God is REAL! ... And He DOES stuff! *What's been going on the last few months :)

These last few months have been absolutely insane. I am very happy to say that as of a few hours ago I am on summer break! I will be taking a summer astronomy class but it is online and I will still have plenty of free time to focus on other aspects of life. So, what has been going on with sarah lately?

I can honestly say that I am not the same person I was just 2 months ago. God has been doing so much craziness in my life lately it has been a sprint to keep up with it all. This all started when I went on a trip to Florida for my spring break. I went to a conference called Big Break. It was a Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) conference and we were there to learn how to share our faith and start spiritual conversations. This was a crazy experience, and even though I am not the biggest fan of contact style evangelism, I learned so much and gained so much confidence. There were a few things that happened on this trip that really stood out to me. One is that it really broke my heart for the lost. Some of our group would go out at night on the streets of panama city beach and just walk around, seeing what opportunities God brought our way. Sometimes we didn't encounter much, but often we were giving the chance to just love on people, and occasionally have a conversation. These night time happenings really opened my eyes to how much we as humanity need God, and how we often try to fill his place in our lives with things that will never fully satisfy us. I remember after an extremely crazy night I went back and just prayed to God that he would use me, that he would put me to work to help others get to know him, and that he would show me the area and way he wants me to do this.

Now here is the thing about all this... God ANSWERS prayers :)

One of the first doubts that came over me was that I didn't have enough knowledge to help people. I wasn't raised in the church, and have only very recently accepted Jesus as the savior of my life. The very last night of the trip a group of us went down to the hot tub and were talking about the amazing things that we have witnessed that week. I also began talking about how all of this was to somebody who didn't grow up in the church. Eventually I asked a question that had been bugging me for a while. During many of the talks at the conference the speaker mentioned Paul. I had no clue who this guy was, and he was brought up so often. I ended up asking the blunt question "Who the heck is Paul by the way? Is he a big deal or something" Ha. The look on their faces were priceless. My friend Will and Nate just kinda looked at me for a while until Will said.. "Yeah, he's a pretty big deal" Matt's response was also interesting when he said "You mean nobody has told you?"    But it was true. I had been to a few women's bible studies at tech, but most of them were at a pretty deep level and assumed that you knew most of the basic information. I never quite understood what was being talked about, and it wasn't long before I had stopped going. This is when the idea was proposed for a beginners' bible study. A study that would go back to the basics, it would be targeted toward new believers, or even those who are just seeking. Right away Will had the feeling that God may want him to lead this bible study, but asked time to pray about it. There were also a lot of logistical things that had to happen for this to be an official Cru bible study. We had to go through leadership and get it approved, find a location and time, and probably what we saw as the biggest challenge, finding people who would want to attend besides me. The next day we had a 24 hour van trip back to the U.P of Michigan, and I think that trip really sealed the deal that this is something that we were going to do! We were discussing how new believers when we started talking about the old "Sunday school" bible stories. When they found out that these were something I hadn't heard before, we did something awesome. Hey, we were going to be stuck in this van for 24 hours, lets actually read them! Pretty much the whole van got out bibles and we read aloud stories like Daniel and the lion's den, David and Goliath and many others! It was so awesome and time just flew by. Before we knew it we had been reading for around 5 hours straight. I was getting super excited because I had never heard these stories before, and they were getting excited too, suggesting what good ones to read next and enjoying hearing them again for it had been a while. I also read Acts, and learned more about Paul and where he fit into everything. By the time it had gotten dark and we put the bibles away Will told me that this bible study was going to happen, and that he would lead it even if I was the only person that showed up. We  were on. It was awesome. I asked God to use me for something, and suddenly the next day I am helping start a bible study!?! woah, so cool :) I think only God can use somebody's lack of knowledge about him for his glory.

So what happened when we got back to Michigan? Well we got approval from Cru leadership to start this bible study! We actually had a lot of people who were interested in leading it. Will became the official leader and we picked the name "Fledglings of Faith" based on Isaiah 40:29-31.

One of my biggest fears was that we wouldn't be able to find people interested in coming, but God handled that! We actually had a new face every single week, and at one point 8 people. The awesome thing was that these new faces were not a part of Cru. We had even more interested, but time conflicts came up a lot in the last 5 weeks of school. Classes are over now and people are heading home, but this is definitely continuing next year. I would have never thought in a million years that I would be co-leading a bible study, but hey, I asked God to use me and look at what he has been doing :) so cool!

So like I said, these last few months have been absolutely crazy and God has been doing so much. In addition to the bible study, there had been amazing conversations almost every single night, including conversations with people who wanted to learn more about having a personal relationship with God! I have learned so much from an information standpoint, and have also grown much more in my relationship as well. It's been an awesome ride, and i'm not getting off anytime soon :)

So yep, that's what has been going on in my life and why I haven't gotten around to posting. Now that the summer is here I am planning on taking some time to really focus on my health and fitness. :) So more posts are coming!

                                               ~ With love,
                                                                Sarah

Sleep Apnea

There are many health problems that are associated with being overweight. I have been lucky enough to have avoided some of the more serious problems (partially due to my age) such as high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Unfortunately I have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (where my airway closes at night and obstructs my breathing) , and it is most likely a direct result of me being obese. The good news is that I have a very high chance of curing this if i lose weight!  According to WebMD:

 "Sleep apnea is a serious breathing condition that is associated with being overweight. Sleep apnea can cause a person to snore heavily and to stop breathing for short periods during sleep. Sleep apnea may cause daytime sleepiness and even heart failure. The risk for sleep apnea increases as body weight increases. Weight loss usually improves sleep apnea."

I first went into see the doctor last year when my roommate noticed me "breathing funny" during the night. Based on my roommates description, and me being overweight, the doctor suspected sleep apnea right away and set me up for a sleep study.The sleep study was one of the strangest experiences I have had. You walk in and it almost seems like a hotel room. They even had an awesome sleep number bed that I could adjust with a remote. They then started hooking me up to a TON of electrodes, wires, and other monitor devices. They were all over my head, in my hair, taped to my face, and even have movement sensors on my arms and legs!

Here is a picture where you can see some of the electrodes. The thing hanging around my neck is the "hub" where they were all plugged in to.

Here is the bed I slept on an even more of the things I had attached to me during the night. After I was all hooked up they left me alone to sleep while they watched me on a camera from the next room (creepy!)  As you can imagine it was quite difficult to actually fall asleep with all of these things attached to me. (i toss and turn quite a bit)

By the next morning I was told I had severe sleep apnea, meaning I had stopped breathing more then 30x in one hour. I now sleep every night with a C-PAP machine. The C-PAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure and it works by splinting my airway open at night so it can't close.

Here is my current set up. I sleep every night with a mask on my face and tubing attached to the machine. Luckily it makes no noise and is quite small! The thing is I would LOVE to not have to use this anymore! It is super hard to travel with, and not to useful when camping :P. This is MOTIVATION! According to the doctor even losing 20-30 lbs can cure sleep apnea! How awesome is that :-) Now time to get to work and get off this thing as soon as possible.

Speed

A few nights ago I went up to the fitness center around 11pm. I honestly was shocked to see that there were a ton of people there! It must just be a good time for students to go workout after they have finished all of their other commitments during the day. I told myself going into it that I was going to do at least 2 miles on the treadmill to go toward my 365 miles in 365 days goal. One thing that has always bothered my about running is that I feel so slow. Most people talk about how much they hate the treadmill and running inside, but mentally it feels good just not to be passed all the time :) One time this summer I was running out by the portage canal and actually got passed by a few people walking! This bothered me a lot at the time, and I actually stopped running to see if my walking was faster ( it wasn't lol). Now I realize that speed isn't the important thing at all, but it is something that I would like to work toward getting a little better at. During this last workout I started to play around with the different speeds on the treadmill. Usually my speed stays somewhere between... um an embarrassing 4-5 mph. I wasn't really doing anything consistent, but I just wanted to keep moving until I got the 2 miles in. I actually started to run above 5mph which is something I thought I couldn't do! It was an awesome feeling. Now that I know that I am capable there is a new goal. ;) The fastest mile that I have ever done was around 13 minutes in elementary school gym class. Sooo.................

New Goal : run a mile under 12 minutes! 

Week one of classes

 Well honestly things haven't been going as well as I had hoped they would. I haven't been able to figure out a regular workout schedule. This has led me to not getting much exercise at all. At least I live off campus and walk to school each day. I live a little less then a mile away so at least I get some walking in. I have a goal of running 365 miles this year but I am not going to count my walk to school in that. I will count some walking but only if it it is part of a running workout. So, day 18 into the year and I have 0 miles done.. oops. It's time to get going on that! A one mile a day average should be doable. What I think will help a lot is if I can find a spot to put exercise in my schedule. I am a huge planner and am extremely reliant on a schedule in order to be productive. I think that if I see exercise on my calender I will see it more as something that has to get done before I move on to the next thing.

Another thing that has been a huge struggle for me is my diet. Being a college kid I am basically broke and have no time. This is the worst combination for eating healthy! I have found myself shopping for foods that are quick and easy like a frozen pizza. I know this food is horrible for me and full of nasty chemicals. When I was watching biggest loser the other day they were saying how your diet is truly 1/2 the battle toward losing weight. no wonder I have trouble! I think that maybe I need to get a healthy cook book or something like that. That will help me with more healthy recipe ideas but I still struggle with finding time to cook proper meals and finding cheap healthy food. Does anybody have any advice or suggestions?


I recently joined a broomball team at my school in hopes it would be a fun form of exercise. I had never played before and I was super nervous! For those of you who don't know broomball is played almost exactly like hockey but you don't wear skates and you use brooms instead of hockey sticks. It is still played on an ice rink though!  Here is a picture of how it is played

I played my first game last night and even though I was only on the ice for about 10 minutes I am very sore. This is probably a result of falling so much. Even though I sucked pretty bad and we lost our game horribly I still had a lot of fun and am looking forward to the next game! I defiantly got a workout too :) The most difficult thing for me was getting out of the rink. Time to do some push ups and practice my jumping :)

Though this first week has been tough I know that I can't get discouraged. The path to health and fitness is not an easy one and I am learning that very quickly. I just need to take it one day at a time and not give up. I am so grateful for all the support I am getting :)

Fitness Class

This week is dollar days week at the fitness center. This means that anybody can go and try a fitness class for just $2! This is a great idea for somebody like me who hasn't ever taken a fitness class before and doesn't know what they are like. With dollar days I can try out a different fitness classes and find out if they are for me. I had been debating doing a fitness class for a while but I was concerned that after I pay for the class that I wouldn't like it. The nice thing  is that because I am a student they are a reduced cost if I do decide to go for it! So far I have tried a class called ultimate conditioning (scary name huh) and I hope to try spinning and aerobic kickboxing. The hardest thing for me is actually getting to the class because they are early in the morning.

Ultimate conditioning. Ouch. :) I tried it out yesterday morning and it was pretty intense. We started out with doing a TON of lunges and squats. I remember looking at the clock and 10 minutes in my legs were shaking so bad! Just when I didn't think I could handle much more we got weights and exercise bands to work our arms. This wasn't nearly as bad because I chose a fairly thin band ( i know i'm a wimp!) We also did a lot of ab work and a variety of stuff with an exercise ball. I feel that most of these exercises I could have done at home for free but there was a lot of things that I really loved about being in a group atmosphere. They played music the whole time so everything seemed very exciting. Being in a group was also extremely motivating. I don't think I would have ever pushed myself that hard or had done as many reps if I didn't have somebody in front telling me to keep going and seeing everybody else around me work hard and not give up. My favorite thing (and kinda my least favorite thing at the same time) was that I had gotten my workout in before 8am! I didn't have to think about it for the rest of the day. I felt very proud of myself and spent the rest of the day getting through the first day of spring semester. :)

So that was yesterday, and today I hurt sooo bad in so many places. At least it is a "hurt so good" type of pain :) I am discovering muscles that I didn't even know I had! I am also learning how often I use my abs. I am very glad I tried that class and I hope to try out more this week. :)

2012 !

HAPPY NEW YEAR! This is the time of year that most of us um... "larger folk" make a resolution to lose weight. Yep, i have probably done this since I was 12 years old! So this year i'm not going to make a "New years resolution" because frankly they always fail. For this year, I am going to make some goals. Some of these goals are  for 2012, but the ultimate thing I am going after is a lifestyle change. So yes, I am going to make a list, :) but this isn't just for the new year... It is for the rest of my life. These are some steps that I hope will help lead me down the road to health and fitness..

And the Goals Are... 

1. Run 365 miles in 2012! ~ Will be tracking via dailymile.com 
2. Finish a 5k race
3. Complete a Jillian Michaels 30 day challenge (30 days straight! complete with before and after pictures and measurements ;)   ) 
4. Incorporate more veggies into my diet!
5. Reduce my sugar intake
6. Do something EVERYDAY.. even if it means just going for a short walk. 

Yippie :) So far things have been going pretty well and i'm excited to start the new year. It is been awesome to have support. 

Christmas Vacation

 As I expected Christmas vacation has presented me with quite a bit of challenges. I'm in Brooklyn with my family for the holidays and it has been hard to find the motivation to get out and exercise. The weather had been kinda meh as well and I think that has been affecting my mood.   I think that what I am going to start doing is there is a water aerobics class 3 days a week at one of the local  high schools. Generally it is a bunch of older ladies that do it but water aerobics can be a good workout if you put enough effort into it. I honestly am just ready to get back to Houghton where I have more options for exercise and cook for myself.

It has also been difficult to make good food choices. My dad is an absolutely amazing cook and of course I got chocolate in my stocking. I'm trying my best to go through it slowly but sweets have always been one of my weak areas. Just something I need to work on :) I'm starting to look for healthier options for whenever I have a sweet tooth. Well, one step at a time a guess. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, I just have to keep going. :)