The Woman Who Made Me Who I Am

I was able to spend some time with my mother and father last week and I wanted to write my feelings about my mom.

Before all the festivities of Nauvoo got started, I wanted to take a picture with this beautiful, and let me tell you, AMAZING woman right here.

The Rodgers family is just a magnificent group of people and a lot of it is because of my mother, Marian Rodgers. She raised 6 children and all while my father went to medical school and such. She has been a great example to me of how to be a teacher. She takes every opportunity to share the gospel because she is not afraid to open her mouth and talk to people. She understands that she has a gift that other people do not have and she uses it to bring people to Christ. At the airport on her way there she met 2 unrelated people who want to meet with the missionaries because of her conversation with them. She has everyone else's best interest at heart. She sacrifices so much and gives so much not expecting anything in return. When you talk to her you feel her love for you. She has dedicated her life to her children. She has always cheered me on at everything I have ever done. She would do anything for me. I know that without a doubt.

Is she perfect? Of course not, but she has tried her hardest to be her best self despite the difficulties she has gone through in her life. I say this because my mother has gone through some very hard things in the last 4 years and she is finally on the upswing because of her innate strength and strength she finds in Christ. Living in Utah during this part of her life has kept me from being able to be with her as much as I would like and she has felt very alone during that time, especially since the rest of my siblings live far away too.

My mother lost her 18 year old son about 13 years ago and I cannot imagine what that was like for her as a mother. To add to that ongoing pain, she has had multiple health problems that have crippled her very energetic body and spirit. Not even a year ago we found out that she had Lyme Disease which has caused her to have painful neuropathy in her extremities and among other symptoms has restricted her cognitive functions and altered her personality. That had been going on for years previously. When Andrew and I were dating I started to notice that she was not conversing the same way and sometimes I would get off the phone and wonder what she was even saying. It scared me and I remember starting to fear that my Mom would die because of how sick she seemed, and we did not know the cause of it. I remember this because the same day I revealed my love for Andrew to Aurora and Summer Florence (this was before we started dating) I told them about how worried I was about my Mom.

All growing up my Mom would randomly be very sick and unable to do things for days. We finally found out a couple of years ago that she had a bowel/ intestine blockage that happened when she gave birth to my sister over 20 years ago. She had surgery for that and the doctors said that has been causing her that unexplainable sickness.

Right around that same time she had an ovarian cyst surgery and then a couple of months later had breast cancer which lead to a mastectomy. She dealt with all of these health problems while having the symptoms of Lyme Disease. That is not the end of her problems but those are just some of the surgeries she has had.

Over the past year she has had acupuncture to help with her neuropathy and has taken to a strict diet that includes whole foods and awesomely healthy stuff so that she can heal her body with food. I admire that discipline and it has changed her body. She has lost so much weight. Compare the picture from last week (above) to us on my wedding day during all of her sicknesses in 2009.

She has worked incredibly hard to get her cognitive functions back and she did it so quickly and well that she stunned her doctors. She is also cancer free after two years. I am telling you, she is incredible. I try to think about how I would have dealt with all of these trials and I cannot begin to imagine the pain, and all of the mental, emotional, and physical fatigue. This is also where I see the Lord's hand in her life to help her through this. That is a strength she cannot get from anybody else but him. He is the only one who completely understands her pains and sorrows because he suffered them through the beautiful act of the atonement.

I say she has been alone because she was hard to be around since her personality was altered. I am so sad to hear that she has not had everyone who loves her right next to her being her biggest fan, me included. I have not always been able to be next to her but I have always given her encouragement and listened to her during the hard times. I tried to understand her and told myself that even though she had been difficult to deal with because of the personality change and her high maintenance because of the sickness, that was not who she really was and that she would get through it.

Through these past years with my Mom I have truly been tested on how to have unconditional love. She has always shown me that and it was my turn to return it. I recognized that she needed support and it was not my place to judge her. We all make mistakes and we are sometimes subjected to the limits of our bodies. No matter what someone does I should forgive them and try to treat them lovingly. That has been hard for all of my immediate family to do because we are the closest to each other. I would say that that is where unconditional love and support can be challenged the most. I am not saying I have gone through this experience without becoming impatient since I am human. I would say that I became confused and sad that my relationship with my Mom was strained and it was harder to easily love her. I am so glad that through prayer and understanding given to me by the Spirit of God, my heart was softened and I was able to see my mother as the perfect being she could be. Today I have nothing but respect and love for this great woman who has given me so much. I am crying as I write this because I am thinking about how much she loves me. 

Nauvoo: City of Joseph

Andrew and I had an amazing opportunity to visit Nauvoo, Illinois last weekend. Nauvoo is a city that the Mormons built when Joseph Smith was the prophet. It is a beautiful and historic city on the Mississippi River. My family met up there for our annual family reunion because my sister meredith was able to perform the part of Becky Laird, a fiery Scottish gal, in the beautifully done Nauvoo Pageant. Wonderfully enough, Aurora and Jeff played Joseph and Emma!

We started off by taking a wagon ride around the town and saw many homes and shops that have been restored. I captured this shot of the Mississippi River which the early LDS members had to cross on their trek west. There are many American Lotus flowers along the shore in this picture.

We were then able to watch vignettes performed in special spots around the town. In front of the Smith home, Jeff and Aurora performed letters that had been written between Joseph and Emma during many hard separations forced upon them because of unjust imprisonment or work that had to be done elsewhere. It was a beautiful insight into their relationship.

Jeff also performed a discourse that Joseph gave at the funeral of a man named King Follett. It was in the same grove of trees that it was originally given. This was the first time Joseph revealed to the members what happens after death. It was beautifully touching and wonderful to try to think about what comfort this would have been had I been there and heard this doctrine for the first time.

Before every vignette the Nauvoo Bagpipe Band plays. There were many Scottish immigrants who came to Nauvoo at this time. I love the sound of bagpipes. Here is a picture of the band.

We also stopped by the brick making building and learned about the intense process of making one brick. Nauvoo clay is red so the brick is also that color. Every family got a brick in the end. This is a picture of the finished brick inside the clay brick mold.

We got together and did our tradition of writing my brother Chet a message and then putting them in balloons and letting them go in the sky. I am glad that we can always do something to remember him while we are together.

There is a lot of corn and soy bean out in the plains of Illinois so I had to get a shot of Andrew coming out of the corn field. 

We were able to attend the Nauvoo festivities before the pageant. They have a fair set up and you play lots of games they would have played in the 1840s or make crafts, dance, do puppets, etc. Meredith beat Dan in stick pull and the picture below is my evidence. Andrew hurt his back playing against Dan and is slightly still in pain. Crazy enough my mom beat me, my sister-in-law Candie, and Meredith who  are all very active and fit women. I have got to start eating what she eats.

We also got a picture with Meredith dressed up as Becky, looking so beautiful and happy.

Her experience doing this pageant has changed her. We love her so much. After Andrew, she is my favorite person in the entire world. You could then say that my favorite people are in this picture above (well except for that kid in the orange shirt. Don't know him.) I admire her talent and energy. I love her sense of humor and her strength in her service to the Lord. I feel like I have helped raise her and I have seen her go through every up and down. I have sometimes been too much of a mother and other times I have just held her as she cries. Life is hard and I am so happy to see her where she is right now and see her becoming who she wants to be. I am still trying to get to that point too. She is an INCREDIBLE human being and anyone who gets to be a part of her world comes away feeling loved and uplifted because she is honestly a window to God's love. I could talk about her forever...

The pageant is so well done and professional. It simply testifies of the amazing work that was done in this city and the impact it had on the church and its people. Afterwards the cast talks to everyone and encourages us to think of people that might want to receive a CD of the music from it. I was on fire and me and Andrew wrote some names down. I have honestly had such a great Summer where I have been more focused on missionary work. I love it!

We visited Carthage Jail where Joseph and his brother Hyrum were martyred. I was able to have a better understanding of the context of the death of Joseph Smith. I was reminded that he sealed his work with his blood. I loved hearing the quote by Josiah Quincy Jr., Mayor of Boston in 1845 that said, "It is by no means improbable that some future textbook... will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet." Being the man who was called to be the prophet who re-established Christ's church on this earth merits that kind of title.

Here is one of the cells he stayed in for a bit. He stayed in many others like this when he was unjustly imprisoned on many occasions.

We went into the room where the angry mob shot and killed him and his brother. Here is the original door with the bullet hole next to the lock and in the middle of the door.

This is a shot of the outside of the small building which was actually a home as well. The window at the top is the one that Joseph fell out of after being shot.

While in Nauvoo, my family was also able to do something very powerful and that was temple work for our ancestors. We were able to seal family as recent as my great grandmother. I believe we did over 30 sealings. My mother worked hard to organize this so we could have this beautiful experience. I know Andrew and I have done many names and ordinances in preparation since we have been here in Manhattan. It was unlike other temple work I have done because I was with my family and we were doing the eternal work for people who made it possible for us to be here.

My family in front of the temple - minus Joy and Quin's family

It is in these holy places where I can be the closest to God on earth and it is here where I can feel about myself the way God sees me.

Andrew and I took a picture together too

It was a fun and very spiritually inspiring and uplifting trip. I wish I could spend more time with my family. I love them dearly and I am so happy to know that I am sealed to them for eternity.

Laura's First Visit To The Big Apple

My lovely sister Laura came to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her. We went to the Harlem Studio Museum which had one exhibit that housed pictures of Laura like this one.

We also found a lady who has free jazz in her parlor every Sunday Evening. We loved listening to some authentic Jazz in Harlem. We will be returning soon and will post pictures and maybe a video. Laura is cool and did a bike tour of New York. She could probably beat you up she is so fit. For dinners we ate at an awesome French Moroccan café, ate vietnamese subs and we did our best to find the best falafel in NYC. We also went to Magnolia Bakery a couple of times because, Wow! We would have taken pictures of all of this but our phones always died by that time. Our new knock-off Apple charger is really bad at charging.

Interesting Things We Came Across

This Creature

A Rasta poser was exposed (another find on our way to church)

Sometimes Andrew Manbooks

Professeur de français à American Heritage School!

This Fall I will be teaching secondary French at pretty much my dream school. It is called American Heritage School and it is right across from the Mount Timpanogos Temple where Andrew and I were married in American Fork, Utah. It is part time and I will be adding it to my very part time job teaching at Walden School of Liberal Arts. This means that I don't have to substitute teach anymore! This also means that I finally get my own classroom! I am so thrilled about this and I have been planning how to decorate it so that my students get the most out of class. I always flutter around every term to whatever room is available at Walden since I only teach two classes and they don't have a lot of room. You don't really feel like a real teacher when you do not get your own classroom.

American Heritage School is a private LDS K-12 school which means that I get to teach French by inviting the Spirit through prayer to teach us every class period. We can sings hymns, give devotionals, study the history of the church in France and study clothing or food regarding modesty or the Word of Wisdom. It is kind of like teaching at the Missionary Training Center but for teenagers. I love working with the youth of the church and now I get to combine that love with my love of the French language as well. It is so exciting to know that I can freely share my testimony in my classroom. This is a very different environment from Walden which has many ex or anti-Mormon people there.

                                                     The school is a beautiful facility 

I also wanted to share this picture of the 3-4 year old classroom that I am working in right now for the French immersion camp. Bouchra turned this pole into a tree with beautiful flowers. 

The other week the theme was "Things That Fly" and I made this airplane with pictures of the kids faces in the windows. Bouchra has such cute ideas.

I cannot express to you how adorable it is to get hugs and kisses from tons of little 3 year olds everyday. That is honestly the cutest age ever.  I want 20 of them. After managing 10 kids at a time, I think I can handle 1 some day. Here are some of the adorable girls I get to play with. I steal them?

We really enjoy leading nursery. Andrew and I get to practice our parenting skills and usually talk about what we learned that day through dealing with a certain individual or situation. One of the kids came with a hilariously stereotypical doll.

                                              Andrew is going to be the best Dad ever!

   

Please watch this video of the freakiest toy ever invented which we found in the nursery toys. It has teeth that bite down pretty hard.

    

NYPD Blues

Our evening started with a lovely night at Central Park where we listened to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Afterwards there were surprise fireworks.

We came home to see things where they hadn't been left and the bedroom had been rifled through. Right away I felt so weird because someone had been in the only place that belonged to us and took our things. We found out that the lady in the apartment below had been robbed as well. We looked around and found all the nice electronics had been taken and then called the police. "Oh great! Welcome to Harlem," was exactly what I was thinking.

Our apartment has 2 locked doors and then the apartment door to get through and we still don't know how they got through the outer doors. I didn't know what these were but we live between 2 Halfway Houses. They are housing for people who need reintegration into society after getting out of prison, or suffering from mental disorders or substance abuse. Not the safest area. There are no security cameras on this street and our door handle was already loose and hadn't gotten fixed. We've got a deadbolt now so we feel safer.

                                              The Police came and took our statement.

  

As you recall we are subletting Jeff and Aurora's apartment so her Macbook Pro and computer charger were stolen as well as Andrew's computer charger and our phone charger. Our Canon Rebel T2i photo and video camera was taken. It was in a leather bag which happen to hold our passports and checkbook. I can't find my drivers license but my credit card was still in my wallet. I had to cancel all the bank stuff and our passports, plus I don't have any ID now. Very inconvenient.

Next the forensics guys came and dusted for prints. They also took our finger prints for comparison. A lot of the things that the robber might have touched were not good surfaces for lifting prints. This is the part where my love of crime scene investigation shows comes in. I grew up watching Perry Mason, Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, Murder She Wrote, and Matlock with my Mama so you could say I kind of wanted to be a detective growing up. Within the past year I gave up a lot of the big recent crime shows because of violence and dark themes.

                                                                Getting finger printed

Andrew got the Muppet Show on DVD for his birthday and I noticed it was on the floor when we got home. I told the police that info and they focused a lot on trying to get prints off of that surface. This is Kermit after being violated. Never knew that this dust was so hard to get off.

That night I was really scared that maybe they would come back because it is hard to not make a crime personal. I woke up the next morning to lots of messages telling me my Facebook got hacked. I left it logged in to Aurora's computer and knowing it wasn't me I was interested to see what the robber decided to write. After reading the very inappropriate status update I had supposedly written I became so angry I was shaking. I don't remember the last time I felt this angry. The fact that he broke into our private space and stole from us and then tried to add insult to injury, just enraged me. Some people have such evil intentions and live their lives in such darkness. I took some time to calm down and forgive this person. I then realized I could hide the status instead of delete it so that the detectives could maybe find an IP address from the geotagged update.

After contacting the Dickamores and delivering the sad news about their computer, they realized the robber tried to buy about $5,000 worth of stuff on an online account. I understand buying an iPad but the funny thing is that they tried to buy some tiaras (random) and then didn't change the shipping address. Yeah, we are working with some respectable professionals. The purchases were stopped and the detectives may also be able to figure out where those purchases were made from.

The tough NYPD detectives came by wearing matching lavender dress shirts and sporting their thick New York accents. We had a fun time joking around with the lead detective and giving him all the helpful information we had.

Interestingly enough Andrew had his debit card stolen a month ago and then put back in his bag at work. We know this because a purchase was made 20 minutes before Andrew tried to buy something during work. The bank took care of everything but we don't like not being able to give people the benefit of the doubt and not being able to trust people. New York has a ton of weirdos.

Crazy story, right? I wish it hadn't happened but we are glad that we were not home when they came. The things we lost are replaceable and we are so glad that we still have each other.

Finding Peace In A Concrete Jungle

Recently Andrew and I visited the Little Red Lighthouse which is the only lighthouse on Manhattan. We were able to sit on the rocks right on the river and right under the George Washington Bridge. It was at sunset and we got a beautiful view looking downtown. It was so peaceful and is now our new favorite place.

We watched the 4th of July fireworks from the Brooklyn Bridge. If you wanted to get anywhere close to the show then you had to either work in a building on the Hudson or pay 100$ a person at restaurants and venues with good views. Below, in the picture on the left, you see Freedom tower which will be done being built in 2013. It stands on the site of the former World Trade Center and will be 1,776 feet tall. It lights up red, white, and blue every night. 

 

 This guy Andrew is pretty obsessed with me and he takes lots of pictures of me.

 

This is me as well. 

I am waiting for the Wicked lottery. We won the lottery to see this incredible Broadway play called "Peter and the Starcatcher," a prequel to Peter Pan. See it if you get the chance. Seriously! The picture below is a forbidden shot of the inside of the theater. It is so beautifully ornate!

Sometimes you find the remnants of a car fire on your walk to church

Graffiti shot of the week found on the bathroom wall of a lounge restaurant (by the way we watched Exit Through The Gift Shop and it is a great documentary about street art)

Do What You Love And You'll Never Work A Day In Your Life

This post is about how we do what we love and get payed for it. I just started the French immersion summer camp in Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn. It is such a lovely area and there are lots of Europeans. I am working with the 3-4 year olds. Usually if a child asks me to wipe their bum I am kind of reluctant but when these kids ask me to do it in French I decidedly would do anything for them. I am a sucker for little French kids. I love playing with them, singing and reading stories and discovering with them.

I am an assistant teacher to a beautiful Moroccan woman named Bouchra. She is one of those people that is so happy and has so much life. She loves you right when she meets you and she really listens and cares about you. She speaks French, Spanish, English, Arabic, Italian, and Haitian Creole, so you could say she is crazy-in-love with languages. She has already taught me so much about parenting (the French way) and helping little children acquire language through immersion.

I made the decision a couple of months ago to speak French to all of my children. I am going to do certain activities that are always in French like FHE, singing songs and reading books before bed, and other consistent activities. I have learned that you have to be disciplined and I am so excited! These kids are amazing. We are already seeing that kids who come in with no French are understanding through action, context, repetition, and songs. It is such a great opportunity for me to prepare to teach my own children. It may be hard but my children will thank me later.

Bouchra is a Christian and she loves talking about her love of God. We have had wonderful talks about our beliefs and she has asked me many questions about my faith. I hope to continue to share with her and learn from her as we are able to uplift each other and connect about how hard it is to be a good Christian in this world. Here is a picture of me and her.

This past month Andrew launched a design company with his friends from high school, Rob and Sean. It is called Tinyhouse Design Co. and he has been really busy with that on top of his internship. Check out their website at www.tinyhou.se. Sean has been out in NYC as well and they have had many nights of geeking out together. They are so talented and do great work since, well let's just say, they are young geniuses.

Sean in the traditional hat of his people

I Love Being a Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

I had the awesome opportunity to be a leader for the Manhattan stake youth conference. For 3 days I got to spend time with 60 youth, which sounds so small for a conference but NYC doesn't have a bunch of LDS youth. We had tons of fun doing geneology, temple work, bowling and games as well as visiting lighthouses (the theme was "Arise and Shine Forth").

                                                  This is the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse

We also went on an awesome boat cruise with dinner and dancing. We stopped right next to Liberty Island because the Statue of Liberty is a beacon of light.

One of my favorite parts was a service adventure where we walked to different places in the city like Times Square, Grand Central Station, the bull in the financial center, etc. and we had the challenge to do certain service activities. I loved that the kids got to put charity and love into action through getting out there and serving the people in their community.

 We started off by cheering runners on in Central Park by holding up signs of encouragement and handing them water. Everyone loved it and the spirit of service was strong. We handed out balloons to people on the High Line, wrote uplifting messages on paper and handed them to random people, complimented and held doors or just looked for people who needed some love. I realized that many people here automatically assumed that if you were approaching them then you were selling something. One lady expected to pay money when one kid asked her if she wanted a balloon. It seems people are not really used to people going out of their way to be kind like this. It was wonderful to see the delight on the faces of the people receiving these smalls acts of kindness and I plan to do this again.

                       The last night we camped in Inwood Park and shared our testimonies.

 I loved hearing these kids talk about how being the only Mormon in their school is hard but through the conference they found more friends in the same position who cannot wait to let their light shine in such a dynamic city. That is what it is all about is building their love of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Have I mentioned how much I love the ward? I love how real the people are and that investigators and new members come every week. Most of all, I love that it feels like a family. Everyone really relies on each other for support and all the members are so loving and welcoming. It was like that growing up in Florida but I am not a youth anymore so I have a different perspective on my role as a ward member.

Andrew and I got a couple of callings in the good old Harlem ward. I was told by a friend that since we are interns staying for only 3 1/2 months then they wouldn't really pay attention to us. We aren't really cool with that so we talked to the Bishop and Relief Society President and made sure they knew that we wanted to get involved. It worked! We got to give talks a couple of weeks ago and are going to be Nursery leaders until we leave. We also served as choir members and got another calling that is unique to the ward. They are trying to put together a youth mentor program and need us to research resources for the mentors to have. They want to be able to help them attain life goals like college, scholarships, camps, career paths, etc. so that they can be successful. I think it is a great idea and it should be implemented on a church-wide basis. Some of the youth do not get this info at home or at school in the inner city so this is a great way to give them individual attention and help them understand the opportunities in their community. I have already found great resources and am so excited to see how the program turns out. I am actually surprised that this hasn't happened before.

You Get Out Of It What You Put Into It

So for the past 8 months I have really been trying to take charge and eat better as well as exercise. I have given in to lazy cooking and I gave in to cravings and exercised only once in a while. I have not been disciplined but along the way I have been acquiring lots of information about healthy eating habits and trying different workouts. I feel like I have made this resolution a million times in the past couple of years but two weeks ago I finally reached the point where I really committed and I am feeling great.

The first time I tried one of Jillian Michael's videos, I had a realization when she told me that cheesy line that "we are so much more powerful than we think we are." I really took that as a wake up call and decided to take control of my life and act instead of be acted upon. I can do hard things and I can be disciplined. I felt so empowered and she actually pushed me to give my all in my workouts and to dedicate myself to this regiment. Pretty great, right?

So I am doing some butt kicking Jillian Michaels work out videos 5 days a week. It does cardio and strength combinations for the whole body and the trouble zones. I feel like it perfectly challenges me and I love it! It has been so long since I have done exercises in loads of humidity so it was really wierd to feel like I just got out of a pool by the end of my workout. It is pretty gross. Back in Utah sometimes I don't feel like I have to shower afterwards. The dry climate just soaks it all up.

 This is my " Are you kidding me, Jillian " face

 

 I am now frequently consuming vegetable and fruits (really enjoying my green smoothies and salads) and try to balance my diet between nutrient rich whole grains (like quinoa and brown rice, plus so many other fun grains), beans (loving lentils), and dairy. Notice that there is no mention of refined sugars and meat. Sugary things are so infrequent now and I am now a vegetarian.

I have been slowly cutting back on meat this year and so many of the students and teachers at my school are vegetarian. I have been asking vegetarians about their choice and their eating habits in an effort to gather information for a possible future decision. I remember talking to my vegetarian students and thinking about being vegetarian but then decided that meat tasted too good so i couldn't give that up. I remember thinking that was a really weak reason and if that is my outlook on eating then I could feel the exact same way about sugars and then I would get fat.

In living with Aurora and Jeff I was able to see their healthy eating habits and what they fill their kitchen with. Jeff is vegetarian and it was great to see what he eats and how happy he is with his diet. Trader Joe's is out here and they make shopping for good foods much easier plus the prices are great. These things were great resources for helping me commit and make a habit of filling my body with good vitamins and nutrients, which does not have to include meat.

I decided to be vegetarian because I always feel kind of gross and heavy after eating meat. I don't really crave it anymore so I am going to get my protein, iron, and B12 other places. I do not need the saturated fats and cholesterol boost. I prefer to center my efforts on preparing so many other dishes that are prepared around more important, nutrient rich foods instead of what goes with meat. There are many health risks that are taken when eating meat and I don't want to deal with that. So many Americans eat too much meat and I do not want to support that industry which is mistreating animals and run a farming factory where they inject their animals with growth hormones and many more unnatural techniques (watch Food, Inc.).

As a member of the LDS church I follow commandments of health that are found in our scriptures. This includes abstaining from teas, coffees, alcohol, and tobacco. Included in the Word of Wisdom is the commandment that God has made all wild animals "for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger" and "to be used sparingly." Wild animals have been around much longer than we have and our outlook on their purpose should be expanded past our current society's industrialized outlook. When people cannot grow their own grains, fruits, legumes, and farm grown foods, man can use meat from animals to sustain them. In the past I'm sure wild animals were occasionally necessary meals for people who could not stay in one place and wait for their crops to grow. I feel this is a perfect explanation for when people should be omnivores.

This is a good book about exploring eating habits. Andrew and I now feel differently about this topic.

I am excited and loving this regiment of healthy eating and exercise. I am looking forward to all of my hard work paying off. I expect a flat belly and toned arms and legs by the end of the Summer.