This is me!

Hey ladies, I’m Kathy!

So here we all are, springing into Spring! I'm thrilled to join you all again or meet you for the first time. For those who don't know me already now's your chance to run away fast - LOL! Otherwise this blog will be very déjà vu-esque, not much has changed (apart from me getting older) though I have added a photo collage thingy at the end. Looking forward to meeting you all too, but first off, here's me:-

I'm British but have been living in Aschaffenburg, Germany since 2002. I'm 38, married to Matt for 18 years, no kids (unfortunately). I work as the PA to our Pastor, Matt is an elder in our church and works (more-than) full-time in Logistics as a Business Development manager.

I met Dani and Joseph for the first at the beginning of 2009. Joseph came over to Aschaffenburg in January for a training weekend we were holding, along with the whole leadership team from El Paso. March 2009 Matt and I flew to Gijón for 5 days, got to know the whole family and see where and how they are ministering. At New Year we had the immense fun of the whole Contreras family staying with us. We visited them again summer last year about 10 days before their return to the US and have plans to inflict our presence on them again in May, our poor long suffering friends.

As we’re not missionaries you’re probably wondering what is a Brit doing in Bavaria. Well it's a long story but here's the short version - God brought us! Matt is a MK, grew up in Austria therefore spoke fluent German, I'm a 1st generation Christian but have been a part of the Harrison family for 22 years and have the immense benefit from that. My in-laws are just the most amazing spiritual parents. Prior to coming to Germany we were in Scotland, struggling financially and career wise so got down on our knees and asked God to "do something" - and He surely did!!!!! Neither of us wanted to leave our home and church there but God had better plans. Within 3 months Matt was flying to and fro from Edinburgh to Frankfurt so we decided to move out here for a year, almost 9 years later we're still here and very happy. We moved to a new apartment directly in the city last March and had lots of renovations to do, however it also made it difficult to eat healthily as we spent every spare second renovating in a place with no kitchen and at times no water! So fast food was my downfall and with Burger King, KFC, pizza and kebabs just 2 steps from our front door it’s bad with a capital B.

I must admit that when Dani sent me the invitation to join the first challenge I was reluctant. I have some health issues that make it difficult for me to exercise. I have a lingering (grumbling) back injury from a car accident in 1995, suffer from fibromyalgia and one of the side effects from my medication is weight gain. Losing weight and being more active will help my health but too much activity increases my pain and dieting without exercise brings very limited results so I tend to rest and comfort eat - a vicious circle. I have restrictions from my doctor, nothing aerobic like jogging etc. Power walking is the most "intense" form of exercise I should do and NO exercise at all when I’m sick.

Even with these restrictions and understanding I had a rather unpleasant appointment with him on the 31st January and got a “foot in the butt” as the Germans say. It was a shock how much weight I’d put on. He set me a goal of losing 4Kg before the 28th Feb.

So I’m starting this challenge off at a run having already lost 3kg (Go me!). After struggling to overcome the weight gain side-effects of my medication I have decided to try out a chromium and green tea supplement to help speed up my metabolism. So far, so good and I do feel like I have more energy. Food wise I’ve been eating low fat, low sugar and reduced carbs, 3 small meals and 3 fruit snacks a day plus no eating after 8pm. Not forgetting drinking 2ltr of water a day. So far I’m finding it pretty easy to stick to.

Anyhow, now’s the time to dish the dirty on those figures and bare all.

My weight loss goal for this challenge is to reach 90Kg (198 lb) 11Kg in 9 weeks, not drastic weight loss, slow and steady but that has to be worked for.

So off we go ladies, springing together into Spring!

Blessings

Kathy

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