Weighty Challenges

January is coming to an end and it concludes my first full month at the gym. I checked in at Viquest today and the FittLinx machine told me that this was somewhere around my 25th work-out, I don't remember exactly. I can't believe that I've consistently been going to the gym 5 times a week. And you know what? The one day here and there that I miss doesn't feel right. I actually miss the gym, I miss the work-out. I never in a million years would have ever thought that I could ENJOY exercise. I don't know why, but for some reason I always associated exercise with torture. All the laps we had to do, suicides and running up and down stairs during my years of athletics in middle school and high school; I thought the coach was just punishing us, but in truth it was conditioning. I didn't appreciate the value of conditioning until I got completely out of condition.

I don't want to make this sound like it's been easy though, because it hasn't. Yesterday was difficult for me. I was at my mom's house and not being in my home environment was tough (I sound like I'm a science experiment or something). At home I'm always certain not to buy any junk food, but you can never be sure what's at someone else's home. Not that my mom had lots of junk food, but it was stuff I don't get at home...a pimento cheese sandwich (two actually) and baked lays. Not horrible choices, I know, but still, more than what I would've eaten at home. I've got to praise my mom though because she cooked a really healthy lunch for me and my brother! The real struggle came on the drive home, the drive home is where I would normally sneak some fast food. I wanted to go to Dairy Queen so bad and get a hot fudge shake, like I used to do, but I talked myself through that craving. Then, when I got back into Greenville I wanted to stop at Arby's to get some fried mozzarella sticks. Talked through that one and then I wanted a digorno pizza, another treat I used to enjoy whenever Steven was on-call, which he was last night. Oh, the temptations and the old habits to be broken. I'm thankful that my mindset has been completely changed about food, I'm conscious of my calorie intake and it's just not worth blowing all of my hard work. Again, just so thankful for the mindset, but I so wish that the temptations would go away.

I wanted to share some things that have helped me through my temptations, especially the ones during the hours of 8:30pm-11pm, which are my toughest hours. When I'm really struggling with craving I'll watch an episode of Heavy on A&E, or a clip from a success story from the Joy Fit Club, I'll read blogs of people going through a similar battle with weight, start looking up healthy recipes from Cooking Light or enjoy a calorie free cup of green tea.

I know that I'm probably way over sharing, but my hope is that if you're having a similar battle with truly getting healthy, that this post will be an encouragement for you, that it is possible to create change in your life. I don't take any credit for it, I know that God has changed my heart and my mindset and I am so thankful to Him!

You know I can't have a blog post without sharing about my babies. As I mentioned above, we took the twins to my mom's on Sunday. I have to share one little bit from the day. I was trying to get the twins ready to go to church and was telling Meredith to come to me, she of course went the exact opposite direction and started walking down the hallway. I began ranting, like every parent does, telling her to obey and come to me. I was getting upset because we were going to be late. Meredith looked at me in a very matter-of-fact way and looked back down the hallway. I was getting really upset by this point and then Meredith started gibber jabbering and at the end of the sentence she pointed to my dad's room and said "bye-bye," she then proceeded to go to my dad's doorway, tell him bye-bye and blew him a kiss. She did all that with no one telling her too. It doesn't get any sweeter than that.

In other Meredith news, she actually ate corn today...the girl who hates vegetables. She also ate black eyed peas and chick peas this weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she might actually be getting over her food pickiness.

Berkley is saying sentences now and even if they don't make sense, they're precious. I know I don't have as much info on Berkley as I do Meredith, but did you know that Berkley is the most beautiful boy ever created?! That's right, my son is the most gorgeous boy ever and I'm madly in love with him...so are Daddy, Grandma, Joe-Joe, Mima, and Papa, just to name a few. I'm not saying my Meredith isn't the most beautiful girl in the world, because she is, it's just I want to give Mr. B a little spot light:) Oh, and Berkley has started saying "Hu" for his cousin Hutch's name. Anytime he sees a picture of Hutch now he'll say, "Hu." And tonight he said truck and actually enunciated the "ck" on the end, that was pretty cool!

20th Month Review

The twins won't officially be 21 months old until Friday, but I figured I'd get a head start on their monthly review. Just as I have probably said many times before, Meredith and Berkley have grown so much over the course of the last month. Meredith has finally gotten two upper molars, bringing her teeth grand total to 10! Berkley's just got a mouth full of teeth, I've lost count. Meredith is perfecting her fine motor skills daily in her new found love for hooking herself into her high chair. Berkley's jumping with both feet off of the ground. They have both learned to make fish faces, it's really cute at the dinner table when their faces are covered in ketchup. Speaking of ketchup, Meredith eats ketchup on EVERYTHING; hot dogs, chicken, cheese, olives, even strawberries. They've both learned to shout "Touchdown" with their hands in the air when asked. Meredith and Berkley love to pray before every meal, snack and even when they are eating pretend food from their toy kitchen. The most precious sight is putting Berkley and Meredith to bed. Berkley goes into his crib first and I hold Meredith, they hold hands to pray and say "amen" when Steven or I say amen. Not only is it precious that they are holding hands, but they get so excited that they squeal and giggle like they've never been happier. I'm going to try to catch it on video one of these nights. We read them books before bed and Meredith has started to read Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You See out loud with us, she says "see" and "me" every time it's said in the book. Most of their sign language is gone because they are able to say what they want now. I think Meredith is the most relieved that she can communicate verbally. At every meal she says "all done" and pushes her plate away, then she says "bib off" and takes her bib off. I think one of my favorite things Meredith says now is bear, it sounds like beer in her sweet little high pitched voice. The cutest things Berkley says are "OW" and "OH NO." He says them both with a real thick southern accent, I've got a country boy on my hands. He likes country music too:) Meredith has gotten to the point where I can ask her to take her thumb out of her mouth to take a picture and she'll do it and even pose with a big grin for me. That's just a glimpse of Meredith and Berkley's changes during their 20th month.


In general family updates, I'm continuing to work out 4-5 times a week and thus far I've lost 7 lbs and I have a feeling I've lost more in inches b/c I can wear some pants that I haven't worn in awhile, which is so exciting! I'm really enjoying finding healthy recipes and being conscience of what I'm eating. I'm the most thrilled about the fact that I'm actually enjoying working out and crave it when I miss just one day in the gym. Lord willing, this lifestyle change will continue and I can truly get healthy. That's not the only change recently, I had my hair colored for the first time in my life today. I was just ready for a change. It looks very much like my natural dark brown with a wine tent to it. I haven't seen it in the sun yet because it was overcast today, so I fear it will look purple in the sun. We'll have to wait and see tomorrow.


Steven's been on a pediatric outpatient rotation. The hours have been great, with him being able to make it home typically by 6pm every night. The trade off is that he's been exposed to all kinds of illnesses. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the twins won't pick up anything from daddy. Only 5 more months of residency, can't believe we're in the final stretch!

The New Year's Progress

It's been awhile since my last post. It's hard to believe that it's already the middle of January. On January 5th Steven signed his contract with Martin General Hospital, making our move back to Martin County official! Steven will begin work mid-August and right now we're planning on moving in July. There's so much to do in preparation for this move; just thinking about it all is very overwhelming, but hopefully with a lot of help from the grandparents and good friends we will get everything done. Steven called me on the way home from signing his contract and said, "I'm really excited about our future!" What wonderful words to hear your husband say.

I joined Viquest Fitness Center in December and started consistently going this month. I am now working out 4 times/week, which is a huge deal for me. I want to get healthy! I'm 30 years old and I want to be able to enjoy my children, to run around with them, play outside with them and to go the beach without being embarrassed. The first day I went to the gym I was nearly paralyzed by intimidation. I walked around the track so many times because I didn't know where to start on the fitness equipment. The first time I got on the elliptical machine I could hardly last 10 minutes without having to stop and within 3 weeks I'm already up to 25 minutes! I do strength training plus cardio twice a week and just cardio the other two times a week. The crazy thing is that now I'm really enjoying myself and trying to figure out how I can go 5 d/wk. I think the greatest thing is I'm not only changing my exercise habits, but also my eating habits. I'm thinking completely differently about food and amazingly, it's not torture. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely hard at times. The grocery store and gas stations are the toughest; it literally feels like the ice cream, cakes, and candy bars are calling my name - they're such temptations. I'm trying not to be so strict on myself that I go off the deep end and completely binge. I know that if I stick to it, I'll see results and the results are what make it worth it! The greatest thing is that I've found that while I'm walking on the elliptical machine or doing the rowing machine, I can use the time to pray for my church family, family and friends. It's been a sweet time to fellowship with Christ and be connected to the body through prayer.

Meredith and Berkley are doing great; they're healthy and growing taller and smarter with everyday. Meredith has finally gotten two molars and has started biting, AH! Still trying to figure out the best disciplinary action to deal with the biting, any advice is most welcome. I'm hoping that as their communication skills increase the biting will disappear because right now she bites when she's frustrated because she's not getting her way or Berkley took a toy of hers. Generally they play together very well and just love entertaining one another. Here are some recent pictures.

With my mom, grandma


Meredith has gotten extremely picky about her food and it's difficult to get her to eat a substantial amount. Yesterday morning I tried giving her an audience to show them how she could eat her food. It worked like a charm! Her stuffed animals are "D" (the bears), "Bob" (the dog) and Zebra.


Berkley looks like a natural with the basketball! I found out that Mima and Pen-Pen both played basketball. My Nana and Uncle Phil were great basketball players as well, so who knows what the future holds for our little Berkley.


Meredith was drawn to the soccer ball. Gotta love that smile!


Here's Berkley saying "TOUCHDOWN"


Here are Meredith and Berkley playing together this morning. Meredith loves saying "Elmo" when she looks at her shirt and the Superman shirt is all about mommy, yes, I LOVE Superman!