Monday, October 26, 2009

Health Journey at a Plateau


Greetings to all you fellow (girl) crunchers out there! My name is Susan and I am a single missionary in Argentina. I assist another couple here with planting a Baptist church. Have been here for a little over 9 years.

I wanted to join the Christmas Crunch because my health journey is at a plateau right now. When I arrived in Argentina over 9 years ago I was at my highest weight ever - almost 200 lbs. Not good esp. for a gal who is only 5 ft. 3 in. tall! About 20 lbs. of that was probably gained over the last 3 years of deputation before I arrived here. (I know excuses, but just trying to think back when all the weight started to come on.) Since then, the weight has slowly been coming off. It helps actually not having a vehicle here - public transportation, and walking everywhere are a big plus! I was down to about 175 a couple of years ago. I know, no major weight loss, but it was slowly coming off.

Then also about 1 1/2 yr. ago I had some intestinal problems (probably some kind of virus they say now) where I needed to be extra careful about what I ate. I was also starting to do some mild exercises. With that, I lost another 15 lbs. Then I went on another furlough, came back here and have started to gain back slowly some of the weight I lost. I am back up to about 170 again. I have been since June and have been exercising off / on and just "kinda" watching what I ate. I don't eat a bunch of junk food anymore, but I need to watch my portion sizes on even the "healthy" food I eat.

Funny thing, I've been told that I "hide" my weight well. Who wants to "hide" it anyway!?! :-)
Although I know that I will be working on overall health and body exercising, I would like to work on my thighs (the cellulite and "cottage cheese" look - yuck!) and the backs of my upper arms (flab city) and the "back roll" around my bra line. Yea, you all know what I mean. :-)

Anyway! I know I need the accountability and a "push" to do the things I know that I'm already supposed to be doing.

My desire is to please God in every area of my life....some days it is easier than others for sure! I was convicted of this a couple of years ago actually at a Biblical Counseling Seminar in Indiana after a Pastor shared II Cor. 5:9 "Wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him (Christ)." Well, since I'm not yet in His presence, then I can choose every day if I will be pleasing to Him or not. That has to do with individual choices.

Breaking that down into what that means here for me, I can choose to please God with my body - my food choices, exercise choices, etc. or NOT. I still have a long ways to go for sure. Glad He doesn't give up on me though. I need to remind myself that it is a journey and marathon, not a 100 meter dash! :-)

I am glad to be able to meet other Christian women all over the world...many also in ministry and who are also on their own journey to health.

My "fun thing" about me is that I like lime green and have a small, hiper dog named "Lila". I think she has springs for legs as she can jump so high! :-)

I met Dani and Joseph at Bible college and it is exciting to see where the Lord has us serving Him today. The Lord has a special journey for each of us for sure!

Striving to please God in all I do,
Susan

4 comments:

Mary said...

Hi Susan, so happy to meet you. So nice that Dani is doing this for all of us, and because we're all in this together, I believe we will succeed!

God bless,
Mary

Nina in Portugal said...

Hi Susan! It's nice meeting ya!

I'm in Portugal along with my husband and 5 kids! Nice to meet another missionary lady!

I'll be praying for you!!

KathyH said...

Hi Susan.

Good to meet you :o) I think we all need the accountability to keep us on track - that's why we're here.

It's so good what you say about our choices with food and exercise and whether they please God or not. It's a point I've not been challenged on before.

Unknown said...

Susan, I am so glad you joined in on the Christmas Crunch! That deputation can really pack on the weight. Can´t it?

I wanted to comment on the thighs and baggy arms. I found a dvd that targets those! It´s tough, but it works. It´s Jillian Michael´s Trouble Zones workout. It´s a 50 min. dvd. I will be posting more about it. but for now.. maybe you can have someone ship it to you from the States. It has drastically changed my muscles. Until then, do you have little dumbell weights. You can do tricep and bicep curls and squats in 10 reps. doing 2 circuits of each. For starters. You may already have a plan but these are how I started. I did them while I biked. ;)

I love the verse you put. My plan was to have an inspirational section on this blog with verses, but I have struggled getting the blog working the way I wanted it. If we lace our posts with verses I think that will be so inspirational! Thank you for sharing that!

Your dog sounds cute. ;) Lila! is she purple. hahah. Only those that speak Spanish would think of that.

Let´s crunch it girl!