First Big Milestone

First I need to say I don't want this blog to be about pounds! My main goal is to get healthy. So I will only be posting about major milestones regarding my weight not an every week pound count or anything like that. Healthy is the goal, pounds lost is just a measure of progress!! Well with that being said.....

Time to celebrate my first big milestone! Friday July 30, 2010 I stepped onto the scale at work slid the weight thing across the bar (we have an old medical scale) to 300 ready to shift the little pound slider too and the big bar did not lift up. I had to check a few times. I stepped off and stepped on, played with the slide but it was true!! I had lost 2 1/2 more pounds and I had finally past the 300 pound mark!!!!! I was so excited and Emma was really excited too. I was glad I dropped by work with the kids this morning.
It is still hard for me to believe I have now lost 48 pounds and am no longer over 300 pounds. I know I am only 1 1/2 pounds under it but WOW that is huge for me. It has been years since I weighed under 300 pounds. Yeah, a little closer to a healthy me! :)

I am so thankful all of this hard work and Medifast is showing progress. YEAH!!!
We are celebrating with a salad dinner out and a trip to the Beaverton Farmers Market! 2 more pounds of progress and I will be officially at a 50 pound loss. It feels pretty crazy sometimes to think I have already lost almost 50 pounds. Wow!!
Thank you all who are and have encouraged me on this journey so far. It truly does make it a little easier!!

Have a blessed day!!

Date Night Hike - Wahkeena Falls

What a beautiful night for a hike in the Gorge! Started out to see the waterfalls and maybe do a little hike. I was excited to see how much I could do. I knew I had made some progress since this Spring when we went to see Multnomah Falls and I had a hard time walking to the very lowest view point I definitely couldn't walk to the bridge viewpoint. No chance!

LAST NIGHT WAS DIFFERENT!

We arrived at Wahkeena Falls and thought we would try to walk up to the viewing bridge. Neither Jason or I had been up there since we were married. I made it to the bridge with one or two short stops along the way. It is really pretty up there. You are practically in the water, the Falls, falls right by the bridge. The spray was refreshing.

Then we noticed the path went further. Why not go a little further. A nice young man coming down the path said there was a nice viewpoint up and around the way a ways. I don't remember him saying a long ways.......hmmmm. Any way 1o switchbacks later, huffing and puffing, and after many little stops we met up with a group of 4 fun teen boys coming down the path. I asked how much further and they honestly said "A long ways". They had been hiking from Multnomah Falls. The trail at the top of Wahkeena connects with a trail to Multnomah Falls. They thought thats what I meant when I said how much further. Funny, I told them they were supposed to tell me "Not much further". They laughed and we talked a little more. They asked if we were going up and I told them we were. They said Good Luck it is worth it and off they went down the trail as we headed further up. It wasn't but 2 more switchbacks and we were there at Lemmon Viewpoint!!!!! What a great feeling to know we had made it to the top, THE TOP! We took a ton of pictures, called my folks because we were going to be late picking up Emma and headed back down.

What an accomplishment! I am so thankful for a patient husband who is in far better shape then me and yet walked each step slowly and waited each time I stopped without one complaint. Infact he told me to stop apologizing.

What a great Date night hike!!!

May you reach the TOP in whatever you are striving for today!!! God Bless!

Security Shaken

Last night was a really nice night, weather wise, when we returned home from Kajukenbo. It had cooled down a bit and there was a slight breeze. I decided since I had only walked a mile in the morning I would go for another walk in the evening. I had planned to walk one of my usual 2 mile loops through the neighborhood and Jacob wanted to come along. Great some one on one with Jacob since I had some on my walk last night with Emma. We started out, heading down the street. When we were about a half mile from home we heard some fun Fiesta type music coming from a neighbors yard. I said to Jake, "they must be having a party down there". As we got closer I could hear a car reving, and see the windshield wipers going in the car on the side of the house, and at quick glance what looked like a child climbing over the front seat into the back. I looked around for a parent and saw 3 small kids in the door way. Then looked back to the car, realizing there were no children in the car that I could see, it was actually two adults fighting. The woman was in the drivers seat but leaned over into the passenger seat and the man was standing outside the drivers door, leaning over her, trying to pull her out by her hair, violently shaking her. They were really going at it. Another neighbor who was walking his dog stopped too both of us obviously unnerved, wanting to help but knowing in this day and age you jump into something like that you could lose your life trying to help. I told Jacob to keep walking. I knew I couldn't really help her physically so I pulled out my cellphone and started calling 911. The man caught sight of me calling and turned his attention to me. He came out of his yard walking toward me screaming and pointing his finger at me yelling "Are you calling 911?" "You don't know whats going on, she is trying to take my baby!" "You need to mind your own business." I told the man that he needed to let the police come help him get his baby back. "You just don't know! That's why I hate white people!" he yelled. Then he headed back into his yard to again attack the woman in the car who had not taken the oppurtunity to leave.
Jacob had not gone far. He was very scared and shook up. We kept walking while being on hold with 911. Knowing it wasn't safe to stand there but also knowing I still needed to get the police involved in this. The other neighbor walked down the street too. I was kept on hold trying to get through to 911 for about 2 minutes. I then was able to report it and we did later see 2 police cars headed that way. Soon after we left we looked back to see the woman had pulled her car out of the yard and parked across the street but I don't know what happened from there.

Jacob was pretty shaken and I was too. The other neighbor who was walking with their dog stopped to talk with us and said "I would have been okay". I took that to mean he would have protected me if necessary and he did suggested I stay away from that house for a while. We talked for a few minutes about how rough the neighborhood had become and then said good night.

After that Jacob and I could not walk home the same way. I couldn't reach anyone to pick us up and take us home so we started walking toward Fred Meyer knowing Jason was headed there after work to pick up dog food. Jason eventually did pass us and we were able to get his attention to pick us up.

Although it was scary and sad, we were safe and protected. The Lord was definitely watching out for us. Jacob and I had a good conversation about racism too after that. He has many close friends that are different nationalities. He said he hates "the war between the black and white people". He didn't realize the man was Latino and that is okay. We don't have racism in our house and I am proud of that.
I have prayed for that family. What a terrible night for all of them especially the children.
I have to say Jason and I talked about moving last night but I don't think we will do that but I will be walking with my big dog and pepper spray today.

New Day

This morning came with a much slower start because I am so sore from yesterday.
Last night at dinner we were talking about Emma having trouble sleeping so I suggested she and I go for a walk after dinner. Oh boy she was all for that, in fact she asked if we could walk 4 miles. Realizing that it is 2 miles to my folks house and 2 miles back we headed out on a "Mother-Daughter Bonding walk" at least that is what my sweet daughter called it. It was a hot evening and the walk seemed to take forever but the visit in the middle with my parents was nice and all that one on one with Emma was priceless, definitely worth the sore achey body through the night and this morning.
With my 2.3 mile walk in the morning and my 4 mile walk in the evening I walked 6.3 miles in one day. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???? Yikers, 2 months ago, going to work and home was a feat. The Lord has truly blessed me with a new outlook and adventurous spirit.
This morning I still walked but I only walked about a mile. I needed to recover :)
**Word of Advice** - Listen to your parents
As I left my driveway this morning I heard two teenage kids speaking a different language coming around the opposite corner towards me but I couldn't see them because of my neighbors love of Dodge vans. Nothing strange about hearing different languages in my neighborhood though since I am blessed to live in a city full of different cultures. I walked about a block and a half before I looked back because the voices were getting louder and I heard cursing and a little english regarding the government and their mother. To my surprise it was not 2 teens it was one 30 year old lady obviously tweeking on drugs. I prayed for her and for my safety since people on drugs are so unpredictable and kept walking knowing that a vet clinic was just ahead and if anything went wrong I could sneak in there. She ended up turning into a church parking lot before the vet clinic but my Dad's voice was ringing in my ears from a conversation 2 nights before. "SARAH YOU NEED TO BUY SOME PEPPER SPRAY!". He was pretty forceful but I poopoo'd the idea because I felt safe and had had no problems thus far. I think I will be buying some today. I also realize that whenever I don't listen to my parents even at my age, I am usually sorry. Sorry Pop!
Have a blessed day everyone!

Good Morning

As usual I was up early this morning. In fact I was awake at 5:40am and feeling a little stress about the day and week ahead. I knew the remedy for my stress lay right outside my front door. A good morning walk.


I got up, did a few things around the house and off I went on my morning walk. Just as I stepped out my front door I felt better. I took a deep breath and wow it smelled like summer. I can't really describe that Summer smell but it is wonderful. The sun was shining but it was still a little cool. Perfect morning to walk.


I always have companions on my walk; squirrels and crows mostly but a few cats too. Not a lot of people are out but the few that are seem to be friendly enough to say good morning.


My favorite part about my morning walk is when I walk by something and the smell reminds me of my past. Especially the smells that remind me of my childhood. I alway look around to see if it is a certain flower blooming, fresh cut grass, someone's breakfast cooking, etc but I rarely find the source. I just enjoy the smell and the memory, thank the Lord for the gift and go on.


I hope you too will find pleasure in your exercise. I can't believe that my favorite part of exercise isn't the end but to tell you the truth, I often wish I had time to do more.

:) Have a blessed day!

Encouragers

I want to say how much I truly appreciate all the encouragers I have in my life; loving family members, sweet friends, and even kind acquaintences. It makes the difficult days much easier hearing such nice things. It also really helps to know that others notice my progress even when I can't.
Thank you to all of you for being my cheerleaders. I am truly blessed.

The Journey Begins

On May 11, 2010 I embarked on a journey to get healthy. In the beginning I wasn't sure how things would go and I didn't want to disappoint anyone so I only told my husband, children, and my TSFL (Medifast) Health Coach, Bopha. I had reached a point in my life where I was very big, unhealthy, tired, and grumpy. Grumpy towards the people that I loved most. I was not even 39 years old and I felt very limited in my life's activities. As this blog matures I am sure I will share more about my poor health and health habits but for now I will leave it there.
Before I began this journey I did talk to my kids about the changes. I wanted them to know quite honestly that I was really happy with who I was on the inside. I liked myself, I love the Lord I serve and most of all I love my family but my health needed to change. They were supportive but concerned they would have to go on the "diet" with me. Funny how they think the world revolves around them. To be honest my world pretty much does and as I get healthier they are too. :)
This little patch of green grass the Lord has blessed us with is only going to get greener as we get healthier!