Epic Fail

Well, the Daniel Fast Take 2 was an epic fail. The first week or so I did pretty well, but once Valentine's festivities hit I was a goner! GEEZ! However, this whole experience has shown me that SWEETS is once again, what I will be giving up for Lent. I am also going to try giving up meat because I really enjoyed trying vegetarian dishes this month. I'm going to allow myself to have fish though.

There is some good news in February though! My desire to stay more active has continued from January! I have been running a lot and even ran in a 5K early in February with my best friend, Sarah and my twin, Lesley (twin as in we both have the same BIG in our sorority...not actual twin sister haha...I WISH THOUGH!) I ran (well...jogged actually) the whole thing and I was so proud of myself. I enjoyed it SO MUCH that I went crazy and signed up for a 10K at the end of March. I have NEVER run that far in my life so it should be interesting. However, I ran 2 miles this morning and actually ENJOYED IT....usually I'm dying after 5 minutes of running.

Well, hopefully Lent will go better than Food Month did. I also wanted to add something during Lent this year and I've decided to add schedule, intentional prayer time. I'm going to start with 5-10 minutes a day and hopefully work up to 30-40 minutes. Very excited! :)

Daniel Fast - Take 2

Well, I'm a week into my month of food focus and it's going....alright. I decided to attempt the Daniel Fast again. I won't go into the details since I already blogged about it (you can check that out here if you are interested) but basically it's 3 weeks of eating only vegetables, fruit, brown rice, beans, nuts and only drinking water. Now, I have "pretty much" done this for the past 6 days. I cheated a bit this weekend since I finished the Cupid's Chase 5K in Georgetown and I wanted to celebrate at my favorite breakfast spot, Monument Cafe.

I have cheated a bit with dairy and sweets, but I have not had meat since last Tuesday. It's amazing how hard it is to take things out of your diet, but I'm finding it a little easier than last time. However, I feel like this time it's been a much greater mental battle than I remember. It's amazing how much food overtakes your mind and it's all you can think about. I tried to study in Starbucks yesterday and I had to leave basically because I wanted to knock the girl out next to me who had a tasty looking drink and a bagel with cream cheese. Not cool, Kim.

I'm hoping to learn balance through all of this. I want to be able to eat the things I love, but as my mother loves to say, "not in excess." That's my problem with food; I get something I love (example: a box of oreos) but instead of eating a small portion, I end up eating most of it in one sitting. I'm not even hungry at that point. And I always feel horrible afterwards.

One of my best friends Allison sent me a text the other day with this verse -

"Do not labor for the food that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life, that the Son of Man will give you." John 6:27

This is what I want my focus to be this month. Actually, my focus for the rest of my life. :)

Fitness Month

Well, I believe I have started the year off right! Fitness month has gone better than I expected. :) I met my goal of exercising at least 4 times a week. The first couple of weeks it was only for 15-20 minutes, but I'm slowly working up to 30-45 minutes. The first few weeks I did exercise programs with an online program called bodyrock. It's really tough, but I have a hard time motivating myself so I felt like I wasn't working very hard. I also did a couple yoga routines with Jillian Michaels. They were hard but fun! I think I will continue to do workouts with her. I need someone telling me what to do...even if they are on the TV. ;-)

I've also been walking and running again. Saturday I am doing a 5K in good 'ol Gtown! I've been running the last few days so hopefully I won't die on Saturday! :) I ran 2.15 miles last Saturday, 2.4 miles today and I'm hoping to run 3 miles on Wednesday. Hopefully the 3.3 miles on Saturday will happen. :)

Of course, my FAVORITE exercise activity was brushing up on my MJ moves. My favorite Christmas present by far was my Wii MJ Experience game. 30 minutes of dancing to this and I was exhausted, but it felt so good. :)

I'm glad to have gotten into the habit of working out and I'm hoping to continue this throughout 2012. The only downside to this month is I have not lost any weight. In fact I have gained 2 pounds. :( BUT February is food month so I'm hoping to turn that around.

Stay tuned for Food February! :)

So long, 2011! Hello 2012!

I can hardly believe it, but 2012 has arrived! 2011 was a very hard year for my family so I'm hoping 2012 will bring a lot of peace and comfort to us. 2011 did show me, once again, how truly amazing my family is and the strength of each person in it. I look forward to growing closer to my amazing family in 2012!

Now, I know some people aren't big fans of New Year's resolutions, but I AM! :) I love getting a chance to start over and look forward to the year ahead. Yes, most of the time I don't "achieve" the goals I set, but I think the process and journey is more important than the actual achievement. This year I wanted to do something different though - kind of a combination of what I did with the Spiritual disciplines (working on one a month) and what Gretchen Rubin did in her book The Happiness Project. I'm going to take 12 resolutions and focus on one each month of the year. My goal is not to "master" each resolution, but focus on it and hopefully create a lifestyle change in myself. Of course, I hope to achieve the lose 25 pounds goal, but we'll see what happens. ;-)

I have three main goals: Get Healthy. Get Creative. Seek God, and not the world. After my best friend got married in August of last year, I moved into an apartment by myself. I absolutely LOVE it, but it was also incredibly difficult. I missed her like crazy and I just missed having someone there when I got home. Plus, it helped me be accountable in my eating habits (I gained about 20 pounds from August until now). I can't rely on someone else to keep myself healthy and happy so I'm really trying to learn better habits this year. I'm excited to get started! Here are my 12 goals:

Jan - Fitness - I want to exercise regularly, at least 4 times a week.

Feb - Food - I want to eat healthy foods and lose 25 pounds in 2012.

Mar - Sleep - I want to have a regular sleep pattern and get 7-8 hours each night.

Apr - De-Clutter - I want to remove all the excess clutter from my apartment.

May - Nature - I want to spend more time outside and GET OFF THE COUCH!

June - Media Fast - I want to take time away from the TV, Computer, iphone and spend more time in books, prayer and with God.

July - Cooking - I want to cook more for myself, at least 3-4 times a week.

Aug - Shopping Fast - I want to stop shopping for things I don't need and use that money more wisely.

Sept - Crafts - I want to explore my creative side and get crafty! (Hello pinterest!)

Oct - Music - I want to get back into playing piano and guitar. (my keyboard is mighty dusty!)

Nov - Writing - I want to journal every day and write a novel for NaNoWriMo.

Dec - Books - I want to read 100 books in 2012 (this will be an on-going goal, not just for Dec.).

I'm looking forward to what 2012 brings! Happy New Year everyone!!

35 Years

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents! :) 35 years and still going strong!

My Best Friend's Wedding

fI haven't blogged in a while and a lot of that is due to all the festivities leading up to my BFF's wedding last weekend. It was a WONDERFUL wedding and I still can't believe it's over. I wanted to share a few photos:

Me and the lovely bride

Me and the wonderful couple

Me and the Sherwins :)

I was blessed to be Sarah's maid of honor, and it was a wonderful experience. I consider Sarah to be my sister so I knew this would be an emotional day. I did not expect to get as emotional as I did during the ceremony (I was crying non-stop!) BUT I guess I got it all out early on because I made it through my toast with no tears. :)

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Kim, Sarah’s best friend and college roommate. Growing up, I always wanted a sister. I was blessed to have a little brother, but God chose to not give me a sister until I was 18 years old. I met Sarah my freshman year of college at Southwestern University when she moved into my dorm room after we both were in need of new roommates. I’d love to tell you that we were BFF at first sight, but that first semester together was pretty awkward. But don’t worry, as you can tell, that didn’t last. We have lived together ever since that fateful day in the Spring semester of our freshman year. (Well, actually, we did not technically live together our junior years but we were at each other’s apartments almost every day so I still count it.) We were inseparable and most of my best college memories involve her: living in the God quad, riding yellow pirate bikes, camping with Phi Lambs, road trips to Nomads, praying with Allison and meals in the commons. My favorite memory is when we would perform and make up songs together including our original song “Why Don’t Boys Like Us.” (Ask me later if you want to hear the whole song, it’s amazing!)

Now almost 7 years later, I am standing here at her wedding. I knew it wouldn’t take long for the “right boy” to like Sarah. She is an incredible person and a wonderful friend. Her friendship has literally been a godsend in my life, at a time when I desperately needed it. She has been with me during all of the low points and high points of my adult life. Honestly, she helped me navigate my way into adulthood. She’s one of the first people I want to share any type of news with, and I can spend hours talking to her. Needless to say, I have always been apprehensive of ANYONE coming close to being worthy of marrying her. I even made a list of requirements for her future husband, but Kevin passed all my tests with flying colors.

Kevin and Sarah are both very blessed to have each other. I have been honored to have known them throughout their whole relationship: from their first date, all the way through their engagement and now at their wedding. They have such a special relationship built on love, trust and lots of laughter. I have no doubt that their marriage will be amazing and bear much fruit...including kids. I can’t wait to meet your little Kimmy Jr. I mean, your kids are going to have two aunt Kim’s so I think it’s only right you name your first girl after us.

May God bless your journey together! To Sarah and Kevin!

Me giving the toast

I think they liked it :)

I Confess....

Last month, I studied the discipline of confession. I have to confess (hah hah) that I wasn't very excited about this one. Mainly because it was one of the corporate disciplines, and I wasn't too keen on confessing to someone. I have always struggled with letting others see my faults and sins. In this chapter, Foster writes that "we feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We cannot bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hid ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy" (p.145). It saddens me to think I feel paralyzed in sharing my burdens with others. God did not place us on this earth to live alone in isolation. "We are freed to hear the unconditional call of God's love and to confess our needs openly before our brothers and sisters. We know we are not alone in our sin....in acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals" (p. 145-146).

I was unsure of what to "do" this month for confession. Foster gave an amazing example in his book of a diary of confession (pp. 149-150). Basically, after prayer and meditation, he wrote down anything that came to mind that needed healing and forgiveness from his childhood. The next day, he did the same thing for his adolescence, and finally he wrote down anything from his adulthood. Later he brought his writings to a trusted friend and shared what he wrote with him. Then his friend took the paper, ripped it up and prayer over him. I decided to do the same thing and I brought my writing to one of my best friends, Allison. It was extremely difficult for me to be so open and vulnerable, but I cannot tell you how free I felt afterward. It's amazing how much guilt and shame I had carried around "hiding" these struggles and sins.

It is so amazing that God has given us the ability to listen to others and forgive in His name. Foster emphasizes that private confession is just as valid, but there is a sweet freedom in sharing our burdens with others. Foster writes that "the Scripture teaches us that all believers are priests before God: 'You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood' (1Peter 2:9)" (p. 147). Foster quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer who writes that "a man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person" (p.148). I am so thankful I was able to share my sins with Allison. I felt God speaking through her to me, and it was incredible.

Now that it is July, I am on to the discipline of worship. I have decided for July I will only listen to worship music in the car and while I work out. I also want to work on playing the piano and guitar more. I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks for reading friends! :)