Flip-Flops

About a month ago, I went to a Woman's Ministry event at my mother-in-law's church that she hosted. The event was "Beach" themed, complete with beach-y decorations and summary foods.

One activity during the night was to answer a certain question and discuss it with the women at your table. The question was: "If you could walk in another woman's flip-flops for a day, who would it be, and why?"

Ok - there are a lot of women that I would love to experience their lives for a day - all for different reasons. There are woman I would want to walk in their flip-flops for a day because they are spiritual, others because they are famous, and still others because I value who they are and would love to know what it's like to be them. I would love to experience a day in the life of my mom, my sister, a president's wife, a famous actress, and even my best friend. Generally I'm an indecisive person, so you can suspect that this would be hard for me to narrow down in a matter of minutes, however, the one person that kept popping into my head was Olivia Ward, Season 11 Winner of the Biggest Loser. Perhaps she came to mind because I follow her on Twitter and because I'm on my own weight loss journey. But honestly, for this time in my life, she would be who I would pick. Throughout the entire show, she and her sister, Hannah, were strong competitors who worked hard and reached their goals. I would want to walk in Olivia's flip-flops (or in this case workout tennis shoes) for a day because she has reached her weight loss goals (at least as far as I have seen). I think walking in her shoes would allow me to experience what it would feel like to reach my weight loss goals, and would give me the motivation to keep going on my journey.

I'm not sure what Olivia's spiritual beliefs are, but I'm pretty sure she's a Believer. Some things I've seen on Facebook as well as the fact that her husband leads worship at a church, and just the way she conducted herself on the show, make me believe that she is a Christian. Assuming this is accurate, that would be just another reason I would want to walk in her shoes - to see how her weight loss journey affected her spiritual journey and vise versa.

I truly believe that this weight loss journey is just as spiritual as it is physical, and that I have to learn to crave Jesus and be filled with him instead of trying to fill myself with unhealthy foods. (Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst is all about this topic. I've done a review on the first half of this book that you can check out here, and a second review will be coming soon). To be successful with my weight loss journey, I have to rely on God's strength because I know I couldn't do this on my own. I have to seek him, crave him, put him first in my life, and know that as I lose weight and get healthier physically, I'm becoming healthier spiritually. It really needs to be a holistic approach with God at the center or else I will fall back into old habits. If I just try to fix what's broken on the outside, but not address the spiritual aspect, as well as whatever it is that has caused the physical problem, I may never truly conquer my issues with weight and food.

So thank you, Olivia, for inspiring me to continue on my weight loss journey. I know you don't know who I am - and really, I don't know you - but I'm genuinely happy for you that you have reached your weight loss goals. Please keep doing what you are doing and continue inspiring others.

Love,

Lauren

Weight Loss Update

Just a quick weight loss journey update:

October 18 will be 1 year from when I started by weight loss journey. Although I don't want to diminish what I have accomplished, I had hoped to be further along than where I am. So my goal is to lose 5 pounds by October 18th.

(Side note: Originally, I thought the one year mark was October 11th, but then I looked at a calendar and realized I had gone to the dr. on the 11th, which led to the blood test where I found out on the 18th that I had high cholesterol, which is why I started this journey. This is more for my records than for your information, so thanks for bearing with me).

So this bought me a few more days to lose those 5 more pounds. HA.

I will let you know how it goes and what my total weight loss is for this year. I'm excited to find out myself.

Another side note: I would really like to get that weight loss blog started that I mentioned a few posts back. However, I'm not really sure what that will look like and if I'm ready to add another blog. I obviously have enough trouble staying on top of this one. Ha. I will work on it and get back to you about that as well.

Hello From San Diego!

Well - it's official - we are San Diegans.

It took us awhile to actually get here, but we are here and in the process of getting settled. We left Indiana on August 7th, spent 5 days driving, and got into Sacramento on August 11th.

We had a blast spending time with our two families and catching up with our friends for what we thought was going to be two weeks.

After two weeks had past, we still hadn't found a place to live, so we decided that Chris would go down to San Diego early to start his job on September 1st, then I would go the next week. We ran into a few snags along the way, but we made it.

As for a place to live - God has blessed us beyond what we could have dreamed. I'm a worrier by nature, so I was surprised by how unusually calm I was about the whole situation. From the beginning, I just had this peace and trust that God would provide for us a place to live. I guess I figured that if he got us a job and was going to have us move across the country, he would find us a place to live. However, as the days wore on, I was starting to have thoughts that God was cutting things a bit close. But of course - since he's God and all and his timing is perfect - he did provide.

The weekend before Chris came down we got an e-mail from a couple who used to attend Skyline Church (the church where Chris now works), and they had just moved to Tennessee. They told us that they had heard about us from someone in the church and heard we needed a place to live. They are short selling their house, so their house is currently sitting empty. They offered for us to live in their home for DIRT CHEAP! It's a 2400+ square foot home on the top of a hill 2 miles from the church. We were blown away at the opportunity. During this time of waiting and looking for a home, I was trying to refrain from giving God "ideas" of what he could do to provide. I'm a "fixer," and I wanted to "help" God figure this one out, but I tried really hard not to. The ironic thing about me wanting to "help" is that I would have never imagined this as a solution to our housing problem - this was no where on my radar. In fact, I didn't even really realize you could live in someone's home while they are selling it. We are able to stay here until they sell the house or we find a place we want to move to permanently, whichever comes first. Not only are we blessed to be able to live here for a time, but we are able to save so much money while we live here. This is especially a blessing since I don't have a job right now. Once I find a job, we will be able to save even more. YAY!

So needless to say, I've been reminded yet again how I need to trust God and not try to "help" him - he's got it.

Chris is LOVING his job, but is still trying to figure things out as he goes. He works with some great people, and we are enjoying getting to know them all.

I've been pretty much just cleaning, unpacking, setting things up, etc. I'm also job hunting, although the house has been taking home most of my time. Some days I have to remind myself that I actually live in this beautiful city. It's quite large, so I'm still trying to get to know the area, but so far - we love it here.

Please be in prayer for us as we continue to get adjusted. Also, please pray that I find a job. I'm trusting that the Lord has the perfect place for me, and it will work in his timing. In the meantime, I'm enjoying being a stay-at-home wife. Finally, please pray for us as we build relationships and get involved in ministry. Chris and I are excited to develop some close relationships with people and to really dive into ministry.

We love you all and appreciate your prayers and support as we have made this transition.

Love,

The Newest San Diegan