Day 23 - What life has taught me.

While I've totally let this 'blog every day in May' challenge go out the window but I'm back for day 23...

Things I've learned that school won't teach me.

Where should I start. I could probably go on for days and days...

I'll highlight the more important few today.

~ Love yourself. When you have no one to turn to, you should be able to turn inside and feel comforted, feel confident with the person you are.

~ Don’t be so hard on yourself, we all make mistakes, fail, fall and get back up time and time again.

That's part of living life and the beauty in tomorrow’s.

~ You’re a good Mom. Regardless of the bad day, the yelling, the time-outs, poor manners, frustrations, you're still a good Mom. That love you feel inside for your child is like nothing else in the world.

It's surreal.

~ You can do hard things. Challenge yourself Laura, really. Push yourself to be great, to go outside of your comfort zone, to try new things. Just do it.

~ It's ok to not have the last word in an argument. It's ok to be the one to walk away and bow out of a fight. You’re actually the stronger person when you’re the one to swallow your pride and apologize first. Pride is ugly.

ps - next week I have a guest post planned by a really great friend of mine discussing a very real and raw topic about motherhood. You don’t want to miss her story.

Valentine's Day Link up

Today is the day of L-O-V-E and I'm linking up with Sel and Hallie to share a little bit about me and my husband.

So here's the deal - head over to Sel or Hallie's blog, grab the button and link up by answering the questions below.

~ Here goes ~

1.) How did you meet your significant other?

Joe and I met in 2003 online, in a good old fashioned AOL chat room with dial up internet. 

Wow, that makes me feel old! 

We started talking and I had to run out the door to meet up with a friend. 

It was late and for some strange reason I gave him my number. 

I was super insecure at the time so I said "listen, look at my pictures, here's my number, if you're still interested, call me - I have to go."  Not even 30 minutes later my phone rang.  We talked for hours and decided to meet up.  ...the rest is history!  

2.) What/where was your first date?

Our first date was dinner and then we went to Newport and sat on the beach.  We talked and laughed and really got to know each other that night.  It was also the night of our first kiss!

3.) What's your best relationship advice?

Honesty and unconditional love - our relationship, like any, has taken many turns, hit rough patches, significant changes and challenges and through it all we've come out stronger and better than before simply because through it all we've remained honest.  Our love isn’t based on conditions.  We choose to love each other through all things, whether good or bad, messy or fun, difficult and easy.  It's a vow we made to each other, the Lord and in front of our families when we got married and it's not something we take lightly. 

4.) What is your most embarrassing moment in front of your SO?

This is funny now but at the time I was really embarrassed!  Now remember, we started dating back in the day, when boys would ask girls to "be their girlfriend".

(I have no idea how that actually works now-a-days)

We officially started dating on November 20, 2003,

but we should have officially started dating on November 19, 2003. 

We were at his house and he handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, I read the note thanked him and gave him a hug.  I couldn’t tell you what the note actually said but it was something sweet.

 

The very next day we saw each other again and he handed me a single rose with another note. 

This time the note was more detailed and specifically said "Will you be my girlfriend?"  I of course said yes! 

He then tells me that he tried to ask me out the day before with the previous note but I didn’t get it. 

ummm... cue embarrassment!  Whoops!

5.) What most attracts you to your SO?

His love of the Lord, me and our daughter.  Obviously this isn't what first attracted me to him but over the years this is what it has grown into and it's beautiful.

6.) If a movie was made about your SO, what actor/superhero

would play their part?

Not really an actor but I'd have to say either Mike of Frank from the show American Pickers.  My husband loves all things flea market, yard sale, thrifting etc.  This show is all about that and he dreams about hanging out with these guys!

 

Weigh In Wednesday

This morning I found two awesome bloggers who are hosting a "Weigh in Wednesday" link-up for other bloggers who are on a mission to lose weight, get fit, get healthy etc.  I'm excited because it will give me the chance to meet other bloggers who are on the same journey as me and I'll also be looking for tips that have aided in their success.  If you want to read the beginning of my story it's here and here.   Basically, every Wednesday we'll link up with Alex and Erin and share our weight loss, inches loss or exercise successes for the prior week.   Without further adieu, I'm super happy to report that 1 week in I've lost 4.6 lbs!!!   Seeing that I was capable of losing weight this week was really motivating for me.  I knew that it would be difficult on a daily basis to make good choices but I did it and I'm so happy!   So far I haven't started any specific exercise plan.  I've mainly been focused on eating right and once I get that established then I'll be including exercise.  Grocery shopping this week was so different than it has been recently.  I bought a lot of chicken, shrimp, fish, turkey, beans, veggies and fruit.  Before I'd buy more snacks than anything else and that's what I'd eat to get me through the day.    My daily meals have looked something like this:   Breakfast - Kashi high protein cereal, 1% milk and a handful of blueberries with coffee Snack - Banana and a 100 calorie pack of cocoa almonds Lunch - Low sodium ham sandwich on a Flat Out wrap Snack - Apple Dinner - meat and veggies with a small carb, usually 1/2 a sweet potato Snack - grapes or walnuts   I need to be drinking more water throughout the day.  I'm really never thirsty and don't drink much of anything but I know that drinking a ton of water will help me reduce hunger and lose weight so that's on my to-do list for this next week.     Now, I have a long way to go.  I'm probably not going to share my actually weight here (until I've lost a significant amount) but I do have some before pictures that were taken on 1/1/13.  It's funny because I'm embarrassed to post pictures of myself on my blog but everyone I come in contact with on a daily basis sees me so what's the big deal?    

My first steps

It's 1/2/2013 which means I'm officially on Day 2 of my fat to fit lifestyle change.

First let me start out by saying the support I received on Facebook, Instagram, via text from friends and family and on my blog here has been nothing short of amazing and super encouraging.  Sometimes when I'm at my lowest and feeling so bad about myself I tend to think that no one cares or understands what I'm dealing with or going through.  When writing my last blog post I was so nervous that I would be judged or ridiculed and neither happened.  I was lifted up in prayer by so many friends, I received such heartwarming comments and words of encouragement - even from strangers who happened to read my blog. 

So, THANK YOU, everyone for your support, encouragement, prayers and kind words.

I've made a few changes so far and I think they're going to help so I decided to share them with you.

~ I joined www.myfitnesspal.com and started tracking everything I eat.  They have an app for smart phones so I have it handy at all times and you can even track your exercise and weight loss.  The neat thing is when you're entering what you've eaten mostly everything is already in their system so you just scroll through the choices and choose the one that matches what you need.

~ I kicked my Dunkin Donuts habit to the curb.  Every morning for longer than I can even remember I stopped at DD on my way into work and got a large iced coffee with extra milk and equal and a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. 

When I put those 2 things into www.myfitnesspal.com it calculated 686 calories! 

Breakfast	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
Dunkin Donuts - Large Iced Coffee With Whole Milk and Equal, 32 oz.	166	14	8	9
Dunkin Donuts - Cinnamon Raisin Bagel With Cream Cheese, 1 bagel	520	75	19	16
	686	89	27	25

686 calories for JUST breakfast, and the worst part is that it didn’t even satisfy me for long since it was all carbs.  Needless to say, no more Dunkin Donuts stops in the morning.  This morning I made coffee at home and had cheerios and a banana - my breakfast calorie count today is 330 calories.  Plus saved $5.00! 

~ I created a "Healthy for 2013" board on Pinterest and I've been finding and pinning easy and healthy recipes to make at home.   My plan is to find a recipe every day before leaving work that I'm going to make for dinner and if needed I'll stop at the grocery store on my way home.

~  I organized our cabinets at home and threw out all the junk. 

~ I took before pictures, weighed myself and took my measurements.  I know that I'll hit plateaus along this journey so keeping track of inches will help.  I did post my before pictures on Instagram - follow me - username Camarogirl819

Again, thank you for the encouragement.  I won’t be posting updates every day but this is my new life so I need to embrace it and may need to talk about it once in a while.  If you have any questions, suggestions or advice please feel free to ask or share.  I'll be happy to answer (almost) anything!

This scripture has really been on my heart lately and I pray that I exemplify it during my journey.  I'm scared that I'll fail but I can't live like that.  Every day is a fresh start and I'm going to take this one step at a time, one second, one minute, one hour at a time.  I can and will do this.

 

It sticks, she knows

  Olivia put her baby doll on her bookshelf, walked away, turned around and ran up to her baby, picked her up and said "baby!  YaYa miss you, I work, I home now, love you baby!"   This, this just melted my heart.  I say these very words to Olivia every day when I get home from work after missing her like crazy for the 8 hours I'm away.  She gets it.  She knows why I'm not home and this means the world to me because I make a big deal out of it when I get home to ensure that she knows she's loved, even when I'm not with her.    It's hard juggling a full time job and home/family life.  That's why I get to work every day between 5am and 6am.  I'd rather lose sleep and work a few hours while Olivia's asleep which allows me  to get home for 2am and have the entire afternoon with my girl.  I'm so thankful that my boss is super flexible with my schedule and even more grateful that working opposite shifts from my husband allows Olivia to stay home with one of us at all times.     ...but nothing beats knowing that my 2 year old understands the meaning behind what I have been saying every day when I get home and every morning when my husband sees her after working all night.     She understands and can relate it to her world, with her baby, makes me proud.    We're doing something right.   

I'm not the same me.....

I hear these people asking me How do I know what I believe? Well I'm not the same me And that's all the proof I need All This Time (Britt Nicole)  

This song has been on my heart for some time now and this part perfectly describes where I am in life at the moment. 

 

I'm not the same Me anymore, because I'm His.  I'm adjusting to life as a Christian. 

 

My husband and I made a decision to follow Jesus and raise my daughter to do the same.  We have been saved and accepted the Lord into our hearts and are learning to live by His word.  It's been quite the adjustment and we've received our fair share of judgment from friends and family who don't believe the same things we do, but, we are confident in our decision.  Funny how it really wasn't our decision but part of God's plan.  We know we are doing the best thing for our family.  Our lives have changed. 

 

Life looks different when you're walking with Jesus.  

 

I'm still new at this.  I'm learning how and praying for guidance to be a better Christian, wife, mother, daughter etc.  I still make mistakes and I still sin.  I'm nowhere near perfect, but I know that I'm loved and He died for me and my sins and I have forgiveness.  All of these things make me so humbled.  

 

I will share more about my journey to being saved and accepting Jesus.  I sit back and wonder how I got here and really, I dont know.  .