Prayer Request

Do you sometimes wonder if God really listens to your prayers? I admit that sometimes I do. Well, last night I was praying that God would bring something into my life that would allow me to keep my house and yet be able to quit my second job. Today, someone sent me something that I want to follow up on. But I want to make sure it is in His will.

Please pray that I make the right decision. If it happens I will go into more details but for now just know that God knows what it is.

Thanks,
God Bless,
Karen

The Next Day

Okay. If I ever get the hairbrained idea to do two bootcamps in one day please just lock me up and throw away the key!!! I took yesterday off and even though I am not in the main competition anymore I still went and did the bootcamp at 10am and then again at 5pm yesterday.

BAD IDEA!!!!!!! I am so sore today that I can hardly move and the second day is usually the worst!!! So, if you aren't busy tomorrow can you follow me around and help me be able to walk and put my arms over my head? Just kidding. It was actually a good thing to do this but I really am sore. Muscles that I didn't know I had or that I thought I had worked out before are letting me know of their existance.

Anyway, I am still enjoying working out. I don't know what will happen when the Biggest Loser ends at the gym though since the workouts right now are intense. I like having that team work and trainer to motivate me.

Have a great day,
God Bless,
Karen

Ever heard of Bosu?

Well, me neither. I have, however, been using on and off at the gym for awhile. If you are familiar with the exercise ball this is basically the top third to half of one of those sliced off and attached to a flat base. You use it for many purposes but my trainer, Craig, has decided that doing deep knee bends while trying to balance on this monstrasity would be a great exercise. I guess he saw me working on it last Monday night before my circuit class. (Josh, the other trainer, had us using this thing in a couple of our circuit and bootcamp classes but my balance was horrible, I wanted to practice). Anyway, I got my new routine last night and this was on it. Oh what fun and joy. However, I was able to do 9 of the 12 in a set before falling off. Don't worry, it isn't a far fall and you land on your feet so...

Anyway, as you can tell I sucked it up and went to the gym last night even though I was still bummed about being eliminated. I ran into Sheryl, one of my teammates and we talked a little. She promised that the other three girls and her would hunt me down if I started slacking off now. It is nice to be loved!!!! Really, I do appreciate the ladies and was very thankful for them.

Have a great Easter,
God Bless,
Karen
Matthew 27:45-Matthew 28:20

Not Enough

Well, by 1/10th of a percentage I was eliminated from the main competition at the Gym. I can still workout for the second place prize and will, but today I am sad. One of the girls from here gave me one day to be sad then I have to get over it!!!!

Anyway, I guess I will have to try to get over my pride and exercise even though I am not in the main competition. My pride says that everyone will know that I didn't make it. Though I knew that I would probably not win I thought I would be in it a little longer due to my size. I guess my body is starting to build muscle and so the weightloss slowed down. Oh well.

God Bless,
Karen

Three Pounds, enough?

Okay, normally I would be very happy that I lost 3 pounds in one week but because of my size, I don't think it will be enough to keep me in the Biggest Loser at the gym. Unless someone didn't weigh in or only lost about a pound then I would be the lowest percentage lost. Needless to say I am pretty bummed. Of course I was already down because of not being able to do a lot of the things that others were able to do so this didn't improve my attitude any.

There is a lady that is on my team at the gym and she is so nice. Actually, I don't think there is one person that is not nice on my team that I have met but poor Tiffany, she got to hear me having my pity party tonight. She tried to encourage me and I just continued to pout. I definately owe her an apology.

I have no idea when I will know since my team leader is out until Monday but I guess I will let you know when I do.

God Bless,
Karen

P.S. Can you pray for my attitude? Help me remember that I have lost 69 pounds since October 4th and this is just a small rock in my journey.

A Woman's Perogative?

Okay, remember the post from earlier today? Well tonight's is different. I was working out tonight and got so discouraged. We do something called "Mountain Climbers" that require you to be on the ground and then lift up and kick your legs behind you like you are climbing a mountain. I can not do that, then he had us do pushups, again, couldn't do and finally he has us run around the floor. Everyone was running past me because I had to walk fast and not run.

For the most part I am keeping up but it is embarassing and frustrating because I can't do some of these things. The trainer is very encouraging and knows that I have bad knees so he doesn't push but it is so discouraging sometimes. I was almost in tears. Fortunately the sweat was covering my teary eyes.

Don't get me wrong. I still love to work out and won't give up but it is still frustrating. Now I just have to stop listening to Satan trying to discourage me!!!!

God Bless,
Karen

Nice Quiet Evening...

Doesn't that sound like fun? Remember in an earlier post when I said that my trainer told me our workouts would get harder by the weeks? Well, I went to the gym last night and did 20 minutes of cardio, then I practiced balancing on this half ball thingy (the one trainer gave it a name but I can't remember), then I did the 1/2 hour of circuit workout with this trainer then I went to my team trainer and thought I would get a new card. Boy was I wrong. He did ANOTHER 1/2 HOUR of circuit workout!!! I thought I was going to die!! I even did the lower stuff and was still going crazy.

You know what though? It was fun!! There were three of us on my team and we had a BLAST!!! Our trainer is only 23 so we were picking on him big time!!! Okay, imagine 3 women in their 30's and 40's being told by a 23 year old guy that his 24th birthday would be on Mother's Day. Can you just hear the "Ahhhhhhsssssssss"? Yep, we did it. Boy am I getting old. We told him that we would figure out which car was his and put it on the top of the mountain of snow!!! Then we told him that we needed his cell number so that when we encounter the 1am cravings we can call him up so he can talk us out of eating.

It was so fun!!!

God Bless,
Karen

Easter Cantata

I just came from rehearsal for our Easter Cantata at church. What an amazing time. I wish I could see the cantata from the audience but I get to participate in it. We are using a video along with the songs. There is one song called, "The Power of the Cross" and we sing along with the video. It is showing Christ being beat and nailed to the cross then hanging on the cross and He dies. It was hard to sing the song. If there are any dry eyes in the audience during this presentation I will be surprised. Just thinking about what Christ did for me humbles me. He died so that I can be forgiven for my sins.

If you are reading this and don't know Christ then this is THE TIME to meet Him!!!! Don't wait.

God Bless,
Karen

Relationships...

In this process of my journey I have been doing a lot of thinking. I know that I have mentioned that before and will probably mention that again. The only way to get through this is to evaluate and reevaluate. I have to ask myself a lot of questions and look deep inside to see what kind of person I have been that put me at 400 pounds and what kind of person I want to be.

There are a lot of things that I don’t like about myself. One of the biggest is that, a lot of you may see a giving and caring person but I feel like that I only do something if it will benefit me by giving me credit or validation that what I am doing is a good thing and making me “look” like a good person. Please don’t respond and say that I am because then I will think that you are saying that because I am making you feel guilty or sorry for me. (Another one of my specialties). I tell everyone too much information right away, again being the victim and hoping that someone will like me because they feel sorry for me.

See, these are the goofy thoughts that are going through my head. This is some of the reason that I hit 400 pounds.

Now I titled this post “Relationships”. Here is why. God has blessed me with a lot of special people in my life (which I tend to overlook and just look at what I don’t have) but the one thing I have never had is a dating relationship. I have never been on a date, have never held someone’s hand, etc. I have never been loved like a man loves a woman. I know that I am basing my happiness on another person and that is why I am doing this self-evaluation. I don’t want to do that. I want to put my happiness into God’s hand because we are all sinners and will let each other down even if we don’t mean to.

Okay, so the next thought is that I will most likely get to go on that first date in the near future. So, how do I answer that poor guy when he starts asking questions about how I handled my past relationships? And when I tell him that I haven’t even been on a date how will he react?

AHHHHHHHHH, borrowing trouble without trusting that God is in control and will answer all of these questions for me in His time. Thanks for listening.

God Bless,
Karen

Guess What? Guess What? Guess What?????

Did you guess? No? Well I will tell you. I weighed in tonight for the Biggest Loser contest at the gym and I have lost 14 pounds in 2 weeks!!!!!!!! I am a little excited. Okay, a lot excited. I have now lost 66 pounds since October 4th. I am only 27 pounds away from 300 pounds. I have not been there since 1993!!!!

Hope everyone else had a good day?

God Bless,
Karen

Bilzzard of 2008

Well, if you are not in Central Ohio then you aren't experiencing this fun Winter Storm that we have been blessed with. It is Saturday and I am stuck in the house. There is probably 12-15 inches of snow in the back of our houses. I have a snow drift against my back patio door that is higher than the patio chair in the back. It is pretty funny.

They just called and canceled church for tomorrow so you know it is pretty bad. I will, however, try to get out tomorrow because otherwise I will go crazy.

My trainers will be happy with me. I did exercises last night from the "6-Week Body Makeover" and I shoveled my driveway, vaccumed my house and have done other things today. Plus I haven't over eaten. The bad part is that I don't have any milk or eggs so I will not be able to eat very well. Oh well.

God Bless and be careful if you are in this mess!!!!
Karen

One Week Down

The official weigh-in was last night. I weighed in before the circuit class and had lost "almost" 4 pounds. I weighed in after workout and had lost over 4 pounds. Needless to say I took the after workout total. I know, it was all water weight. One person on our team actually gained 4 pounds. Oh well.

Since my body had already adjusted to the lower calorie diet I didn't think I could lose a lot of weight but obviously the workouts are pretty intense. They are helping. I do know that I need to alter my choices in the caloric range. I am still eating a lot of salty things and high fat things. If you can pray about that as well I would appreciate it. I know that God has something fun in store for this journey. I just need to keep relying on Him and not me.

The official weight is 334 (I am one pound away from 60 pounds lost!!!!!!!!!!)

God Bless,
Karen

Keeping up so far...

Well, it has been one week and so far I can still walk. Though last Thursday and Friday I had a hard time even shaking the whiteout bottle!!! My trainer is taking his job seriously. He is kicking our weight off!!!! He said that it will only get harder too. They will change the routine every two weeks. Plus with the other classes I was ready for bed by 7:30pm last night.

So, I will keep you posted. Pray for me. So far my knees are holding up but I am worried about them. I am struggling with weak ankles.

Have a great day,
God Bless,
Karen