Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Hunger

Is it okay to be hungry?  Hunger is such an interesting feeling.  I remembering discussing in WW meetings how you feel when you are hungry.  There is physical hunger and emotional hunger.  How can we distinguish the two?  We have to know how we physically feel when we are hungry to know if we are physically or emotionally hungry.

True physical hunger is a feeling that none of seem to like to feel.  We have the idea that if we are physically hungry we need to feed ourselves immediately.  There are so many people in the world so much more hungry than we have ever been yet we still feel the need to feed ourselves every time we feel the littlest hunger pain.  Is that really necessary?

At WW they tell us to eat the power foods to keep ourselves from being hungry and I think there is something to that but how important is it that we keep hunger away?

I woke up hungry today.  I was physically hungry.  The funny thing is that I was happy to be hungry.  I have been struggling to stay on plan these days.  Ever since Easter I have had my good days and my bad days.  My bad days have been really bad and then I have a really hard time making the next day a good one.  Yesterday I had a good day.  That made me wake up hungry today.  That was a good sign to me.  The days that I don't wake up hungry are the days that I know that I overate the day before.

I think there is a fine line to that hunger though.  If I let myself get crazy hungry I eat way too much to fix the hunger.  But if I am just a little bit hungry it reminds me that I am burning calories and not overeating.

What are your feelings about hunger?  Is hunger good?  Bad?  Do you know what it even feels to be hungry?  Why?

On another note, I want to invite you all to a homeschoool conference that I will be speaking at in just a week.  Here are the details in case you are interested.

“Celebrate the Faith!” Catholic Homeschool Conference & Vendor Fair, Friday &
Saturday,  April 27 & 28, at the Tommy G. Thompson Youth Center on State Fair
Grounds. Nationally known speakers, dozens of great vendors. Mass on Saturday,
8:00 a.m.; Bishop Donald J. Hying, celebrant. Get more information at
www.gmcheconference.com. Register at the door. Whether you are a homeschool family, eschool family, public school family, private school family or your child is not even in school yet, all are welcome!


Corinna


"When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord." -John 20: 19-20

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Changing my relationship with.....

Chocolate!  That's right, I'm working on changing my relationship with chocolate.

It's been a rather interesting venture.  I gave chocolate up for Lent.  I guess that would have been about 6 weeks ago.  At first it was hard.  I would open the cupboard to eat something and see something with chocolate in it and cringe.  I didn't realize how many things I ate had chocolate in them.....granola bars, brownies, candy, cereal, ice cream, desserts, etc.

For the first 2 weeks, I craved chocolate.  Then, I got used to my new eating patterns.  I started to find new foods to eat that didn't have chocolate in them.  I was controlling my cravings and it felt good.  By the end of Lent I was looking forward to eating chocolate again but wondering how much I would eat.  It was very interesting to me that I wasn't constantly craving chocolate.  I thought it would be the hardest thing to conquer but it wasn't.

This has all made me think.  If I can stop eating something that I have used as a pleasure and comfort food for so long, then I can stop eating anything.  Should I go back to eating chocolate?  Of course.  One of the reasons that I love doing the WW plan is that there is nothing forbidden.  I don't have to give up dessert, sugar, carbs or chocolate.  I just teach myself to eat those things in moderation.

Moderation is the hard part for me when it comes to chocolate.  Of course on Easter Sunday my house was flowing with chocolate.....chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, chocolate cake with chocolate icing, chocolate cheesecake.  For a house that saw only a little chocolate for 6 weeks, this was overload.  I ate some and then more.  I gradually realized that it eating it wasn't filling that chocolate void that I thought I had.  I am now realizing that I can eat chocolate but don't need to eat it regularly.....especially since it has always been a trigger food for me.  It triggers me to eat more of it and anything else too.

Now that I have had a chance to assess the situation for a couple of days I am starting a new relationship with chocolate.  The reason that I gave up chocolate to begin with was to strengthen my relationship with God.  I realized that I could think of God instead of chocolate when I was tempted.  Now I can continue forward with a stronger relationship with God and weaker relationship with chocolate.  It just shouldn't be that important.  Many of the chocolate options that I chose to eat these past 2 days weren't even worth it.

I am going to focus my chocolate energies on something else more productive in my life.  Right now I am focusing a lot of my extra energy on preparing for our Homeschool Conference coming up.  I have never been a speaker at a Homeschool Conference and this year I will be speaking.  I'm excited and of course nervous.  If any of my blog readers is interested in going to a Homeschool Conference I will include the details at the end of this blog.  You do not need to be homeschooler to attend.

Is there anything in your life that you need to change your relationship with?  Maybe it will give you something healthy to focus your energies on.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.  Somehow I know it wont be as easy now that Lent is over but I will continue to keep God in the picture and it will be so much easier.

I hope you are all doing well.  Comment below to tell me how you are and what you are working on in your journey

Happy Easter!
Corinna


“Celebrate the Faith!” Catholic Homeschool Conference & Vendor Fair, Friday &
Saturday,  April 27 & 28, at the Tommy G. Thompson Youth Center on State Fair
Grounds. Nationally known speakers, dozens of great vendors. Mass on Saturday,
8:00 a.m.; Bishop Donald J. Hying, celebrant. Register at
www.gmcheconference.com by 4/12 for early-bird prices. Priests and religious
attend free.  All families welcome!

"Then Peter began to speak to them: 'I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.  You know the message he sent to Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ - he is Lord of all.  That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced:how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him." -Acts 10:34-38

Saturday, April 7, 2012

The pants....again

A few weeks ago I posted about my pants.  That sounds a little weird as I write it;)  I have had 2 pairs of pants hanging in my closet for the last 9 months that I have been wanting to fit into.  Even though I have been slowly progressing towards my pre-Sammy weight, the pants have eluded me.  I try one pair on every week to see if I have made any progress.

I am proud to announce that I can check that goal off of my list.  Last week I tried one pair on and they fit.  I feel like a Progresso Soup commercial.  Oh well.  They fit.....and I could breathe while wearing them.  I wore them all day.  I will admit that when the day was over I was glad to take them off because they aren't the most comfortable but they fit.

Yesterday I tried the other pair.  This was the tighter of the 2 pairs.  That's why I tried them last.  They fit too.  I put them on, fastened them and then asked my husband if I looked okay.  He barely looked and said, "Yeah, you look great."

"No, really. Do I look okay?" I responded with desperation.

He knew I was serious now.  He stopped and looked carefully.  "What?" He said, "Am I looking for something?"

"This is the first time I've been able to fit into these pants since the baby was born.  I want to be sure I don't look goofy."

He looked hard and made me turn around, "You look hot."  He is very supportive.

I know that he will be honest with me when I tell him just what I am looking for.  I was able to go to church and know that I looked good and felt comfortable in my "small" pants.

It's nice to have more than one goal.  Your goals can be pounds, sizes, days, weeks, habit, actions, anything.  Have more than one so that when you reach one you can be excited about it and it can fuel you to reach the next one.

I still haven't gotten to my goal of pre-Samuel weight but I am almost there and fitting into these pants will give me the motivation to make it through another day, week, holiday or birthday party.  These are all things I am facing just this week so fitting into those pants can be my mental anchor that keeps me grounded.

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately.  Life has been so busy, I have been sick and my kids have been sick.  Samuel has double ear infections right now so sleep is not happening much for either of us.  Keep checking the blog daily and I will blog as often as I can.

Keep up the good fight.  It will be worth it to fit into those pants!

Corinna

"And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdelen, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they come to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And looking, they saw the stone rolled back. For it was very great." Mark 16: 1-4