My Personal 7 Experiment

I am 16 days away from my 1 year anniversary of the beginning of my health journey. I have written about the program I went on before. You can read about it here: http://crayonsandketchup.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-new-way-to-do-life.html . It has been since September since I have "worked the program" or kept a food journal. I have allowed myself to eat what I wanted as long as it did not contain gluten or peanuts. I only avoid those because they cause such severe pain in my muscles that I can't walk after I eat it. However, I have had plenty of butter, cheese, sugar, coke (or soda), and lots of chips (they were mainly GMO free Kettle Chips, though). Needless to say that I went from a 43 pound weight loss to a 30 pound weight loss total. In seven months I gained back 13 pounds that it took me five months to lose. Yuck!

Tomorrow is a new day.

Tomorrow is a new month.

I am going to be doing a lemon detox day. On the program I did three or five day detoxes. This time, I am only doing one. I know my body more now. I know that my body can only handle one. My family and my marriage can only afford for me to do one day! I am hoping that this will help jump start me back to where I need to be. I have given in to my selfish desires too much over the past seven months. It is time for a little denial.

I know a girl woman that did the 7 experiment. That is where you only have only seven different article of clothing to wear for an entire month. That has caused me to think about what I could give up for a month? I don't have a calling or desire to limit my already limited homeschooling mother wardrobe. What could my personal 7 experiment be? How about doing the opposite? How about avoiding seven things for a month? That is just some Dr. Seuss craziness going on!

Here are my 7:

1. Refined Sugar
2. Carbonated beverages
3. Coffee
4. Tea
5. Cheese
6. Chips
7. Chick-Fil-A Fries

If you know me at all, you know the last one is the one that probably hurts the most. To be honest, they all are hard to give up. Otherwise, why would they be on my list. I am excited, yet scared to do this. I don't know why. I did it before. Maybe it was different then because it was life or death for me. Now, it is just living or living healthy. That is still a big choice to make. Self denial is never fun. I can do this.

Do you want to do this with me? If so, please let me know. Let's have some accountability! We always do better when we have someone checking up on us. Shoot me an email at sherry-puckett@att.net if you are interested in joining me on this month long 7 experiment.

Here is the homeschool mom in me. What do you think the outcome will be? My hypothesis is that I will be feeling better. I will have more energy (even with out the coke and coffee). I will see my skin clearing up.

If you are not called to join me by physically doing the 7 experiment, then please join in praying for me as I go on this journey.

Persuasive Essays

My two oldest children had to write persuasive essays. They had to pick something that they wanted to persuade me to let them do. I was ready for topics such as why they should have dessert for breakfast, or something like why they should stay up late. However, that is not what I received. RaeAnne's was very well written. She simply wants to go camping with the youth group this weekend. You may ask yourself why that is such a big deal. We usually embrace any activity with the church. Sometimes, though, that is the one thing that you can ground them from that will make a difference to their behaviour or attitude. This was the case with taking away camping. Her argument was that camping bonds the youth group tighter together. She also said she would be willing to pay for it. She said she has learned to be more responsible and respectful. On top of all that she said that she would be willing to go without watching Dr. Who and the Lord of the Rings movies for an entire week. That, people, is a sacrifice for her. Sometimes, she really makes me laugh out loud. Her essay did make me tempted to give in to her request. However, I value the lesson she needs to learn by not going more. Joel, on the other hand, attacked a heavier subject. He was arguing on behalf of going back to public school. He said that he wouldn't fight with his brothers and sister as much. I think his thought on that was that he wouldn't be home as much to fight with them. His second point was that he would have more friends. The third reason was that he thinks it is fun there. So, to counter his theories I asked him if he was, in general, in more trouble for fighting with his siblings now or when he was in public school. He admitted that when he thought about it, that they get along much better now. They are learning to work together on things by doing science experiments and studying together. I did not tackle the issue of friends. But, to be honest I believe it is something that needs to be addressed. He has friends now. His actual friends he had in school he still has. The only difference is that he isn't around those acquaintances that he was getting in trouble with. Simply being around people does not make them friends. As for "school" being fun...really? Is it more fun than homeschooling? Where would you learning more? He thinks he is learning more at home. So, after all that, he is actually more happy being homeschooled. He said he definitely does not want to go to public school for middle school. He says maybe high school. My response is that we will see. That is three and a half years away. I don't know what God will call us to at that point. I want to always be open to His will and His plan for our family. I have learned to never underestimate my children. They think deeper thoughts than we presume. They also can reason more than we give them credit for. I continue to see how God provides teachable moments all the time. I was able to have a fairly deep conversation with both children because of their essays that were just part of our language arts curriculum.