The Howell Blessings

It is already late fall, where did this year go?  The autumn season is quickly approaching official winter where it is time to rest, to hibernate, and to reflect on what this year has brought into our lives.
This year has brought many things in our family to celebrate and many things to pray for. I am thankful for those wonderful things to celebrate as they bring joy and new life. And I am thankful for those things to pray about as it makes fresh to me to be thankful for those I care deeply about and appreciate the time and memories I've shared with them.  Now it is time to follow the bears. It's time to hibernate and recharge.
Just like the seasons that come upon us here in the Midwest, we have reason to celebrate the season and to hibernate.  
In the fall, I find myself wanting to be outside, putting things in order, and preparing things to brace against the long, cold winter. In my personal life I take time to organize things that have gotten out of control over the busy outsi…

This past weekend, Honey and I took a 75 mile motorcycle ride to Hell Hollow Wilderness Area up near the lake in Leroy Twp., Ohio.  This gorgeous park is part of the Lake Metropark system. It's off the beaten path (ever take a motorcycle on a gravel road??) and we parked in a very small, non-descript gravel parking area that lead us to a path at the edge of a high cliff top. The highlight of this area is to descend more than 100 feet to the ravine where Paine Creek winds it's way around with dry beds, waterfalls and rushing water. Once upon a time, glaciers pushed and gouged out this beautiful area that got it's awful name because of the steep, rugged slopes which made it hell to access and leave the "hollow"

Just as we arrived, it begin to sprinkle. And as soon as we entered the tree canopy the rain started to pour. Thankfully the canopy protected us and the rain quickly ended.
We had no sooner began walking the trail that would eventually lead us to the 262 t…

There is not much that is more aggravating than waking up at 3:30 in the morning and not being able to go back to sleep. More than three hours later and my mind is still talking loudly to me.  Factual, but not important thoughts like; "I didn't drink enough water today" run across my mind in micro-second interruptions. That thought leads me to begin other unimportant thoughts such as, "When I wake up, I will do better at drinking water." and "I need to work out. Should I do PiYo or bursting?"  "I wonder if the rain will stop us from going to the Farmers Market this morning." and "I need to write..I haven't written again for several days."  I then begin to beat myself up for not doing what I feel like God has directed me to do.

I lay in bed, listening to my own thoughts ramble on as well as my husband's proof that he is sleeping soundly. I really am tired and just want to sleep, but can't.  I put a pillow over my head, th…

Still being real here. It never fails. Whenever I move on something I feel God is telling me to do, Satan comes in for the kill. He tries to kill the satisfaction of doing something I feel led from God to do. He comes in to kill the hope, and the joy of following God's prompting.

Late last night I was inspired to think that God might be blessing me for obeying his prompting of sharing my last post, for stepping out and just beginning to write. Then today, all those hopes were dashed. Leads fell through, accomplishments failed to manifest, and what I thought was my support, failed to be encouraging, instead, I was left feeling like I was being mocked.

I wish I could say I was walking in joy for following what I believed to be God prompting me to do what He wants me to do. But I can't. I still believe in my heart I followed God's prompting, but I also believe that I need to stand fast and not let Satan intimidate me with his scare tactics. His tactics of allowing my all-too-ne…

I've been quiet for way too long, and that isn't just on my blogs, I've been quiet in my spirit as well. These last two years have been, to say the least, scary as I have been through depression and back trying to figure out what it is I am supposed to do with my life. Ever since I left my high-paying corporate job, I have realized I don't know who I am, or what I'm supposed to do.  I am no longer an expert in my field.
Since then, I've been trying to find what it is I want to do when I grow up. I've started my own business, I've done home party sales, and have even become a fitness coach. All I "need" to do is bring in a little extra income each month. That's been my goal all along, makin' a little income.  And other than a seasonal party sales position I took right after I left my company, I've made nearly nothing in all my endeavors. Less than nothing if you count what I've spent to get started in these endeavors.
One of the s…

Week three of my detox diet ended on a high note.  I lost a total of just over 6 pounds and lost an average of 1 1/2 inches from my waist (3 points) and hips.  My honey was anxious to take the "after" pictures and compare them to the "before" pictures.  I wasn't so keen on the idea as I wasn't expecting to see an improvement. But, as you can see below, after just 3 weeks, there is noticeable improvement. Not as lumpy and bumpy as before. And is it my imagination or does the woman on the left look older than the woman on the right?
I still have a way to go to look the way I want to look, but for just 3 weeks, I can't complain at all with the results. 
I ended the 3rd week the day before my honey and my anniversary, and, unfortunately, took advantage of eating what I wanted (to a point) at a nice restaurant the next evening. Needless to say, I messed up on slowly introducing back in the food(s) without any other "toxic" foods.  So, after sulking f…

"Reflection is an important part of happiness, and pausing to reflect on a positive event from each day cultivates gratitude." - HeadedSomewhere.com

What was the best part of my day?  Watching my grand-daughter lean for her daddy and witnessing his heart melt.

Week two proved to be a challenge on this detox diet. I started the week off gaining weight. The first day was about a half a pound and the second day I gained another half pound.I was so discouraged. I was following the diet and couldn’t figure out what, if anything, I was doing wrong.
I am still unsure but I think I may have figured out in part what was going on. First, and I think most importantly, I wasn’t getting all my water in. At best I was getting in 40 oz a day.Secondly, I wasn’t getting good nights sleep.Lack of sleep can actually cause you to not only hang onto weight, but to gain it as well.
Week two had me eating lunch instead of drinking a smoothie. I found myself just eating leftovers from the previous nights supper, as I didn’t want to prep and cook lunch and turn around and prep and cook dinner as well. I did several times anyway. I don’t think that contributed to the weight gain, but certainly dampened my excitement on top of the weight gain.
All in all, I ended week …

"Reflection is an important part of happiness, and pausing to reflect on a positive event from each day cultivates gratitude." - HeadedSomewhere.com

What was the best part of my day? Witnessing two hawks mate in the trees behind our house. The encounter was brief, but it means we'll get to see them nest and raise their young close by again this year.

I finished week one!  
Sorry didn't mean to leave any of you in the dark. I thought reporting daily was going to be just a bit... bland, so I decided not to update every day.

I finished week one at an even 131 pounds. That is down 4 lbs 4 oz of my starting weight. Not too shabby. It's better than the typical 2 lb weight loss per week, but not as strong as the hopeful 7 lbs this plan suggested could be possible to lose in the first week.

I have been faithful to the menu plan every day except yesterday, Saturday the 1st of March. I had my morning shake and then held a cooking class in the morning.  After class ended, I got busy cleaning up and chatting and skipped lunch.  I know, I know, I shouldn't have skipped. I warned you that lunch would be my biggest obstacle and it has proved to be true. I did snack on carrots and roasted red pepper hummus, (a recipe in the book)  later that afternoon and finished strong with a Kale and White Bean soup last night. Yesterday started week …

Jumping back in with a beautiful group of writers over at Lisa Jo Bakers, for Five Minute Friday.  Today's word is Choose.

GO:

Life is full of choices. When we wake up in the morning we can choose to be in a good mood or a bad one, regardless of how we felt upon rising.  We can choose to love our spouse in spite of their faults or we can choose to harbor resentment towards them for not being meeting our expectations.

I am currently choosing to do a 21 day detox diet, even though I could just as easily choose to stop at anytime and grab a handful of peanut M&M's, but I made a choice to do what I feel like is best for me in the long run. 

 We all need to make a decision on what we choose to do with and in our lives.  Some are short term choices, like my detox, and others are long term choices, like who we marry. The most important choice we can make is where we spend eternity. With any choice we need to decide what is best and stick with it.  It's easy to change our minds, b…

Mon Feb 24 Water: 64 oz Weight: 132.6 - loss of 1.3 lbs  Total so far 2.8  Breakfast: Protein Smoothie Lunch: Protein Smoothie Dinner: Left-over Bean and Nut patty with lime vinaigrette dressing and cucumbers, Mixed greens salad No snack Exercise: 4x4 Bursting -15 minutes Notes: No cramping last night!  I'm hoping it is just all in the water control. I slept well last night too. Today I awoke ready to start exercising. I used an exercise DVD I own from JJ Virgin where you intermingle 1 minute of aerobic exercise between pushing, pulling and core muscle work outs. I followed that up with about 10 minutes of yoga. I believe I waited to long to eat supper tonight and was very hungry. After I ate, I found myself wanting to snack, but realized that I wasn't hungry for food in my tummy, but food in my mouth. Tomorrow I will have this lentil loaf to just heat up as soon as it's time to eat supper, so hopefully that helps with the craving to eat. 
If you already caught it, I did eat left-o…

Days 1 & 2 of my detox journey.
Here I go. As scary as this is, this is the ugly truth. I'm about to share with you what I try to hide from everyone.
 In four years I've gained seven pounds, and almost all of it has gone straight to my stomach. I am 53 years old, wear a comfortable size 6 and sometimes 4. I am post menopausal (thanks to chemo) and, according to a popular weight loss program, I am at a perfectly good weight.
Really?  Does this look perfectly good to you?


I can camouflage my pudge most of the time, but let me tell you, this is NOT attractive.  Nor is this easy to show you. 
Normally I go to great lengths to avoid letting people, especially my husband, see my body flaws. Tonight I asked him to not only look at my flaws, but to make sure they show well in these pictures. (He's a very good amateur photographer). He, of course, didn't hesitate when I asked him to photograph me in such an unpleasant light, bless him. Usually I tell him I don't want to see …

Hi! I'm glad to see that folks have been stopping by in my absence  My apologizes as it's been awhile since I posted last.  It's been longer still since I really felt like posting anything. 

Let me try to explain. A LOT has been going on in the past year and a half that has been life changing.  Some good, some... not so good, and some quite frankly, that have left me with more questions than answers.  I've even wondered if I had anything to share on this blog that anyone would even care about, or if I should even take the time to blog. (Just getting real here). 

The good news is (for me) that I've been contemplating things and getting back to the basics in a lot of areas. From asking "what is it really all about?" to decluttering just about everything. I am trying to simplify my life, my surroundings, and the way I eat.

Some of the decisions that I have started to ask myself are simple and easy to answer, and some on the other hand will take commitment over …