I'm doing well, just plugging along as always.

Some days it is hard for me to believe I'm really doing it - changing my life and losing weight, improving myself in so many ways across my daily existence. I always figured it would seem more 'momentous' or 'real', being in the midst of such changes. But really, it's just like any other day these days. Somewhere between the plans I made and the place I want to be is little old me - chugging along and turning those plans to actions in a million small ways every day.

I still have to pinch myself sometimes - it feels like I am losing so slowly some days, or not making any progress when I have a night where I overindulge. And yet, I stop myself and put it all in perspective. Since about April, I've lost almost 20% of my original high body weight - 42 pounds as of today. I've become more active, more healthy, more faithful in my daily devotions, a more loving wife and a more selfless and wise mother.

I still have so much work to do and no time limit for doing it - but I think it is important to take a step back from time to time and admire the road already behind us, to invigorate us for the road still ahead. By God's grace and with a lot of prayer, prioritizing, and commitment to hard work, even someone like me has managed to turn her life around and take real, substantive steps toward the person I want to be.

That has to count for something.

This Friday finds me at around 216 pounds (saw 215.8 yesterday!), mostly over the flu that bogged me down for several weeks, waking earlier daily and finishing both my private reading and couples bible study with Peter each morning. I have a pot of Navy Bean soup on the stove, as an excuse to use up the ham bone from last night's dinner and a fresh loaf of bread is just about out of the oven. I'll soon be heading upstairs to work out while the girls continue their naps, and cannot wait to welcome my husband home after his day trip to Valdez.

I don't always succeed on the schedule I desire and things in life worth having often take a great deal of time to achieve - but where I have come from, and where I am this very moment, seem like wonderful places to be.