A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words...

Last year I started and stopped doing 365 Project.  I really enjoyed it-taking a picture a day for 365 days.  However, I had a difficult time keeping up with it.  I came across one of my pictures today and it got me thinking.  I will take a picture every day of my journey-starting today.  I am going to try and post a blog weekly so that I'm not over committing myself.  If I can post pics more often, that's great too.   Across the board, the key to my life right now is consistency.  So I want to keep that here as well.

This past week I had a few setbacks.  I had to stop exercising because my iron, vitamins B-12 & D, and folate levels were low in my blood work.  It was not helping that my menstrual cycle was wacky.  My doctor is concerned about my passing out and for now she said no exercising.  So it became the perfect opportunity for me to get to work on my nutrition.  A good friend loaned me her Clean Eating books & cookbooks.  I'm taking my time and going through them to really try and make a lifestyle change of the permanent variety.  My family, especially my daughter, Emma, needs to be eating healthy.  I want to be a good example to her in so many ways!

Today is Saturday and I have signed up to start a challenge on Monday.  It's called the No Sugar Experiment.  I can have 2 servings of fruit a day but cutting out all other kinds of sugar.  I'm excited to start yet worried about failure and not finishing-there's that consistency thing again.  But I'm not going to stay in negative thinking mode.  I'm going to take it one day at a time.  My Mom was kind enough to buy me a pineapple the other day.  I will be 39 in a few days and have never cut a fresh pineapple before.  At the suggestion of one of my FB group members, I went to You Tube and typed in How To Cut A Fresh Pineapple.  And voila...

Emma stood as my model holding the pineapple.  NO she did NOT use the knife.  I had actually already sliced that end off so she decided to pose with it attached back on.  And now she points at it...

Sniffs at it and says it smells like pineapple:-)

And now we have it without the core!

I now know how to cut a fresh pineapple!  Emma kept going on about how good it was-which made me so happy to hear.  However, the acid ended up affecting her tongue and I had to give her a mild popsicle which seemed to help immediately.

Today, my goal was to get some laundry done.  It's being done now but I really was hoping to have done it earlier not at 11pm.  My other goal was cleaning my self induced mess on my side of the bedroom-that is the reason for the laundry delay.  I came across some pictures and was shocked.  I asked my husband to scan these pics I came across in my cleaning venture.  

In my last blog, I posted the picture in the upper left corner.  That was my starting point just before I joined  Weight Watchers as I mentioned-343 lbs.  The one with me standing was taken almost a year later and I was down about 100-120 lbs.  I was about 240 lbs and that wasn't even the smallest I was trying to get get to!  When my husband came across that picture tonight, all I could do was stare at it for the longest time.  I look at it and I remember glimpses of it.  I remember how I felt and the compliments I received from co-workers.  How I motivated my co-workers to go to Weight Watchers or make better choices.  Little old me!!!  And I WANT to get back to it.  I want to wear those jeans again-have them get too big for me to wear.  I want to have a fresh hair style and feel good about myself again.  I want SO many things!  So as I continue to want and to push further, these 2 pictures, side by side, are what I need to keep in mind when I get discouraged.  I am worth the time and effort to be the best person I can be.

I want to leave you with this thought that was shared with me by a good friend in direct sales who is reading this book called  The Greatest Salesman: 

"I will remember the lesson of the firefly who gives of its light only when it is on the wing, only when it is in action.  I will become a firefly and even in the day my glow will be seen in spite of the sun.  Let others be as butterflies who preen their wings yet depend on the charity of a flower for life.  I will be as the firefly and my light will brighten the world."

I WANT TO BE THE FIREFLY AND BRIGHTEN THE WORLD!!

Shoot for the moon, reach for the stars...