Decisions, Changes, Progress! Exciting Times!

I am just in the mood to write today. There has been so much going on in life & in my head that I just need to write!

Back in April, the Kansas City temple had its open houses, temple cultural celebration & in early May the dedication. I was blessed enough to be able to attend all three events. It truly was remarkable & had a very strong impact on my life. It's like everything just came into perspective for me; what I wanted out of life & so forth.

For the past 7 weeks I've been taking the temple prep class at church & I am SO very excited to go through the temple. Words just cannot even describe how much I'm looking forward to that special day.

For those who want to learn more CLICK HERE :-)

My mind is also racing with pure excitement that it's already August!!! I didn't even realize what month it was until today, actually. July flew by for me. One month closer to seeing my love. This deployment isn't near as bad as I was thinking it was going to be... even with the lack of communication with Nathan. John is a pretty darn good distraction from the anxiety, bad thoughts & loneliness. My family is pretty great too :-) John & I have pictures coming up in a week; definitely excited to have pictures of John that aren't from my phone or just my little point & shoot.

Nathan will get to take his R&R sometime very soon; we find out for sure in about a week or so. Can't wait to start a countdown for that.

I've had a great week in terms of exercising. I was able to accomplish moving the resistance up to 7 for the whole hour of cardio & was able to increase my mileage from 5 to 6 miles as well; all while having a lower heart rate! I don't know why it's taken so many years for me to figure out that if I eat right & exercise I feel awesome & actually get the results I want. I may not be able to lose weight as quickly as I could in high school but at least I am doing it right; the HEALTHY way this time. It's a life change, not just a crash starvation "diet".

My mom has been doing Weight Watchers for a while now & has lost a lot of weight doing that along with regular exercise. So, I've been learning from her the importance of making sure I get my daily intake of fruits, vegetables, lean protein, healthy oil, water, etc. I went to a meeting with her a few weeks back & learned that some daily intakes are different for me since I'm breastfeeding than it is for someone who is not breastfeeding.

My favorite thing that I've started doing is making a smoothie with the Weight Watchers calcium packet. I love that it's not a meal replacement, but I can make it filling by adding things to it. So, I use one cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk (only 30 calories!), crushed ice, one WW packet (2 servings of dairy... bf moms need 3), 1/2 cup of  frozen raspberries or blackberries, 1/2 cup frozen bananas (knocks out 2 of 8 servings of fruits & veggies... again, bf moms need 2 more servings which equals 8 instead of 6), 2 tablespoons of PB2 (powdered peanut butter- no fat & oil like the regular processed stuff; only 45 calories for that!), 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil (you need 2 teaspoons of healthy oils a day, bf moms need 1 tablespoon). I blend it all using an awesome hand stick blender & walla! Deliciousness in a cup! This cools me off after the gym & keeps me full for about 2-3 hours. I eat about 6 small meals a day, every few hours & that has helped me feel good. I have more energy & it keeps my milk supply up all day & night.

Anatomy of my smoothie :-)

John's first experience in a baby carrier from earlier this week.

Trying SO HARD to sit up by himself. He's almost there... still a little too unstable.

John is growing up so fast! He's filling out his 6 month clothes; in fact some are almost too short to snap now. I bought him some 9 month sleepers at Target; they're a little big as you can see, I had to roll the sleeves some but he fits them much better than I was thinking he would. Where did my little baby go?!

Well, that's about all I have for now. Have a great weekend everyone!