Keep on Keeping on!!

James 1:12 (NIV) Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the victor's crown, the life God has promised to those who love him.

The first couple of months on your journey are very tough because you might not see what is happening to your body. You might not see the kind of results that you want to see. You might be upset that people aren't noticing a difference in you. Even though all that is going on you have to stay strong and keep pushing towards the mark. You have to keep on doing what you have been doing. One day it might be a couple of months in to your journey, you will step on the scale and see that you lost such and such amount of weight and you will rejoice in it. Or one day you will try on those pair of blue jeans and they will be way to big for you. Sometimes you have to struggle in order to get to where you want to be. That struggle in the end is worth it because you come out a better person.

 I have to honestly say that I'm glad that I was fat. It helped me to be the person that I am today. It has helped me to realize, what it feels like to be there and how I want to help other people get out of that. If I wasn't fat then, I probably wouldn't be sympathetic and understanding. I want to go out and help as many people as I can to lose weight, so that they can feel the kind of joy that I feel. So I ask that when you get to your goal weight or half way to your goal weight that you pay it forward and help someone else get to their goal weight. I heard recently on TV, that if you help someone to get to their goals, then God will help you get to your goals.

Keep on Keepin On!!

~Amanda~

Mind over matter

 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)
I've tried to lose weight before, many, many times and I had no success. I would lose a little and then lose my motivation or I would just maintain my weight at what it was. Once I got together with God and trusted him, he provided me with the inspiration, dedication and motivation to continue on this journey. I remember years and years ago, I had did all kinds of situps every night for four years and all it did was maintain my weight. When I got together with God on this and believe he could do this for me, I was able to do it in less time than when I was doing it on my own. Recently, I was watching a TV program and it said weight loss is 80% mind 20% matter. If you get it in your mind and you truly believe it with all your heart and soul then you will accomplish it. You have to see yourself skinny before it can happen. If you visualize and just try to see it happening in your minds eye, it will happen sooner than you realize.

Another thing that I did was I tried to figure out what my appropriate goal weight should be. Once I got that number, I would go around saying to myself all the time that I'm going to be 138 pounds. Just keep saying it over and over. If you want you can post your goal weight number around the house. Seeing it will help you to realize where you are headed and where you want to be.

 I also liked to find inspirational bible verses that would help me to have faith and stay in faith. I still do this to this day. My favorite verse or the one that jumped out to me around the start of my journey was Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This verse to me was saying I know what I am hoping for (Being 138 pounds) and I'm sure that this will happen even though I can't see it.

You can make a dream wall and put up pictures of what you want to look like. Or you can put words that inspire you. Such as perserverance, motivated, energetic, dedicated, or I have what it takes. You could also put up inspirational bible verses. The more you see these things the more it will help you to get in your mind of what you want and where you want to go.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!!

~Amanda~

What I did to lose weight!!

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

When you lose weight at first no one notices and sometimes you might not even notice yourself. That's why it's important to take the pictures or journal. That way you can go back and reflect on the things that you went through or what you use to look like.

As the summer went by, I continued doing lunges. I did walking lunges about 10 per each leg. I would do some leg kicks and leg lifts. I would do all sorts of leg exercises. I also did 25-50 situps and did multiple variations.

As far as diet, I tried to choose to healthy choices. For meats, I would choose Chicken or turkey or extra lean ground beef. I would also try to incorporate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well. When I made meals I would try to replicate recipes I would normally do, but I would incorporate turkey  instead of ground beef. If I used ground beef, I would use extra lean ground beef. So for example, If I made Spaghetti I would make ground turkey and for the noodles I would use wheat noodles. I can't really taste the difference between the healthy stuff and the real stuff. I like to get my recipes from Kraftfoods.com under the healthy section or search online for the biggest loser recipes. I try to look for the low calorie recipes online. I like my food with lots of flavor, so I use a lot of spice.

Look for more soon!!
~Amanda~

A little bit of my Background

Now Faith is being SURE of what we HOPE for, and CERTAIN of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

Today is the first day of 2011. I know that this year is going to be another awesome year for me. Let me go into a bit about who I am and what has happened over the past few years. I hope to inspire you to a journey of weight loss with God's help!! 

 

If you would have saw me this same day 2 years ago, you would have saw a miserable Obese girl. For years, I had resolutions where I wanted to lose weight. I have tried multiple times to try and lose the weight, but it wasn't anything that permanent. Well, 2009 started off the same way. I made the resolution to lose the weight, but at Easter that year I was still the same size 274 pounds. Well around the end of 2008, I started turning to God. I needed something in my life because it wasn't working for me. I started reading the bible and having a relationship with God. Well by April, I wrote this letter to my fat. In this letter, I said I'm through with you. I'm done with you. I don't want you in my life anymore. You were my best friend, but I can't live with you anymore. I want something better for myself and I'm tired of being so miserable. So, after I wrote that I wrote God. I said God I'm so sick of being fat, I don't want to be fat anymore. Well, by May 5th God started giving me the inspiration and motivation to start this journey to shed the fat.

 

That first day May 5th, I did my first exercise to start the journey. I started that night with lunges. I think it's called a standing lunge. LOL not sure. Anyway, I did 25 of those for each leg. Let me tell you days later my body felt that one. I think I did a little bit to much at once. I wasn't able to move much or anything. So, the next time I did it, I decided I would do 10 per leg. That was a bit better. Still sore, but able to function.  

 

Another thing that I did was cut back on Soda. That was one of my main problems. You see I could drink a bunch of soda. Like a 32 ounce from a famous fast food chain in like a minute. So I down sized my soda intake to take myself off. What I did was limited myself to two sodas a day. One soda at lunch and one at Supper. After doing this a few weeks, I did it again, but only allowed myself to drink one soda at supper. After a few weeks, I did it again, but was only allowed myself to drink soda whenever I ate out on Fridays. Then I stopped all together. I drink about 6 or 8 big glasses of water each day.

 

I was so excited and was turning to God thanking him so much for everything that he was doing for me. He was the one that was providing me with the motivation to keep going. I couldn't have did it without him.

 

Along the journey, I decided to take pictures of my face to watch the progress. At first I was not seeing anything, but as the weeks went by you could start to see a slight difference here and there. 

 

There is more to come (To Be Continued)