m.o.n.d.a.y.

i love monday.

this morning i woke up well. it was a little before four. i must have slept soundly because i felt so good. first thing i noticed was i didn’t have the usual morning bags under my eyes. i showered and dressed then did dishes and laundry. i got to work ten minutes early and exercised for twenty.

monday is my favorite day. monday is the perfect day. monday is often a misunderstood day and has been the butt of jokes for decades. mondays have been maligned. mondays have been taken for granted. mondays have been treated poorly. to me, however,

monday is

refreshing
energizing
forgiving
invigorating
newness
starting over
seeing clearly
organizing
realigning
monday is my day

monday comes right after the day of rest so it naturally follows that it’s a day of feeling brand new. this monday, today, comes after a week of spring break so it is especially a feel-good day.

i’ve visited with my children and grandchildren. scott and andie were here last weekend for three days. then i drove to rigby for five days and stayed with tracy’s family. on the way home i decided to go through logan and stay overnight with mikelle and logan. i got a new haircut from my favorite beautician, had a lovely home-cooked [by logan] dinner and watched a movie with mikelle.

delightful. wondrous. amazing.

i’ve checked off things on my to do list. i’ve eaten pretty dang healthy and i’ve managed to get in some good exercise.

i’m reporting my weight to camille this morning —  141.5.

monday is also a day to reevaluate and put things in perspective for the week. it’s a day to take a step back and look at what’s working and what’s not. it’s a day to choose what’s important to me for the week. it’s a day to let go of things that overwhelm or take away or drag down.

i’m optimistic and determined this morning. i feel like i can do anything. i feel my own value and worth. i want to accomplish something extra this week. something i’ve put off. i know i will find something to turn this energy toward.

i hope you wake up well today and enjoy this brand new day!

update on the E/G day

I was out of control. I was moody, grumpy, frustrated, eating junk galore. I didn’t like or respect myself much. I was watching too much TV and not accomplishing anything of value. And it was time for things to change.

Thursday I did egg/grapefruit. Yesterday I ate healthy and drank plenty of fluids. Today [Saturday] I feel energized, even a little perky! I’m in the mood to tackle every project in my home. I’m optimistic. I’m happy. I’m totally lucid! [family joke.]

I feel like I have every single gram of sugar out of my system. I feel clean!

I feel strong and in control of cravings and unwanted thoughts of binging, eating junk food, or blowing it. My wedding ring isn’t stuck. I can actually get it on and off today. [This is and always has been the ultimate test of how my day is going, sugar-wise.]

I’m back.

This is me!

And I just weighed.

140.5

Woo-Hoo.

I want to stay right here the rest of my life! Hmm. We’ll see.

spirits up, weight down

I feel like a dang teeter-totter! My emotions are wacko, my weight is wacko and my brain is, you guessed it. I must be going through my second menopause or something . . . I have no other explanation. I’m craving chocolate [but am able to resist it the last several days,] I’m not sleeping well, I’m freezing cold, and have a sore throat. My immune system is probably not what it should be. I had two huge pimples erupt on my face last week just minutes after the candy bar incident, but they are gone now. And I was up those 2-3 pounds, but am back down to 141. I can feel my spirit strengthening and I’m more in the mood to pray. I’ve eaten completely healthy for two days in a row. Lots of fresh fruit and veggies, whole grains, skim milk [I even bought some coconut milk, Camille!] eggs, plain yogurt, healthy nuts and berries, and vitamins. My insides are getting much better, thank you.

Wow.

What a learning experience! Hopefully I’ve got this figured out by now. I read this great quote and it seems to fit.

I think forgiveness may be the greatest virtue on earth, and certainly the most needed. There is so much of meanness and abuse, of intolerance and hatred. There is so great a need for repentance and forgiveness. It is the great principle emphasized in all of scripture, both ancient and modern. Somehow forgiveness, with love and tolerance, accomplishes miracles that can happen in no other way.
~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Now, go make a difference!

Live Well, Love Life!

so proud

I won’t betray her confidence by saying her name but I have a friend who is doing so well! She told me a little experience I wanted to share. I guess she will let me know if it’s not ok.

I measured myself for the second time today.  I thought I would share the results with you. The first measurement was Jan. 12, and the second was today Jan. 28.

neck: 0
above chest: -1
fullest part: -2
waist: -1.75
across belly button: -2.75
abdomen: -1.5
hips: -1.75
thigh: -.5

My reward for achieving a personal goal was to buy myself a new outfit. I went to Ross and could not find a shirt I loved, but I got 3 pair of pants because they were perfect. I left 2 pair in the bag and wore 1 off and on for a week. Saturday I ended up taking the other 2 back and exchanged them for the next smaller size! They fit very nicely, not too tight. They were the exact same pants (Gloria Vanderbilt-Amanda), just smaller. I am so excited.

This is a two week period!!! How’s that for success! How’s that for exciting! I can’t even tell you how thrilled I am for this friend who is so dear to me and who has found a couple of key answers that seem to be clicking for her right now! She is working hard to eat healthy and to exercise. She is making hard choices.

I’m so proud of her.

karen

My dear friend, Karen, was somehow prompted to say exactly the right thing to me today, via email. She first asked permission to send me a quote, apparently worried it might offend. But it was exactly what I needed to hear. I have no doubt someone [Mom, are you up there?] prompted her to know this message was what I needed. You decide:

“Closely related to our own obligation to repent is the generosity of letting others do the same . . . In this we participate in the very essence of the Atonement of Jesus Christ…We don’t want God to remember our sins, so there is something fundamentally wrong in our relentlessly trying to remember others’ sins…It is one of those ironies of godhood that in order to find peace, the offended as well as the offender must engage the principle of forgiveness.”Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Peaceable Things of the Kingdom”, Ensign, Nov. 1996, 82

The moment I read it I remembered how many sins I had repented of and hoped no one was still remembering. I realized how many times I had hurt my kids with words and actions. One argument in particular, stuck in my mind. Mikelle and I were in Stephen’s room and I was unduly cruel to her. I think I thought if I said something terrible and mean enough she would snap out of it and get her life figured out. But it was absolutely the worse thing I could have ever said. She needed my arms around her and assurance that I loved her. She needed patience and direction and acceptance and unconditional love. I gave her everything but. I still ache with remorse when I think of those words that spewed out of my mouth.

I can’t believe she ever forgave me for them.

And now, I have been angy at someone for saying something to me. The least, the very least, I can do is follow this council and recognize the folly of hanging onto it a moment longer.

“Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves.”">–James E Faust, “The Healing Power of Forgiveness”, May 2007 Ensign

Thank you Karen. Thanks Mom.

Week’s End

This thought has filled me up!

I’ve been studying for Sunday School. We’re learning about the creation. These words enraptured my soul! [Is that a word?]

Jonathan Edwards, an early president of Yale, understood the symbolic purpose of creation. He showed how the daily rising of the sun, and its awakening us in the process, is a witness that when Christ, the True Sun, comes, He will awaken us all from death. “As the sun, by rising out of darkness and from under the earth, raises the whole world with him, raises mankind out of their beds, and by his light, as it were, renews all things and fetches them up out of darkness, so Christ, rising from the grave and from a state of death…raises all his church with him….And as all the world is enlightened and brought out of darkness by the rising of the sun so by Christ’s rising we are begotten again to a lively hope, and all our happiness and life and light and glory and the restitution of all things is from Christ rising from the dead, and is by his resurrection.” (Quoted in Perry Miller, Images and Shadows of Divine Things

I love the heavens. I love the moon, the stars and the Sun. I often imagine that heaven will be in the sun. It is light and energy and direction and warmth and fire [so it will be cleansed and pure.] It’s huge and all-consuming and the center of the universe.

t.o.d.a.y.

I keep hearing, for New Years I’m going to . . . stop chewing, start eating healthy, really start exercising, stop this or that, start this or that.

Why New Year’s? [How about getting a two-day's head start on the whole project?]

How about today? Why do we think we need to start on a Monday, a new month, a new year? Today is the perfect day to make a change, to make a difference, to make a fresh start. Today’s Wednesday, December 30, and I’m going to make a difference in a few things today. Not everything. But a few.

I can eat healthier today than I did last week. I can exercise this morning instead of going all day without even a good stretch. I can make a difference in how I feel right now.

I can stop this avalanche and get my footing. I’m only up a couple pounds and its better to get on track right now instead of doing what I’ve done in the past. Most people don’t even know I’ve messed up. So right now, at 7:50 in the morning, I’m heading to the car to get my new weights and starting the morning right.

Two days ahead of schedule!

new new new

It’s the beginning of a new week. The Sabbath. I weigh 142.5 after a week of company, holiday goodies and too much food around the house. In a few days it’s a new year and a new decade — a great time for a new outlook and a new beginning. A while ago I posted the phrase “a new look, a new outlook.” And I know the two go hand-in-hand. Got to have the new outlook in order to stay with the new look. [Wow. 9 'new's in that paragraph! -- so obviously it's my point!]

Mikelle and I were just discussing yesterday how many clothes I have stuffed in the closet. She recognized it’s because there are four sizes in there! I look at some of the clothes I wore six months ago and they are huge. Huge. And I don’t want to go back there. Even all the clothes I recently bought from Christopher and Banks that I thought were so attractive and complimentary are gigantic now, so I really need to pass them along, give them away, let go of them, even though I spent a whole lot of moolah.

Really, got to get rid of them. [Just trying to convince myself!]

My new way of thinking can’t be about ‘better hang on to them just in case . . . .’

We were goofing around and were wondering which one of us was smaller so we challenged each other to put on the other’s pants. Wow. They both fit perfectly! I am the same size as my 21-year-old daughter! I felt so good!

That’s what I’ve got to hang on to. Not a bunch of too-expensive, too-big clothing. I’ve got to hang on to what it feels like to be where I’m at. This is where I want to be until forever. 140 pounds, [still working on that!] size medium, size 10.

That’s the new me.

Yea!