Staying Positive

My desire to join the Foreign Service is looking more and more like a dream. My current ranking is 82 out of 102. I have five more chances to get hired before I expire off the list this go round. Approximately 10-12 are hired each cycle. So my chances are pretty slim. Of course if I'm able to get fluent enough in French in the next six months, that might help.

I can always take the test again and start the process over again. My plan is to wait until early spring of 2008 and see what the Holy Spirit is prompting, see how changes that have been implemented in the process are affecting hiring, see what new things are happening in my personal and professional life before making any more decisions.

It's a little disheartening, but they do say that one of the key factors for becoming a Foreign Service Officer is persistence!

Weekly Weigh In

This week was much better than last week. I wasn't expecting much to be honest, but the scale doesn't lie and I'm certainly not going to call it one :)

This week I lost 1.2 pounds. So that was exciting.

Starting Weight: 153.8
Current Weight: 147.8
Total Weight loss: 6
Goal Weight: 138

I haven't been counting as strictly as I probably should, but I have been doing a couple of things differently. I have almost completely eliminated snacking, but when I have, in my mind it is part of my daily food intake. Like a meal almost, so I don't treat it casually.

I have also been drinking a lot more water and trying to include a lot more vegetables into my diet since they are zero points and don't count against me.

The only other major change that I think has really helped me so far has been eating lots of frozen meals for lunch and dinner. I just haven't had the time to cook and I usually get home around 7:30 or 8:00pm every night. Plus food seems to go bad in my fridge. In addition, I have been trying to save money during the week and not eat lunch out as often. Bringing a frozen meal has been helpful, but I try to balance it out with a fresh side salad with the frozen entree. I'm hoping that once I figure out a more effective working schedule (get to bed earlier, up earlier, to work earlier, leave earlier, cook dinner), I will continue with this track of frozen food.

Anyway, I am excited to be eating smaller portions and regaining some of the control over food that I had lost.

I've Got A Boat To Sell You!

This is the company that my dad works for. If you want a boat...

www.mustangmarine.com.au

I'm proud of my pops and excited for him to be working for this great company. So I thought I would do a little advertising for him :)

So Close, But Not Quite

So I knew I haven't been sticking to the regimen quite as well as I should. And I haven't really been exercising either. And it showed :( But some progress was still made.

Starting Weight: 153.8 lbs
Current Weight: 149.0 lbs
Total Loss: 4.8 lbs

Yeah so I lost 20 oz. I mean, that's like the weight of two toothbrushes. So sad. Here's to next week. I'm aiming for a total loss of 6 pounds!

Being A Tourist

A couple weeks ago, I went on a two hour Lincoln Assassination tour in DC. It was really fun playing the tourist. The tour started on the north side of the White House and then we wandered through the streets following the events of that fateful day until ending up at the Ford Theater and hearing about the last moments of Abraham Lincoln. It was really cool.

The picture is of me and some friends from church who all went on the tour as well. It was really cool seeing the actual box that Lincoln sat in (just above our heads with all the drapes) and standing on the stage where John Wilkes Booth jumped and made his escape. Apparently there is a bus tour that will take you from the Ford's theater along his escape route to the farm where he was eventually found.

A Little Weekend Magic

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day here. The sun is shining, the air was just this side of dry, it was cool, but not super cold, blue sky, white puffy clouds - but just a few. All in all amazing. I sat outside and worked on my weekly Bible study lesson. I'm co leading a group called Holy Spirit Encounter with my church. So far it's been great.

Anyway, as I'm sitting at the table on the deck in the backyard, I hear a buzzing noise to my right. I think it is a giant beetle bug as I look and see an emerald green-gold "bug" about three inches long or so. Just when I begin to wonder what kind of bug it is, it flits to the left and sticks it's face into another flower and then zooms as fast as possible to the end of the yard. I barely have time to react when it hits me, "Oh my gosh! THat was a HUMMINGBIRD!" I'm so excited, I can barely breathe, I get up to run around the house and find something to write it down with so I don't forget. It was the most incredible, unexpected thing I have seen in ages. I couldn't believe it. I had no idea that hummingbirds lived in Maryland. I mean WOW!

The first two thoughts I had after it flew away - so super fast by the way - were 1) we need to plant more flowers that it can feed on so I can see it again and 2) I wonder how they live in winter when there are no flowers.

For those of you who know how obsessed I am with Googling this kind of information - I haven't looked it up yet. But I will now.

I was so thankful for that little bit of magic that God provided to me on Saturday. It was perhaps one of my favorite moments of the weekend.



I didn't take this picture - but it is almost identical to how I saw the bird.

WW Update

Today was another weigh in. I felt much better about sticking to my regimen this past week. And it paid off!

Starting Weight: 153.8 lbs
Current Weight: 149.2 lbs
Total Loss: 4.6 lbs

Here's to getting over five this week!

Before Pictures

So this picture is from two years ago when I first moved in. You can't really tell what my room looked like, but you can see the wall color and the brown bookshelf. There is also the picture of my dresser. So really nothing very exciting about any of it. But now...I have a new room. See pictures below.

Becoming An Adult

When I came back from Montana last month, I was struck by a huge desire to grow up in some areas of my life. The first thing that has been on the top of my list is to have an adult bedroom! That sounds odd, but I have been living like a coed in a dorm for a while now and I figured it was time to get rid of the free furniture and hand me down items and redo my room.

So two weekends ago, I went shopping at IKEA (the grown up college dorm room look), and bought a new dresser, bookshelf/decorative wall unit, floating shelves for the wall, two lamps, new duvet cover. I'm still looking for a bookshelf style headboard. All the pieces match and this week I bought paint and have repainted my room. It looks awesome. I'm not quite done yet, but when I am, I'll post some pictures.

I'm very excited about being more grown up - at least in the room where I live :)

Physical Discipline Update

Yesterday was my three week mark of participating in Weight Watchers. As mentioned in the previous post, I had falled off the wagon the previous week and I think I was being dragged through the dirt this past week as I was half on and half off. But my weigh in was successful. Another pound gone!

So for those of you keeping track...

Starting Weight: 153.8
Current Weight: 151.2
Difference: -2.6

In addition, I am committing to train for a 10K race on Thanksgiving day, known as the Turkey Trot. Two years ago I ran in the 2 mile fun run with my roommate Anne and friend Christy. This year, we are all gearing up for a big time race. Should be fun!

I have had some interesting thoughts the past couple of weeks as I've been on this WW program. I have had moments of sadness for foods that I probably won't eat much anymore. Not because I can't, but because I shouldn't. As I'm changing my mindset of food and eating to live, not living to eat, I have been struck by the hold food has had in my life. Now granted, I grew up eating lots of wheat bread and whole grain cereals, salad with dinner almost every night, lots of vegetables, juices and water, oodles of olive oil. So I don't have terrible eating habits and for that I'm so thankful to my parents. I like to eat foods that are good for me. Anyway, it was interesting to know that I was grieving certain foods. The only one that comes to mind at the moment is mayonnaise, but I've been cutting that out of my diet for a while now anyway. I'll post more as I think of them.