Week 2. Day 8. Journey to Freedom

Surrounding myself with objects I love!

While I can't eat these little cutie tangerines during detox, 

I sure can display them in a cutie-pie dish.

I do love milk glass and as Maddie and I were roaming around a 
thrift store yesterday afternoon,

I snatched up this lovely that needed a home.
And for $2.99 there is no way I would leave her homeless.

Today was a left-over lunch day so no new recipe but tomorrow a good one is coming!

I think I've slipped into a nice - non-overwhelmed - routine.

And that feels OH-SO-GOOD.

I didn't like that feeling of being overwhelmed.

Anyone else in agreement with that?
That's just a rough place to be.

Still spending plenty of time in the kitchen.
{ I think I must come up with a nick-name for my kitchen. 
I'm tired of typing the word kitchen. Any clever ideas for me?}

The first week is done and 
as I look back I see great victory.
Didn't cheat once.
Wasn't really even tempted to cheat. 
Maybe a little tempted but nothing hard.
I really did want those fried eggs.
And we watched a family movie last night and I so wanted our usual popcorn treat.

Lost weight. Lots of it.
8 pounds to be exact.
Was hoping for 3 or 4 so I was thrilled that it was more.
But again, to be clear, I really want this to be about way more than the weight loss.

And I want to make sure to say -- loud and clear --

that this is more about God helping me and me not being alone in this,

than it is about Alysa mustering up enough strength and will power to do this on her own.

I can't do this on my own.

I have failed SO SO SO many times over the years 

{ and decades really }

with this battle that whatever victory there is now,

is because of God's intervention.

That's a hill I'll die on.

Sometimes, when it comes to blogging,

there's this fine line of self-promotion and authenticity.

And I always want to quickly and steadily fall onto the side of authenticity.

I share my journey here for a few reasons:

1) I have a lousy memory and if I don't write it down, 
I forget it and I want to remember when God does big (and little) things in my life.

2) I blog in huge part so that my kids can read it some day.
They can know me. 
Not to be morbid or anything, but the reality is, 
I won't always be here and there's a good chance they'll outlive moi. 
So I want them to know what I thought about and 
what I prayed about and 
what moved me and 
what challenged me and 
most importantly, 
I want them to know how real Jesus was to me.

3) The rest of why I blog is to hopefully give even ONE person out there in cyber-space hope that they, too, can conquer whatever battle it is they are facing. 
That they, too, aren't alone. 
I want this place where I slap my thoughts onto computer paper
 to be a place that offers HOPE! 

And so, at the close of "DAY 8" I'm grateful for the victories had,
for the Hope I feel,
for the love that's been given me through sharing this journey by 
so many of you amazing readers!

And so the journey to FREEdom continues.

Have some great recipes lined up for this week,
and starting tomorrow, I'll be putting up a recipe or two a day with
photos so you can remember which recipe it was you wanted to try.

Because you know you want to try one, right?
 I promise to not put up any recipes that I didn't really like, okay?


OH, and if you're still reading, 
you are a rock star! 

I'm thinking of doing a Q&A post this week.
I've had LOTS of private emails with people asking questions.
I'm super happy to answer any questions you have too,
so leave a comment below or if you want it to be personal email me
and I will answer your question anonymously!

And, back to more photos this tomorrow. 
Leftover Monday left me without photos.
Boo.