Let's Get Personal

It’s time to get really personal and talk about something I’ve never really talked about on my blog, but thought about countless times. Actually I didn’t even know if I would post this at first, but I went ahead and wrote it to see how I felt about it. 

Like all women, I am always battling the desire to be thinner, but also to do it with a good balance of exercise, healthy eating and knowing when it’s really okay to go ahead and treat myself. Since I came overseas, this balance has been really hard for me to keep. In the States it was much easier. But this new lifestyle threw me into a tailspin and I just haven’t been able to get my head above water since I got here. But interestingly enough, that very thing, water, helped me to get out of that tailspin and bring balance back to the health part of my life. 

Before              and                After
-12lbs

This spring I was at an all-time low, or you could say high, since I arrived here. I had injured my leg, and I’m not even sure how it happened or when it will go away, but I am sure of one thing, swimming is the only thing that helps. Back to the injury, a few months into it I had packed on about 8 pounds on top of the 15 pounds I had packed on in the past three and a half years since we had been here! I was so ashamed of the way my body had become. I felt so lazy because every time I tried to exercise my leg would get worse and I just could not get myself disciplined with food unless I was exercising. 

My physical therapist told me that swimming could help my leg, so I started to gradually go swimming. At first it was 2-3 times a week and eventually five times a week through which it grew into a passion! I really fell in love with it, and still it is the only thing that helps my leg! 

Swimming wasn’t enough at first, but it helped me in disciplining my eating, I started to count my calories after seeing a photo of myself taken by a guy on our team who said it looked normal, while I was thinking “Is that really me?” Anyhow, somehow it always starts with a photo right? I had been finding most photos just downright depressing at that time.

One of the said photos

I wish I had that photo, but I don’t, he deleted it quickly after he saw how disturbed I was by it. I only had a photo that I had taken the summer before when I was actually a little bit thinner than I was earlier this year. I was just too ashamed to take a before photo, and to be honest, I didn’t know if there would be an after. Until a few weeks into it when I realized I was super determined, but it was already too late, I had lost five pounds within just a few weeks. 

It’s taken me a bit longer as I continue to lose the rest. So far it’s a total of 16 pounds, but I know that my body is changing so much because of the swimming. I took this after photo when I had lost 12 pounds. It’s been a while and I’ve only lost four more pounds since then, which means I am ten pounds from my goal. I am not as concerned about the numbers as I was to begin with because I realize that my body is changing, and as they say muscle weighs more than fat.

Before            and              After
-16lbs

I know that this may seem irrelevant to life overseas, but it’s been a big part of MY journey, and finding swimming as a form of exercise and even a way to get out and be a part of the community has transformed the way I look at life here. Also, being able to sustain a healthy lifestyle in this country is very important to me. That takes a lot of discipline and work when you develop a love for baking and work in a cafe with lots of sweets around all the time and part of your job is to taste those things. I found that counting calories worked best for me because I can’t always avoid sweets, but I can make changes elsewhere. So that really transformed the way that I looked at food. 

I am just so grateful because I know that this is something that Papa is doing in my life. It’s not just me. I felt it at the beginning and I know it because I feel like I was made to be a swimmer. Not a pro or anything. But I think He just knew that I would love being in the water and that it would just be an all around great and healthy thing for me. 

I do hope that this mystery injury goes away soon, but I am so grateful that it drew me toward swimming and ultimately to gaining and hopefully sustaining a healthy lifestyle in the country that I am in. 

Movie Review: 180 Degrees South

We have been watching a lot of documentaries lately and I have really been enjoying them. But this one probably impacted me the most.

It starts out simple: a young guy who is an adventure addict, hears about something that these two crazy old guys did when they were young, and maybe even crazier, and he wants to do the same. But in the process of this journey the young man learns so much more than he bargained for and we learn right along with him.

The scenery in the film is breathtaking. I usually tend to think that photos and videos just can't capture the real beauty of a place, but this one gets so close. I really felt like I was on this journey right along with him at times, minus all the hardships.

The thing that really struck me about the film was the message to consumers. Do we realize what a large impact our consumption has on other societies? In this film they uncover just one story, but I am sure there are many more. It literally makes me sick to think of some of the beauty that is being destroyed because of my selfishness.

This film really made me take a step back to think about the footprint I'm leaving behind. I know it's not the most important thing in the world, but it impacts more lives than we often think about.

I would encourage anyone with a sense for adventure and a love for nature to watch this film. But to be honest, I think this film would appeal to most people just because of the sheer beauty of it all. Enjoy!

Home away from home

Our Papa is so amazing. He knows what we need and when we don’t ask him and just assume we know ourselves, he just forces it on us. I see that happening more and more in my life. I have also seen how he enables us/ shows us how to make good out of difficult circumstances or unfortunate situations. Though I am not sure if you could call this a difficult or unfortunate situation, maybe just unexpected... 

Being stuck in Thailand for a week longer than we thought at a very inexpensive place with other ‘family’ members constantly streaming through would not be considered, by most, an unfortunate situation. However, it was a little stressful up to the point which I wrote this (which was last Saturday morning when all of this was still fresh) 

We just weren’t sure how visa stuff would work out, and of course it did, but when it did we realized that the start date for our new visas was actually a week later than the tickets we had booked to go home. (home being Overseas) Long story short we ended up paying extra to change the date of our tickets, but we had to jump through some hoops to get there and at first it was looking a lot more expensive than it ended up being. 

The way it turned out seemed nothing short of miraculous because it looked like it was going to be around a $1,000 mistake, plus possibly two extra weeks here, which is another few hundred dollars, but it ended up being less than half of that and only one extra week here! If it would have started off at that price I wouldn’t have been half as excited about it, but since it was looking so very bleak and miraculously when we called back later in the day two economy class seats had opened up on exactly the flight we were hoping for, we were blown away by Papa’s hand in it all! 

So now we have a week to relax and be thankful that Papa knew what we needed. We thought 8 days was plenty, but He said no. We thought we were ready to go home on Monday and he said wait. He has blessed us with two beautiful weeks at a guest house in Dolphin Bay which is run by family. It’s super inexpensive and nice because it was made to bless people who do the kind of work that we do, and what a huge blessing it is! 

It’s literally across the street from the ocean, but practically on the beach. This is the view from inside! 

And this is the beach across the street... 

I LOVE THIS PLACE!

Here are some of the other awesome accommodations of this place.

Beautiful Room with a balcony and seating outside (perfect for morning quiet times) 

There are so many things to do, yet no pressure to do any of them. 

Bike Rides. My first ride was solo. 

Soon became a tradition to go together every morning and stop at this beautiful lookout before turning back... 

Before we knew it we were enjoying our last Morning bike ride. Till next time at least ;) 

Moped Rides! Most of them were spent with this view since I rode on the back.. 

But we both went solo a few times too... 

Curtis was really into it, so he spent more time on the moped than I did

Cicada Night Market

Really beautiful and fun, live music, amazing Thai food

and great company

Exploring caves was not my favorite. But It was an adventure.

 

Curtis loved it and went back for more later

This was not my favorite adventure... 

Crawling out of the hole where the vent was in the bathroom door after being locked in there for about 10 minutes. It was funny in the end, but super hot in the meantime.... 

So this extra week has been filled with a lot of time doing nothing and everything we possibly wanted. We could have done a lot more, but we really just filled our days with activities that we desired to do, nothing more, nothing less. 

    

There a lot of little things to do in the area and some big outings that you can take as well. You can ride elephants, go to a national park, go out to the night market in a city about 45 minutes away, take a boat ride, go fishing and several other fun activities all under $20. We mainly stuck to the small activities which are predominately under $5. These include kayaking, biking, motorbike rides and going next door for a smoothie made from fresh fruit. ;) 

Smoothie Bar

There are also some free things we did including swimming in the pool and the ocean, playing volleyball on the beach and in the pool, reading/watching something from the big library of books and movies or just simply sitting and relaxing someplace with an amazing view, which is easy to find. 

Most days the only decisions we needed to make were where to sit and enjoy a book, where to take the bike or moped and/or what fruit we wanted in our smoothies. 

On top of all of this, the community here is really great. We have gotten so much encouragement and met so many others doing things similar to what we do. We've formed bonds here that we didn't expect and met some really inspiring and totally humble people. 

It's been a serious time of relaxation and fun. We have soaked up every minute and plan to continue soaking it in through the weekend, I have a massage and a mani/pedi planned all for under $15 before we go. 

We will get back rested and refreshed and ready to serve in the place we have been called to serve. We have really enjoyed this time, but we feel ready to get back out there and do another year. We are really thankful for this time and can't believe that this is where he brought us. We are so very blessed to be walking this road, though hard at times, he has given so many good gifts! 

Bangkok

How great and scary it is to step into the unknown. Into a completely strange and foreign land. We live in such a beautifully diverse world and though I knew that before, I am strongly reminded of it now. 

When I was younger I had no desire to travel. I was fine with just staying in my home town forever. It is a great place after all and I had no problems with the thought of never leaving. 

But our Papa had other plans. Plans I could never have imagined. Ones I didn’t even realize that I would like. He showed me the taste for adventure that I never knew I had. The hunger to meet new people and see the complexity of the world outside of the box I was living in. 

There is nothing wrong with staying put, but that was not what he had for me, and for that I am grateful, because through it I have learned so much about myself and about others. 

Stepping into Bangkok was that indeed, another world. It’s a city, like any other, with high rises and wealth, yet streets lined with poverty, beggars and people just trying to make a buck or a baht in their case. 

Chaos bustling all around, mopeds flying by, pink taxis, tuk-tuks, sweaty muggy heat, dark skies one direction sunny skies the other. Tourists caught up in the mix, short shorts, flowing dresses, sandals, backpacks, cameras dangling, iphones at the ready, backpackers, serious travelers. 

Vendors selling flowers in bunches, strands and rings for temple gods, smell of incense lingers in the air. Women carrying baskets of flowers on their heads into the temple. 

Stepping outside I become part of the chaos. Vendors selling ripoffs, good ones and bad ones. Everything is so cheap. Sweat. Always. On everyone who isn’t sitting in an air conditioned vehicle. 

Exotic fruits. Some I’ve only seen in photos before. Fresh squeezed juice, ice cold and refreshing. Coconut juice served fresh, watch the lady chop of the top in seconds when you order it. impressive. Not my favorite, but interesting. 

Hungry for lunch. Local lady leads us to some plastic tables and serves us a noodle dish. Air condition = fan blowing in your face. 

After lunch they offer a boat tour. Air condition = locals fanning us with plastic boating expedition advertisements. We take the tour. 

Cruising and sometimes roaring down the river sipping on fresh squeezed mango juice. 

Feels a bit like a tropical Venice with houses built on stilts lining the water, bunches of leaves gathered up along the edges of the canal, giant coconuts in the water looking like floating heads. Our driver grunting every so often to get our attention as he points out something interesting. 

Yeah, our time in Bangkok went something like that littered with trips to temples, amazing and exotic food, souvenir shopping and the occasional Starbucks run. Sometime soon I'll tell you about our surprising time in Dolphin Bay.