Plus

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

I was catching up on blogs this evening and found that a couple of my Spark buddies were listing the positives of the day. I liked that idea, so here goes:

I'm within my calorie range.

I got in 3 short walks and have time this evening for another.

I was able to go to our Senior's meeting for the first time in a couple of years and caught up with some precious people.

I took my last antibiotic pill.

I got a bunch of free books for my Kindle.

I had more energy than I have in awhile and taught two productive, fun English classes this morning.

Walking through the park I saw lots of baby ducks - including one family all in a row!

It looks like rain - we need it!

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Healing

Sunday, May 08, 2011

So, it's Mother's Day and I'm doing surprisingly well. I even managed to go to church, although I could have skipped it since I'm still sick with this virus on top of the allergies. (There are days like this even for folks in ministry - just being honest here!) The children's ministry group did a good job. The kids sang and had made something for their mothers that they passed out to them, but there were none of those "recognizing all the women" things that has been so awkward.

Instead, one of the ladies had made "Hope" cookies - the theme of the sermon message - and everyone got one at the end of the service. Maybe there is hope that our leadership is getting more sensitive on dealing with certain issues - like grief! And we got out early today and that means a longer afternoon on the balcony relaxing. YES!

Roaming the web today, I came across and thought I'd share it here. It blessed me today.

Hugs to the others who are remembering their Moms today. And to all you Moms out there, too a happy day!

Loss of Mother Poem

Now that I am gone,
remember me with smiles and laughter.
And if you need to cry,
cry with your brother or sister
who walks in grief beside you.
And when you need me,
put your arms around anyone
and give to them what you need to give to me.
There are so many who need so much.
I want to leave you something –
something much better than words or sounds.
Look for me in the people I’ve known
or helped in some special way.
Let me live in your heart
as well as in your mind.
You can love me most
by letting your love reach out to our loved ones,
by embracing them and living in their love.
Love does not die, people do.
So, when all that’s left of me is love,
give me away as best you can.

~ Author unknown
nanahood.com/2011/05/page/2

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Ms. Consistency

Sunday, May 01, 2011

I'm going for the title this month! I want to track fitness and nutrition daily. I've been doing pretty well the past couple of weeks although I slipped up this weekend. Consistency in exercise is less of an issue - my 30-minutes-a-day streak is approaching the one-year mark.

Going to set up those streak thingies on my Spark page...

By the way, I'm off TV - just brought it out of hiding for the royal wedding. It had become such a time bandit and I'm amazed at the difference in my sleep and productivity levels since I banned it to the cellar last week. It's going back there now!

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Rocket Science

Monday, April 25, 2011

Spark Community Team members have certain tasks to perform, one of them welcoming new Sparkers on the Introductions message board. My standard statement to newbies is that the trackers are my best friends here on SP --- apart from my human Spark buddies, of course! I go on to say that, if you use the trackers consistently and stay within your ranges, consuming and burning the number of calories Spark suggests, you'll see results.

But I've been on-and-off again with tracking myself and still somehow expecting the pounds to disappear. It's clear that I need to listen to my own advice.

And I have been this past week. I finally lost a pound that wasn't one of the "yoyo" pounds. (Actually it may be a little more, but I have an old, analog scale in kilos that doesn't measure smaller increments. When the needle is between two numbers, I call it a pound.)

If you look at my nutrition tracker, you see that I only went over my calories on two days, one by only 10 and one by 200. (OK, I baked a carrot cake for Easter!) I was pretty much within my ranges on all the other components as well. I got in the number of cardio minutes and burned the number of calories Spark suggests on the fitness tracker. I did my 3x3 strength training challenge.

So. It really isn't rocket science. It's not magic either. It's hard work. But it pays off.

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Four!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Just in case you haven't heard from my other blog posts, message board posts, or status updates, today is my 4th Sparkiversary! Somehow this year it seems particularly significant.

Maybe that's because it's been a particularly rough year and I managed to survive it. Thank you Lord for being faithful even when I've stumbled along trying to do things my way.

Maybe it's because I've realized more than ever that the Spark plan works and that the community is the bestest.

Maybe it's because I have the week off and needed something to celebrate to keep from getting bored!

Anyway, thanks Spark friends for being here and for celebrating with me today! Here on SP, I sent goodies to some of my Class Team members, am in the process of earning 100 points to meet the One Day Challenge, hung some new wallpaper on my Spark page and updated my bio. Onward to year 5!

In real life (whatever that is!) I had lunch with a friend at the Chinese buffet here in town - and behaved myself admirably, thank you very much. This afternoon I washed Louise (my car) because she really needed it, was covered with spring pollen, and I'm taking some friends to church tomorrow and didn't want to be embarassed. Then this evening, I went for a nice, long Nordic walk in the woods near my home. Yep, it's spring and I'm glad!

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