"E" The Dreaded Words

"E" stands for Eating and Exercise - Managing your Habits. Wow, where do I even begin with this topic? For many of us, managing either is hard but managing both is a joke!! I guess I will start with exercise because for me that is the easier of the two.

I think the number one thing you have to do is evaluate where you are at right now. If you don't do anything now except daily activities, try adding in 10-15 minutes of walking. 10-15 minutes that's it - for now! And it doesn't matter where you walk!! Walk out side, walk up and down stairs, walk at Wal-mart, walk circles around your house - it doesn't matter as long as you are consistently moving for 10-15 minutes! If you know that you can go out and run 1/2 mile - then for goodness sake go do it. You have to know where you are right now, to know how you can increase your movements to make improvement. I personally like group exercise classes. They give me someone to compete with and I have someone to tell me what to do. I certainly can't (don't) motivate myself, but if someone is telling me what to do I am a lot more likely to keep it up. If you don't like going alone, find a friend or someone that you want to be friends with and ask them to exercise with you. This helps to keep you accountable. You are a lot more likely to go do your workout if you know someone is waiting for you!

Exercise is such a mental thing. I know that some people physically CAN'T exercise because of injuries, illnesses, etc., but you have to be careful not to let yourself use your hurts as an excuse. Guess what? It hurts me to exercise too sometimes, but I do it because I know that I need to in order to be healthier. Your level of exercise may not be what mine is or it might be more than mine, and either way that does not matter at all!! Do what you can do. You just have to do it. You really do have to have a change of heart and mind when it comes to exercise, if you have never really consistently exercised before. So much of exercise is telling yourself that you can do it and that you will do it! The more you try, the more you will succeed. It may not look pretty at first (OK seriously it probably WON'T look pretty at first), but just remember that you will get past the awkward stage. This is also another good reason to have an exercise buddy; so you can laugh at each other - it takes the stress off!

Time, or lack of it, has got to be one of the most popular excuses not to exercise. It really doesn't take a lot of time to have a successful workout. Just doing more than you are doing now is all you really need. If you can strive to get 3 workouts that last 30 minutes in each week that is a great healthy start. I am a 3 a week consistent exerciser. I have a really horrible time doing more than three workouts a week! My goal right now is to do five per week. So far I haven't been able make that goal, but I am still trying. Once I get to that goal where I have 5 days of exercise, then I have to build on that and strive to make it an every week thing. And then once I meet that challenge, then I will have to take it to the next level to keep pushing myself and challenging myself. So evaluate where you are and increase, just a little bit - you don't want to go crazy at first, to get started with an exercise program. Most likely, you will learn to love it!

Now on to managing food. Eating is the hardest thing for me to control! We live in a world that encourages XL portions, extra helpings, unhealthy, yummy food, and I tend to take full advantage of that! What I am beginning to learn is that, Just as a parent will tell a child NO to protect him and keep him safe, we also must tell ourselves NO to keep us healthy. This is a foreign concept almost! I mean if I want it, I'm darn well gonna get it! There is no saying NO! That has to change. If I don't use some self-control, and give up some of the foods and portion sizes that I want, I will never win this battle with my weight. I know that God is here to help me, but I also know that I have to do my part!

I don't believe that any food should ever be completely "off-limit", because if it is you are going to want it that much more! I'm just saying choose wisely and limit those unhealthy food to only eating them occasionally! Just like with exercise, make your changes gradually if you need to. If you normally have dessert 2 times a day, seven days a week cut it down to once per day, four days a week. Wow, just look at all the calories you have cut out, while still enjoying dessert. And then cut it down to only once a week, and then maybe only to once every other week. Have lots of color on your plate; Green beans, yellow squash, sweet red peppers, orange carrots. Green kiwi, yellow bananas, red strawberries, oranges, purple grapes. Eat only lean cuts of red meats. Trim away excess fat before cooking. Grill, broil, bake. Use healthy oils like Extra Virgin Olive Oil and fats from nuts. Use non-hydrogenated margarine/butter, reduced fat milk,cheese and yogurts.

You really can eat anything, just limit how often you eat the unhealthy stuff. Choose the healthier foods first and most often. And one of the hardest things for me to do - limit your quantities. If you have to, pack away your dinner plates for a few weeks and use salad plates. Use measuring cups and spoons and even a food scale until you have a better visual of how much to eat at each sitting. Restaurant portions are not normal, healthy portions!!

So how do we turn all of this into reality? It goes back to telling ourselves NO. No to chocolate, potato chips, and dessert everyday. No to extra full plates and second helpings. It goes back to having the responsibility to ourselves to want to have a healthier life and making choices that show it. It's not fun, it's not easy, but it is necessary. I know a lot of the right answers, and the healthy foods that I should choose. So for me it is all about NO. I have a secret, that may not be much of a secret to some, but I LOVE MCDONALD'S!!! And man does it ever show!! Does being healthy and making healthy choices mean that I can never eat at McDonald's again - of course not. I just have to make wise choices to not eat there everyday or even every week. McDonald's has recently become my occasional restaurant choice!

So managing your eating and exercise habits is mainly about evaluating where you are at right now and improving on that. The changes don't all have to happen overnight, but you do need to work on gradual, consistent changes. This is the healthy way! This is the way to lasting, lifelong change!

MIrror, Mirror

I tried for about 30 minutes to write about "E" in the D.I.E.T. acrostic, but it just would not come out. So I have decided to put that aside for this blog and write about what God has been wanting me to write about since this past weekend.

I have a real problem with my self image. Most of the time I see myself as OK looking. Sometimes I look at myself and all I see are the flaws, other times I look at myself and I just can't stand what I see. I know that God created me in His image, but sometimes it is really hard for me to see Him in me. My 4 year old son Luke, has an amazing way of making me realize that I am beautiful in Christ. He is always quick to notice the physical changes that I make. If I get my hair cut, he will be one of the first to say "Mom, I like your new haircut." But it is the unexpected times that really make me stop. One day I was wearing my hair differently and I had the sides of my hair pulled back in a clip and he was sitting on the kitchen counter beside me as I was doing something and he looked at me and it was like he had just then seen me for the first time that day and he put his precious little hand on my cheek and said in the most awe inspired voice, "Oh momma, you are beautiful!" It was one of those days, when I was feeling anything but beautiful. At first I thought he was just talking about my hair, but it seems that whenever I am having a day where I am really struggling God will pull these comments out of Luke.

Today I don't feel like I had a very good eating day. I had a late breakfast of pancakes with syrup - BAD! I had about 3-4 squares of pizza and a big glass of hot chocolate for lunch - BAD! And for supper since it was David's birthday, he wanted lasagna (which if you have ever had my lasagna you know it is good but not good for you!!!) and I made an apple pie for him (we don't do birthday cake, we do birthday pies) -BAD,BAD,BAD!! So even though I feel good about watching my portion size of lasagna, I am still kicking myself for eating that blasted pie and the Texas Toast that went with the lasagna. After supper Luke is sitting on my lap and I am trimming his nails. He had brought over this nail kit that has a little mirror in it and he pulls that mirror out and puts it right in front of my face and says "Don't you want to see how beautiful you are mom, can't you see?" Right then I couldn't see. All I could see was my fat face, my huge double chin. But that is not what God wants me to be looking at in the mirror. He wants me to look in that mirror and see the beauty that He created. He wants me to see the beauty in the works that He does in and through me.

I truly believe that God uses Luke and his innocence to help me realize that I need to look past what I see if the mirror. I need to look past the physical aspect and concentrate instead on the beautiful works that I do through the grace of God. I think He also uses Luke to help me remember that God created me in His image. I do not believe that God creates ugliness. If that is what I am seeing, then I am not seeing what God created. I need to look deeper at myself and shut out the ugly voices I am hearing (Satan, flesh, environment). So how do I do that? First I guess I have to grasp that child-like view that Luke has and just notice the differences that I see in me. I need to reflect on the week that I have had and not just this one day. This past week, I lost 3.8 pounds. Now this may not seem like a big deal to some people, but this is huge for me! In the past, it has taken me three weeks to lose this much weight. Maybe I need to notice the way my cheekbones look when I look in the mirror. Second, I need to get into the Word and rediscover what it means to be made into the image of God. I need to be reminded that the beauty on the inside of me is so much more important than anything that I or the world can see on the outside. Finally, I need to relish the moments of Luke reminding me that I am beautiful. I need to just stop and look into that mirror to try to see what he is seeing. I need to just sit still and feel the soft innocence of his hand on my face. And I need to just hug and kiss Luke and tell him thanks for helping me to see my beauty that God created.

Inspiration - LIVE...

Often times when you talk to people who have had a significant weight loss and kept it off they will tell you about their motivating factor. They almost always have one and it is something very real to them. I call this the "IT". What is the one thing that is going to truly motivate you to make a healthy lifestyle change? The answer is your "IT".

I always thought my "IT" would be completely about physical change. "I don't want my kids to be embarrassed to introduce me to their friends because of how I look." "I'm tired of being the fat mom at all of the school parties and events." "I want to be able to walk from the basement to the third floor bedrooms without being so light-headed from lack of oxygen that I think I'm going to pass out!" "I don't want my stomach to be the part of my body that sticks out the farthest (if you know what I mean)."

Now I am beginning to realize that my "IT" is not really about a physical change. Oh sure, those physical changes will be a great bonus, but they are not motivating - they are the result. My "IT" is about wanting to live. I have to want to be healthy. I have to want to live a healthy lifestyle. I want to live up to what God created me for!! I CAN'T do that living how I currently live! Ephesian 4:1 says, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." Are you doing that now? I haven't been. What is worthy about being so unhealthy? Of setting a poor, poor example to my kids? Right now I exercise sometimes. I eat whatever, whenever, so that completely negates the exercise I do. These actions in no way show how grateful I am to God for all He gives me and all He promises me. Bu I can change this. I can choose to live!

Everyone needs to find their own inspiration. You might do this by making a trip to the doctor and him telling you "Listen your going to die or be on 10-15 different medications to keep you alive if you don't change your lifestyle." It might be from wanting to keep up with "the Jones'." It might be from wanting to fit into those size 10 jeans that you have had since before you found out you were pregnant with your first child. Or your inspiration might come from the Bible and from the Holy Spirit. I certainly believe that if you pray and ask and then wait and listen, God will lead you to your "IT". After that it's time for you to step up and take responsibility. God can inspire you, but He won't make you follow through...that's YOUR job!!

"D" Does Not Stand for Diet

Life change is not an easy thing to accomplish. We are a very "set in stone" kind of people as a whole. There just aren't many of us who like change...especially a change that is going to involve exercise and eating less and more healthy! The "D" in D.I.E.T. has to stand for something that is going to allow us to want to change. It needs to be powerful enough to give us the courage and strength to follow through with our New Life Resolutions. The "D" in D.I.E.T. stands for Dedication-Honoring God with your Body! What should be more powerful than our dedication to our God? The correct answer is nothing. So exactly how can we do this, you might be wondering? By asking and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you as instructed in Galatians 5:16. Did you get that? You have to ask, but more importantly you have to allow the Holy Spirit to work. I personally am such a failure at that sometimes because I get too impatient! I ask and I might wait a while, but pretty soon if I haven't heard from Him, I start thinking too much and I start acting too soon. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the strength that only He can. Ask for those cravings to be tempered. Ask for a restful nights sleep so you have the energy to exercise. But don't forget your part...to ask God for something doesn't mean our work is done. Just the opposite is true, we have to work, but we do it with the strength that "rose Christ from the dead". (Phrase borrowed from my illustrious pastor :-)

Above I mentioned Galatians 5:16. This verse states, "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature". Our flesh is so weak. We give in to cravings, wants, and excuses so easily! We can depend on the Holy Spirit for self control, but we have to know Him first. We have to know when to listen and how to discern Him from our feelings or wants. That can only happen if we open our Bibles and immerse ourselves. Think about it...can you truly know someone just from what you have heard from others? Of course not! Open the Bible and read what our Father says, know Him and He will speak to you.

Will you allow the Holy Spirit to control you? To discipline your emotion? It's not easy to give up that kind of control over yourself. It might be the only thing that will save you from yourself though. What emotions trigger you to eat? We all need to learn to go to our knees, not the refrigerator, when these emotions strike. What keeps you from walking, running, exercising? Go to your knees and ask God to help you overcome. Can you honor God with a fat, unhealthy, "can't walk up a flight of stairs" body? Should we try to? Doesn't He deserve our best, because the best is what He gave us?

So "D" most definitly does not stand for diet! But it could stand for "Dang it I am not going to fail this time, because I have God on my side!"

The Nasty Four Letter Word...DIET

When you hear or even think about the word diet, do you immediately feel chains binding you up? This one little four letter word can invoke fear, desperation, even a deep sense of failure. Why? Why do we let a simple word do that to us? For me it's because I have let this word dominate and defeat me in the past. Not just once either...over and over. I can't tell you the number of times I have tried a diet (THE diet) just to face failure or to give up a few days or weeks later because it was hard work and it is easier to not diet. I have decided that I can't play the diet game anymore. I decided that I don't want that nasty 4 letter word in my vocabulary anymore. After I decided that, God led me to an acrostic for the word diet. D.I.E.T. A whole new way of thinking about this word. This acrostic is going to bring inspiration. Before we get into that, here are a few things to think about.

The first thing you have to ask yourself is are you ready for life change? And willing to work for it? It won't be easy. It's something you will have to consciously choose to do every day! You will have to sacrifice and tell yourself NO! WHAAAAAT? Is this as unheard of for you as it is for me? It's not going to be easy. Life change never is...but it will be worth it!

Second, do you know that your body is important to God? We need to acknowledge that He created our bodies to be used for His purpose. Can you do that if you are unhealthy and overweight? Romans 12:1 tells us, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship." If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. We have to clean up our temples. My God doesn't deserve a fat pit!! He deserves a well toned, healthy, properly functioning temple that can be used and used as He sees fit. I know that I can lean on Him to get the strength that I need to achieve that.

Third, you have to follow Jesus' words in Matthew 16:24-25 and deny yourself. Deny yourself: at mealtime, at exercise time, during family get together's (if you have to skip the pot luck to avoid overeating, then do it), and even when you are just sitting around watching TV. You also must identify and take up your cross(es). What is your weight-loss/health cross? I personally have several - eating too much at meal time, not eating on a regular schedule, and late night snacking. I was discussing the late night snacking with a friend and telling her about the 9:00 bell that goes off inside of me to signal it is time to eat - nothing healthy either, chocolate and chips. She told me of someone who just started going to bed whenever she felt the late night munchies. She apparently was very rested!

Next time I will get into the D.I.E.T. acrostic. I think you will find it as enlightening as I did. Until then search your heart and determine if you are ready to break the chains of the diet fear. Are you ready to embrace life change, accept that our bodies belong to God and need to be cleaned up, and be ready to deny ourselves and take up our crosses? I am and I hope you join me.

New Life Resolution

As the new year approaches, many people will begin to start thinking of their New Year Resolutions. This is such a meaningless tradition. So many times people think of the things in their life that need changed, that they desperately want changed and they resolve to change them on the first day of the new year! Why wait? Is waiting going to make it easier to accomplish? Is waiting going to give you the strength, courage, resolve to follow through? Of course not. If you want to make changes to your life, don't wait and make a New Year Resolution, start now, today, and make a New Life Resolution! That is what I have chosen to do. For so many years, I have complained about my weight and the health of my body. I have made New Year Resolutions to lose weight and to get healthy. It never lasts. I may make a temporary change and eat healthy for a few days, even weeks, but eventually I get caught up in my old habits and go back to my "normal way of life". The flipping of a calendar page is not going to magically make things easier to complete or change. It actually might even make a lasting change harder to accomplish...because you have a built in excuse for failure..no one keeps their New Year Resolutions! Everyone knows that and it is an acceptable practice to fail or quit.

I'm tired of my failures being acceptable. I don't want a New Year change that will last a few days or weeks. I want a lifestyle change that will last forever. I've accepted that a Life Change is not something that I can easily do on my own. I have tried so many times that I have lost count and I have failed each and every time. Life change is hard, it takes work and for me it takes God leading me. This is where I have failed in the past. I have tried it on my own. I have tried to change with "me" in control and I think we all know that is never a good thing. I'm not saying that everyone has to put God first in order to lose weight and get healthy, but for me that is true.

Over the next few months I am going to be describing the new journey that I am going to be on with God. I'll keep you updated on my successes and failures and what I am learning from the process of living my New Life Resolution!