The Saturday 7

1. Tuesday marked one week of dieting/exercising, so I weighed myself: down 2 pounds! I weighed myself again yesterday and was down another 2! One of the benefits of eating pure junk all the time is that my body is so shocked by healthy changes and sheds pounds immediately! Haha. I haven't been doing anything too hardcore. Normal breakfast of coffee and an English muffin with peanut butter, healthy lunch, small portion of regular dinner. Less snacking and less Dr Pepper. I generally try to stay under 1500 calories, but don't stress too much about it. 

2. The exercise has been killing me. My knees seem to think I weigh 400 lbs and am 82 years old. I had to do 200 jumping jacks the other day (for the beach body challenge) and I thought I might die. I just kept thinking, "If the people on the Biggest Loser can do this, I can do this." My other problem is that I have zero core strength. My pregnancies totally destroyed my core. I'm supposed to be doing planks for the beach body challenge, but I physically can't hold myself up. I look like the top picture:

Justin helped me the other day by pushing my stomach back up to where it should be, but as soon as he moved his hand, my back arched again. So I started doing research on core strengthening workouts and came across this: How to Check for Diastasis Recti.

"If you have a tummy pooch that won’t go away… If your belly button mysteriously became an outie when it was always an innie… If your lower back always bothers you, or you constantly “throw your back out”… If you pee your pants every time you sneeze, cough, laugh, stand up, sit down…… If you’ve ever been pregnant…  If you always feel like a weak noodle while walking around…  then you might have an abdominal injury called diastasis recti abdominus."

I have every one of those symptoms. So I did the self check and definitely have separation between my abs. I don't think it's super severe, but the articles I read strongly discouraged planks and crunches for women with diastasis recti, saying those kind of exercises will only make it worse. I've still been doing them because I'm not totally sure I believe the hype. Haha. But I've also been doing their recommended core strengthening exercises.  

3. One more thing about exercise. I was browsing the "Health and Fitness" boards on Pinterest and came across this:

What do you think about that phrase? It really annoys me. Jesus did not die for our physical, temporal, earthly bodies. He died for our souls. Yes, I agree that we need to be good stewards of our bodies, but I worry that with the recent health and fitness craze, we're making our bodies idols. They are going to rot in the ground someday. They are not worth pouring so much time and energy into. As with everything, we need to have a healthy balance. We need to make healthy eating and exercise part of our lives, but it should not consume us.

4. The weather has finally warmed up around here (you know, to the 50s - heat wave!), so we've been taking a lot of family walks. We live on a rural, country road literally in the middle of a cornfield. I've been amazed every time we walk by the amount of liquor bottles in the ditch! I'm starting to think it's the same person buying a bottle of peppermint schnapps on his way home from work, drinking it in the car, then chucking it out the window as he goes down our street because every bottle is the same. I also saw a syringe one day! What the heck?! This isn't the ghetto!

5. I noticed a lot of my friends this week talking about their desire to get rid of facebook. I honestly don't feel that way. I don't know if I just have nice friends or have done a good job of hiding the negative people, but facebook does not have a strongly negative impact on me. The only reason I'd ever feel the need to get rid of it is to waste less time. I'm not judging those of you who have expressed a desire to get rid of it. I'm just surprised you feel so strongly. 

6. I've been reading Deuteronomy this week in my One Year Bible. Sometimes I'm a little jealous of the Israelites. It seems like they had it so easy. Follow the very concrete rules, be blessed beyond measure. Now, we have so many gray areas and seemingly impossible standards - no anger, lusting, malicious thoughts?! And the most obedient, godly people often face the hardest trials. No promise of blessings like they got in the Old Testament. But we're also not threatened with the horrendous curses for disobedience. Birds eating our carcasses, madness, blindness, terror, anxiety, cannibalism. The list is truly horrifying. (Deuteronomy 28) If the Israelites couldn't obey the concrete rules, what makes me think I could? They seem so stupid - forsaking God for idols. But their idols were the cultural norm. Monotheism was unheard of! What cultural norms do I idolize? For what do I forsake God? Facebook? TV? Sleep? Laziness? Blogging? Again, less concrete, but the heart issue is the same. I deserve the horrific consequences the Israelites were warned about (and ultimately received). And yet I've been shown mercy. What more blessing could I want?

 7. This is wicked long, so I'm just going to finish with some pictures from our week.

Lucy has been obsessed with blowing bubbles indoors. Lena adores it!

We had a playdate at Presley's and actually got to play outside in the sunshine for a while!

All bundled up for a family walk.