Thursday, March 21, 2013

Learning What Motivation Does Not Work

I have read and heard and have been told that a good way to help one lose weight is to write down everything you eat.  That way one sees what is on the paper and is willing to cut back.  Or maybe one will even think twice about saying yes to another helping, or that candy, or birthday dessert because then it would have to be written down.

That might work for some, but not for me.  I just finished keeping a journal of everything I ate for three weeks.  That didn't change one thing in the way I think about food.  Nor what went into my mouth. I wasn't afraid to write down that I ate a candy bar, or a snack in the morning and in the afternoon.  It didn't change my motivation to eat or not to eat.  I found that very interesting.

I know that not every tip works for every body, but I never realized that this was such a failure in my world.  I would have never guessed that about me.  I had always been under the assumption that it would work for motivation, but nope it doesn't.

Interesting what one learns about one's self when time is spent actually looking and not spent in thinking.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Second Video

Here is the second video done by our kids and their best friends.   (first one is here) It was also done while we were vacationing at camp.  We had gone back to northern Wisconsin in January for winter fun.  But they didn't have enough snow for tubing and cross-country skiing, however that didn't stop the kids from having fun.  Enjoy!




Saturday, March 09, 2013

Reading

I've been reading a lot lately.  It is quite soothing to me.  Since the beginning of the new year I have read fifteen books.  I think that is a personal best.  It will be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes, will I be able to keep up the same pace?  Frankly, I don't really care.  I simply have enjoyed reading and love looking back to see what I have read.

Five of the books have been Vince Flynn novels.  David reads one, than I read it after.  I really enjoy them.  This is one of my favorite styles of writing.  Action, thriller, spy.  From David Morell, to Robert Ludlum, to Vince Flynn, I've enjoyed them all.  I even like these types of movies the best - Jason Bourne - I can watch again and again and again and I have.

Eight of the books have been for my reading challenge.  I've enjoyed all of those as well.

I'm currently reading A Tale of Two Cities.  I started it over a week ago but couldn't continue.  It took too much brain power of which I had been depleted.  This happened because I had just been to the funeral of a friend's husband.  He died in a plane crash and left his wife and six young children.  His funeral was four weeks after my mother-in-law's.  I was mentally drained.

But I picked it back up yesterday after completing two other books this week.  I think this time I can finish, my brain seems to be able to understand it better this time.

David and I have been reading together Johann Gerahard's An Explanation of the History of the Suffering and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I am really enjoying this.  Even though we are only half way through, I recommend this to you.

I have on the docket another Vince Flynn novel, The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, and then I think I want to read either a biography, or one by David McCullough (I have three of his picked out), or maybe an economics book by Milton Friedman.

So many books, so little time.  Tis true.