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I learned a lot this week, as I worked to stay focused on eating well, exercising, and going to God with the moments of temptation. Overall, I feel really good about what I did well, and I'm okay with moving on from where I got tripped up.
Monday through Friday were great! My food choices were right on par, I exercised daily (I've got a few videos at home, plus karate class on Wednesday nights), and I tracked calories in and calories out on sparkpeople. I read the introduction and the first two chapters of MTC*, as well as watched the first webcast. Because I couldn't resist, I weighed in on Saturday morning. The scale reported a loss of 3.8 lbs!
Saturday was my day off from exercise with a planned "cheat" meal thrown in. My intention was to eat well all day, have my treat at dinner, and return to the routine on Sunday. At dinner, I decided to enjoy the most delicious spinach and artichoke dip with baked pita chips. The plan was to follow up my yummy appetizer with a bowl of cheddar and broccoli soup. Mmmm! Two of my favourite things.
That's when mistake #1 happened - I looked at the menu. I was hungry, and I looked at the menu! Instead of having the soup, I ordered fish and chips.
Then we went to a movie. I had full intentions of enjoying a couple handfuls of popcorn and a small pop. But it's quicker and easier to purchase the combo meals through the little kiosk. Which brings us to mistake #2 - we ordered a large popcorn, two large pops, and a bag of Rolo minis.
Sunday was a fresh start, though, and I wasn't going to let my two mistakes get me down...
Mistake #3 - Slept in and didn't have breakfast before church.
Mistake #4 - After swimming with the family, decided to be lazy and buy lunch.
Mistake #5 - Ordered my standard choice off the McDonald's drive-though menu, rather than a healthier choice.
Mistake #6 - Decided that I had already written off the day with the fast food lunch, so I may as well finish off the bag of Rolo minis. And join the kids in chowing down on potato chips. And eat the last cinnamon bun (I had picked them up for the kids' Sunday breakfast) from Cinnzeo.
Needless to say, my weigh in this morning did not go as well as the one two days ago. I'm sure there's a combination of factors that contributed - some weight re-gain, some water retention due to all the salt and sugar, less water consumption, no exercising...
Anyway, to the point already! :-) My total weight lost this week was one pound even. My body fat also went down by one percent. AND, my waist measured half an inch less.
When I started, I knew this battle would be hard - harder than I ever imagined. But through it all I determined to make God, rather than food, my focus. Each time I craved something I knew wasn't part of my plan, I used that craving as a prompt to pray. I craved a lot. So, I found myself praying a lot.
Don't rush past that last paragraph. I used my cravings for food as a prompting to pray. It was my way of tearing down the tower of impossibility before me and building something new. My tower of impossibility was food. Brick by brick, I imagined myself dismantling the food tower and using those same bricks to build a walkway of prayer, paving the way to victory.
~ Lysa TerKeurst, MTC, ch 3
It could've been a great week had I not allowed the weekend to go sideways. Lessons learned!
Lesson #1 - Plan, plan, plan; and stick to the plan.
Lesson #2 - A slip-up (or six) simply means I pulled one brick off the walkway and stacked it back up on the tower. It does not mean that the walkway is forever ruined. If I lay more bricks down than I stack up, eventually the tower will be fully dismantled.
A setback is the perfect set up for a comeback.
~ Katherine Lee, MTC webcast
So tell me, how did you do this week?
* MTC is my lazy way of typing Made to Crave.
I am grateful for SparkPeople and a FREE place to track my food. It's so much easier to make wise choices when I have a visual and I have someone else counting the calories. I did gasp when I entered my stats and saw just how "overweight" I am though. So glad I know that my weight is not my identity. (I just have to KEEP knowing that).
ReplyDeleteI had a great week with some major victories, but I'm tired and grumpy today and I want my sweet treats. I just keep repeating "made for more, made for more."
Thank you for sharing your slip-ups. It makes it so much easier to be real. Blessings.
Just wanted to say that your blogs are an encouragement to me and I read them all :) Thanks to today's post, I am eating a lovely salad for lunch with a glass of water instead of having nutella on rye with kd n cheddar n coffee. Weight has always been an issue for me, too. My metabolism kept up with my eating habits just fine til a few years back when everything changed. I keep telling myself, "I'll lose it by Christmas" then "maybe by my birthday" then "I'll for sure lose it by our anniversary" and so on and so on. I actually want to make a life long change in my food choices and now is the time. Thanks for your openness and encouragement!
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to you. I'll be praying for success...not just with weight loss but conquering the alure of the junk.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple questions if you don't mind:
How did you feel physically after Sunday with all that in your body compared with the days you ate healthier?
Do you feel restricted by the calorie counting or is it more motivating?
You're an amazing woman and with Jesus on your side, you two can do this!! I love that you didn't get defeated over a few mistakes.
I love that you are honest thats how we change. Last week I asked God to help me dream big. I spent some time alone just asking God what are his dreams for me? I need to change my eating habits as well. One of my dreams was to be slim again, I could see myself slim and dancing before the Lord.I beleive seeing myself slim gives me a positive attitude and to vision my end result takes away the lie I can't but instills in me I CAN. Boy did I look good slim.lol take care
ReplyDelete