Workout Thursday (?)

I took these "after" pictures of myself just last week when I officially completed all 90 days of Chalean Extreme. I thought I'd go back and look at the first real pictures my mom took of me just 10 weeks earlier - 2 weeks into the program. I was so amazed at the side by side comparison. I thought you might be too! I am living proof that muscle burns fat!

I have now begun my second round of the program and am on "day 3." Once again, I am sore and it is kicking my booty, haha. I can't wait to see what kind of results I will get this time :-)

My goal is to lose 15 more pounds!

4th Birthday!

Just wanted to post a few pictures of C's 4th birthday. My inlaws came to visit and brought her a wonderful present - her first real bicycle! The next day I threw her a party at a super cool jumpy place where she and about 9 other kids jumped for 2 hours :-) Made for some sweaty and tired kiddos! Sure was a blast!!!

First...this is where we were 4 years ago...

And then this past weekend....WOW how time flies!

Little Chef

I am so proud to have a son who enjoys cooking more than I do...he wakes up and heads right into the kitchen even before he gets dressed! What a blessing!

To the Prayer Warriors...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Phil. 4:6

It's been over a week since I've blogged my few prayer requests, but I wanted to update you on what the Lord did for each request. He is so very good...

1. The soldiers made it home in just a few days. They came home Saturday evening and are now enjoying quality time with their families. My MOPS friend is heading out on a much needed weekend getaway with her husband and children today. Praise God for their reunion and for all the other reunions going all all over our Army post this week!

2. After 2 days of non-productive contractions, the doctors finally decided to induce my pregnant friend. Her husband was scheduled to head back to Iraq in one week, so they were very excited! After several hours of labor, the doctors decided to perform a c-section Wednesday morning...Welcome to the world sweet Bella :-)

Her daddy left for Iraq Tuesday morning. Please continue to pray for him as he continues to serve over seas for a few more months. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for him to say good bye to this beautiful face - and those adorable kissable cheeks :-)

3. Lastly, and as I write this, my eyes are filling with tears of gratitude....B RECEIVED HIS ORDERS! We are finally "for sure" moving this summer to Washington DC for 4 years - with NO DEPLOYMENTS. B will be working at an Air Force Base up there, but it looks like we will probably live at Ft. Belvoir in Virginia to avoid sending little C to DC city schools (just don't think that would be the best idea....). His report date is August 10th. We could not be any more excited! We are now praying that B would be allowed to come home from this deployment a little earlier so that he can take some leave before we move and go back to Atlanta to visit some family and, of course, spend some time with me and the kids :-) He is scheduled to come home in Early July, but we are hoping he will be allowed to come home sometime in June - that would give us more time to get our home packed up, take some leave, and be in DC by August! Praise God!!

Prayer Requests

I am pretty sure there is a carousel going round and round in my head making me dizzier and dizzier each minute. I feel like I have about 100 things going on in my head at any given moment. I try and prioritize exactly what needs to be done according to importance. Some things are super important (wash dirty cloth diapers before urine and feces become permanently imbedded in the organic cotton and bamboo) while others are just things I really want to be doing (like blogging on this -not THIS one- particular topic that I think of all the time). I am sure all my mommy friends can totally relate to the $1.75 carousel ride that I am infinitely riding...

Plus, I want to blog! The funny things my kids say, the way I see God work in my everyday life, my fitness tips, what I eat to lose weight, etc... So many thing I want to write down and share. But alas, I just haven't had the time.

Today as I sat in church, I decided I was going to blog tonight about something super important - just a small handful of prayer requests.

1. Please pray for the soldiers stuck in Afghanistan. Many soldiers were scheduled to come home this past weekend and this coming weekend from a year long deployment but because of the recent developments in Afghanistan, they are stuck there. Please pray that the Army would find a safe way to get these men and women home as soon as possible. Their families have been counting down the months, then weeks, then days....only to be told, "sorry, it's still going to be a little longer - we don't know exactly how much longer though." Specifically, three of the ladies in my MOPS group have husbands stuck there. All three are tired and weary and want nothing more than a joyful homecoming with their spouses.

2. Please pray for my pregnant friend and her husband. Tomorrow is her due date and still, there is no baby. If you remember from this post last week, her husband is only home on R&R for 15 days. He has already been home for seven days. He has to head back to Iraq on April 20th. Please pray that the baby comes very soon so he can not only be here for the birth, but also for a few days afterwards as well. Here is a picture I took of them last week:

3. Please pray that my husband receives orders to go to Washington DC soon. As far as we know, the the orders have been requested, but they have not actually been granted. Please pray that we FINALLY have some closure and know for sure that we will be moving in August.

Weightloss Video (I'm the star!)

After watching The Biggest Loser last week and seeing how the show creates a video montage for the eliminated player showing how far they've come, I thought, "hey, I can do that too!" So, here is my weightloss journey in a nutshell...You can pretend I got kicked off a show and this is my big, "Goodbye, You've come so far!" video :-)

I do agree that it's a little bit vain to create a video all about me, but on the other hand, I've worked my booty off and I am proud of myself!

"The longer the waiting, the sweeter the kiss"

For those of you that have heard me talk of my pregnant friend whose husband left for Iraq right after they found out she was pregnant - and especially for those of you that have been praying for them...you'll know what an answered prayer this is:

On Sunday he arrived home for 15 days of R&R. His lovely wife (my dear friend) is 39 weeks pregnant - he'll be here for their first baby's birth :-) Pray that sweet Bella comes swiftly so her daddy gets to spend some time with her before heading back to Iraq until Mid-July! Praise God for this beautiful reunion...and for the stranger that took the picture!

90 Day Results

I am not actually completely done with all of 90 days worth of my Chalean Extreme Workouts because I went out of town on the last 4 days and missed all 4 of the last workouts. I am working on making up those last 4 days right now before I consider myself "done" with Round 1, but since I don't think my body is going to change that drastically in the next 4 days, I went a head and had my mom take my "after" pictures :-) It's a wonderful transformation!

I am still pretty amazed at the results that I achieved in only 90 days. I lost a total of 28.6 pounds! (my goal was 30 lbs, but seriously, I am very happy with 28.6!) I lost 32 inches all over my body and dropped my body fat percentage from 32.5% to 22.7%. CRAZY!!!

For those of you that are super interested in the breakdown of where all those inches came from, I lost:

6.5 inches in my waist
5.5 inches in my hips
5.5 inches from my abductors
4.75 inches from my chest
1.75 inches in my left upper arm
2 inches in my right upper arm
3 inches in my left thigh
3 inches in my right thigh

And I went from a snug size 14 pants down to a decently lose/comfortable size 10. Yahoo! New clothes for the Spring! My size large/XL shirts no longer fit well and are now being replaced with all size mediums. Its a great day to be in the dressing room with me :-)

Aside from my physical results, I feel that I have grown a lot in these 90 days as well. I learned that I am not a slave to my body. I build it and shape it the way I want it to be. I learned that every bite contains calories that can either work for or against me. I am now choosing foods that offer big nutritional bang for the buck (or calorie). I learned that I can eat fast food and still make healthy choices. I learned how awesome it feel to be out of breath and dripping sweat. I learned that I am super strong and should probably not leave all the furniture moving/heavy lifting in the future to the men in my life. I learned that healthy food can taste amazing and that working out with my friends/family is an incredible way to bond with them!

I learned that nothing tastes as good as being thin feels :-)

Here are all my "After" shots!

Now on to Round 2 of Chalean Extreme...I've still got 20 more pounds to lose!