Back home!

The cousins in age order: a tradition!

Last Thursday, we left for a short trip/vacation to Minnesota to visit with our family in the Twin Cities. We had a busy schedule for the 3 days we spent there, but I decided before I even began packing my suitcase that this trip was going to be totally different than my last trip. I was not going to come home and find out that all of my tiny snacking sprees and inactivity had caused me to gain several pounds!

So I prepared the best that I could. I grabbed my exercising clothes, my heart rate monitor, my exercise plan, and I packed healthy snacks (like almonds, raisins, grapes, Wasa crackers, Kashi granola bars, carrots and peppers, etc.). I spent time in prayer to get myself spiritually prepared as I realized that during our trip in July I wasn't ready, in fact I was setting myself up for defeat because though I was thinking that I'd do my best to follow my plan - I wasn't believing it. It was all in my head. I was giving myself "pep talks" instead of "Spirit talks". There was temptation around every corner, and instead of running away, I caved. In it's simplest form, my problem was trusting in myself. When the flesh rules, you lose!

I was a little upset about the fact that we left on Thursday afternoon, because I was hoping to be able to weigh in before our little trip, but alas, it didn't work out that way. I had planned to bring along my scale to use the next morning (What can I say? We have a very special and unique relationship...) but it accidentally got left behind. Rats! I ended up using my aunt's scale which is more "technical" than mine and I spent several minutes just trying to make the dumb thing tell me my weight. That's why I like my scale - it's simple! You just push a button and step on. When I finally figured out how to turn in on, it showed 171 pounds. Now I had moved from frustration to hatred of that foreign, uncooraperative scale! I was disappointed in seeing that, because I had diligently followed my exercise and eating plan last week and it didn't seem right that I had gained weight. Hmmm....

But I had to be on guard. I couldn't let that disappointment get the better of me! I couldn't settle into a defeated mindset or the weekend would have turned into another disaster. So I prayed and asked the Lord to help me press on and keep going even though this week didn't turn out how I wanted it to, and even though it didn't make sense to me. And, I'm happy to report that I was able to cooperate with Jesus and make this past weekend a success. I ate smart and exercised when it worked into our crazy schedule. Thankfully, we spent a lot of time walking! (We went to the zoo and the Mall of America...fun!) I stayed active with my younger sisters whenever possible which made us all sleep better. :-)

I'm going to finish this post with pictures of our trip and I promise to write more asap! Till then ~Bekah