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Year Three, Day 91: The Shrinker, Friday Stats, Crossing the Jordan...Life Victories!

I am feeling rather victorious this morning!

Small battles won. Each meal I eat without added sugar, grains, preservatives...

Score!

Each day I continue to progress in hooping...

Score!

Each day I continue this blog...

Score!

Each day I make it to one of my jobs. On time. Fully present, ready to give my best...

Score!

Each day I read a passage or more in Scripture...

Score!

Each day I keep in touch through prayer with God...

Score!

Each day I can help a family member, friend or stranger...

Score!

I think I am winning. And the game is life! :) (I know, corny. But it feels good to type that!)

Anyway, I just finished my first course of Prednisone this morning. My doctor gave me 2 more refills. I am refilling!  My cough is nearly gone, but my doctor had me taper off my dosage. I started with 2 a day for three days. Then 1 a day for 2 days. Then 1/2 tablet for 4 days.  I can feel a bit of congestion still remaining in my lungs.

I am trying to stay out of the smoky air as much as possible. I usually walk more than I ride the bus. But since I have been trying to get my asthma under control, I am making like Mr. Magoo. I step onto the nearest bus, step off, step onto another.  Luckily the music center where I teach has a kick a*s air conditioner. As does the church office, and the room I am renting.

The church I teach at on Saturdays, not at all. But one of the pastor is very thoughtful.  He opens up all the doors and windows early in the morning. When I get there, I turn on the fan and the air circulates nicely. It does get hot. But it is tolerable.

I am doing really well with my eating.  Ending the day at Safeway with a baked chicken breast and salad, or fruit and iced tea is very doable! Inexpensive, grain free and...AC!

I do start each day with hooping at the track.  But the exercise, I tell myself is outweighs the air quality!

I am drinking oodles of water. And I found a recipe for "The Shrinker" ice tea on Trim Healthy Mama. It is amazing! It is like an iced chai tea. But homemade.  I see exactly what I put in it.  I like how you make a really strong tea concentrate and then add the other ingredients. I have been brewing my tea in the morning, and then sticking the concentrate in the fridge, so that I can whip up my Shrinker in a large travel mug and carry with me. It is really tasty, and I swear I feel my fat cell shrinking! (I've always been a sucker for placebo - but placebo works for me!)

Here's a link to the  recipe:https://trimhealthymama.com/recipe/the-shrinker-fp-p-400/

So...it is Friday. Stats day!
August  11, 2017
Current Mood:  6 (On a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being depressed, 10 being ecstatic!)
Weight: 180
Chest: 39"
Waist: 35"
Hips: 41.5"
Thighs: 21"
Calves: 14.5"
Biceps: 12.5"
Ankles: 8"

Compared to last week:
August  4, 2017
Current Mood:  7 (On a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being depressed, 10 being ecstatic!)
BP: 100/71
Weight: 182
Chest: 39"
Waist: 35"
Hips: 41.5"
Thighs: 21"
Calves: 14.5"
Biceps: 12.5"
Ankles: 8"

No change to measurements, but I lost the two pounds I gained this week!

I'll take that as progress.

170's are so close, I can taste them! :)

I woke up at early this morning, 5:40 a.m. But it is my day off. Mostly. I just teach a few students at the Music Center. No office job to race off to. No real plans. So I stayed in bed and watched funny youtube videos. Started with Will Smith dancing on the Fresh Prince. Moved to Car Karoake. And ended with my favorite funny man, Jimmy Fallon.

It is nice to begin the day with raucous laughter. I was crying. It was a wonderful feeling!


I did my hooping a little later than usual. Luckily it is not as hot today. I had a really good session! I even got brave and hooped near my favorite reading tree, which happens to be near the street.  I did not even care what the passersby thought.  I was in my hoop zone! And so happy that the air is clearer and cooler! I've heard rumors that our heat wave is officially over and that we might get a bit of rain tomorrow.




Hallelujah!

I just finished reading Joshua 4.  The Israelites finally passed safely through the Jordan river, even though it was at flood stage. The Levite priests stood in the middle of the river, which God parted, so they stood on dry ground.  Then God asked them to collect 12 rocks. One for each tribe. And "...they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Joradan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day." (Joshua 4: 8-9)

Then when "the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho...Joshua set up...the twelve stones.  He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground." For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed ove. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God." (Joshua 4: 19-24)

I had a bit of an "aha" moment this morning reading this passage. As the sun blazed through the windows, reminding me that my hoop was waiting.

But something was brewing.  Yes, God is loving. Yes, we can have a personal relationship with Him, through Jesus.  This I know.  But God is powerful. The creator.  He is merciful, but mighty.  These words bounce around in my brain. I have heard them so many times before. In church, in hymns, on the radio, in the Bible.  

I still cringe at the thought of all the people slaughtered in the Old Testament.  Killing always makes me cringe.  But how can my human mind even begin to fathom the power of a creator?

Imagining the Red Sea parting as the Israelites escaped on dry land from the Egyptian army that was pursuing them.  Then as they safely crossed, the great waters rolling back and drowning the army.  Most everyone knows this story, religious or not. The imagery is powerful.  Lesser known is the story of the crossing through the Jordan.  But no less powerful. They were not being pursued, but their priests were standing in the middle of a flood swollen river, with the holy ark. And that is how they crossed into the promised land.

God wants us to remember these stories.  The memorial rocks, the passing down of the story from generations to generations. And the written Word.

And now, once again, our world is being rocked with the threat of looming war.  The nuclear threat from North Korea is raising tension.  

Will we ever see a world without war? Without violence?  Even as I cringe reading some of the violent Old Testament stories, I cringe when I turn on the news.  We all know how tempting it is to just turn it off.  But I refuse.  I told a friend recently that I check breaking news every morning, so I can know what to pray about.

It is in suffering, that many of us seek comfort in prayer.

On that note, the day is escaping me. Going forth into my day!

Happy Friday!

Talk to you tomorrow.

Love,

Zita




Day 57 Hooping:

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