Tag Archives: radiance

15 years!

Today marks the 15th anniversary of marriage between John and I. Can I just say that I feel like the luckiest lady alive? I really do. When other things go wrong in life, the one thing that makes up for everything is my husband 😀

We had the most gorgeous wedding day. We lived in Colorado at the time and planned an outdoor wedding. It actually had snowed a couple days before, so we were in a bit of a tizzy! However, the clouds parted and we had a 70 degree day. We were married by a JOP at the Sunrise Ampitheater in Boulder.

This was back before digital cameras, so excuse the quality 😀

The brass quintet in the background played arrangements done by John. We were both in graduate school for music at the time (my, how things change). I also weighed about 220 pounds (my, how things really change).

I wanted to wear my sunglasses so bad because it was so bright and sunny!

We really needed nothing to compliment the outdoors. My bouquet was picked up at the farmer’s market that morning. I went there looking for some flowers and already had my hair done. The flower vendor there noticed and made me the most beautiful bouquet!

My bridesmaids had red sunflowers tied with ribbons.

Check out my nails –

Note John’s wedding ring in this picture is no longer with us after being lost. We now have the Celtic bands and my wedding bands are in a jewelry box.

John’s side of the family lives in Colorado and we held the ceremony there. We then left for a few days to honeymoon in Disney World and then flew to NY to have reception there for my side of the family. That was so much fun to extend it for a whole week!

I got to get all dressed up again.

One of the very few public displays of affection that we do.

Fast forward to 2010

Note to self: Get more nice pictures of us instead of always goofing around.

Happy Anniversary John! Here’s to many more!

Duty calls and a case of the frees

Rest day on tap for me. That meant sleeping in as much as I could, which really is only about an additional 30 minutes if I am lucky. I have an internal clock that always pretty much goes off at the same time.

I filtered the cold brew coffee and got out the bread dough from the fridge to rise. Then made up some Almond Joy cream of wheat!

10 grams of honey
2 egg whites
32 grams of Whole grain cream of wheat
1 tablespoon of dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
1 tsp of unsweetened toasted coconut

Cooked the cream of wheat with honey added to the water, stirred in egg whites and did the toppings. Yum!

Anyone else have these Arby’s glasses with the winter scene on them? We used to eat at Arby’s a lot!

Then I got to work for Job #1, which was pretty busy. And watched the Tour. I don’t know if Andy Shleck has what it takes to beat Contador in the Pyrenees, but I hope so. Congrats to his yellow jersey today.

Since I was eating early due to no work out, I needed a morning snack because my tummy was grumbly.

One of the only reduced fat cheeses I like. Cabot brand 50% reduced fat cheddar. It is quite tasty.

My toaster oven arrived today.

That was fast! I will do a review on it soon after we do more than just toast in there. Thank you CSN stores!

Lunch time and I was ready to have some fresh baked bread.

It was almost a shame to put tuna salad on this, but boy howdy was this bread good! From the Healthy Bread in 5 minutes book.

I was able to finish up work early and was FREE for the day. We had a latte snack before heading out to do our civic duty:

This blood drive was held at the Elk’s Club. I so wanted to park in this space:

For real? Seriously??

Happy donor post draining:

Happy face because they gave us coupons for FREE ice cream! 1/2 gallon of Friendly’s. John and I each got a coupon, too. Sweet.

Plus my post donation snack. I am liking the raisins. Go iron!

John asked if I wanted to get dinner out since it was dinner time when we finished donating. Was I going to say no? I don’t think so. He had a coupon for a FREE cheese pizza at one of our favorite places – East End Eatery.

Started with a bit o’ green:

And then the cheese pizza.

I love John’s hands in the pic. He could barely wait for me to take a picture LOL. I had 2 pieces. I knew one wasn’t going to be enough, so I told myself I could have a 2nd piece, but I didn’t have to eat it all if I was full. Well – I ate both pieces and felt satisfied and not stuffed, so that was good.

Who knew a plain old Tuesday could end up being so good?

What is Finding Radiance?

The origin of the blog name!

I actually wrote my first blog post in 2005, can you believe that? I had seen a couple blogs and thought they were neat – although they weren’t weight loss blogs, but more opinion blogs. I decided to start my own and was trying to think of a name.

I was in weight loss phase at this time and part of what I was doing was really changing the way I ate. I had read the book The Sugar Addict’s Recovery by Kathleen DesMaisons and it really changed how I looked at *what* I was eating. Not just how much.

Anyway, she had 7 steps that you would follow to clean up your eating. They were incremental changes that would lead to basically the removal of sugar from your life and the 7th step was called ‘finding radiance.’ What I so loved about this was that Kathleen said step 7 was not the end, but the beginning. It was finding your own path. She also calls it radiant recovery. That little phrase finding radiance really spoke to me. I thought about what finding radiance meant to me:

Finding radiance is all about creating a life that fills you in your own way.

Finding radiance is appreciating joy in the smallest of things, like a blooming flower, a electric blanket, holding hands with my husband, or listening to the patter of raindrops.

Finding radiance is letting your inner strength and light shine out like a beacon.

Finding radiance is loving who you are and always speaking to yourself kindly.

This whole journey has not just been about getting to a goal weight. I guess they all start that way, but something changed for me. Maybe it was getting older, maybe it was just realizing that I don’t have to be perfect. Radiance can outshine any imperfection there may be.

The action part of the word finding also means that it is a continuous process. That means endless discoveries and paths to explore, even just simple ones! It’s amazing how this blog has changed over the years and morphed into what it currently is. Who knows what it will look like in a year! This blog is for sharing that journey and I hope that you all find your own radiance, whatever that may be!