Post-past Update

Hello everybody!  The last time I tried to log on to my blog site, I was redirected to my local community college's website or something like that.  It was odd.  On the contrary, today when I tried to log-in here it was easy peasy!  So, coolio ;)

Lots has changed, I feel.  Though I still have the same yearnings as always.  I still crave the name of Montana and the theory of my experience when I visit that state.  I'm still involved in AMTC, though I'm kind of in an "off-season" (though that's no excuse!).  I am preparing for the Winter Convention and the Summer Convention has yet to happen so I definitely feel under the radar.  However, I'm still in that...I still love to bake and cook!  Yesterday I returned from visiting one of my favorite places in the world which is the cottage my Grandpa and Grandma built and provided their family to enjoy.  It's in White Hall, MI and that is where my relatives and I congregate in the summer.  So I still love love that place and my family there.

On the other hand I'm not working at my church like I have been since I've been 16 years old.  I worked at a gas station for 3 days and I have been extended a gracious opportunity to work with my sister at a health and fitness facility, but I think I'm going to decline that offer.  There is this quote from C.S. Lewis that splashed me when I read it:  “The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ” 

I like this quote and I've thought about it since months ago when I read it.  I don't want to sell things to people.  I've been cleanings things for an income which I don't mind and I get some satisfaction from.  I've watched and cared for people's kids and I enjoy that as well.  And finally, I've settled on a business that has surrounded me for longer than I realized.  (Warning!  This is a long entry!)

 In 5th grade I was 10 years old.  The summer following 5th grade, I turned 11 in August.  By my 11th birthday when my family spent the day at Brookfield Zoo, my memories include me sipping on Root Beer soda and my mom begging me to eat half of a turkey sandwich while we waited for the dolphin show.  I dramatically refused the sandwich.  Since the beginning of that summer, I had lost a fair amount of weight.  Growing up I was always a "seal" with a thick layer of chub to provide my beautiful childhood with energy and my layers were also the result of taking rich pleasure in eating.  I was self-conscious of my chubby body, but it was what it was...

I got braces put on when I was 10 years old.  That's a good time to lose weight right?  I mean people expect you to lose weight when you get braces put on.  I read a book about a girl who was "diagnosed with anorexia".  That doesn't make sense, how do you get "diagnosed" with eating too little?  My 10 yr. old self thought, "That's silly.  What I'm going to do is not eat as much as I can control, and when I'm thin I'll just start eating again.  Duh!"

So I made it my ultimate mission for that summer to concentrate on not eating, and getting skinny!  And it was on my 11th birthday in August where my first memories lie of my mother encouraging me to eat.  Previous to this memory, I was getting compliments on my slimming figure that summer.  I enjoyed that.  I was enjoying immensely my thinning figure and the compliments and confidence and control I was feeling.  "Mama, what are you trying to do, making me eat that sandwich?  I'm on a roll, now!"

Maybe I'll write more about my journey another time.  The point that lies in my experience of anorexia lies where my mother and I started seeing a dietician.  This dietician was a Juice Plus distributor and it was during my 6th grade year when I was 11 yrs. old when my parents bought the Juice Plus nutritional shake so they could make shakes for me to provide more calories.  I'm now 20 years old and I really love that Juice Plus shake powder.  It hasn't been a consistent usage of Juice Plus since 11 to now at 20 years old.  In high school I went through another "flip".  I still didn't have a healthy relationship with food; I gorged myself and attempted other means of control over my body through food and exercise, etc.  I still live with some of these demons, but in most cases, life is a marathon not a race, right?

Really my point through this post was to say that I will be investing in the product of Juice Plus and talking about it with people.  There are so many nutritional lies out there and because I have the privilege to live in America and be an American (Yay, I appreciate America!), I also see the imbalance I have experienced and see in others, where depression and longings are lathered and subdued with American-dream prizes like food, isolation, and material possessions.

The essential product that Juice Plus provides is that of 17 different fruits, vegetables, and grains that is proven to do so much for our body.  Numerous real-life testimonies of the benefits of Juice Plus can be shared on how Juice Plus has positively effected people.  Trust-worthy and prestigious studies have been done on how Juice Plus along with a diet of whole fruits and vegetables, gives various diseases a serious run for their money, curing plenty of cases, or at least severely limiting the negative effects of disease.

Well anyways, I'm on a journey now with the product of Juice Plus, going back to God's food from the Earth including fruits and vegetables.  If I would "sell" anything, it's the hope and security each human has in a God that is their biggest advocate, Jesus Christ.  Underneath that concept, health and well-being effect people's emotional and physical and spiritual health so I'm eager to learn about the health and nutrition field too.

So, I'm on the road again... ;)  I'll blog again soon, I hope.  Another thing to ponder, that has stuck with me, is 1 Corinthians 7:32-35.  Hmmm, any reflections on that, baby?  Quickly I say that there is truth in that while a married person is anxious to please the spouse, the unmarried are anxious to please the Lord.  There is good and purpose for both lifestyles!

With gratitude for my Grandfather's cottage and God's Grace and Ingeniousness,
Miss Rae (aka Kyla ;) )