Message for God

So, Christian came home from school last week with an envelope in his backpack. It was labeled "God". I looked inside and found a blank index card. I asked him what it was for, and He said "it's a message for God!" I asked him what he was supposed to do, and he said we needed to get an orange crayon and write a message to God on the card, so I decided to jump on it and do it with him right then.

Orange crayon in my hand and Christian ready to dictate, this is what he said:

"God, I know that you love us, and we'll love you too forever. I want to live with you forever. I just can't tell you how much I love you! Thank you for making the whole earth, and thanks for everything, God. Amen."

There were a few other things mumbled in there under his breath, but that's what I was able to catch and write down (and what I wrote down was word for word what he said). He sounded so grown up and like he has a relationship with God already at the young age of 4. My prayer is that his relationship with God will continue and grow throughout his entire life and that he will truly know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior! What a wonderful start, and I thank his pre-k teacher, Mrs. Wessley, for making that moment with my son possible!

Where to go from here...?

So I'm looking back at this blog and trying to decide whether to continue or not - as well as what the content will be. I think I might begin to share about the family for anyone not in contact with us on a regular basis to keep up with our lives. I'm kind of laughing at myself - it's quite a dorky and self-centered little blog so far with only the details of my crazy diet. My intention at the time was to document the changes in my body those two months, but it wasn't as drastic as I had hoped, medically speaking...no results on my medical issues as proof that the diet did what I set out to do. But oh well! That's over and done with. On to more important things, I guess! I'll try to post sometime in the next week, but if not, then I will definitely post about our upcoming trip to Disney when we get back. I am anxious and a little apprehensive about our first big vacation as a family of five. Grandma and Grandpa Benson are coming with us, so we will have some extra hands, but the two-day drive down may kill us...I'm praying hard that it goes quickly...

Woohoo!

Here's a couple pictures - as close as I could get to before and after, but I think (and hope!) you can see the weight loss in my face (just a little?!).  I know it's more evident in my body, but I didn't take any good full length pictures for before and after, so this is all I've got.

I stepped on the scale this morning, and I have officially lost 20 POUNDS on this diet!  

Now I'm deciding whether to buy a new swimsuit or not.  Shopping for swimsuits officially got very complicated since I had babies and inherited a beautiful baby "leftover" belly.  I feel like this purchase is going to take much research and probably me going to try swimsuits on in the store before I come to a decision.  But when do I have the time?  I was hoping to have lost more of the baby belly with this diet, but I guess it would help if I worked out...at all.  One step at a time though, right?

Nearing the end

I am in shock and feeling a little bit of denial.  I was feeling like the pounds had stopped coming off for awhile.  Once I hit 15 pounds, it seemed to just rest there for over a week (which was unusual since starting this diet).  I was frustrated.  But the past couple of days, the pounds have started falling off again, and I can't believe my eyes!

3 days ago, the scale said 136 (16 pounds down, so I was excited!).  2 days ago, it said 136 again (okay, I can deal with 16 pounds!).  Then all of a sudden, yesterday it says 134!  That's 18 pounds!  And then again, this morning, I was in complete shock.  I stepped on the scale, and it went up to 135 and then adjusted to 133!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WHAT?!?!?!?!?  So I tried it again, thinking the digital scale could be off.  Nope, it still said 133.  That's 19 lbs.!!!!  I am THRILLED, to say the least.  I haven't been at this weight in three years, since before I got pregnant with Keira.  I was so discouraged resting at 137.  I know....waah, waah...15 lbs.  So terrible to have only lost 15 lbs.  But eating what I'm eating (and NOT eating what I am not eating for almost 2 solid months!), I want to see results!  So I am relieved to have gotten past that plateau.  I definitely want to stop the official diet as of April 30 and start adding some foods back in sparingly, but I really wanted to lose at least 20 pounds first.  Hopefully my weight loss will continue.  I'm not going to add too much back in - just enough to satisfy some of my cravings.  And I'm going to make an effort to begin exercising on a regular basis, using the treadmill Dan bought me.

Unfortunately, Dan and I have been dealing with medical bills from the gallstones and kidney stones, and we've found out our insurance basically covers nothing.  So, I probably won't be able to be tested again to see what progress I made, but I am encouraged that I have not had any real pain since starting the diet.  I'm just bummed to not be able to get proof that this diet works and builds your body up to begin healing itself.  As long as I'm pain free though - that's what matters most, next to being the healthiest I've been in my entire life.

Dan and I also decided last week that I am able to have a short vacation!  I'll be taking Carter with me since he's still nursing exclusively, but only one baby is a vacation when you have three kids, age 4 and under!  I'm very excited to be going to Florida with my college roomie in May, and I'm excited to have a new body to put in a bathing suit!

I'll keep you posted on the diet if anything else develops (and I may post some kind of before and after pictures when it's all through), but overall, I'm very pleased with the results and would recommend this to ANYONE, whether it's to lose weight or to address a major health issue.  I would do the hallelujah diet again in a heartbeat!

15 POUNDS!

That's all I really wanted to say...  :oD

Quick Diet Update

12 pounds down!  8 to go until I get to buy some new clothes!  Dan has motivated me by telling me when I hit 20 pounds, I get to buy an article of clothing for every 5 pounds lost.  Once I hit 20, I get to buy 4 items of clothing - woohoo!  I'll have to get me some NICE jeans - maybe he should have put a price limit on those four items...

I've been having some pain in the gall bladder area (front right side of my abdomen), so I'm not sure what that's about.  It doesn't seem associated with anything I eat (since I'm not eating any real fat or any dairy whatsoever), so I'm hopeful that it's the good "twinges" and something of a healing nature is going on in that area.  It's not really painful - just subtle discomfort that comes in small waves.  I don't feel anything most of the time.

It's been 26 days, and I've got 29 to go, so we'll see if I can bring the total weight loss to 25 pounds in that time.  Wouldn't that be incredible?!  Okay, I now have renewed motivation - maybe if I got on the treadmill a few times a week, I could push it to 30 pounds!  Sweet!

More to come...

A sick salad and sick kids...AGAIN

I was back to 142 on the scale today - 10 pounds down!  I am very happy to be able to say that now - can you tell?  (pssst...I've lost ten pounds!)

In other news, I got to hang out with my friend, Jill, last night.  After hitting a couple of stores for odds and ends, I stopped at Red Robin to get a basic salad to take back to her house while we watched American Idol.  I ordered their new southwest salad with avacado slices, black beans, and corn but had to ask that they leave the chicken and cheese off (sad day!).  We got back to Jill's house, and what I found inside my salad was GROSS.  I could not believe what they gave me, and I was so disappointed, because I typically LOVE Red Robin.  The three avacado slices were rotten with little brown spots all over them, the lettuce was mostly iceberg with some romaine thrown in, and the lettuce looked old and was slightly brown around the edges.  I was able to pick out the avacado and most of the bad lettuce, but seriously?  They didn't even take money off since I asked for no chicken, so I paid $9.51 for a nasty, rotten salad with NO chicken?!  I was so annoyed!  I chickened out and didn't call to complain, but I still might if I get up the nerve.  I just couldn't believe what they gave me for the money I paid, and I had to wait almost 15 minutes for the stinkin' thing!  Give me a break!  So, I'm finding out this diet is hard to maintain while eating out - at least here in the midwest burbs.

Meanwhile, I now have sick kids for the fourth or fifth time in the last 3 1/2 months, and I am ready for winter to be officially over and warm weather to arrive!  Christian came down with a fever and a cough over the past day and a half, and Keira now has a cough.  Thankfully, Keira seems fine other than her cough which is mostly at night.  Christian's fever is gone today, but he sounds pretty bad with a cough, some sneezing and the sniffles.  Carter just seems tired, but the kids are all over him all the time, so I'm praying he gets some good immunities from breastfeeding so he doesn't get sick again.  He's probably been sick more than he's been healthy in the first four months of his little life!  Poor boy!

Still losing!

I've lost 10 pounds!!!  (Oh yeah!  Woohoo!  10 pounds!  Woohoo!)

Okay, so two days ago, the scale said 142 (10 pounds down!), yesterday it said 144, and today it said 143.  So I'm psyched.  It's definitely coming off, and I'm rounding up to 10 pounds, because it will be more than that soon, I'm sure!

No other real news to report, except I still feel aches and pains here and there - nothing more than what I like to call "twinges", so I am still hoping this means things inside of me are healing slowly while on this diet.

My hubby has added some bread and meat back into his diet sparingly, but my mother-in-law and I are still going strong on the Hallelujah Diet!  Speaking of my mother-in-law, she was such a blessing today and surprised me by bringing over more carrots and other produce I was in desperate need of from Whole Foods.  I was stressing about when I'd be able to get to the store since I was completely out of carrots after one glass of carrot juice this morning.  She was so sweet to think of me and go out of her way to do that!  Thank you, Mom!

I talked to my dad on the phone yesterday, and his response to my ten pounds lost was "Oh my goodness!  That's like me losing THIRTY pounds!!!"  It made me feel like I've accomplished a lot already, and it might be pretty obvious that I've lost weight to someone who doesn't see me every day.  Dan mentioned today, though, that I look thinner every day, so I guess it's noticeable even to those who DO see me on a daily basis.

I think I've adjusted my goal now too.  I am not completely committed, but I might keep going on this diet until I reach my ideal weight of 120.  I just think if the weight loss slows down, I might lose some motivation and stick with my goal of April 30 (if I make it that long!).  We'll just play it by ear and see how it goes!  I do have to say I'm getting sick of salads.  I eat two a day, so I need to find a way to liven those up a bit.  I still love the fruit I have as snacks.  I wish I could eat a little more fruit, but I know the veggies are more important because of the nutrients they're loaded with.  Dan and I have also found a favorite snack for the evenings when we watch TV in bed.  In a pan, we pop some organic popcorn in organic EVOO and season it with Celtic sea salt.  SO GOOD!!!  It's our special treat.  Yum!

That's all for now!  I'll try to update again soon as I see my progress this coming week.

12 days down, a lot more to go...

So, here's my first update on my journey through the Hallelujah Diet...

I've lost 7 pounds!!!  I started this diet for health reasons, but I am SO excited about the weight loss!  When I step on the scale in the morning and see another pound or two have been shed, it makes me think I could keep doing this diet for longer than a month or two.  I am now 145 pounds, and I have not been in the 140s since the beginning of my pregnancy with Carter, one year ago.  I am excited to get down to the 130s since I have not been down there since right after Keira, and that was only for a few weeks or a couple of months before I gained a few and rested right around 144 for awhile.  My ideal weight is probably somewhere around 120, but I'd be happy with 130 if I could get there.  We shall see!

As far as the rest of me goes...  I have not felt any back pains since I started the diet, so my gall bladder is apparently functioning well on the living food I'm giving my body.  No pains in my abdomen either, which I had started to experience a few of before starting the diet.  My headaches have decreased and possibly gone away completely.  I experienced a couple of brief ones earlier in the diet (after the 2 or 3 days of detox with a constant headache), but only at night after I'd loaded up on carrot juice and BarleyMax throughout the day.  I do still notice some "twinges" in my right kidney area and possibly the gall bladder area, but no real pain.  I am hoping those twinges mean something good is happening in those areas.

Now here's the part labeled TMI (I'm putting a warning on it, just in case you really don't want to know these details about me...).

The other effects I have felt as a result of this diet are as follows:  diarrhea, gas, and a few spots that look like big zits or ingrown hairs.  Fun, huh?  I haven't had the diarrhea in a few days, although I experience pretty urgent bowel movements in the mornings for some reason.  I'm not sure if my body is just continuing to get rid of toxins each morning and this will subside over time, or maybe this is just the way my body is supposed to function when healthy.  The gas is embarassing, even (and especially) around my husband.  It's gross, and I can't help it!  I hope this is a temporary detoxification process, because I really don't want to live with that the rest of my life.  Occasionally, fine.  Regularly, throughout each and every day?  No.  (My face is getting red even as I type.  I'm beginning to re-examine if I want to document every detail of this process...)  As far as the zit-like things go...they're big and red, and they hurt like a big whitehead coming up from under the surface.  I popped one the other day (I know, gross!), and it had a similar reaction to a whitehead - puss came out, and then blood.  I have one very low on my belly, one on my left thigh, and one on my right upper arm that looks more like a bug bite.  Not sure if these are related, but they all popped up around the same time, since I started the diet.

Okay, now that I'm thoroughly embarassed, we can all forget I ever shared that information!!!

The diet has definitely gotten easier to handle on a daily basis, and I'm comfortable with each meal and what I can (or cannot) prepare for myself.  I have gotten pretty good at working it into my daily schedule, but I have to be honest.  I'm getting tired of it all.  It takes so much time out of my day, and I didn't have much to begin with!  I feel like I am constantly peeling and bagging 5 lb. bags of carrots, juicing carrots, washing and chopping vegetables and greens, making salads and trying to enjoy them, and washing parts of appliances, including the juicer, the food processor and the blender!  It's exhausting!  All of that is in addition to making sure the kids are fed, changing diapers, breaking up fights, putting kids in time-outs, filling sippy cups with water, juice or milk, making sure two of the three kids get their naps, nursing a newborn, doing laundry, going to the grocery store for MORE produce, and trying to keep the house picked up.  It's INSANE, and I feel crazy some days.

So, I have to keep reminding myself that this is good for me, and I may go in to the doctor in a month and find out my problems with gallstones and kidney stones are GONE!  I am hoping and praying that the outcome is that awesome, but regardless, I have faith that I am eating things that will only benefit me and my family.  At the very least, I'll be in better health, and I will have lost some weight!  (Woohoo!!!)

Another thing I am eternally grateful for is my husband who has agreed to do this diet with me.  I couldn't have committed to this diet without his support.  If he was ordering pizzas and eating chocolate cake, I would not have had the willpower to keep going for the entire month.  I am so blessed to have a partner to do this with me.  Thank you, Baby!!!  I also get to do it with my mother-in-law, which is fun.  Having multiple people holding each other accountable makes it a whole lot easier to ignore the temptations of every fast food joint on the way home from preschool or church.  I have no choice.  I can't cheat, or I let down the people who believe in me the most!

So, I'll keep it up, and I'll keep this blog updated with the latest.  Hopefully I'll have a great story to share when it's all said and done!  Thanks for reading, and there will be more to come soon!

The beginning

I wanted a place to share things that are important to me. Lessons learned, exciting news, life's journeys on which I am travelling, things about being a wife, a mom, a woman and a child of God... Hence, my first real blog. And my first entry follows...


I've begun a journey toward healing, and I wanted to document my progress in some way as well as hold myself accountable through the entire process. So here is what I came up with - my blog. For those of you interested, I'll try to keep a weekly update on my progress.

Since my son's birth in November, I had started to experience some aches and pains that I decided to have checked out since I hadn't been to the doctor in quite some time (besides all of my OB visits while pregnant). I was concerned about a backache that occasionally kept me from sleeping, and I had also passed a kidney stone two weeks before I gave birth to Carter, so I needed to follow up on that issue.

I have a family history of gallstones and gall bladder issues, so the doctor definitely wanted to do an ultrasound on my abdomen, as well as a CT scan to follow up on the kidney stone issue. I had a general cholesterol test done as well as he recommended that for anyone around the age of 30. I got a call a couple of days later, and my doctor started out with the good news... "Well, the good news is your cholesterol is great!" (I knew then that the rest of the news was bad...) He proceeded to give me the numbers and tell me I had nothing to worry about in the cholesterol department. Then he informed me I had multiple tiny stones in both kidneys, and I also had "a gall bladder full of gallstones". Awesome. He referred me to a surgeon, saying that I would most likely have to surgically have my gall bladder removed or maintain a low-fat (or no fat) diet for the rest of my life, which is obviously very hard to do. I hung up the phone slightly relieved to know what was going on but bummed, to say the least.

I began researching my options and decided not to call the surgeon immediately. I read about gall bladder cleanses of olive oil and citrus juice and the remarkable results some people experienced, but also read that I should not do the cleanses while nursing an infant (that option went out the window for the next year!). I read about a 21-day raw diet on mercola.com of fruits, veggies, unrefined grains and legumes. This sounded like a decent option, though still difficult. It was hard to think about changing my entire lifestyle - the eating habits I've created over 28 years.

Dan and I went out to dinner one night, and we began discussing the issue and my options. One option we had heard of was the Hallelujah Diet, which was similar to the one I read about on mercola.com. We know many people who believe strongly in the principals of this diet, so Dan said if I would agree to do it, he would do it with me when he returned from his Colorado ski trip at the beginning of March. I begrudgingly agreed, feeling like I had to and wondering how I could get out of it.

After dinner that night, we walked over to Barnes and Noble, and I picked up the book, The Hallelujah Diet, by George Malkmus. I took it home, began reading, and found myself sucked into every detail of the book and the way the diet was laid out. I found myself understanding the concept, and I was in complete agreement that this is the way we were created to eat. Living foods. An almost completely raw, vegan diet. Free of toxins and the things that break down our immune system over time.

Flash forward to two days ago, March 6. I weighed myself in the morning at 152 lbs., I am embarassed to say. I can't wait to lose a few of those on this diet! I have a gall bladder full of gallstones and kidney stones in both kidneys. The doctor's office has the "before" images to prove it, and I'm hoping that in a month or two, I will go back and have the "after" images of kidneys and a gall bladder, free of stones.

Since starting the diet two days ago, with no exceptions to the rules laid out in the book, I have felt some symptoms of detox. I had a headache two days ago that increased as the day wore on, and I had to ease back on the BarleyMax drinks and the carrot/vegetable juice. I have had aches and pains (more like pings and twinges) in my abdominal area where I have felt kidney and gall bladder pain in the recent past. And I have had some strong gastrointestinal cramping, and I've been in the bathroom a bit more. I was on the verge of a headache yesterday morning, after having a glass of BarleyMax and one of carrot and celery juice, but that went away as the day wore on. I have no headache today, but I have been tired since I started the diet, and that has not changed yet.

I am anxious to move through this detox phase and into the stage where I feel energized and refreshed and pain free! I am also anxious to quit craving the old (dead) foods I used to eat. It's hard not to grab a piece of the kids' cereal or a gummy bear from the bag on the counter. I am determined to make this work though, for my own health and for the benefit of my family for years to come!

My goal is to do the diet for one month - through April 5, and if I feel great at that point, I may continue through April 30 before going back to the doctor to get another ultrasound and CT scan. I'll update in a week or so with any progress I've made and how I'm feeling at that point.

If anyone reads this and wants to check out the website of the Hallelujah Acres ministry, check out http://www.hacres.com. There are a ton of incredible testimonies to read, and they will make you a believer in the power of the human body to heal itself if given the right fuel!

More to come...