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16 Years with Jesus

A little quick research revealed the traditional 16th anniversary gift is wax.  That's a pretty weird gift, in my opinion... I can literally think of nothing that I would love to receive from my husband that is made of wax, but maybe that's just because I can't break the imagery of wax figures and the scenes from "The Greatest Showman," when our main man attempts that endeavor before building his circus... But wax.  Yup.  It's a thing.  And honestly after I got through my own personal hang ups with the thought of wax as a gift I couldn't help but smile and consider, "How perfect as I celebrate 16 years saved by Jesus." Because what better analogy is there of Jesus + wax, right?  I'm the wax.  I was (and still am) imperfect, undesirable, purposeless... just a bunch of nothing.  Then Jesus changed my life forever.  He took me, heated me up through trials and tribulations until I melted and was without shape or form and then poured me slowly...
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Breaking the Old Wineskin

Mark 2:21-22 NLT “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” When you are changing your life, you have to dig into not just the "why am I doing this?" But also and MORESO the "Why am I here?" I resonate deeply with this parable of Jesus when it comes to my weightloss journey.  I'm the old wineskin when I start.  And I'm transforming my body to be a new wineskin.  A shiny one.  A better one.  One I like more.  But that's the exterior.  If I'm not also changing the INTERIOR of the wineskin things are gonna get really sketchy really quickly.  Maybe a modern day version of this could sound like this... "No one cleans the outside of their kids' lunchbox when the in...
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80 Day Obsession: Phase 1 RECAP and RESULTS

Well we did it! Or at least, 1/3 of it!  We completed phase 1 of 80 Day Obsession!  I had a horrible phone incident that resulted in my losing all of our day 0 photos except 1 which I'm so incredibly grateful to have! I lost 15lbs and 26"!  My husband lost 10lbs and 14"!  Here's some more photos from the completion of week 1 to the completion of week 4 (I so wish I had my husband's back photo from day 0; it's changed so much!).  Enjoy the photos and then let's talk about how it went for us! WHO WE WERE BEFORE WE STARTED: ASHLEY: I was a Weight Watcher taking advantage of the 0 point foods.  I ran 2-3x a week usually 3-6 miles.  My pace was around 13 minutes a mile.  I lifted weight or took a Body Pump class maybe once a week.  I had been stuck at 203ish pounds for months and although I was sometimes motivated to push past the plateau I'd usually eat my feelings or overeat or quit tracking and end up back where I wa...
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MY STORY

My journey really began in February 2013.  The night I almost lost my husband. At the time my husband and I had two toddlers ages 16 months and 2.5.  By the time our second son was born I was up to 260lbs but was eating in a way that by my 6 weeks postpartum visit when lots of women have lost 20lbs or more of that weight, I was stuck at 255lbs.  I couldn't stop eating my feelings and I did it secret (and in shame).  My husband, Josh, on the other hand was physically fit.  He lifted weight every 2-3 days and did not have a problem with overeating.  Because I did my first big weight gain early in our marriage (30lbs in 6 months) my weight had been something between us since that very first year.  He'd never struggled so he didn't understand how hard it was to lose weigth to begin with.  I felt he shouldn't care how big I had gotten, but that he should just love me.  To his defense, at this point I was up 80lbs from our wedding day in Augus...
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