A few weeks ago, I had a photo shoot with Joa Van Vliet to celebrate my weight loss goal… and to be honest to get my high school senior picture off my parent’s and grandma’s walls. I am smaller (not to mention SO much healthier) now than I was 12-13 years ago. Wow!
First I want to say that I didn’t do the fasting for weight loss, because frankly… that is DEFINITELY NOT a safe way to lose weight. I also didn’t deprive myself of everything. During the day, I did have about 16 oz of Orange Juice, so that I was able to keep my strength up and focus in order to work, drive and do other daily tasks.
Psalm 37:4
Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
The verse above is the one that was shown to me the night before in a book I’ve been reading. I prayed over this verse numerous times yesterday… and also think I have it memorized now as well. 
I’ve also been listening to a song by Lifehouse called “Everything”. I have the lyrics and a link to a video on My Other Blog.
Overall, yesterday was a day of introspection, prayer and petition for me. A time for me to lean on God and try to understand the questions that loom in my life… and my friends lives. A time that I could reflect on the blessings I have, as well as things I look forward to. A time to read, think, and pray. (But alas… not the whole day was filled with this, as I was not able to take a vacation day yesterday for this.)
Lately, I have been feeling torn about doing the Breast Cancer 3-day or going on a mission trip that is available through my church, and through this… along with talking to numerous people (and e-mailing others), I believe that I am supposed to do the mission trip this year. I am excited about the possibilities of where I will go, who I will meet and what I will be doing. Right now, I believe, there are two possibilities for locations… but I am waiting to hear the details on them before I make that decision (should have more info in about a month or so I think).
Not only did I find that God is leading me into a mission trip, but he also (once again – in less than 2 weeks) gave me a peace that many things that have been on my mind recently will be provided in His time… not mine. I know that I just need to keep seeking after God and keep the faith of Abraham.
However, I don’t think that’s all I learned. I learned that I control me. I control food. I guess in most ways I knew that before, but for some reason I have been succumbing to temptations much more often lately… and I know that now, if I can fast for about 24 hours… I can control a temptation for an hour as well.
Overall, I think today… the day after the fast… has been more challenging for me food wise. Yesterday I was *so* focused on prayer list and my Bible that I didn’t think about food much. Today, knowing that I need to eat… and eat HEALTHY, the temptations have returned. But I know that I can control them, write down my food and keep going with the plan that I have in front of me.
As a dear friend reminded me this morning, I have walked 60 miles in 3-days, lost 150 pounds in the last 36 months, and now fasted for about 24 hours. All amazing accomplishments.
With only 13 pounds to my personal goal… I *KNOW* it can be done.
Philippians 4:12-13
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
So in light of the Valentine weekend… I thought I would share with you all that I was almost “engaged” as of about 3 weeks ago. Some of you may be wondering where this fine fellow may have come from…
…just remember I said ALMOST.
A few Saturday’s back, I just wanted to chat with people… just talk to someone, but it was REALLY late, so I didn’t want to wake up anyone. Because of this, I decided to venture to the chat rooms that I spent some time in as my “social life” when I was WAY overweight. I ventured into the “singles” area and thought… maybe this could be interesting. You never know. There were a bunch of chat rooms on this board… and I really I don’t remember what chat room I went to. I found out 2 things on here that night. First, to be successful at meeting anyone in a chat room, a picture or video cam is essential. And trust me, the guys will keep asking for pictures until they get one with as few clothes as possible. Either that or they want you on their cam, I assume for the same purpose.
[Side Note: I almost gave up at this point and retreated to my room to read, just to not deal with perverts. But I kept on, hoping someone out there would just need to talk too.]
The second thing I learned is that you really need to be quick. I entered a room and within about 10 seconds I had about 6 or 7 pouncing on me to do private chats. Wowsers. I don’t think I was ever this popular in any location.
So anyway, with the new found popularity, I figured talking to these people seemed harmless; I’m not going to give away anything while I am on there anyway. So I give my info and then he asks for a picture… ok… no biggie, right? So I quick find a picture that I would be willing to post (and cropped every detail that I could out of said picture as to not give away any additional info about me). After sending the picture, he was sold. I was the most beautiful person in the world (I didn’t realize at that moment he was being literal).
[Another side note… he never did send me his picture even after sending it.]
Then the craziness came out. He gave me his phone number. I am not kidding. I have been chatting with a 30-something (supposedly) single guy for less than 5 minutes and he gives me his phone number. Yes, I have his phone number. So If anyone wants to call him to try and “hook up” after reading this… just let me know.
He first wants to know if I have a cam. I tell him I haven’t gotten around to buying one [and truth be told probably won’t ever buy one]. He then asks if I am single – I say yes, to which he asks the same 2 things AGAIN. Hmmm… I begin to wonder how many people he is chatting with… so I leave to chat with this nice little 22 year old guy that was having a rough night (he had just broken up with his girlfriend… or at least that was the story he gave me.) He turned out to be a nice kid… and was enjoying the events of the other chats I was involved in. But I digress…
So insane boy (as I am now calling him) is wondering where I’ve gone to. Do I not like him anymore? So I go back to the chat [big mistake] and tell him I’ve been chatting with other people. He asks if I am looking for love. I say “not here”. He is then very disappointed by this [he did that little emoticon of the crying smiley… seriously].
About 3 minutes later (I thought he had left) he asks for my name. I tell him “Julie” [why I am using my real name is beyond me] and he adds me to his “friends list” on yahoo. I then find out that his name is Muhammed Aamir. I ask (again) where he is from. No answer. He asks how many kids I want. I say that I am never having children. He says “Great, you feel the same as me.” Oops, should have gone the Jon & Kate + 8 route on that question.
I move away from this line of questions very quickly. VERY. Hobbies… seems ok right? I tell him that I like to workout and my favorite class is Kickboxing. He then asks “When can you teach me?” Yikes. For the rest of the conversation, he continues to ask when we can meet. At this point it is about midnight (less than 45 minutes into the on-again/off-again chat), I say goodnight. He replies with “We will meet soon sweetheart”. OH.MY.GOODNESS. I am looking around me trying to figure out if there is ANY way that he could track me down. Needless to say, I closed out of that chatroom as quickly as possible and shut off the computer.
Shortly after this, I looked a little closer at the phone number and realized that it was much longer than the standard 10 digit US phone numbers were. So I did a little investigating. The number started with “92”… which happens to be the country code for PAKISTAN.
The next day, I opened up my yahoo chat to find a “private message” from Aamir (as he likes to be called) saying that he misses me and wants to know when we can talk again. I immediately blocked him and have since vowed never to talk to anyone else on yahoo chat unless I have known then for some length of time (or can verify that they are not crazy in some way or another).
Finally – I wonder if he might still qualify for an arranged marriage (not to me of course). That still happens right???
Off to find a better man, in this country hopefully…
So this week’s weigh in proved much successful… I lost everything I gained last week PLUS some. YAY! This put me back into range of goal (well, 2 pounds above goal… but still).
Once again (or at least for the remaining meetings in February) I do not have to shell out any additional $$ to those in the Weight Watchers world. Don’t get me wrong, I love them and all that they have taught and done for me, BUT I don’t want to give them any more of my hard earned $$. Especially when I can use said $$ for manicures and other things to make me pretty.
But this success did not deter me from the pie-hole stuffage (as some liken it to be called) of some very tasty chips. Why just after I have experience this awesome success, I go out and do something silly like this is still beyond me. But I have looked the demon in the eye once again, and told him to get down. I am better than this… and I WILL do better than this.
So I got my bookmark tonight. Very happy about this. YAY… now I just need to fill it up. And even though there isn’t a sticker there in January – there will be for every remaining month. MARK MY WORDS. I can do anything I set my mind to accomplish.
Anything.
And now I must go to bed… because I promised a friend that we would meet at the gym tomorrow. Granted, she is in NYC and I am in Holland… so it will be a virtual gym date.
Sleepy time forthcoming…
