Well not literally. I’ve been weighing myself semi-weekly. Not on any regular schedule but often enough to track my progress. I’ve lost 22 pounds.
I’ve been talking to my therapist for over a year now and I’m finally making progress. It’s a long story on what I’m doing or how I’m doing it. It’s a combination of things:
In December 2009 I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. To most people this is bad news but for me it was good news. May be the best news. I’m now forced to take my health seriously. If I don’t, I could end up really hurting myself.
I hooked up with a really great nutritionist - Robyn Webb. I’ve known her for years. She writes for Diabetes Forecast Magazine, does broadcasts on TV and writes books for the ADA and she writes cookbooks too.
I started eating right and exercising at Bally’s Fitness. I’m still only on a semi-regular exercise schedule but I get more and more consistent each week.
Lastly, I’ve begun a Bible study with some of the women at my church. The study is called the Lord’s Table. It focuses on our relationship with God and how he wants to and can fill the void. It’s an interesting study and it’s really helping me to not focus on food and focus on him more.
Anyway, so I’ve lost 22 pounds. That’s equal to 1 big and 1 med size bag of dog food. I put them in my grocery cart and tried pushing them down the aisle. It was heavy and hard. See what that looks like.
Today's my third day at my new job. This is a small company but I'm really going to like working here. The benefits are better than I realized and the work we'll be doing is something that I can be proud of I believe. My title is "Senior Security Engineer." I specialize and certification and accreditation of information systems based on the 2002 FISMA. It sounds much more complicated than it really is. I like what I do and am really good at it. I'm so glad God blessed me with jobs I'm good at and that I also like to do. Several of the guys I used to work with at SRA International are working here now. In fact, they recommended me. I wonder which one of them is going to get the new employee bonus? I guess they'll have to battle it out LOL! I've spent most of the past two days filling out paperwork and working on my company-styled resume and bio. I hate writing them. I find it difficult to describe what I do and my expertise in the third person.
I have an office with a window and I share it with another guy. We do the same kind of work. He seems pretty nice and very knowledgeable which is good. I hate working with people who think they know NIST and FISMA and then don't.
Oh, there is one thing I don't like. This building is surrounded by trees and a small woody area so there are stink bugs in the corridor of the building. I hate bugs. Also, supposedly there's an occasional problem with mice. Mice love old buildings. They don't bother me as much as bugs do. I'll flip out if one of those stink bugs makes its way into my office.
Of course now that I'm the new girl on the block and want to make a good impression I'm not on Facebook as much. Oh, oh. I think my plants in Farmville and food in CafeWorld are going to spoil and die. Ack!!! I was doing so well leveling up. That's going to be a hard habit to break.
One last good thing. I calculated that my last paycheck from Smartronix will arrive on April 9 and my first paycheck from this new job will arrive on April 15. That means that I'll actually get paid three times this month. Yeah!!! I could use the extra cash. It'd time for me to do some shopping for some summer pants and shirts for both work and play.
I had a MOST embarrassing moment yesterday. Nearly gave my mom a heart attack in the process. I was sitting outside enjoying the beautiful sun in my Mom’s backyard with my dogs. I was sitting on her back stoop. When the dogs started bugging me I figured it was time to go inside so I stood up, or at least I tried too. I’m not sure which one of my beasts it was but one of the flexi-leashes got wrapped around me a bit. I tried to untwist myself and began to lose my balance. Just as I was beginning to think I had regained my balance I began to lean forward. I knew then it was all over. Clumsy girl hadn’t regained her balance. In a split moment I remembered the instructor from one of my self defense classes telling us not to put out our arms to brace the fall. That’s how you get broken wrists and arms. So, I tucked my arms in.
You wanna know what happens when you tuck in at the top of a hill. Yeah, that’s right. You go tumbling down in. I flipped over in a somersault and slid down the hill. Splat!
I screamed as I was falling - cuz that’s how I do. The scream scared the heck outta Mom. She thought the dogs had gotten lose or something worse.
Somehow in the tumble I twisted my ankle. The same ankle I twisted up several years ago when I wiped out walking the dogs in the snow and ice. Luckily I didn’t get hurt just a little sore and bruised my ego.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention. The best part of the whole incident is where I landed. Right in a stinky fresh pile of doggie doo. Eww!!
Well at least I got a cute pic of the dogs before taking the header.
Warning -- Today’s post is a really long one. There’s just a lot to write about.
I had the most amazing experience on Monday. I volunteered to volunteer at Miriam’s Kitchen. It’s located in the basement of a Presbyterian Church in on Virginia Avenue in Washington, DC. I don’t actually know the name of the church. The group I was working with is called the DC Foodies Do Good and it was started by my friend and nutritionist Robyn Webb.
As the date got closer I thought that I must have lost my mind. We had to be at the church by 6am to begin helping cook and/or serve breakfast. Why in the heck did I volunteer? I haven’t had to be anywhere by 6am in over a year. I don’t even get up until 7 or 7:30 most days so what was I doing volunteering to be someplace at 6am? Well, I know it was God’s hand in all this. I’ve been feeling for a while now that since I’ve been doing so much “self work” to make improvements in my life that it was time for me to help others. I kept telling God I wasn’t ready but God’s always right and finally later became now.
I almost didn’t make it on Monday. I set my alarm plenty early but after it went off I somehow fell back asleep. Next thing I know I’m waking up and it’s 5:20! I was supposed to be in the car and on the road at 5:15am. OMG!!!!!! I showered, dressed and was in my car mostly dressed by 5:30am. Whoo!! Don’t ask me how. I’m not really sure. I’m not even sure I remembered to wear all my clothes. :-)
Anyway, I arrived just in time. Don’t ask me how fast I was driving.....
I wasn’t the last one to arrive thankfully. Someone else arrived the same time I did.
I grabbed the shirt Robyn Webb gave me, said a prayer that it would fit and hussled off to the ladies room to change. The shirt fit. I can’t believe it fit. It was an XL and it fit. I haven’t worn an XL shirt in a very long time. Over a year, maybe two years I’m guessing.
I was assigned to work with Margo. She was a regular volunteer with Miriam’s Kitchen. They were short a few regular volunteers and they asked me to work with her in the dining room instead of the kitchen. I smiled, like I always do, and proceeded to stock my area. I was in charge of the coffee, sugar, milk/creamer table. My job was to keep it all stocked and serve the guests coffee.
Before I go on with how the breakfast and serving went I want to talk about Miriam’s Kitchen. They served over 250 people for breakfast Monday morning. They passed out 250 cards but actually think they served a few more. They estimate that they serve over 4000 people each year and made over 52,000 meals last year. This is pretty incredible organization. They serve very healthy foods. For instance, for breakfast Monday they served whole wheat pancakes, stone ground grits, veggies quesadilla, and baked apples and sugar-free cereal. The chefs and coordinators insist or serving hearty, healthy foods to the guests. They have actually turned away businesses who have offered them hundreds or thousands of donuts leftover from conferences and things like that. They refuse to serve crap. It’s pretty impressive. They way they serve is kind of impressive too. Everyone that comes in is given a number. As breakfast is prepared the numbers are called. Kind of like when you’re at the DMV. I guess this keeps the line at the kitchen down.
So, promptly at 6:30am they opened the doors. Most of the prep wasn’t done. Cereal table wasn’t stocked and coffee was still kinda brewing and apparently they were behind in the kitchen. It was starting to rain so the coordinators said the doors had to be opened on time today.
So in they came. Men, mostly. A few women 3 or 4 but mostly men. Some were very dirty and grungy and others were not as dirty looking. I guess semi-clean is the best way to put it. Some of them even had gov’t IDs hanging around their necks. They have jobs but in this economy, still don’t have enough money for meals or regular shelter.
They hit the juice and coffee table first. The two tables were close together. Some other volunteer guy was handing out juice. I don’t know if he couldn’t talk or just didn’t talk but he never said two words to me. Oh, well. ... The men filed passed and ask for very full mugs of coffee. We had both regular and hazelnut flavored for them. I smiled and said “Good morning” and was so surprised to see how many of them asked me “How are you?”
How am I? I’m inside and warm and dry. How am I?
Most of them had very high spirits. They smiled at me as I served them. I got to talk to a few of them. I got to meet “John Wayne” aka Koolaid. He’s 50 and blessed by God for every day. What a blessing he was to me Monday morning. Quite a few of them have cell phones. Some of them pay for it themselves. I wonder where the bills go? Some of them are paid for by their families. The men who talked talked ALOT without even being asked much. Told me how their sister or whomever was paying for their phones. I let some of them come behind the table and plug in their phones for charging and I guarded them so they wouldn’t get stolen or wet.
Then there was Mr. TMI. I don’t know what his name was but he came through several times. He liked to make me laugh. You see, he made a crass comment about loving some Hazel not loving the “nuts.” Nuts being well, ya know. Anyway, the way he said it made me laugh OUT LOUD and blush. At first I think he was embarrassed to be saying something crass in front of a woman but as soon as I told him “Yo, dude, that’s too much TMI” and kept laughing he smiled and laughed. He kept coming back and asking for a little more Hazel and a lot less nuts. :-) He was fun.
Then there was the man who stood in front of me an chattered about something for like 10 minutes. I couldn’t understand a thing he said. He was just chattering and mumbling about something that happened 2 weeks ago. Although I have a feeling it was 2 weeks ago in another dimension. So I just smiled, and kept pouring him coffee and said things like “Really?” “Wow!” He toddled off to his table eventually. He came back a few times and kept mumbling and chattering the whole time. I have no idea what he was talking about.
Then there’s Johnny. I don’t know if that’s his name so in my memory I’ve named him Johnny. He was kind of young. Probably in his thirties. There were kind of a lot of guys there in their early or late thirties. Actually most of the men there were between 30 adn 50 I’d guess. Shocking and depressing. ... but I digress... Anyway, Johnny told me how much he appreciated this place and my smile and me being nice to him. He hadn’t eaten since Friday and said he was feeling very depressed until he came in and got a smile from us.
Then there was Mr. Watley. I don’t know if that’s his name either but he’s a regular there. One of the volunteers talked with him but I missed his name. He was dressed and stood very “proper”. He reminded me of a school principal. After getting his coffee he stood in the corners and just watched the room. He didn’t talk. I got the impression from him body language that touching was out of the question so I tried to respect his space when he came through for coffee.
Then there was Stinky Sam. He was dressed well in layers but didn’t smell so hot. He gave me a hug while I was cleaning up and thanked me for all the coffee.
Then there were the guys I knew. There were several men and women who came for breakfast who I have seen panhandling in DC for years. There were 2 guys that I am certain I know them. I mean KNOW them. I worked somewhere that they’ve worked or are working. Neither one had gov’t badges on but I recognized them and it was a work-type memory but I just can’t place where it was. How shocking to look into the face of someone I used to know. Even if only remotely.
I was truly blessed by the entire experience. I can’t believe they were smiling and in good spirits. None of them was grumpy towards me. I was REALLY surprised at the amount of sugar these men used. They put sugar LOTS and LOTS of sugar on everything. They added it to their juice, coffee, tea, cereal and even their milk. I found out while talking with Sarah that they do this for two reasons. The first is they’ve been on the streets so long and may be sick so they’re taste buds are damages and they can’t really taste a lot of foods. Another reason is they need to sugar to keep them awake and hold back the crash that’s about to hit them. Many of them are coming down off some kind of “high” by the time breakfast is served. They want and need to stay awake so they pile on the coffee and sugar. That’s so sad.
It was an awesome experience for me overall. I plan to come back. They serve dinner too but I think I like breakfast. I was exhausted when it was over but so glad that I chose to participate.
Holly Morris from Fox 5 in the Morning came and shot three great videos of the work being done here. Below is the link to the videos. At the end of the second video you can seem standing in the back of the kitchen tweeting about the experience.
“A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow.” Ali Edwards
My women’s bible study group is doing a very special study this year. It’s call the “One Little Word.” It’s very interesting and personal study. The idea is that we’d each pick a word that has special meaning. In addition we would each pick another woman in our small group to be an accountability partner.
My accountability partner
I picked a woman I’ll call “L.” We had just started becoming friends and I thought this might be a way for me to build a friendship with another woman. I don’t have a lot of close friends and felt like God was opening up a door or window of opportunity for me. I’m glad God and I picked L. We actually have quite a few things in common and get along really well. We both seem to struggle with very similar issues.
My One Little Word
I chose the word Transform as my word. There are a lot of big and little reasons why I chose this word. I have been working to transform myself for several years now. I started a few years ago. I began seeing a therapist. That’s been a long road and a lot of hard work. I think this year will be the hardest and most rewarding work. I am committing to making changes for my health. I really want to look back at the end of this year and not recognize the person I was on January 1. This is NOT a New Year’s resolution. This is a lifetime resolution. A lifetime commitment. I want to be totally transformed.
I need God’s help with this. I cannot do this on my own and he has brought many things in to my life to help me. He has brought this study to my Small Group. He has brought me an awesome accountability partner. Most importantly, he has brought me the word Transform.
So, in my beginning study of the word I have come up with the following acrostic. It is helping me to focus on my word and helping me to turn to God more.
TRUST IN HIM RENEW YOUR SPIRIT ACCEPT INSTRUCTION NEW MIND SUBMIT TO GOD FAITHFUL SERVANT OBEY GOD RELY ON HIM MAGNIFY HIM
I also chose a primary scripture that represents my word and my study for this year:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing & perfect will. ~ Romans 12:2 [emphasis mine]
I am going to continue blogging about my word throughout the year. A large focus of my topics will be on how I am or am not transforming. I hope you enjoy the lessons I will be learning this year as much as I will be.
Be blessed and check back often for more about transforming.
