Repairing the Fortress

For those of you who don't know, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. For my part of the scripture challenge, I've recommitted to reading the Book of Mormon each day.

These last weeks I've spent in the latter half of the book of Alma, the part with all the wars. I love these chapters. They parallel so much in life, and I see them much as parables.

The thing that really stood out to me this time around was the constant need to be aware and keep our fortresses strong. Captain Moroni and his men strengthened the weakest city until it became the strongest, and couldn't be taken by force. The only way they lost their cities was by having strife and problems with their own people.

This so much parallels modern-day life. No matter what we do, it's so important to focus on keeping our strengths strong, and building up those places where we are weak. Be that physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually, these all are where we need constant watchtowers. By setting goals we better ourselves and keep better watch over ourselves and our families. It's much easier to repair or begin to repair the weak spots when we are keeping guard and looking out for possible maintenance problems.

I've so much enjoyed this challenge, and building up some of the weak spots in my life. I hope everyone who has done this has gotten a lot out of it. I know I have.

The Home Stretch!

I am sorry that I have been absent. I have been participating in our challenge but have really slacked on the blogging. Thanks to Aubrey for keeping us afloat over the past few weeks.

This is it, ladies! We have one last week to go! For a while it felt like our challenge would never end, but now I can't believe that we're starting week 10 tomorrow. I know that most of us have struggled to meet our goals, but I'm feeling like we have not struggled in vain!

I promise to get fines and points up-t0-date in the next couple of days, so we can know where we stand.

How are you feeling? Did anyone else get their second wind like I did? What changes have you seen in yourself? What do you wish we had done differently? Please leave a comment with some feedback.

And let's go out strong. I'm committing to tougher, longer workouts this week and more time with the scriptures. How about you?

Plugging Away

I took a blog break, but am back. I had every intention of posting yesterday, but didn't! I don't have anything new or inspirational to say, but that the finish line is in sight, so keep plugging away!

I am proud of all of us!

Knowledge is Power

At a recent Weight Watcher's meeting the topic was the five steps of change that everyone goes through when forming new habits, or changing not so good habits.

I found it very insightful and it applies to everyone. It is human nature and what everyone experiences whether we know it or not.

But knowing and understanding the process of changing habits can really help us make those changes and stick with them. So I thought I'd share these steps of change with you.

1. Precontemplation: This is the happy (or not so happy, actually) stage of being unaware of a problem. Or even denial that there is a problem.

2. Contemplation: This is when we are aware that a problem exists and are thinking about doing something to change, but have not yet made that commitment.

3. Preparation: This is where we are ready to take action to change. We've made that commitment. Perhaps we are learning about what we need to do and intend to follow through.

4. Action: This is when we are working to modify our behavior. Working on a habit; going through the motions. It takes considerable time and energy and commitment...as we ALL know!

5. Maintenance: Working to prevent relapse. Sticking to the new habit.
(One thing that I read online about this says that for addictive behaviors this can take from 6 months to an indeterminate amount of time...in other words it takes a long time to break an addiction.)

Of course, relapse can occur and then we need to asses where we are in the cycle and get back to work.

I hope this is helpful to some of you! If you want more info about this you can go here. Or just google it like I did.

Have a great weekend!