Finally!

Well it took me like 3 months of losing and gaining the same 2-3 pounds over and over, but I finally crossed the 30 pound threshold!! Super excited. Goal for this week is to really be on top of diet and exercise and not gain it back again. Hopefully this will be a jump start on the next 30!

Winter Blast

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to serve as a small group leader at my church's Winter Blast weekend (our version of Disciple Now).  The theme was "Unboxing God," and we basically just dug into the Scriptures to find out more about God, with each session focusing on a different person of the Trinity.  I think the kids learned a lot, and I pray that they would take that knowledge and continue to put it into practice as they're back in school this week.

For me, one theme that continued to jump out was that I'm not in control.  I can't do anything on my own.  And even when I feel like I'm alone or that I'm wandering, God is there and he has his hand in my life and is orchestrating it according to his will, even when I can't see it at the time.

As a side note, we played broomball Friday night (hockey, on the ice, in your tennis shoes, with a ball and a plastic "broom" instead of a puck and hockey stick), and I'm still sore...

New Year, New Blog

As I look back over the events of 2011, it was really a great year for me.  At this time last year, I was single, the heaviest I have ever been (that I know of), couldn't have run 2 minutes to save my life, and was barely beginning to see the light at the end of the Master's Degree tunnel.  Now, one year later, I'm dating a really great guy (Brad Brand), I lost 28.2 pounds and am seeing numbers I haven't seen in awhile, I started running on a pretty consistent basis (until the last couple weeks of being a bum...) and built up to running 10 minutes or more without stopping, usually repeated 2-3 times in a workout with walking in between, and I graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with my Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Counseling... I'd say this has been a pretty great year!

Future Plans:  So when people hear that I've graduated, the big question is always "Now what?"  Well... I am staying in Fort Worth, keeping my nanny job for now, and studying for the National Counselor's Exam.  Once I take and pass that, I will have to work under a supervisor as a Licensed Professional Counselor- Intern (LPC-i) for 3000 hours (about 2 years or so, depending on my caseload).  I have been talking to a possible supervisor in Bedford (a little northeast of Fort Worth) who has a private practice.  It seems like a really great place, so I'm looking forward to making that official once I pass the NCE.  I will likely keep nannying even once I begin counseling, at least until I can build up a caseload that is sufficient for paying my bills and all that jazz.

New Goals:  Overarching goal for this year is just to continue becoming who God wants me to be.  This is going to be a year of a lot of changes... I'll be moving out of my apartment in a few months, getting a "real job," most likely stop nannying at some point, I won't have school for the first time in my life... It's going to be hard, but it's going to be fun, and I really want my focus to be on God and his plan for me as I'm making a lot of decisions.

Of course my only specific goals are related to weight-loss and running, but even that goes back to becoming who God wants me to be.  I think God wants us to take care of ourselves, and I haven't necessarily done that in the past.  This year, my weight loss goal is to lose another 30 pounds (well, actually 31.8... you know I'm OCD enough to want to end on a nice round number...) which, even though it sounds like a lot, will put me at the upper end of the normal range, where I haven't been in who knows how long, if ever, so that would be really exciting.  As far as running, my mom informed me that our family is doing a turkey trot 5K next Thanksgiving, so I would like to be able to run the whole thing (preferably faster than the rest of the family) and possibly even be able to do a 10K by the end of the year.  My first goal, though, is to finish the 5k training program that I started by the end of February, and then start working on speed a little bit.  When I get comfortable with that, I'll reevaluate and set new goals then.

I'm looking forward to 2012, and I think it will be another exciting year of growth and change!