month ago now) and I have been quite the dessert maker lately. My crockpot has been getting well-used, which is probably better than going out to eat all the time, but it hasn't exactly been crazy South-Beach-friendly fare coming out of it! So....that's where I am at. I need to get with it...again! Maybe I will check back in soon and have something good to say...maybe I can use this blog as motivation for that..maybe? Maybe! Ok...here's to blogging again sometime with something good to say before another month passes!

Off the wagon....gotta get back on!!!!

Well, what I feared would happen with making birthday cakes and birthday celebrations happened, and I have got to un-happen it, which I am really not good at. Not good at at all! I fell off the wagon...off the no-sugar, South Beach, feeling good about me wagon...Aaarrgh! All it takes is a big bear cake and a chocolate dinosaur, both slathered in more buttercream stars than you can shake a stick at, and I melt like the butter I stuck in my bra to thaw! Holy cow! Their birthday was Thursday, and so we went to eat that night and had Italian...Luigi's, of course, for my two little Mario fanatics. I ate a pasta dish, which wasn't SB friendly at all, and then had some birthday cake. Like, a lot of birthday cake. This particular one was from Randall's, and it was just the actual day-of-birth birthday cake. Yea, had so much of it that I spent a good part of Friday in the bathroom poopin blue from the icing colors. Nice, huh! So, Friday night I start making chocolate lollipops for party favors for the birthday party and bake the cakes that I spent Saturday decorating, and before I know it, I have cleaned up the bowl of melted chocolate before it ever made it to the sink, and yea...lots of buttercream was consumed that day. And the next, because of course it was there. And then had some cookies...and before I know it, here it is early Wednesday morning and I have hit the snack machine at work for a 3-pack of Zingers! What has become of me! OK.....so, I have fallen off...so, I haven't weighed for fear of what the scale will say. I can start fresh, right? Right? Yes, I must. We are still sorta willy nilly on the routine, since my girly hasn't started preschool yet, but I am gonna try to get in some bike trainer time this morning and jump into the exercise, which I dearly love. And, I have GOT to get the food thang back in line. So, I am thinking, starting....NOW....no sugar, unless its in fruit. None of that refined flour stuff either. Can I do it?? I hope I can, I hope I can!! Back on the wagon I go...and yea, for whatever reason, this reminds me of the video I have of my husband from many years ago when we took kids to Young Life camp, and he tried to get on the blob in the lake at camp. He jumped off the platform and kept sliding off into the water...over and over and over and over again...jump, slap, sploosh! I am hoping all my jump-slap-splooshing has been these past several days....lets hope this blob gets on the blob and STICKS with it this time!!!

What an amazing 7 years!

Well, today we celebrate a very special day at our home....my boys will be SEVEN years old!! This past 7 years has absolutely flown by, and it has been the greatest adventure I have ever been on. I am so thankful for each and every moment I have been able to spend with my precious boys. They are growing up so fast and are becoming such wonderful young men, right before my eyes! They can read now, are kind and considerate, love Jesus and their family, and I am beyond anything I can describe absolutely in love with these little guys. So, so thankful! Hoping I can make it a special day for them, despite being in between night shifts. I also don't have nearly as many gifts as I would like to have for them, so I am hoping tomorrow we can make everything happen that needs to come together!

I am also hoping to stay away from the sugar of the birthday cakes tomorrow and this weekend! It may be tough, but I think I am doing pretty well with my cravings. Weight is still holding pretty steady, so hopefully it will move a little more when I can start exercising more regularly.

Finished reading The Help tonight too...what an amazing book! I loved it, and can't wait now to see the movie! Anyhow....da,da,da,dat's all folks!!!!!