"You've come a long way, baby!"

It's hard to believe that almost two years have gone by since I made the decision to leave a marriage that was sucking the soul out of me. I've had the opportunity to grow and experience a lot of new things in many areas of my life. The one area where I've experienced the most growth and change is my spiritual life.

I think that a lot of my growth had to do with the fact that I made it a priority to find a good church home where I could get the support I needed to transition to this new phase of life. I found just that church home about a month after I moved out. The messages were uplifting and just what I needed to be hearing at that time in my life. The people were accepting of me; I didn't feel judged at all because of my impending divorce. This environment created a safe place among the chaos where I could address my spiritual issues and grow in my faith.

Among the things I've better come to understand:

--How truly powerful prayer can be. It's not only the big things in my life that God cares about, but also the little things. I've seen God do some amazing things simply because I was willing to talk to Him about them.

--The redeeming power of the grace of God. Because God loves me unconditionally, I don't have to wallow in guilt everytime I mess up. With God's forgiveness and help, I can get back up on my proverbial horse and keep riding.

--The "sixth sense" is a powerful thing. For the Christian, this sixth sense is the presence of the Holy Spirit within him/her. It is that still, small voice within. It is that gut feeling. Learning how to be better aware of it's prompting has helped me make some really good decisions as well as reassuring me when I'm not sure about decisions I've made.

--I've grown secure enough in myself and my relationship with God that I've found it less necessary to share too much personal information with others, hence my decision to leave Facebook. I don't need everybody's approval of my life decisions. As long as God is pleased, then it doesn't matter so much what everybody else thinks.

--Being able to trust God is essential in being able to take risks. I still struggle in this area, but I have made some progress! 

I can't say that I have arrived yet in perfecting myself spiritually. That won't happen this side of eternity. I can say that I am in a state of continuous growth. As long as I continue to grow, I will continue to make progress in reaching the potential that God has set for me.

I think the following song lyrics sum up the last two years for me:

"No I cannot count the ways 
You have made my life so blessed
All I know is that You came 
And made beauty of my mess."

--Ayiesha Woods "Happy" 

Heather 2.0: taking care of my body

Up until spring of 2015, most of the focus of Heather 2.0 had been on redeveloping myself mentally, emotionally, and spiritually following my divorce. After a routine doctor's appointment in March, I knew it was time to start addressing the physical side of things. 

In the last couple of years or so of my marriage, the weight had crept on. I knew that I would eventually need to address it, but other things took priority after the divorce. As a part of the routine doctor's visit, she had me go for bloodwork. She and I were both quite shocked to find out that my cholesterol level had risen significantly. Granted, I shouldn't have been that surprised, given the fact that high cholesterol does run in my family. At any rate, we agreed that I should start cleaning up my diet and incorporating more exercise into my lifestyle. After four months, I would go back for more bloodwork to see if that helped any.

For the next four months, I did just that. I cleaned up my diet by eliminating most junk food and eating out less (especially fast food). I took up running and I made more visits to the gym. I really invested myself in this new lifestyle. As a bonus, the weight started coming off--not super fast, but steadily. I was really pleased with myself.

I went back for my cholesterol retest and was shocked to find out that my overall cholesterol level had risen despite my efforts. This simply confirmed that it wasn't so much a matter of lifestyle that contributed to it, but genetics. I went on medication and will be retested in a couple of months or so to see how well I'm responding to it

Despite the fact that my efforts didn't make much of a difference addressing the initial cholesterol issue, I continue to strive to keep up the lifestyle changes that I've made. Since my diagnosis, I've lost in the neighborhood of 20 pounds. I love the fact that I'm starting to get into smaller clothes. Ultimately, it's the good feeling I get from taking better care of my body that keeps me going, though.