TEN!

I have now been dieting for a month and I have officially lost 10 pounds. Yay! :) I lost the first 7 or so really quickly and then I just got stuck for a while. I kept gaining and losing the same pound for almost two weeks. It got so frustrating that I really wanted to quit. But I didn't quit and now the scale is moving again and I'm feeling really proud of myself that I pushed through the frustration. My pants  are starting to feel loose, which is always a good thing! Shawn is also dieting and we've been losing at about the same rate. He also hit 10 pounds yesterday. We're off to a good start! This diet challenge goes until June, so we still have a ways to go!

Yesterday we had a really cool experience. A couple of months ago they were asking at church for two people to volunteer to help with a church service at the state prison. Part of my goals to change during this whole lose weight, going back to school life change I'm working on is to work on my public speaking skills. I absolutely hate speaking in public. It's something I have always stuggled with. But the Thursday night class I take as part of my college program is forcing me to speak in front of the group and I know that when I hit the masters program especially I'm going to need to get used to it, so I decided to be brave and volunteer to speak at the prison, and yesterday was the day.

So I wrote a 20 minute talk on the life and teachings of Jesus and yesterday Shawn and I went out to the prison. And honestly, it was a bit life changing for me. We spend some time in the women's prison, and I know this is a weird thing to say because it was prison, but I kind of loved it there. Because my future career goals involve helping people and working with people who have struggles in their lives, I was really interested in what kind of programs they have out there for the inmates. This is the kind of thing I love and that I'm really passionate about. I got to talk to some of the women for a few minutes after the church service and they were all so sweet to us, I really wished I could have spent some more time with them. It's experiences like that that confirm to me that I'm headed down the right career path. I went home and looked up volunteer programs at the prison and I think I'm going to see if there is something I can do there to volunteer. They do have all sorts of volunteer opportunities out there. I just felt such a connection to those women and the need to help in some way.

So things are going good right now! We're busy with life, losing weight, going to prison. You know, normal stuff. :) Life is good, ten pounds down and I'm going to keep going!