Scale: Slave to? Or Accountable To?

 Weightloss.   Everywhere you turn you see ads for quick and easy weight loss.   Pills, shakes, creams, and even laser therapies.  If you have followed me at all, you know I have struggled with my weight since our daughter got sick the first time.   I know I am repeating myself, but I am a major stress eater.  Knowing and understanding your eating habits and eating triggers is critical to success in weight loss.

Fast forward to this spring.   Gyms had been closed for three plus months.  Our business has been drastically affected by this pandemic as well.  That was a recipe for disaster for me.   Food for comfort, beer and pizza, wine, chips and so much more.   The latest health issue in our home if our son hurting his back over a year ago during off season baseball training.  That is another story, but let's just say, unsupervised weight training with young high school athletes is a REALLY bad idea.  He has struggled a lot and missed a lot of baseball as well.  The masses of tests, emergency room visits and so much more has been stressful to say the least.

We trusted so many people and medical professionals to figure out what was going on with his back.  The answer?   I don't know.  His tests are normal.  We finally turned to a long time friend and person trainer Jason Ivesdal.  Jason is the perennial student and is always studying and learning to better service his clients.   Our son started training with Jason and working on building back his strength and mobility.  Of course then COVID hit.  there was no more training with Jason for over 3 months.  But, this isn't about our son.  I always went along to our son's training sessions with Jason.  Jason and I would chat about a lot of different things during those sessions.

One very emotional day for me, I said to him with tears in my eyes, "I can't be like this anymore, I need your help to lose this weight for good.".   His simple answer, "I will help you."

I will write more about the process later, but right now I want to talk about the scale.   I have been a slave to the scale for many years.   If I had a night of beer and pizza, I would step on the scale the next day.  I would get frustrated that the scale would go up significantly and it would take me days to get back to where I was.  I would get frustrated and say things like, "I won't ever be able to eat normal food again.  Every time I eat normal food I gain weight."  "I'm never going to get to my goal weight."  In the past the scale would make me feel like a failure.  It was not a healthy place for me to be so obsessed with the scale.   

The scale does not always reflect where you are in a weight loss journey.  There are other considerations.  For example:   Are you retaining water?  Do you have food allergies?  Are you working out and building lean muscle mass?   The scale is only one piece of a larger wellness puzzle.

So, I changed my focus.  Now I am excited to step on the scale and don't concern myself with how much it goes down. I am looking at the scale as a tool to help keep me on track.  I am learning what foods and what things make the scale go up slightly.  That way I can adjust my "normal" eating habits to not eat those things as frequently.   I also purchased a new scale.  This one has an app (doesn't everything) associated with it that lets you visually track your progress.  As an accountability tool, I make adjustments if I see the scale go up.  This will help me ultimately from rebounding and gaining the weight back.

My scale was also not accurate.  So many home scales are NOT!  That didn't help my cause.  So I decided to splurge on a new scale.  Withings Body Scale

                     

Who would have ever thought I would be excited about a scale?   This bad boy does all this:

• Tracks BMI & Weight Trends
• Up to 8 Users
• Wi Fi Synchronization
• Daily Weather Report
• Works with Multiple Health Apps
• Has a Baby & Pregnancy Mode (I am way beyond that but great for expectant Mother's!)

The hardest thing for me over the last few years is to remember that I AM Worthy.   This is a struggle for so many women.  I have lost weight and regained it more times than I can count anymore.  I know I have said this before, but it is time for ME.  Time to be healthy.  With all the craziness of this pandemic, it is even more important for people to care for the bodies God gave them.  Eat healthy, exercise, get plenty of sleep and have a strong spiritual life.  That will help you stay healthy even through a pandemic!   I will write more about healthy living, but don't fall for quick weight loss scams.  Pills, shakes, etc.  They are not sustainable unless you want to continue purchasing and using those products for the rest of your life?   No gimmicks, no cheats, real food and exercise (full disclosure, I started with shakes, but there is a good reason for that - I only did them for 21 days). 

You are worth it.   I am worth it.  If you need to talk with someone about this, I am always available.

This post contains affiliate links.  If you purchase a product through an affiliate link I make a small commission at no cost to you.  This small commission keeps my husband happy when I spend too much time on things like this.  Thank you for your support!

Pandemic Gardening - Weeds Be Gone!

My Mother had beautiful, well tended gardens.  One of her best friends, Florence also had beautiful gardens on a large gorgeous wooded lot.  I remember as a child, going with my Mother to her home for lunch in the summer.  We would arrive there, walk down the hill to the screened gazebo (this is Minnesota after all and home to killer mosquitos).   I called her Aunt Florence because we spent so much time with them as a family it didn't seem right to call them Mr. and Mrs. Felber.  So they were Aunt Florence and Uncle Harvey.  Yes, I am that old that we called adults Mr. and Mrs. not their first names.  Inevitably, when we would arrive, Aunt Florence would be on her hands and knees at the edge of the garden.  She wore her big floppy hat and was always pulling weeds, digging in the dirt, moving plants to various places in the garden to create her version of beauty.  We always began with a tour of the garden.  The joy and the love Aunt Florence had for those plants was contagious.  She would point out new growth, beautiful blooms and talk about changes she was making to those gardens.

Her table was always impeccable.  Beautiful white floral table cloth and of course a vase of beautiful flowers in the center.   The table was set with beautiful china and all the silverware was placed to appease Miss Manners.  Sandwiches, iced tea with lemon and always a lovely home made pastry for desert.

 We have had the opportunity to do a lot more with our house and our yard this year.   Our neighbors are probably very thankful.  Unfortunately our son was unable to play baseball this summer.  This is probably the first summer in 14 years that we have not spent the majority of the summer on a ball field!

So, our backyard was a DISASTER!

We have a large back bed that has become completely overgrown with grass mostly.   Let me tell you it is A.  Ugly, B.  Hard to mow.  

This year I have taken the time to do much more planting and "playing" in the dirt.  Actually weeding the front beds so that our front yard actually looks decent.

Now on to the backyard.   The first thing we are tackling is that large back bed.   We are a toxic chemical free home as much as possible, so killing weeds safely is a real challenge.

Here is a testimonial from a friend that tried it.

Weed problems? Oh my gosh does this stuff rock!

Do you love our planet? Little changes add up to BIG changes!

Harsh chemicals like Round-Up sprayed on the cracks of the driveway and sidewalks DO make their way into our water supply - where we then ingest them.

Angela ordered this for me the other day and oh my gosh the weeds are just GONE! I believe she sprayed it on straight and 24 hours they were already withered!

I will be taking before and after pictures.   The plan is to spray tonight.   We will then bring in a load (or two) of black dirt.  Nothing like some manual exercise with a shovel and wheelbarrow!

                                                

Here is a link to purchase your own:    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W9HX3MV/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=lhanken-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=4d984cf15d2aa0e59b2fdd1d209ae600&creativeASIN=B07W9HX3MV

During these crazy times, we are always looking for ways to naturally boost our immune system.   Vitamin D has been shown to naturally boost your immunity.  The best way to get Vitamin D naturally is through sunshine!    

Here is a great article on how gardening actually can make you HAPPY.   https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm

Working in the soil is good for the soul.  You often hear people describe their garden's as their happy place.  Beautiful shades of green, gorgeous blooms of varying colors.  Gardening also is a natural stress reliever.    Being present in the moment while gardening naturally reduces stress and anxiety.  I like to say a prayer, thanking God for his amazing beauty while gardening.  Listen to the birds, the breeze in the trees.  It can be very calming.

I know the summer is almost over, but get out in your yards, dig in the dirt.  Plant some fall plants.  Be joyful in the moment.

Be Observant - Be Present

My parents survived the depression.   My Father was incredibly frugal.   He did very well in his business but he would still haggle over acorn squash prices at a roadside stand.   He would pick up people's trash (long before Bloomington curbside pickup), fix it and either sell it or use it in our home.   He had the funds to buy whatever he wanted, but he was always frugal.

We took a lot of vacations in the car.   We didn't stay at fancy hotels, we stayed at motels (do they even exist anymore?).   I was ecstatic if we stayed at a motel that had a pool.   My oldest brother is 18 years older than I am.  I am the youngest of 4 which means I was basically an only child.   Yes, we took some big trips to Europe (to see my other brother who was stationed in the army in Germany) and to Hawaii years later when I was in high school.     But MANY of our trips were road trips.   Drive to a place, stay in a motel, drive to another place, stay in a motel until you got to your destination.

I had the backseat to myself generally and I was really good at sleeping in the car.   I still have that skill if anyone wonders.   The beauty to me was that I would fall asleep and then wake up and we would almost be there.   I thought car rides were horribly boring.  My Mother would regularly say, "Lori if you sleep the whole car ride you will miss so much!"  I wasn't buying it at the time.

My parents bought a lake home when I was 2.   I grew up at that lake home.   We were at the end of a dirt road.   We didn't have a tv.   We listened to music, we played cards, we did puzzles, we rock hunted, we explored, we fished, we swam, we played yard games, we bird watched, we boated, we grilled, we gardened, we did yard work and every day we would "go for a walk down the road".   I remember those walks usually just with my Mother very fondly.   We would talk, look for agates, watch the birds, she would point out wildflowers.   We had reference books and when we saw particular birds or flowers we would look them up and mark in the books the date and location.  We were present in the moment and always observant of what was around us and the gift of nature that God provided.

             

I learned to be observant.    I learned to listen.   I learned to watch.   Boy, how much did I miss while sleeping on those car trips?  The joy she had in finding and seeing God's creation every day was infectious.   A sense of adventure and discovery was something I cherish now. 

Fast forward to today.   

I now understand my parent's frugality.   It came from experience.   It came from fear.   We have learned to be much better stewards of our money during these trying times.

The world has slowed down.   Time is all relative now.   Our society needed this change of pace.   

Cell phones, and being constantly connected is not good.   Everyday we see people walking by our house, looking at their phones or even talking on their phones with headphones.   Why is everyone afraid of silence?   True silence doesn't exist.   While you are walking you may hear the sound of a trickling creek, or the birds singing.  Even the sound of a chainsaw or a mower brings back memories of my childhood summers.   Open your eyes.   Look at the world and the people around you.   Listen to the beautiful music God provides outside.

Our family has become more connected through this shutdown.   We are going for walks together.  We are playing games.  If I can share a little of the joy my Mother shared with me I will pass along a legacy of beauty and joy.

Day One! - Ready to Juice - Gratitude Journal

Ok, juicer is out, all my veggies are purchased.   I am actually excited to start.  We were scheduled to go to Notre Dame this weekend for a baseball tournament.   They ended up telling us our team was not going.  I love watching our son play baseball, but I am thankful it was cancelled.   That will give me a good 10 days to start this cleanse before we have to go to Chicago for another tournament.

I have done a short juice cleanse before and the hardest thing is the prep and planning.   Plus I just don't have room in my fridge!!!!  My amazing daughter Elsie is joining me on this journey, but I have to cook for the guys.   That might be a challenge!  No, I take that back.   I can do it.  I have learned a lot in the last couple of years of the benefits of positive language.  We will talk about that here as we go.  But if you catch me saying things like hard, can't, challenge.   Slap me up the side of the head.   Only positive words from now on.

If you decide to do a juice cleanse, see your doctor first to check out some vitals and get permission.   It also gives you great baselines to check when you complete your cleanse.  There are many juicers out there on the market.  This time I am using the Breville.   There are a LOT of them available for a reasonable price on Facebook Marketplace.   Don't, unless you want to, pay full retail for one.

For those of you that know me, you know we are an oily family.  I will be incorporating an oily regimine for clearing negative emotions.   I didn't believe at first in the emotional benefits of the oils, but I have seen many examples so I am incorporating all that into my life change.

I will share the first thing I am planning daily. 

1.  Listing 10 things each day in a Gratitude Journal.  My goal is to do that in the morning before heading to work.  Starting my day with an attitude of gratitude is going to do wonders for my outlook!   I will share my list with you occasionally.   This exercise does not have to be hard.  You can repeat things.   It can be as simple as the sound of a bird singing.   It can be sunshine, rain, wind rustling in the leaves.   You can be grateful for just about anything!

This is my journal cover.   Caption says, "It is the light that urges the flower to open its heart to the world."  I actually purchased it in 2011, but I did not really settle in with the process.    Today that changes.  

I did my gratitude list first thing.   I takes me about 5-10 minutes, but it really sets the tone for the day.

But then, something amazing happened to me this morning.  Normally I play some stupid card games or other games on my phone.   It is completely mindless activity.   That is the key right?   It is mindless.  There is NO VALUE in it.  It does nothing to make me a better person.  This morning I sat down to play my games and the first thing that jumped out at me was my Bible App.   I can't explain it any other way than the Holy Spirit guided me.   It was really that strong.

I have a number of devotional plans going at one time.   Today I found a new plan called The Good News in 10 Days by Richard Exley.   I know nothing about him or this plan, but I started this morning.   This was sort of a face palm moment.   I am starting the day in gratitude, but before I start in gratitude, I should start in PRAYER!  DUH!  10 day devotional to correspond with a 10 day juice cleanse.  Seemed appropriate to me.

Here is a link to the app.   It is free.   https://www.bible.com/   You can join me and follow along in the plan and we can share notes on each devotion.    I signed up with my Facebook account.  I am not sure how we connect, but I believe this is my profile.  https://www.bible.com/users/lhanken   I would love for people to join me in my daily devotions as well!

The day is going well.  No hunger, no headaches.   Two juices down.  I will make fresh for tonight.  I will let you know more about day one in tomorrow's post.

Thanks for taking this journey with me.  I am full of hope.

#THISISMYJOURNEY
#IAMWORTHY