Back On It.....

So here is my plan....

First thing is to set some goals...

 

I weighed in yesterday at 175lbs that's just 3lbs over my lowest weight and 20lbs over what is classed as a "healthy" weight for my height...... that helped me to establish my long term goal..... I decided that I would like to loose 22lbs by the end of the year.... That not only puts me into  the healthy weight category, but puts me at 10 stone 13 pounds and everyone who measures in stones knows how encouraging it is to get to a lower stone bracket.....

 

Loosing more weight is not the whole picture though... I also need to maintain the muscle I have.... at the moment I have a normal muscle percentage which means that I actually have quite a good amount of muscle for my height and if I loose more fat and keep the muscle I have I will be in the high muscle category and being strong and healthy is more important to me than being thin.....

 

 

Dieting over a long time isn't easy....and that is why it is good to have times of maintenance built in and to give margin to allow for times of celebration..... doing this will give much more chance of long term success....

 

 



It also helps to have short term goals to keep you going.... So my first goal is to loose 5lbs over the next five weeks.....

Then I am taking a week off.... Yes a whole week.... because I have a really big celebration..... I will have been with my husband for 20 years and that is certainly something worth celebrating! Hopefully I will not do too much damage and will certainly get some exercise during the week, but the important thing is I won't feel guilty about it because I am planning for it and it is the exception and not an everyday thing.... It's part of the bigger picture of leading a healthy and happy life.

Benefits of Fasting.

Enjoyed my fast day yesterday.... honest.... let's hope I will get to enjoy the benefits to...

Balance, Wholeness and Fasting....

Something I really didn't like about trying to loose weight is that I had to stop fasting.....

Now that must sound like a strange thing to say, but a few years into my Christian journey I took up fasting as a spiritual practice.

At times I would have a regular fasting routine in order to help my prayers for certain very difficult situations. At other times I would have a fast day to pray for an emergency which came up. Other times I didn't fast at all, but the option was always there....

Until I got serious about loosing weight.... then suddenly it no longer seemed an option....

Because I saw fasting as a purely spiritual practice, it seemed wrong to carry on with it while trying to loose weight....

For years I have been seeking balance in my life as well as growth in holiness.. These are two things I have been praying about a lot recently and suddenly I think I get it.....

I think I lack balance because I don't see myself as a whole person, spirit, soul and body.... But my Father does... and He cares about all of me, not just my spiritual life...

So I am going back to having a regular fasting routine and refusing to feel guilty about any "non-spiritual" benefits...

My plan is to fast about one day a week, I say about because it wont be the same day every week....

I am starting today which is a Thursday, next week it will be Wednesday and the week after that Tuesday and so on. I wont be doing any fasting on Sundays as they are a celebration day...

I don't want to always do it on the same day because I pray for different things on different days of the week... Today I am praying for priests, those discerning the priesthood, including seminarians and vocations to the priesthood.....

I have had to think long and hard about writing about fasting because I don't want it to be a hey... look at me I'm fasting moment... but in the end I decided it was the right thing to do for a few reasons...

1 These days I am more likely to get a negative reaction to fasting for spiritual reasons...
2 The blog world is kind of anonymous...
3 I think more Christians would fast if they heard more about it...
4 Lastly I don't see it as blowing my own trumpet because to be honest I just don't find it that hard

Joy and Friendship on the Interwebs!

The internet can be a wonderful place for getting support for so many things....

I have made so many wonderful friends who have taught me a lot...

I started out seeking information on homeschooling and to be honest I don't think I would have made it through without the information and support I got... I joined lots of Christian women's groups.... learned about the special needs of pugs.... delved into the Cathiolic Faith.... Got shed loads of help and support on dieting and getting healthier...

For just about every thing I needed to know in every given situation there has been a way the internet has helped me...

I have also been able to get in touch with so many old friends and even relative who I had lost touch with....

And so Interwebs...... I salute you ...

Feel the Benefit....

 

Just showing off some of the benefits of the weight I have lost ..... Yay!

Before and After

 

 

 

 

 

These two pictures were taken two years apart, February 2013 and February 2014 ....... I am glad to say that the second one is the most recent....

 

I carried on my diet and exercise program but stopped weighing myself for lent.... then I realised that I was quite happy with how I was....

 

All together I lost 5 stone.... yes that's 70 great big pounds and also more than my height in inches....

 

That puts me at about a size 16 bottom and 14 top (UK sizes)

 

I am much healthier than I was and I am glad about that, but after a couple of months of maintaining round about the same weight I have decided that I am ready to start trying to loose a bit more...... 

If it aint broke..... Don't fix it!

 



I have used the same perfume for the last thirty-eight years, but recently I decided I wanted to try something new.....

I love frankincense and myrrh..... because they make me thing of giving to Jesus.... I also like patchouli as it reminds me of my rock chick days.... so when I found a perfume on the internet which contains all three I thought I was on to a winner.

So I found out where I could try it out and off I went with my daughter in tow....As children learn to recognise their mothers by smell before anything else I thought it only fair that her nose should have a say.

Well surprise, surprise.... the new scent was a real stinker.... it started off like a room spray and changed into more of a clinical aftershave....

Time for a detour to the nearest department store perfume department... via a pub lunch!

We spent three and a half hours of spraying and sniffing and laughing and spraying some more...

We did find some very nice smells and an awful lot of not so nice ones, but in the end there was only one conclusion..... none were as good as the one I have been wearing all these years....

Just goes to show ..... you don't always need a change .... sometimes you just need to realise that what you had was perfect for you all along..

It's My Birthdays.....

Yes it does say birthdays, plural...... I have just celebrated both of my birthdays, just two days apart ;)

On Wednesday it was my Spiritual Birthday..... 14 years since I became a Christian and then on Friday it was my natural birthday.... I was 52.

So I celebrated both on the day in between by going to Mass at the Cathedral which just happens to have a Catholic book and gift shop on site..... oh my goodness heaven on earth....

I took my grandson and we started off by popping in to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.... then we went for out first look in the shop.

It used to be in Manchester city centre, but relocated to Salford Cathedral just as I became a Catholic which made it difficult for me to get to so I haven't been since!

Maybe it's a good thing that it is hard to reach.... or I'd be broke lol

I ended up buying seven statues which I am delighted with :)

St Peter and St Paul to go either side of my statue of Our Lady of Walsingham
An Immaculate Heart of Mary to match my Sacred Heart statue
Jesus knocking on the door to go with Our Lady of Grace
Madonna of the Wayside who makes a lovely pair with my Joseph the Worker
A larger Our Lady of the Rosary to keep an eye on us in the kitchen
And St Therese of the Little Flower

I also got a few little bits and pieces too..... such a delightful day...

Prayer for Priests

O Jesus, eternal Priest,

keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,

where none may touch them.

Keep unstained their anointed hands,

which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

Keep unsullied their lips,

daily purpled with your Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,

sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

Let Your holy love surround them and

shield them from the world's contagion.

Bless their labors with abundant fruit and

may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and in heaven their beautiful and

everlasting crown. Amen.

 

What a beautiful prayer by St Therese, please remember to pray for them...

 

No priest no eucharist!

Prayer of Consecration to the Divine Mercy

Jesus, the Divine Mercy, I consecrate my entire life, from this day on, to You without reserve. Into your hands I abandon my past, my present, and my future, from this day forward, make me a true follower of Your teaching, let Your Divine Mercy Image, protect my home and my family from all the powers of evil in this world today.

May all who venerate it never perish, may it be their joy in life, their hope in death, and their glory in eternity. Amen.