When I first started thinking about the past year and what I wanted to blog about I originally was thinking what a terrible year it was. Then I read some things some other friends have gone through and really began to reflect on this year and realized while it has had some tough challenges it was not as bad as it could have been.
We made some pretty big lifestyle changes with running and eating this year. We can tell a difference even though you may not be able to since a lot of the changes have been internal (emotionally as well as health wise). We were truly inspired to keep working towards our goal when we got to witness my cousin's husband Gary finish his first marathon.Of course, I can't forget we ran our first 5k in June. I never would have thought I could or would do something like that, but I DID IT!!!!
We cancelled our trip to Disney where Rick was going to run his first half marathon because our septic system "died" and we spent all of our Disney money putting new field lines in our house. It was incredibly disappointing to realize we wouldn't be able to make it but knew that God was in it. We had just received our tax return and Rick had just gotten a large bonus from work and so we had the money on hand to pay for it all. Had it happened any other time of the year we would not have had the funds.
In March we got to go to Texas to see me grandparents for the first time in over 2 years. It was bittersweet for sure. To see my grandmother with Alzheimer's was heartbreaking. I will be forever thankful for the time I got with her while she still knew who I was.
We survived the tornadoes of April 27th, one touching down about a mile from our house. We could see God's protective hand on us when we walked out of our house and there were trees down all around us and homes destroyed everywhere, but we were fine. It was overwhelming to say the least.
I had my first ever "speaking engagement". I spoke at my mom's church at their mother-daughter banquet. I spoke on Trusting God. Satan had attacked before this event, but even harder since. Trusting Him, Fearing not, not being anxious are areas that have been such a struggle this year. Anxiety for me this year has been worse than it has ever been, and yet God has taught me so much this year. I'm looking forward to the day I do not struggle with fear and anxiety. It may not be until I get to Heaven, but I hope not.
I have made several new friends this year, most of them out of discovering we have walked the same difficult road in some way or the other . I am always thankful for new friends. I have also gotten to know some people better that I have known for awhile and I love that too. I also have relationships I have to do better on, even seek some healing in. That is one of my prayers for this new year.
I have seen so many people I care about struggle this year. Whether it was cancer, other illnesses, marriage struggles, children issues, depression, loss or other things. I have spent a whole lot of time in prayer for so many this year and while I wish hard times never happened it has been an honor to lift so many up to my Father. It has been a healing balm for me on days when I felt anxiety would swallow me whole to take my eyes off myself and lift others up. To stand in the gap for them. I have loved seeing answered prayer and I am looking forward to more of them this year.
We became parents of a teenager this year. AAHHHH! When Megan was born I immediately began to worry about 2 things. Potty training and teen years. We survived potty training, I'm not so sure about the teen years :D That makes me pray a lot too. Seriously though, I don't want to rush these years and I don't want to hate them. We have our issues but all in all she is a GREAT kid and I adore her.
Erika is still a mama's girl and I have decided she will probably never leave home. :D She still keeps us laughing, but she is also entering the tween years. Oh, the attitude that comes out and I begin to wonder what happened to the complacent little girl?? She is such a giving person, who loves to make people laugh and do whatever to keep the peace. I am truly blessed.
There is so much more that has happened in our life, but there is one other thing that I want to remember about this year. Today I finished reading through the Bible in a year for the first time. I have read it through one other time, but it took me almost 3 years. I don't know if it is right or wrong to be proud of that, but I am. Not just because I finished it, but because all the things I learned with my Savior this year. The times when I could read some passage back to Him as praise, or as a cry of my heart. The tear stained pages, the notes in the margin, the underlines...all evidence of my walk with my Jesus this year. That will be my favorite thing that happened in 2011.
So I welcome 2012, and wonder what it will hold for me and my family. I wonder what it will hold for my extended family and my friends and all those I have prayed for in 2011. Tonight I am thankful that even though I started out thinking this has been a terrible year I realized that a lot of it was just living life. Living the ups and downs of life with the amazing people God blessed me with. It wasn't all bad after all, it actually was pretty ok.
Happy New Year!!!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
A Healthier Landess Family
The road to weight loss a healthier life has a lot of ups and downs. I realize, of course, I am not stating anything profound or some bit of new information to anyone.
Most everyone knows about our decision to start running at the beginning of this year, and you probably know our family struggles with weight issues. The running triggered something in this family that I hope never dies out. A strong desire to be healthy. It has been a roller coaster of "stuff" with running and eating habits all year long. The two never seemed to match up, we were never exercising AND eating right. Obviously the two together work best :).
We have made a lot of life style changes this last year. Slowly, one step at a time, trial and error, starts and stops, failures, and victories...we have learned a lot. Some of the things we have done are.. take out processed food from our diet (almost completely, you may find a few things in our pantry but not much), making most everything from scratch, adding lots of veggies, some fruits, and low fat meats, buying organic when it is on sale and we can afford it, eating more fish and chicken and less red meat (I love red meat so it will never leave our diet completely), we have switched from white bread/flour/pasta to whole wheat and whole grain and very few carbs in a day, drinking way more water, and running (not so much lately), zumba, Just Dance (don't laugh it is a great workout!!).
We love to find and try new recipes so this year we have not given into "diet food" salad and bland stuff. We have really enjoyed searching for and trying new recipes and we will just keep doing that. We have realized that to make lifestyle changes, not go on a diet, we had to find foods we loved to eat. We have not made all these changes at once, but little bits here and there and it has been a lot of ups and downs.
Last week I stumbled upon a blog (http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/what-i-miss-from-135lbs-ago/) about a college girl who lost 135 #s and she loves to cook. Obviously we love to cook (and eat) so I was intrigued and decided to read some. The blog post I read was about what she missed from being overweight and what she love about being 135#s thinner. I never had thought about anything good about being overweight and it made me think. I obviously have a long way to go to be where I need to be HEALTHY (not skinny), but I decided to write what I miss about "not giving a crap" about what I eat, and what I look forward to about being in better shape.
What I miss....The simplicity of processed food, just grabbing something and heating it up. I get tired of cooking all the time. Chips, oh my word I miss chips!! Pizza. Eating out (we eat out some but not like before). Eating out at a buffet and eating till I thought I might be sick (ok maybe I don't miss that one a whole lot). Diet Coke. The comfort from junk food, especially if eaten while watching a chick flick.
What I don't miss...Hating myself for every bite of junk I ate, feeling sick from eating so much crap, the sadness that comes with comforting myself with food.
What I am looking forward to....being healthy, being off meds, being able to run without wondering if it will kill me, being fit and healthy as a family, being able to look my girls in the eye and know I didn't make good choices for them early on but we changed it together, shopping in the cute clothes department.
You should read this girls blog she puts it so much better than I and I can so relate!
I am not to the "healthy" point I want to be at yet, but I am healthier today than I was on Jan 1,2011 even though I am not a whole lot skinnier (13#s down and a WHOLE lot more to go). My goal is a healthier Landess family and a little skinnier wouldn't be so bad either!
Most everyone knows about our decision to start running at the beginning of this year, and you probably know our family struggles with weight issues. The running triggered something in this family that I hope never dies out. A strong desire to be healthy. It has been a roller coaster of "stuff" with running and eating habits all year long. The two never seemed to match up, we were never exercising AND eating right. Obviously the two together work best :).
We have made a lot of life style changes this last year. Slowly, one step at a time, trial and error, starts and stops, failures, and victories...we have learned a lot. Some of the things we have done are.. take out processed food from our diet (almost completely, you may find a few things in our pantry but not much), making most everything from scratch, adding lots of veggies, some fruits, and low fat meats, buying organic when it is on sale and we can afford it, eating more fish and chicken and less red meat (I love red meat so it will never leave our diet completely), we have switched from white bread/flour/pasta to whole wheat and whole grain and very few carbs in a day, drinking way more water, and running (not so much lately), zumba, Just Dance (don't laugh it is a great workout!!).
We love to find and try new recipes so this year we have not given into "diet food" salad and bland stuff. We have really enjoyed searching for and trying new recipes and we will just keep doing that. We have realized that to make lifestyle changes, not go on a diet, we had to find foods we loved to eat. We have not made all these changes at once, but little bits here and there and it has been a lot of ups and downs.
Last week I stumbled upon a blog (http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/what-i-miss-from-135lbs-ago/) about a college girl who lost 135 #s and she loves to cook. Obviously we love to cook (and eat) so I was intrigued and decided to read some. The blog post I read was about what she missed from being overweight and what she love about being 135#s thinner. I never had thought about anything good about being overweight and it made me think. I obviously have a long way to go to be where I need to be HEALTHY (not skinny), but I decided to write what I miss about "not giving a crap" about what I eat, and what I look forward to about being in better shape.
What I miss....The simplicity of processed food, just grabbing something and heating it up. I get tired of cooking all the time. Chips, oh my word I miss chips!! Pizza. Eating out (we eat out some but not like before). Eating out at a buffet and eating till I thought I might be sick (ok maybe I don't miss that one a whole lot). Diet Coke. The comfort from junk food, especially if eaten while watching a chick flick.
What I don't miss...Hating myself for every bite of junk I ate, feeling sick from eating so much crap, the sadness that comes with comforting myself with food.
What I am looking forward to....being healthy, being off meds, being able to run without wondering if it will kill me, being fit and healthy as a family, being able to look my girls in the eye and know I didn't make good choices for them early on but we changed it together, shopping in the cute clothes department.
You should read this girls blog she puts it so much better than I and I can so relate!
I am not to the "healthy" point I want to be at yet, but I am healthier today than I was on Jan 1,2011 even though I am not a whole lot skinnier (13#s down and a WHOLE lot more to go). My goal is a healthier Landess family and a little skinnier wouldn't be so bad either!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Good Grief
I think the older I get the more of a clutz I become. It is really irritating.
You know that moment when you spend a good 15 min chopping up veggies for a "good for you" salad when you really want pizza. You put turkey on it instead of fried chicken. And a healthy vinaigrette instead of bleu cheese. Oh, who am I kidding, I did use the bleu cheese, but only a little!! (the rest is true though!) Then you decide to put just a little Season Salt on it to add a little flavor and oh snap you open the wrong part of the lid and dump HALF the stupid salt on one section of your salad. Seriously, does anyone else know what I am talking about??? Am I the only clutz around here??
So the question before me was can I save the salad or make another one. Darn it, I have no desire to make another one. So I scrape as much salt as I can out...there goes my precious little bit of bleu cheese. If I stir it good I can spread out the salt through the salad AND I may get a little taste of dressing in each bite. Just to be sure I will have a HUGE glass of water to drink. I tried to eat it (I hate waste, I really do!) but even with a ton of water to drink I couldn't handle it. I still have no desire to make another salad so I decide I will just make a toasted turkey and cheese sandwich. I burnt that stupid toast!
Forget it, I will just have a spoon of peanut butter!
You know that moment when you spend a good 15 min chopping up veggies for a "good for you" salad when you really want pizza. You put turkey on it instead of fried chicken. And a healthy vinaigrette instead of bleu cheese. Oh, who am I kidding, I did use the bleu cheese, but only a little!! (the rest is true though!) Then you decide to put just a little Season Salt on it to add a little flavor and oh snap you open the wrong part of the lid and dump HALF the stupid salt on one section of your salad. Seriously, does anyone else know what I am talking about??? Am I the only clutz around here??
So the question before me was can I save the salad or make another one. Darn it, I have no desire to make another one. So I scrape as much salt as I can out...there goes my precious little bit of bleu cheese. If I stir it good I can spread out the salt through the salad AND I may get a little taste of dressing in each bite. Just to be sure I will have a HUGE glass of water to drink. I tried to eat it (I hate waste, I really do!) but even with a ton of water to drink I couldn't handle it. I still have no desire to make another salad so I decide I will just make a toasted turkey and cheese sandwich. I burnt that stupid toast!
Forget it, I will just have a spoon of peanut butter!
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