We are now proud gardeners! 11 weeks left!

Only eleven more weeks friends, eleven more weeks and then it's all over! Ehhhh, wrong........eleven more weeks till the rest of our lives! Just as I've said all along, the purpose of this healthy change and weight loss isn't only to win this competition. It's to change the rest of our lives. This competition is only our catalyst to help get us there. We ALL have to have a catalyst or a goal. For some it is a wedding or a vacation or a landmark birthday (turning 30!). For others it is a reward such as a new car or winning an I-Pad. That is what life is all about, reaching goals. Our end goal for this life?? Living with our Heavenly Father right? And for our family to help us make our healthy changes..... it is this challenge to win a family vacation! For Big 'D' it's to win $7500! These are some GREAT catalysts that will help us reach our goals to live long, happy, active and healthy lives! And I'm happy to report that It's working!!

So far our family has added eating a salad more than three times a week! My girls went from shunning the mere thought of a salad, to now requesting one at restaurants.  A salad with spinach, kale, and romaine! A salad with wonderful nurtrients!! This alone is success to me. Yesssssss!!!!!! If we came out of this challenge with that alone, I'd be happy! Even better though, my girls are now more open minded than EVER to at least try new things and that as I have said before, is gold! We've added many more wonderful things and habits and though some items are still slightly mocked and only tolerated by the girls, for the most part they are enjoyed! This has changed the "spirit of contention" at the dinner table drastically, and we now all look forward to dinner time and we look at trying a new food as a game or something to conquer. I'm very proud of my girls! This last week we took our new found attitude towards our healthy foods to another level. I have been wanting to garden, but when you live in a rental that is often hard to do. So thanks to a great friend, we were given some awesome "rental" gardening ideas and we had so much fun! Here is our first gardening experiment! Thank you Tina!!!

We had to ask sooooo many questions, and this guy at Lowe's was so kind and helpful! We will hopefully watch this "container garden" grow big and strong! I will keep taking pictures and maybe we will actually be able to eat it??!! Wouldn't that be awesome! We've got tomatoes, onions, zucchini, lettuce, romaine, spinach, broccoli, carrots, strawberries, jalapenos and cilantro! We will add a few more containers and items as the weather permits. We had such a fun time!


In the last few weeks we have been back and forth with family visiting us and vice versa. Thank heavens for parks or else our poor kids would have a hard time being active!  What I have loved most about this challenge, is the support of our family members wherever we go, whether its in Poky or Boise, we've been able to keep up our hard work because of wonderful family. And they have been on their own healthy journeys as well. Thank you Heather and Tiffany!!

These last twelve weeks we have really focused on our veggie and fruit experiment, and we will continue to do this, as it will probably be something we will always continue to work on..... But these next eleven weeks we are going to put added emphasis on our "mental-physical health" as well. During the week last week we were able to get Brylee our five year old in her own bedroom and we all made it to bed before 11 pm! The kids were asleep by 9:30 and us by 11, and some nights it was even by 10:30. This was INCREDIBLY difficult!!! Such a hard habit to break! But I agree with many other voices and I'm convinced that sleep plays a huge part in our mental and physical health. This week our bed time goal for the kids is 9:00, and 10:30 as a habit for me and Darrin. I'm not sure it could get any earlier than that? Like my sister Heather says, and I am in agreement, sleep can be just as important as eating right, so lets put this to the test! 

Our "community project" is going unbelievably well! We are 5 weeks into the employee health challenge that I initiated because of our Magic Valley family challenge. It has been unbelievable rewarding to help others want to make their lives better as well. One of our employees has even lost 9% of her weight already and she is doing it the right way! My company....Family Health Services wants to continue this as an annual event, and I plan on being at it's head every year! We have collected two award packages.....both include mini I-pads and one even includes a free one year membership to a local gym! I am currently working on other donations and plan on having both award packages be amazing! We held an opening meeting that included a healthy eating class where a "pampered chef" came and made a health version of chicken fajitas that were delicious! We had great attendance and they all reported loving the class! I also have a cross-fit class set up for the end of April and some YMCA group fitness classes that we will attend in May. On May 31st we will still hold our CSI obstacle course and I am sooooooo dang excited about this! I have invited and am hoping my family living in Pocatello will come and participate as well!! They have eight weeks to prepare for this event. They can use this as their catalyst! Come on family, you can do this!

Of course you are all wondering how the star of this show, Big 'D' is doing right?? Well, the numbers are going down so this is GREAT! His progress has been slower than we BOTH anticipated, but regardless, the number is going down and that is really all that matters! He started at 342 and 13 weeks later he is now 316. He has lost an average of 2.0 lb's a week which is a healthy rate to keep this weight off! In reality, no, at this rate, this will not win him the big $7500. But it will indeed win him his life. If he continues to lose at this rate, he will in reality, be able to live. And that is the ultimate purpose of this competition, to live.

We did however receive and email saying that he is #35 in the top 50 participants of the competition. He has 11 weeks to move it on up! With that being said, here are Darrin's "half way there" stats... GO BIG 'D'!!!!!! This is why I love before and after pictures, he is making great changes! (I've decided to only post the first week, then the latest most current two pics...too many pics otherwise! And forgive me as I'm still not a very consistent photographer)

Darrin texted me at while work this week a very motivating message. A message that expressed that he feels a new zest to pick up the pace. An attitude to work harder and to do better. I believe he can! It was obvious that my being his "Nazi" or his "Jillian" clearly wasn't doing the trick. So we've changed our stride this half of the challenge. It is my every goal during this half to only use optimism. To be his sidekick. To be his cheer leader, To be his wife. And as sad as it is to admit it, this will be hard for me. Probably as hard as it is for Darrin to lose weight. I am a realist that errors on the side of a pessimist. Well, at least I've made myself believe that I am, in my thought. Something I desperately need, want and am going to change. My outside world gets to see a very different person than my inward world has to see, and that's not fair. My home and family deserve better than that. So we'll see how this in turn helps Darrin's success. Its been said that this is about Darrin, not me. I firmly disagree. I do agree that there is a HUGE element to Darrin's success that is ONLY about him, but oh, there are many more elements that make it about much more than just him. I won't list them all, but I'm one of those elements, and I plan on being a positive one!

So here is to your next 11 weeks Big 'D'! Your next nearly 3 months! Here is to your rejuvenated zest! And maybe, just maybe you can still get to that prize money! Use it as your catalyst to reach your goal to LIFE! You can do hard things, we can do hard things!!          

(P.S. We regretfully had to pull out of our ballroom dancing class :( We made it to four classes, and had a great time, learned some fun things, but due to Heston being sick two weeks in a row we just couldn't leave him. Then he got tubes the following week. Something had to give, and that class was the giver! But we will sign up for the next!! Also, Heston is doing wonderfully!!!! So blessed! And one more thing....Darrin got an 88% on his first test on his new rotation! Way to go!!! Lots on our plate and we are eating it all)      :)