Glimpses: (Chris)

Every now and then, I am allowed to just sit back and observe my life. It’s kind of like time stands still for a brief moment. I think about how much I’ve been blessed. The laughter of my children, the sight of their smiles, the touch of my wife’s hand as she caresses my neck. She may wonder why I’m crying and smiling at the same time. I can feel the physiological changes in my body. I welcome the energy as it enters my spine and seems to go into my brain. I have positive thoughts and I relish in them. I long for them to remain. Like an old friend, they bring back happy memories. There is no need to judge my thoughts, my past or my future. Anxiety has no place in this moment. Then I realize that this is what it’s like to be present. No fear or anxiety. No guilt or pain. Just contentment and peace. I know it’s only here for a short moment but I am still so grateful for it. I thank the Lord that once again in my need he has provided me with a glimpse. Yes, He has given me one of His “tender mercies.”

Family Pictures

We had family pictures done back in November..thinking that since it was in the 80's we'd be JUST FINE! Well, we picked the ONE day that month that it was FREEZING! Horribly windy and COLD. The kids were absolutely miserable, and as you'll see..we didn't get ONE smiling picture of McKinley, and she's the one who loves the camera!! . It was sad. Despite the red, runny noses and crying kids - we managed to get a few good ones. We'll have to take some of Kinley another day :) I know I'm horribly behind on the blog, but here's some family photos to get ya'll by!

What is new in December?

This post won't be very exciting because the computer I'm using doesn't allow me to post pictures but I have some free time and wanted to update the blog.  As many of you know, Mindy has been very busy changing lives as a Beachbody coach.  I am so proud of her.  She has worked very hard and continues to inspire many people to overcome all types of obstacles.  Since she is so busy being a mom, doing her church calling, and being a Beachbody coach,  I thought I could step in and update the blog.  I will post pictures when I get a chance. 

What's new with the kids?  Addy is doing great in preschool.  She looks forward to every tuesday and thursday.  She calls her preschool teach Sister Brown, which I think is very cute.  She also loves primary and is used to calling her teachers "Sister."  She is full of personality and is so smart.  She loves to bare her testimony, listen to primary songs, and say her prayers.  We couldn't ask for a sweeter little girl. 

Mason is doing great.  He outweighs Addy by 2 pounds and is 20 months younger.  His nicknames are "Bubba and Tank" and he loves to wrestle and play rough.  He is a typical boy and we often have to remind him that his sisters aren't built to handle his weight on top of them. : )  He has an awesome personality and it's easy to make him laugh.  He follows Addy around all the time and wants to do whatever she is doing.  He is building quite a friendship with McKinley too.  It's good to see that since Addy will be going to Kindergarten in a little while.  He loves watching sports with Dad and likes to throw the football around the house.  I heard him singing "I am a Child of God" while Addy recorded him on the camera and it was priceless. 

McKinley is our little firecracker!  Her nicknames are "Baby Red and Kin-Kin."  We call her Kinley more often than McKinley which we likely will until she gets older.  She is such a fun and loving little girl.  She is quite a handful especially at restaraunts and at church.  She started going to nursery 2 weeks ago and she is doing great in there.  It's nice that she has Mason in there with her and Mindy and I are enjoying 2nd and 3rd hour again. 

Mindy and I are both doing well in our jobs and we are getting adjusted to our new ward.  We love the area that we live in.  It's perfect for us.  We have opened up our lives through this blog and through facebook in an effort to help other people who struggle in similar ways.  I know that Mindy has helped several people who struggle with more than just losing weight.  She is truly a light and it's so great to see her light shine.  I hope that my openness about my struggles has benefitted some people.  I certainly felt like it was the right thing to do and that's what is important. 

We are looking forward to being in Idaho Falls for Christmas break to see family and friends.  We are very blessed! 

Random October

Spur of the moment dinner..quinoa/ground turkey/diced tomatoes/kidney beans/black beans/taco seasoning/parmesan cheese..deliciousness. If McKinley eats it, it must be good. She's by FAR our pickiest eater.

 Love when the kids clean up!

 We had this tree in our backyard that had been leaning over..and Monday's wind storm finished it off. Made for a fun weekend of cutting it up and hauling it away!

 I LOVE jammies..seriously nothing cuter than diaper bums in tight pj's :)

 And..Chris's 60 day Insanity + Shakeolgy results :)

Your past is redeemed and your present makes sense. (Chris)

So October is always a wonderful time to reflect on my life and where I am at in the Lord's eyes.  I love conference.  It is something I look forward to every 6 months.  This conference I really felt the Spirit speak to me and I wanted to share some of the things that I've been thinking about.  I wrote this on the bus during my ride out to work and saved it in my phone. 

We are uniquely qualified to live our lives.  Every trial, every relationship, every person that has come into our lives has a purpose in it.  Everything that has ever happened in our lives, including what we struggle with now, will be for our good and will bless others as we become one with God and Jesus Christ and serve their purposes.  Acknowledging this allows us to let go of the past.  Why do we carry dead weight in our bags hiding it from others and hating what it has done to us?  If we were to open that bag and realize that those are the things that have shaped us, the heavy tools that have crafted us into who we are now.  It is so important to live in the present and be present each moment of the day.  Worrying about the past or the future prevents us from living our present moment.  We can't live richly or love deeply when we allow our worries to hold us captive.

 The adversary does not want us to speak the words that the savior would have us speak.  When you have tasted bitterness and have been redeemed through the Savior and have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, your voice becomes a valuable tool for the Lord to use.  There are things that you can say to people that will touch them and give them hope and inspiration.  There are people who desperately need to hear your voice.  If you are kept silent, they continue to search for the things that you have been uniquely prepared to say to them.  You see, they are carrying some of the same heavy things in their bags and they don't know how to use those heavy tools yet.  We are all fully equipped with what is needed to be successful in this life in spite of our struggles and in many cases because of our struggles.  Become one with God and Jesus Christ and pray continually to know how to live your best life.  Then act! Lead your life! Start walking and when you have the strength to run, then run!!  We cannot change the past and we don't need to.  Your sins have been forgiven.  Your mistakes have taught you how not to live.  Your disappointments and failures have taught you that you can get up stronger each time you get knocked down.  Perhaps our hearts or our attitudes need to change.  Maybe our focus or perspective needs some tweaking.  But you have greatness inside of you.  You have a divine heritage, angels who stand ready to bare you up, and a Savior who performed an infinite Atonement that makes you good enough each day.  Trust this, know this, and live your life as if everything in it is just how it was intended to be. 

Change

I'm going to come out of the closet, so to speak :) I have my story on my coaching page (beachbodycoach.com/mindyjrose)...but I have felt the need to write it down here for quite some time. It makes me uncomfortable, the first time I have vocally talked about it in front of people was at my Shake and Share last week. But Chris and I have made the decision to open up our lives and dedicate the rest of our lives to helping people change theirs.

 

I have struggled with bulimia for 12 years. The only time I really stopped was during my pregnancies. I get horribly sick with them, and I tried really hard to get some nourishment to my babies. It's something that in my mind, I came to the conclusion that I will struggle with it my whole life. That I had messed up, and it's impossible to overcome. I had tried so many times to stop, but I just couldn't. But in the past year, and especially since finding Beachbody, I know it's part of my past now, and I am the one who controls my future. I pray that my story can get out there and keep even just one person from struggling with this. The thoughts/addiction that come from it are beyond hard to overcome. There is nothing about it that's worth it.  I've been controlled by negative thoughts/depression/eating disorder for the majority of my past. I wish I could say I take back the day I started..because the addiction it turns into is as strong as any drug. It has changed so much about me and turned me into someone that I know isn't me. But I can't regret it, because the places I have been to emotionally and physically, have molded me into who I'm trying to become.

 

I feel this power inside that is trying to come out. I know that I have potential to become the person I was sent down here to be. Do I still doubt that I can sometimes? Yes, but unlike my past..I am kicking that out and tearing down the walls that have confined me for too long. I have a divine nature, I have confidence that I can do hard things, I can be confident in who I am and what I'm capable of doing. We have dreams that we are going to achieve. Not maybe, Not someday..we WILL achieve them. There is no reason in the world, that we can't become all that we were meant to become. I am so tired of being self conscious, and being scared to do anything in front of people. I'm tired of trying on 10 outfits and wearing baggy clothes. I'm tired of using excuses for never going anywhere or doing more than what's asked of me. I'm tired of being so quiet around people, and being scared to meet new people. I'm tired of not being the person I know I can be. I'm tired of the life I've lived for so long, because it wasn't me. We are the ones who hold ourselves back. We are the only ones who can change our thoughts. And when we change our thoughts, it changes our actions, and we can change our lives.

 

I am learning to be grateful for my past, as much as I may wish I knew then what I know now. I am able to have empathy for those who have been to those places. I can relate, I can pass on what I've learned and am learning each day. I've had to rely on my Savior and the Atonement in ways that I may never have if I hadn't gone down that road. My struggle is something I will continue to fight against each day, as I feel the pressure of the adversary trying to keep me still. I have felt this so strongly the past few weeks. Chris and I are fighting obstacles left and right to keep us still and quiet. Satan doesn't want us to improve and become better. Something like Beachbody, that may seem so little..changes more than just your physical body. It's an all around transformation when given 100%. So when you improve your health, it improves who you are inside..and any improvement gets in the way of Satan's plan.

 

I still have to fight off thoughts each day, but I have learned the past year that the only foods to fear are the unhealthy ones...and not just because they turn into fat, it's because they don't give your body any nutrients whatsoever. So having a kitchen that is full of clean healthy foods has set me up for success. I can eat a plate full of food, and for the first time in my life, I'm not scared. In fact, I know that plate is going to help me lose weight and give me energy. This is a journey for us, but I am getting more comfortable in my skin and it's so exciting to see what our bodies are capable of and becoming.

Life can be hard..that's inevitable. But what we do with the challenges is up to us. We don't have to let them keep us down and just make it day to day. We are so much stronger than we know. We can handle hard things..Heavenly Father sent us down with everything we need to overcome trials. We can have a GREAT life. You have to WANT it bad enough to work for it. I am at a point now, where I refuse to go back to the life I was living. That's not who I was meant to be, and I know there's bigger things in store. I want to be more..and I want more for my family and my children and I want to make a different in other's lives.

 

 

 

Love

These faces are my favorite!!! I could stare at these smiles all day :)

 Don't mind the creepy eyes in this last one. We were playing red rover:) their new favorite game.

What's new with us...

Chris and I have started a new journey together..and needless to say, after getting married and having kids, it's been the best decision we've made. It has changed each of us in ways that nothing else could have fulfilled. I've written about this before, but we started eating clean about 5 months ago. We were also running and we both started shedding the weight and feeling so much better after cutting out processed foods, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc. After learning even more about vitamins and whole natural foods, and superfoods we were lead to Shakeology(shakeology.com/mindyjrose) which is sold by Beachbody(beachbodycoach.com/mindyjrose). We were also lead to our coach who I found on facebook. It's funny looking back at how things happened, because I know they happened the way they did for a reason and when the time was right. I had been turned off to beachbody for a few different reasons..some being I thought it was a bunch of people obsessed with their bodies and I was tired of them being flaunted on fb. I believe in priorities and having balance, and I thought how on earth are these people spending time on what truly matters? But that was just a few people I was seeing..I hadn't met my coach yet, and hadn't researched Shakeology yet. My coach has a perfect history of what Chris and I have gone through, and we were attracted to her WHY of how beachbody changed her life. She took the time to get to know us and answer all my questions for a month, and then we knew this was something we had to have.

Beachbody sells programs like p90x, Insanity, Brazil Butt Lift, Turbofire and many more. These are 60-90 day programs, that when given 100% of your effort and you follow the program they lay out, will get you in the best shape of your life in 90 days. I've had people tell me they did it, and didn't lose much weight. Well, what were you eating during that time? Did you do the workouts everyday, or just some here and there? Like anything in life, you get out of it, what you put in. I've always had an obsession with buying workout programs, and a habit of never finishing them. The reason Beachbody works is they give you a support system to help motivate you and keep you from quitting. They give you meal/nutrition plans online that you customize for your goals..so you can learn about what to eat. Their programs are quick and effective. We're 17 days into Insanity, and it's by far the hardest workout we've ever done. After Insanity is over we're going to do p90x to build muscle and tone up. I am pushing past a point in my body I've never done before. It's amazing how much farther your body can go then you ever thought! It's always our minds that give up before our bodies do.

But the main thing for us was the Nutrition Shakeology provides. There's nothing else like it out there. We tried to find something else, and nothing else comes close to having that many superfoods in it in their pure form. It helps with mental health(depression, ADD, anxiety, etc), and has taken my coach off her antidepressants and Chris is currently weaning himself off his while taking Shakeology and vitamins. It has helped me with mental clarity, boost in attitude..I'm more upbeat, patient, and my energy has increased. It strengthens your immune system, lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, strengthens your digestive system, and so much more. The list goes on and on.

So for us, taking control of our physical health has automatically helped with our mental health and emotional health. It's all connected. When you're physically fit and healthy, you just start to feel better all around. There's no price to the confidence, self-esteem, happiness that comes from being all around healthy. We are the happiest we've ever been. And having this change in our lives has made us aware of plans our Heavenly Father has for us. We know that the things we've gone through and struggled with were not just so that we were miserable for years and years. It was for us to learn and find out who we are and then help others. This is what beachbody has done for us. It provided a way for us to take care of ourselves and continue to for the rest of our lives, and help others do the same. I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm learning, and I'm not a health expert..but I will continue to learn and try to inspire and motivate others to take the leap and learn how to take care of themselves as well. Putting ourselves out there with our stories has been scary and a little uncomfortable. But we each have a story, and someone else out there will always have a similar story to connect with and relate to. This has changed so much for us, we are starting to believe in ourselves, and know that we can have dreams and chase them. That life isn't meant to be lived in our comfort zones. That this is our one chance to find and reach our full potentials and help others do the same.

 

 

 

Top picture is us in 2009

 

bottom one is us a few weeks ago. This is our progression picture. Another one will be posted after Insanity is over :)

 

me in 2009, me now..work in progress! 



my coach picture..for the first time in a looong time, like back to elementary school..I can say I'm starting to feel comfortable in my own skin. ...and my story can be found here: http://www.teambeachbody.com/mindyjrose - you have to click "more" to read the full bio. Then on the right I have a couple blog posts.