On being a selfish person

Recently some of my friends and I went to a faithwalkers conference in Osage Beach, MO. If you want to hear about the story of the trip down there read leslie's blog.

One of the sessions was about dieing to yourself and helping others before yourself. I am someone who doesn't normally see what I can do to help out other people first. Normally I see what I can do to make my life better/easier first, then if I have leftover time then I see if I can possibly help someone else. The helping other people part of my day usually doesn't happen we'll just say that. Most of the time Leslie has to ask me to do things before I will actually do them. When she asked me too, it does take me a little bit to have a good heart and to do it without grumbling. I usually end up doing whatever she asks but it does take some time.

The one thing that I came away from the session with is that dying to yourself is all about love. It's all about love!!!!! I would never have thought of that. Usually dying to myself I always thought that it was just something I had to do that I didn't want to do. God calls us to love each other as he has loved us. I feel like people show love to me all the time and I hardly ever show them love in return.. People love me by cleaning my room, doing my laundy, making me dinner, listen/help me with my problem, and encouraging me through scripture. Leslie is the most amazing at this. She is always showing me love (I mean I have a lot of issue, so she is helping me out a lot with problems), but she also encourages my heart a lot with serving me and sharing scriptures with me. I can't remember the last time that I served our encouraged someone recently. I am just not gifted at doing this without having someone do something for me first.

The other big thing that they said was to love and expect nothing in return is true love. I think almost always is that if I do go out of my comfort zone and show love to someone is that I usually expect something in return for the act that I just did. I can not tell you the last time that I did, but I can remember the last time someone loved me and got nothing in return. Something that John Meyer said was that we do God's work when we love others. It breaks my heart to know that I am constantly not doing God's work. I selfishly want others to love me, but how is that fair for them to always love me and get nothing in return from me. I guess though that they are just doing what God has asked them to do.

The one thing that I am going to do in the coming years is to find opportunities to love others without being asked or getting anything in return. I am in the best situation to learn from my environment with the GREATEST roommate in the world. I will just watch my amazing beautiful, loving roommate Leslie in how she loves people without grumbling.

On people are starting to notice!

To update everyone since my last post, Leslie and I are competing in an online biggest loser. So this is a post from our site. Which will remain a secret!


So this week has started out good! I (Amber) have made a workout everyday in the last 4 days, last week that wasn't the case. Last week I was skipping workout just because I didn't feel like going, there was nothing wrong with me I was just being LAZY! So it came as a big surprise this week that not one but two people asked Leslie and I to help them workout. So on Saturday one of our guy friends asked Leslie and I to help him start working out. It isn't a surprise that people ask Leslie to help them, she is an awesome trainer, but to ask me as well just blew me away.

One of our friends made a bet with one of his co-workers to see who could lose the most weight and workout the longest for 8 weeks! He was telling us that without a doubt after he made that bet that he immediatly thought of us to help him out. Seriously, he called me right after he made the bet and asked if I would play racketball with him. I told him that I was available on Sunday but not Saturday because I had to work, so we made plans to play on Sunday! He then asked me if Leslie was available, I said probably and told him to call her. They set it up to go and play racketball on Saturday night. Because of the weather and my work not being busy I didn't have to go to work on Saturday, so I ended up playing racketbal with them. Then we had it set up on Sunday to play racketball too, but through circumstances both Leslie and our friends roommate joined us. So not only was it a great workout but I was physically fatigued afterwards. That hasn't happened to me in a long time.

Then also on Friday at one of my jobs one of my friends asked me to help her get active. So I was very surprise that not one but two of my friends had asked me for help this week. I started thinking why me, what is different now then other times before when I was working out. I figured out today that this is the first time that I have stuck to a weight loss (life plan) program in the whole time I have been doing it. So I am helping one of my friend start to get healthy and workout.

So today was my first workout with her, it is hard for me to be assertive in the gym (especially because I am still learning). So I started us off on a treadmill workout, I was running and she was walking. So we were doing well for the first like 3 minutes and then my friend started to hold on to the bar ont he treadmill. Normally I wouldn't say anything because I have been in that position, but I found myself telling her to let go, and she wasn't getting a good workout by holding on. It took her a minute to do what I asked her too, but eventually she let go of the bar. Throughout the workout I had to tell her to let go of the bar around 5 times, which was so challenging for me to do.

So not to make my week better, but one of my friends at church told me that I was beautiful, now you have to know that this girl has 3 kids, a wonderful husband and is serously a size like 0 I swear. Ok i really don't know what size she is, but she told me that I was beautiful, and the fat girl inside of me started screaming!, and I just said EH. She has always told me that I am beautiful as well as Leslie always tells me that I am beautiful, for some reason I have a hard time excepting this. So my friend just continued to hug me and tell me that I am beautiful! Thank you freind you know who you are!

So all in all people are starting to realize that Leslie and I are serious about making a change in our lives! I couldn't do this without Leslie helping me along the way. She has always been the strength of our team! She pushes me so much that I can't express in words my gratitude for her in my life. She encourages me so much and continues to help me out everyday with workouts and eating even when she is having a bad day! That takes an extraordinary (sp?) person to continue doing this with not a lot of rescipricated help. I am still learning a lot about working out and eating healthy, and leslie continues to help me out everyday with out getting frustrated that much! She is the life and light of our team! Every team in this competition would be lucky to have her on your team, but only God has blessed me with that gift!

Praise God and good work thus far everyone!

On Leslie pushes you until you vomit

So this post should go before my last post but I forgot to do it in order. So we went to the gym one night, it was probably a tuesday or wednesday because that is usually when we go to the gym. We got on the treadmill which is either good or bad. This time it was not so good. We got on the treadmill and started walking. We moved it to a 10% incline, those of you that think this isn't so bad have never encountered a Leslie work out at a 10% incline. So we started out walking at a 10% incline at a speed of 2.5 or 3, but then leslie starts to move it up to 4, then 4.5, then 5. We ran at a speed of 5mph for like 30 seconds to a minute, then we went back down to 3 for 30 secnods then back to 5, then to 3 then to 5. So we did this rotation for like 5 or 6 times and finally I asked Leslie how many more we were going to do? To which she answers not very many, and I ask her for a real number, and she says 3. Then I ask if that is a realistic number, because sometimes I ask how many more and she will make up a number so that I stop asking. She told me it was a real work out. So after I asked instead of running at 5 for a minute, we moved it to 6. I was having a hard time breathing at this point, because sometimes I forget to breathe while we work out. Some of you might think that the work out doesnt seem tough, well I challenge you to do it and let me know. So before this we had done lunges at a 10% incline for a long time. So eventually we are like on our last set and I couldn't finish it. I had to get off the treadmill. I all of sudden felt like I was going to puke. So I told leslie that I need to go to the bathroom, which I proceeded to vomit once I got there. So if you ever want to know if it is a good work, it isnt' good until you vomit! I love you Leslie and thanks for pushing me in working out

On Leslie's Killer Workouts

So I have recently started doing Body For Life with Leslie again. So not only do I eat six times a day, but I also get to do work outs with Leslie. When Leslie goes to the gym she means business! I love going to the gym with her, because we don't mess around. We go there for a purpose and there is no slacking. So a week ago we went to the gym to work out. I wasn't really motivated to go to the gym that day, so i knew that was a bad sign to begin with. We get to the gym and Leslie gets us on the tredmill and we start with a slow jog. That was the only good part of the workout. Shortly after that we go to jogging at 4 mph, then 5mph, and then she wants me to jog at 6mph. So some of you probably think that 6mph isn't very fast, but have you tried running at that speed. It is not very fun!!! At 4.5mph my side was starting to hurt, but she kept having me jog reminding me to breath and not get frustarted. I did well for awhile, but once we hit 6mph i couldn't breathe my side hurt so badly! I then proceed to start crying while I am running which makes me side hurt even worse. So I eventually had to stop running while she kept going. Needless to say I didn't finish her workout that day. Before that though we were doing lunges at an incline which aren't very fun. So that is just one of the many times of the Killer workouts