Little by Little Big Changes Can Happen

Happy New Year! Happy New Decade! I love saying that because I think it’s so cool that we are beginning a whole new decade. And I have some new things to write about too! Lots of changes have been happening in my life. There are three fun and fabulous changes I’m going to share with you today. Two of which I began in 2019, one began way back in 2018. Little by little things are changing and in good ways.

True Story Ahead

My hope is that you’ll be inspired to persevere when things take a little longer than you think they should.

Hair, Hair, It’s Everywhere!

In 2018, I was thrust into a lot of life changes I had no control over. So, I decided it was a good time to finally change my hairstyle too, which meant growing out very short layers. I passed through the “I can’t stand this!” stage to the “I don’t know how to style these curls!” stage to the “I’m cutting it off!” stage to “I’ll give it until the end of 2019” stage. I survived 16 months of going through torrents of ugly stages.

Perseverance paid off. A new hairstyle has emerged!

If you haven’t seen me in a while, it’s actually a striking difference. You may not recognize me. That happened at church recently. 🙂

I owe my oldest daughter a big thank you. Thanks, Dani, for your harassment, I mean, encouragement to take on the hair-growing-out challenge and go from my, as you would say, “80’s hairstyle to 2020 hairstyle.” I do like it. But you were kind of hard on me when you called me old. “Mom, you’ve had the same hair style for 100 years!”

A Golden Story

At this very present moment, my kitchen is…drum roll…being remodeled!

We’ve lived in our home for 28 years this April. For 28 years we’ve had the same 70’s kitchen, same wallpaper, same ugly gold countertop, gold sink, and gold laminate flooring (yuck). Friends, I’ve raised my three children in the 70’s even though they are millennials.

I can hardly wait to show the before and after pictures, but just in case you do not believe me, here’s a sneak peek of the golden 70’s.

As soon as your mouth closes from dropping open, go ahead and laugh. One of my coworkers did, and then she said, “I’m sorry, but WOW! That’s ugly! WOW!”

LOL! I couldn’t agree more.

Never would I have believed back in April 1990 when we moved into our house we would have to persevere for 28 years with a golden kitchen.

But little by little my kitchen is moving from 1970 to 2020. It’s changing by 50 years this month! We’ve been preparing little by little for a couple of months, but the big day came Saturday when the appliances were moved out. Monday, a wall came tumbling down to open up our space, and cupboard doors removed. Tuesday, some electrical stuff happened, and pieces of drywall are beginning to rebuild the new look. Little by little my kitchen is changing into what I can only hope will be a major improvement. Can I get an “Amen”?

Battle of the Boomerang

Okay, I’ve not kept it a secret that since I turned 50, I’ve battled the midlife weight gain, which is one consequence of aging. Grrr! But I refuse to surrender to the lies that once we reach a certain age, we can’t reclaim what we’ve lost (or gained).

Between January 2015 and June 2019, I tried repeatedly to lose the same 10 pounds. I’d say bye-bye, and I’d turn around they’d be living with me again. I’d lose them. They’d return. They were like a boomerang. This battle went on for five years. Those LBS’s wouldn’t stay away. Between January 2018 and June 2019, stress did me in. It seemed like my body was literally saying “No! I’m not going to lose weight, and you can’t make me.”

Most of my adult life, I’ve lived a healthy and active lifestyle, but when life throws a lot of hard stuff at you in a very short amount of time, it can be hard to focus on all of the “healthy” stuff. I ate a little bit too much chocolate, drank a few too many glasses of red wine, and watched way too much Gilmore Girls.

This past fall (2019) I decided to get active and eat healthier again. I joined Beach Body on Demand, got a coach, joined TeamBeachBody, bought the Ultimate Portion Fix (nutritional program), and started reclaiming my health. My goal: to drop those boomerang 10 pounds.

Friends, to date, I’ve lost 9.8 pounds and approximately 10 total inches total off my body. I feel so much more like Michelle. I don’t have unrealistic physical goals. I don’t expect to look 25 just because I always say I’m 25 (HeHe). That’s just my heart speaking by the way. “Live that like you feel inside, Michelle.” Thanks Mom for helping me to claim how young I feel inside.

My purpose in losing weight, eating healthy, and exercising again was to reclaim my health and stay as healthy as I can for as long as I can because I have a family who needs me to be healthy for them. I also need my health and energy because God has plans for me.

It’s taken me much longer to lose these 10 pounds than I expected. But little by little over the last three and a half months, I’ve persevered. Honestly, the losing weight has been challenging, an ounce dropped, two gained. The scale’s ebb and flow showed an ounce lost to a pound lost, but I kept thinking about my purpose. I wanted energy. I wanted to feel and be healthy again. And I didn’t want to buy the next larger-sized pants. You know what I’m talking about.

I love what Autumn Calabrese, a BeachBody Super Trainer says, “Stop wishing for it, and work for it.” That’s exactly what I’m doing.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Interesting how representative these three life changes demonstrate how little by little the old passes away and new things come.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Praise Jesus the old has gone and the new is here!

I’m constantly amazed at how the Bible teaches us such amazing truths. I was shown another one back in November 2018 when I was deep in transformational changes in so many areas of my life, not just growing my hair out. Exodus 23:30 spoke loud and clear to me:

Little by little I will drive them out before you until you have increased enough to take possession of the [promise] land.

I’m discovering rolling goals over from one year to the next isn’t such a bad way to start a New Year’s goal because you’ve already made progress on it. That’s exactly what I’ve done the last two years and little by little change is happening, good change. I’m grateful I persevered. I’m grateful God helped me, and I’m grateful for all the pain and suffering to get to this very moment.

Little by little big changes can happen, even if it takes 28 years to see the transformation. Do you know what we can accomplish this decade? A lot! Let’s stop wishing for change, and start working for it.