New Year ...Same Goal!

Hi to all of you dear and encouraging friends whom I´ve had the fun of exercising and loosing weight with in 2009. Now looking forward to meeting new friends (and keeping the old), and getting back to sweating : )...can´t believe I said that and mean it too!

I´m not sure if our original post - of introduction - is still on the blog, but I´ll briefly introduce myself, which is not easy, when you are over a half a century old!

Born in Jacksonville, FL to missionary parents, I arrived in Uruguay (South America) at the young age of 6 months old. I learned to speak spanish and english at the same time (and for free) while my parents ministered in Montevideo. My Dad felt God´s call moving us to Spain, so when I was almost 12, we moved to the U.S. to raise more support before our move.

I had been a chunky and very happy child, but when I hit the U.S. at the pre-teen stage, and with all the delicious american junk food, I balooned. I recall my Mom not finding clothes that would fit - so my grandma made me several sack dresses - no waist - just these huge sack-like dresses to cover all I was.

Arrived in Spain when I was about to turn 13. My older sister - Connie - had the same weight problem I did and began to have pain in walking. The Dr. put her on a 1000 calorie a day diet, and my Dad and I joined her. I lost so much weight that a year later, when I ran into some of my high school classmates, they did not recognize me.

I was able to keep the weight off till I went to college in the U.S. when I turned 17, and of course, with all the starch in the caf food, I again began to put on the weight. I met and married my dh at Bible College (he is a Michigan man - loves all Michigan sports teams!) and then God led us to come to Spain as missionaries.

We arrived in Spain in 1982 with our oldest daughter Amanda, then age 3. I lost all the weight I´d put on with the pregnancy, and so that was good. Then in 1983, our 2nd daughter, Sandy was born. I had a bad pregnancy and she was born underweight. Two years later I was diagnosed with cancer. Because of God´s healing, I am still here - 25 years later, although I have many side effects. Praise the Lord.

I know, because of the cancer and all I´ve learned about nutrition since then, that we are in a great measure, what we eat. But...I have always detested exercise and specially the sweating part and so although I was active, I didn´t sweat : ) Every time we´d go home on furlough (every three years) I´d pick up another 4 - 6 lbs. In August of this year, I reached the most I´ve weighted since the time I was a teen and those sack-dresses my dear grandma made for me. I looked in the mirror, and told myself that it was my responsibility...no more excuses and I began to exercise.

The food part is not that difficult, as I have been on very restrictive food plans because of the cancer, but the exercise has been sweaty, hard and often just plain old work. But as I began to loose centimeters (I lost 12 cms. in the last Crunch) and weight (altogether I´ve lost 4 kilos) I also began to feel better and have more energy.

So here I am, joining up again because I can use the accountability, the straight talk and the encouragement. My goal...I´d like to loose another 4 kilos. My plan...well, right before we finished our Crunch, I fell and sprained and dislocated my wrist. Also have had a bad tendinitis in the right thumb. The bandage came of yesterday (yes, it has been a loooooong month) and pain is less and less each day. I began doing exercises about 2 weeks ago, because it makes me feel so good. Now that I´m feeling better, I want to get back up to 30 to 40 min. of exercise each day.

My husband is leaving for 2 weeks to visit our daughter and family (well really the grandkids) in Ethiopia so hope to have some extra time to dedicate to exercise. Here are my stats (as of this morning)...my weight is up a bit (although I never did make that pan of fudge for Christmas : ) but my measurements are holding steady. Yes!!!


Weight: 70.9 kilos
Chest : 104 cms.
Waist: 84 cms.
Hips 109 cms.
Left leg: 62 cms.
Right leg: 60 cms.
Right arm: 30 cms.
Left arm: 30 cms.

My New Years theme is "harvest mentality" - which I am using with my pre-teen Sunday school class. The harvest we will have, over and over, is what we´ve planted. I want a good harvest in my health, so am going to invest time and work (and sweat) in this Spring into shape. Time to get some sleep so I can get up and exercise. Pictures are on another computer so will add a picture tomorrow, Lord willing.
Love,
Joy