Day 44: Why I Am an Overcomer

Some days, God tests me.

The following is very spiritually involved, so if you're not interested in that sort of thing, I give you permission to overlook that bit. But still read on, you may learn something.

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I am a huge Joyce Meyer fan. I think she is hysterical, and preaches a good message most times she speaks. I admit there are times when I've turned off the program because I wasn't yet ready to hear what she had to say. But most of the time, she brings it on home.

God seems to like it when I watch Joyce on the internet and seems to give me "homework" after viewing one of her shows. As in, well you've learned the lesson mentally, so let's see if you can put it into practice.

One of my favorite lessons by her is not to become offended at oneself. To become determined that no matter what kind of things are thrown in your way, to not become derailed from the purpose that God has called you to. She advocates being active and articulating things aloud, and she mentions having a very determined sit-down with herself and saying that she is NOT going to be kept by the devil from enjoying her life. She said there was a shift in her attitude from that point on.

Well, I experienced a more benign but similar episode today. For whatever reason, this nagging feeling inside me was that I was a loser and I was a horrible runner. I don't usually think that, normally I'm so excited to be running I can look past the fact that I'm slow. It nagged on and when I got to the hard part of my run,  I was fighting it and just so disappointed that I was, in my opinion, too slow. Eventually, it got intense and I just said to myself for about 5 minutes, "I'm an overcomer," like the Mandisa song. Sometimes I had to say it to myself more harshly than other times, sometimes I had to yell (to myself) at the devil that he was NOT going to take me down. About halfway through my cool down my insistence took, and I realized that yes, I was an overcomer, and yes, I was good at what I did. I decided to continue walking and put in an additional 35 second run at high speed. My total was 1.70 miles, 495 kcals, and 40:18, 9 minutes over the C25K time. :-) I also found out that I had beaten my original fast pace on the run at 2.7 mph instead of my usual 2.3.

After my run. Day 32/50 and 23.2 miles into the Lazy Girl Marathon! :-)

 

 

Mandisa has also put out a series of pictures on her website, and I have used one of those repeatedly on my page. This is the picture in question:

I can't even tell you how many times I've felt that way on the elliptical, lol. :-) But it just means that everyone who has been on a weight loss journey at some point has felt like that picture. But thank God that we are overcomers and have Someone who has overcome even the worst of circumstances. So, if you feel like giving up sometimes, remember that Christ has made us more than conquerors and we can overcome anything! :-)

I hope everyone has a terrific day. True to form, I'm going back to chem homework, lol. Be blessed everyone! :-)

Day 33.5: Still Getting it Done

I realized that maybe I should back off on the drama just a touch. Don't ask me how I know this-- just take my word for it. :-)

Anyhoo, I had a better day after the beginning of the day. I held true to the 30-minute intervals for the most part, and decided if I was going to do 30 minutes then I was going to do the best dangum 30 minutes I could. I got 7.50 miles in in 31:12 minutes the first time, and got 8.04 miles in 30:12 minutes the second run. That was pretty hardcore though, even in that 30 minutes the butt went completely numb. I got to around 89-90 rpm I believe, whatever 16.00 mph is in RPM. I usually go a little lighter than that, around 15.33-15.71 mph at my fastest.

I get out a lot of pent up rage the faster I bike and the more aggressive the music. The first session I had Joyce Meyer on and I was laughing hysterically because she decided to demonstrate that she has the same set of issues that we do by reading a few entries from a journal she kept. Some of them were kind of sad, since she has an aging mom and aunt (her dad passed away in 2005 I believe) and they have all kinds of issues. Some were downright hilarious, like when she couldn't find her pants in the spa after going to get dressed and had to go into the hotel lobby in a robe and ask if anyone had seen her pants. I have never laughed so hard in my life! I know she's a televangelist, but she is hysterical! The second session was a little different, I had been mulling over a lot of things and more issues had come up, and I switched over from the tobymac radio to the Rob Zombie radio (cause I'm awesome that way) and just rode it out.

I let the anger from the morning push me harder. I pushed as hard as I could and I got off the bike at 30 minutes and my legs and butt were completely numb, I almost couldn't feel my lower half at all. But that only lasted for a few minutes, and then the amazement set in. I had burned 200 kcals in 30 minutes! I was biking 3:57 minute miles most of the time. And now, I feel a whole lot better. There is something quite awesome about pushing yourself to the limit and living to tell the tale. :-)

I got another 100 on my chemistry homework. It is the second 100 I had since the beginning of the semester. I got an 88 on one homework, and I have been averaging A's on all my Chem labs. I'm not sure if I got kicked out of PTK when I had all the issues with my family and with the massive meds fails, but I am for sure going to appeal it, and let them know what happened if I did get put on probation. Cause I love my PTK folks and I'll probably spend the rest of my semesters chasing that 4.0, but it is totally worth it to me. I love getting A's, especially in a subject I almost flunked in high school (what can I say, it was hard for me to concentrate! :-) ). I am realizing how much I truly enjoy chemistry, but I'm not sure if I want to major in Chemistry or Biology when all is said and done. I like them both! :-)

I don't have any sweat pics tonight! I just didn't get around to taking them tonight. But here are the ones from this morning:

I haven't worn that shirt for a pic in awhile, but I have worn it in the past, and it didn't look that loose fersure! I have a blue one that I love to wear as well, with the kitty cat dance. If you haven't seen it, YouTube it. It is hilarious. :-)

Well, I hope everyone has a great night. I'm about to dive into some more chemistry-related awesomeness. Be blessed!

Day 24: Praise You While I'm Sore

My ankle is injured! No bueno. I don't exactly know what happened except that it is bruised, and does not respond well to walking. It does better when I run instead of walk (I guess cause I tend to land more on my heel when I walk and more on the ball of my foot when I run!) but I'm not going to be dumb and try to pound out a 24-minute run today. I ran for about 10 minutes, which is about half of what I'm used to running. I am going to do some cardio/strength combos tonight that don't directly involve my ankle so I'm going to do those at full strength. Today is legs/thighs/chest/butt day which really sucks when you're an active runner and biker! But I persist because I love the way my calves look! They are shapely and beautiful. :-)

I lost 2 lbs today, but the gym scale has been recalibrated to weight what my mom's scale does! It would normally weigh me at 210 because of the way it was calibrated yesterday but today it weighed me at the exact same weight! I was totally bummed out, but hopefully it will be at 20 lbs tomorrow. I am so ridiculously close it's crazy! I'm around 18-19 lbs lost, which is great but I can totally get past that! Because of my persistence I have shattered several plateaus and if I get down to 212.0 on my mom's scale I have completely obliterated the whole plateau and the 5-6 lb cycle I have been doing for weeks now. So I am hoping for another whoooooosh. :-)

I am so excited about how my life is going, despite the few minor setbacks I described above. I remember a few weeks ago pondering life as a Christian and wondering if Joyce Meyer was right, that God would give me a better life if I loved him. Looking back, saying YES to Jesus was one of the best decisions I have ever made! I am amazed at how my life continues to change for the positive.

I love being back at church and serving God in different ways. I'm going to help serve at a mission project which involves filling bags with rice, protein, and vegetables for those in need in Haiti. We are going to fill ~40,000 bags of rice mix and they will be shipped to Haiti! There is also this whole missions weekend and I am definitely going! Because of school and the way my schedule is set up it is very difficult for me to go overseas, but I hear there are some local projects that will be available. I love volunteer work of all sorts, so helping in this field sounds fantastic to me. I am also attending a class that the church is offering in September about the privileges of being a church member. I'm so excited about all of this.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day and knocks out some good exercise. If you're injured like me, be smart and take it easy. Never settle for getting hurt worse. Be blessed all!

Day 19: Ch-ch-changes

First of all, love that song! :-)

I have been noticing some changes. Today I ran 15 consecutive minutes and was actually running longer than anyone else in the gym! They were doing running/walking intervals and I was powering away on that run like a total beast. That felt so awesome. I used to be the chica not even going above 3.0 on the treadmill. I watched everyone else run and I wanted to do it so bad. Now, I'm slower than them but leaving them in the dust as far as time.

I have been opening my mind to religion as well. I have not had good experiences with churches because I am SO different than most of the people there, I am very matter-of-fact and I ask a lot of questions which sometimes gets on people's nerves. Besides, I have struggled with a number of sins in the past that are too personal to share and I was always embarrassed to come to church because I was afraid someone would find out and be judgmental towards me. Because of that, I built up walls and pushed people away in church so they wouldn't see my sins. Silly logic, I know, but when you're scared you do some dumb stuff.

I have a Joyce Meyer obsession. I have mentioned it in previous entries and it still holds true. I'm not like hanging out in Fenton trying to find her or anything, but I do watch her show every morning and read some of her books. There is this series she has done that literally took 3 times before I could watch it all the way through because it was so hard to wrap my head around. It was about deception and compromise, a very meaty sermon indeed. That wasn't really the part that got me. She says towards the end of the first part of the sermon, "Listen, God can give you a better life than the one you're living now." It's ironic, because right now I think I have a great life and an awesome thing going for me. I thought, "I could have an even better life WITH God? I have a great life now, and that must mean with God it will be even more awesome!" Naivety, yes, but get over it. We all have our catalysts.

So, with that in mind I am putting a different bend on this website. Since Vegan365 is going the way of the dodo bird (sorry, all of you that are fans, it is going down later this afternoon), I am changing the name of the site. It will be called: Girl on Fire: From Underdog to Beastmode. I'm so excited about the name change and the lifestyle change and I'm excited to share it with you!

I hope all of you have a blessed day and enjoy life!

Day 17: Girl on Fire

I can't believe it! I blasted through my plateau today and weighed in at 213.6. At my lowest I was around 214.8 so I am both shocked and pleased. Let me tell you though, I only weighed once! :-D

I also have been running like crazy for the past few days. I started out doing running and walking, about 10 minutes or so, then I did it for 3 consecutive minutes, then 6, and today I ran for 10 consecutive minutes (and 2 seconds). My goal is eventually to get to where I'm running 30-40 minutes at a time and am able to strength train along with it. Cause honestly, when I get done running I don't want to do anything else right away. That is why generally I run in the morning and strength train at night. :-)

I have been watching a lot of inspirational videos lately. Not my traditional Joyce Meyer obsession (she is an amazing speaker, the jury is still out as to whether I believe in God or not but I do enjoy learning about Christianity) but some weight loss videos on YouTube. My favorite is this one here which I believe has a website that you can access from the page. I have always enjoyed watching Before and After videos, and this chica is completely relatable. A lot of the folks on YouTube are older and have kids or grandkids and want to lose weight for them, so its nice to see someone younger on there as well. :-)

I am going in to see a career counselor on Tuesday to see if she can set me up with a job, preferably something that utilizes my Technical Writing degree. Yup, I have a BA in Technical Writing but as of yet have been unable to use it except for my occasional contributions to the Examiner and a brief contract job for a museum. I did insurance for a time but I have learned I don't like customer service. And cold calling is horrible! You get hung up on, sworn at, insulted, and all kinds of fun stuff. So, hopefully I can find something that suits me and uses my degree. Wish me luck! :-)

Well, that is all for now, gotta get ready for school. Have a great day all! :-)