A final (real) Slim in 6 review

In perusing old posts and comments, I was reminded that I did indeed promise a ‘real’ review of Slim in 6, the spendy infomercial workout program I bought in September.  First let me say that every day I am amused to see that someone finds our blog by searching for these two things:

“I can’t fit my jeans” or “Will my jeans fit after pregnancy?” or “My jeans are too tight” or “Too tight jeans, can’t breathe”

AND

“Slim in 6 review”

I can’t count the times I’ve laughed out loud about the tight jeans comments.  While I have googled many random things I’m pretty sure I’ve never googled about that. 🙂

Anyways, after my oh-so-in-depth review back in October, I vowed to give it a real try and open the package it came in.  And try I did.  The first two weeks I did the DVD maybe 4 days in 7.  The second two weeks maybe 3 days in 7.  By this point you are supposed to be on the much longer, second DVD but I was still figuring out my way through the first one.

And my knees hurt.  There is a lot of squatting and with that for me came a lot of popping.  Not exactly sure what was popping but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t good.   I persevered and it kept happening.  I was as close to flawless in my form as I could get doing all the moves and still there was popping.

I made it to week 6.

I did not blow out a knee.

I did not make it past the first DVD in the series.  I felt grateful to still be alive at the end of the 30 minute DVD every single time.  Gasping at times and laughing often.  My children loved hanging around watching me and giving me ‘encouragement’ every step of the way.

“Mom, you can take it easy, she said so.”

“Mom, why can’t you answer when I’m talking to you.”

“What’s popping mom?”

“Can you feel it?  You should feel it now Mama.”

“I can tell you need a water break.”

“Sit ups! (with glee) My favorite part Mom, these are SO EASY!”

While “slim” is not the word that would best describe be at the end of six weeks, I would honestly say that my body worked better, felt better, moved better having been much more deliberately active.  I rarely sit in my day with the kids.  But I also don’t do much that qualifies as plain old exercise.  And were it not for the knee pain that only ended after I quit doing the DVD’s, this program might be great.

I’ve lost more weight being so sick over the past 3 weeks than I did doing the Slim in 6 workouts.  In fact I had a friend a while back who was always quick to encourage me anytime I got sick…..”At least you’ll lose a couple pounds!”.  I wasn’t sure why this bothered me until one day I realized, she was more concerned about it than I was.

Yes, losing some weight would be good for me.  Yes, I would like to fit my clothes a bit better.  Yes, I’d enjoy a bit more energy to keep up with my brood.

But…

Yes, I love cooking and good food.  I love sitting and reading and homeschooling and organizing and playing and sleeping more than I love working out.  I also love being married to someone who makes me feel beautiful.  I recently told him,

I’ve never been quite this ‘lumpy’ in my life – but never, in the 15 years of knowing you, have I felt this loved and lovely to you – doesn’t that seem strange?”

Maybe strange, maybe just the product of time.

And maybe the old adage “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is actually true.

Either way, I’m really thankful….slim or not.

Mat Kearney and my marriage

MatK

Life is a constant set of blessings and blows.  The final score is undecided and when things get out of balance and the blessings seem to be blooming everywhere but in your own home, so many people today choose to walk away and try again elsewhere.

There was a time when I didn’t understand this.  I was young, married my high school sweetheart, the love of my life.  Life truly seemed dreamy except for a few newlywed scuffles that always worked themselves out quickly.

But around year 7 or so of marriage, dreamy wasn’t the word I would use to sum life up.  Babies came, jobs shifted, we both hunkered down and opted for survival mode.

Survival mode is good for surviving, but not for living.  Not for long term.  And eventually it wasn’t working to well anymore.  Things that had always seemed strange to me, made sense.  The one I loved more than any other was the one who could cause pain and I did the same for him.  Dreamy it was not.  The promise we had made “till death do us part” seemed a more than lofty goal.

We made a choice.  In a time where life pulled us all different directions, when we were just trying to keep our heads above water, we chose eachother.  It was (for me at least) the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

We just passed the 10 year mark and I am completely in awe of the restoration and repair that God has brought to our marriage.  He was more than able to work it all for good.  He just asked us to choose Him and to choose eachother.  Sounds simple I know, but it wasn’t.  Life never is.  But choose we did and it has been good (not easy, just good).

What does Mat Kearny have to do with any of it?

Common ground.

Six months ago Christopher’s boss gave him a CD that he brought home and we both fell in love with the music.  With him not working at church, his ‘work world’ is now totally separate from mine.  He leaves and spends the day driving and talking.  I spend the day here.  We attend a church where he isn’t pastoring.  The lack of overlap is good in ways but the past year has accentuated the lack of shared loves.

Of course we share parenting and a bed and weekends.   But it’s easy to feel like we have very little in common.

Enter Mat’s music.  The simple thing of us both enjoying a musician together has bound our hearts together just a little more and in the sweetest way.  I know it sounds cheesy and that’s okay.

When we found out Mat Kearney was coming to Seattle we both scrambled to buy tickets and surprise the other.  He beat me to it and had to tell me before I bought another set of tickets!   We had the best time last week and tears rolled down my cheeks as the words of this song rang through the theater…

We’re on the run I can see it in your eyes
If nothing is safe then I don’t understand
You call me your boy but I’m trying to be the man
One more day and it’s all slipping with the sand
You touch my lips and grab the back of my hand
The back of my hand
Guess we both know we’re in over our heads
We got nowhere to go and no home that’s left
The water is rising on a river turning red
It all might be ok or we might be dead
If everything we’ve got is slipping away
I meant what I said when I said until my dying day
I’m holding on to you, holding onto me
Maybe it’s all gone black but you’re all I see
You’re all I see…

And if all we’ve got is what no one can break
I know I love you
If that’s all we can take
The tears are coming down
They’re mixing with the rain
I know I love you, if that’s all we can take

10 years today

I really don’t feel old enough to be celebrating a 10 year wedding anniversary today.  I surely look old enough, but my husband still looks like a college student.  Ten years ago today my high school sweetheart and I said “I do”.  It was the perfect sunny May day, with nearly 450 guests, two receptions and lots of dancing.

I recently found my old journal from high school and these are the words (verbatim) I penned in spring of 1995:

My head was turned in the direction of a certain Chris Strovas.  We were friends so I called him 2 weeks before the April 1 Loyalty Tolo Dance and asked him to go with me.  He said yes.  After the dance we went over to Holley’s house and we watched movies for a while.  We fell asleep and then all the sudden it was 6 AM so Chris went home.  When he left I walked him out to the car (I was staying the night at Holley’s).  He kissed me (REALLY kissed me) and it was quite nice!  I walked back in the house in a daze…

I still remember barely being able to walk up the stairs after he drove away.  Though that kiss was not my first, or second or…you get the idea. But it was unlike any other.  And our relationship continued in that manner because a few months later I wrote these words as a smitten 16 year old girl:

He treated me different that any guy I’d ever known.  He held me in the highest respect.  Chris made me feel like I was his most precious, valuable princess.  He always could make me smile and feel so special.  Each moment we’ve spent together is so precious.  A few weeks ago he took me out to Denny’s.  He was nervous acting, twiddling with sugar packets.  He told me he’d thought a lot about it and he realized he loved me.  Hearing those words come off the lips I adored was something I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear.  He is the first guy who has truly held my heart in his hands.

There is so, so much more to the story.  We didn’t get married for 4 years after that.  But we finally did.  It was easy then to whisper sweet words to each other, to kiss on the front porch, to write letter after letter proclaiming our love for each other.  It was easy to forgive.  Easier to make time for one another.  Life was pretty simple and pretty perfect really.  We have weathered many hard seasons since then.  Ones that involved us and ones that didn’t but broke our hearts anyway.   We have traveled and been on countless adventures together.  Four years into our marriage we welcomed our first baby and we were forever changed in a moment.  We had never before been so afraid as we were during those first days of Rylee’s life and we had never cared so much for anyone else.

Falling in love, marrying Christopher and spending the last 10 years together has been God’s gift to me.  I remember feeling like it was too much, too good, too lofty for me to even dream of as I pined away for him during our college years.  So it was only natural that the vows I wrote to recite on our wedding day began like this:

“Christopher, I stand in awe of the incredible gift God has given me in you…”

I am blessed beyond measure to be married to a man who loves Jesus, who cherishes me, who adores our children and who is willing to work (hard) to provide for us.  I am looking forward to many more years with the dreamy, patient and devoted boy that won my heart before I could even drive a car.