Before and After

These last few months I've been seeing a personal trainer. She is a friend from church and a powerhouse of a young woman who whips me into shape about once  and at times twice a week. :)

This photo was taken before I began working out :)

A couple of weeks ago on Good Friday I took some photos to check the lighting preparing to record a video for the blog:

And because I can't help myself - one more prep shot from several days after easter...

And well this morning I took yet another photo because I was waiting to video chat and well ... See for yourself:And in this photo my cheeks are a bit swollen because I am going to need to see the dentistthis week over a tooth that is causing me some trouble...

I weighed in for my One Month on April 20th:

My progress:

• Most of my limbs measurements had evened out. Ya'll I was lopsided - one arm and one leg seriously bigger than the other.


• My total inch loss was 5-yes, count them- 5 INCHES!


• My total weight loss was 2 lbs.

Recently I noticed shirts I purchased about the time I started working out NO. LONGER. FIT. It's like wearing a tent. My nightgowns have at least three or four inches more room beneath my arms - YES. I laugh-out-loud when I put them on.

The workout pants I purchased when I started were SKIN. TIGHT. Now I have baggy room in them in the legs and I notice when I did my work on the ball last night that they drooped away from my back when I laid out on the ball.

I am TWO. SIZES. smaller in shirts and about three inches from being two sizes smaller in my pants. For now I am one size smaller and shrinking by the minute. TEE. HEE!

But more than that I am getting stronger. Lying in bed about two weeks ago I pulled my arm up under my pillow and noticed something about my bi-cep I'd never felt before - it seemed to really tense up. I reached up and had a party in my head! I have a muscle there. When I flex it is even starting to build tone. You can see it is becoming more defined.

I no longer have those "SIDE B--Bs" that used to make me look like a football player

My chin is returning to its formerly single status. (Something I said to a group of Mothers and Daughters at my old church in 2004). :)

I have had two knee surgeries and degenerative issues in my back since 2002 and 2005 respectively. I had tried working out before and I've been through physical therapy more than once. My legs never seemed to regain strength after the two surgeries and I've always been afraid of doing too much believing it would make things worse on my back. I have had no problems with either of these situations since beginning. As a matter of fact - I could not flex my quads and get a solid muscle when I started, much less push myself up off the floor from a squatting position with my legs and keep my balance. I. MEAN. IT. WAS. SCARY. TRYING. TO. GET. UP. OFF. THE. FLOOR. SCARY!

Last night while working out I said, let's test this theory that I'm stronger. I squatted down to the floor and keeping perfect posture I pressed up with my legs and stood from a squatting position just barely losing my balance on the way.  :) Can you see my big smile?

AND. THE. MOST. SIGNIFICANT. PART. - I have not quit. I felt like it a time or two. But I have not quit.

I feel better, I look better and someday I will be able to ride my bike up the hill on Highview Terrace. But until then I'm going to keep pushing it out, getting stronger and living better than I did when I was 20!

Love you all so much! Anyone need encouragement in this area... PRESS ON!

Philippians 3:8-14 (NKJV)
⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
¹¹ if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Acts 20:24 (NKJV)
²⁴ But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV)
¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

God will reward your faithfulness and willingness to step up and press into HIM.

In my food journal one day I wrote: "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

You can, too.