faith4jesus247
My obsession of the scale has turned into an obsession with the soft measuring tape as of late. That 2 inch gap in the zipper of my wedding dress when I put it on last Saturday is haunting me. I have been measuring myself at least once every day. More like 2 or 3 times. Just to check and see if my fat decided to go with gravity and move to the lower part of my body, where the zipper isn't an issue.

This morning, immediately after waking up and stepping on the scale, I walk into the second bedroom, where I keep my daily weight log and body measurements. I grab the blue tape off the dresser and wrap it around my upper body. I look in the mirror to make sure it's straight across my back, and not twisted at any point. Then I take the end and and pull it as tight as it will go (let's face it - when the dress DOES zip, it's gonna be tight!). No point in leaving any slack.

When I feel I've adjusted it just right, I look down to see today's outcome. What? No way! I lost 13 inches! That firming cream is uh-mazing! I looked in the mirror at myself, with my mouth hung open. Seriously? I look back down at the measuring tape to verify the numbers. Yep...it's definitely 13 numbers below the last one I wrote down.

Oh. Wait. I started at the wrong end of the tape. *Sigh*
faith4jesus247
Life has gotten busy. School has started back, which means tutoring has begun again. My summer lifestyle of only working 8 hours a day has come and gone!

My week in Holland was so nice! Unfortunately, my camera broke in my luggage, so I didn't have the opportunity to document the week like I normally would. Most of my days were spent assisting an old English student with translating his business material into English, and my nights were spent catching up with old friends. The day I got back, I found our engagement picture proofs in my email inbox. Soooo exciting! Here are 2 of my favorites among many:


My wonderful church family threw me a wedding shower a week ago, and I couldn't have been more blessed! I was really dreading the awkwardness of having to sit there and open gift after gift while 20+ pairs of eyes watched me. I tried to go through it as fast as possible, to the point of completely forgetting to open the card before ripping apart the wrapping paper. Then I would show everyone the gift, and realize I didn't know who it was from. Oops. :)

I had a heart-to-heart with my new boss last Friday, where I sweetly* shared my thoughts about him and my slight discouragement with how little he seems to care about who I am as a person, and more about how I can make him look better. It appeared to have gone well upon the closing of the conversation, but I'm not holding my breath on any immediate changes.

20 more days to go! We got a call that Chris's wedding ring is ready for pick-up. Finally found more flowers at Hobby Lobby that I like enough to use for decorations. It's not exactly like the first bunch I got, but it works. My concern for these details are quickly dwindling. An amazing woman from church came over on Saturday to create a bustle for my dress, blessing me with not having to pay an unreal amount of money to an alterations department to do it. I hadn't tried the dress on in a while, and didn't know how far I was from fitting into it - but I feel good! I've lost 25lbs. total, and am now only 2 inches of back fat away from fitting in the dress. I can do it!

*debatable
faith4jesus247
Obesity is sad. It's unhealthy, too common, and I hate looking at the number on my scale and seeing it tremble between "overweight" and "obese". It's always been a struggle, and I truly believe everyone should try their best to live a healthy lifestyle.

With that said...my week in the Netherlands was different this time than it's ever been before. As the plane landed, and I began to hustle through the crowd, trying to keep the fast pace of the ridiculously fit Dutch around me...I see something.

It can't be. No...I simply can not be seeing this. In the shops, on the escalators, in the bathrooms....it is everywhere! My mouth hung open as I continued walking. I stopped making the conscious effort to maintain a fast pace. I was dumbfounded by what I saw. Am I in the right place? Did I sleep through the announcement and land in LA instead of Amsterdam?

Curves. Everywhere! And not American curves....Dutch curves. As I look out into the sea of people around me, I'm no longer seeing all tall, lean figures, making my round shape more distinguished. There are hips and butts...and double-chins!! I can't believe my eyes!

Thanks for the best welcome present ever, Holland. :)