Fitness Friday

I binged this week. I had been 144 days since the last time. So what led to this binge? It was not anything big, probably a lot of little things: overwhelmed at work, finally talked to the guy about the franchise, email from SIL about how nephew is doing, decision/fear to write letter pat, possibility of having friends over to eat this weekend, the chicken on my big salad at lunch, craving for licorice but no licorice to satisfy, trying to satisfy craving with payday bar, having ww snacks in my office for over a week now, giving in to one ww snack which turned into eating 4 more. The binge was on Wednesday. It stopped after the payday and the 5 ww snacks and I have eaten normally since then. Thursday was a struggle. I wanted to binge again, but it was just the processed food talking. I am feeling better today.

We've made it to the gym twice the week. It is Sugar Pop's early week, so I have walked on the treadmill for 10 minutes four mornings this week. I used to hate early week because it threw off my routine and I didn't have any alone time in the house after work. I still don't have the alone time after work, but I have altered my morning routine for the week and walking on the treadmill is something I look forward to on these weeks.

I am still maintaining my weight within my weight range. I was up a little over the range earlier in the week, but that was water retention from the Italian food we had on Saturday night. Even with my mid-week binge, I am still "in the range." It is a great place to be.

Did you miss me?

Did you notice I was gone for a week? Sugar Pop and I went to Nashville for GMA Week and the Dove Awards. We had a really good time and got to listen to a LOT of Christian artists peform. Hopefully, we made some good contacts for Sugar Pops music, but only time will tell what develops on that front. The excitement of the week for me was getting to meet Mike & Jeannie from the Air1 Morning Show.

So, after a week of being away from home, eating whatever whenever, and not exercising, the scale was up 2.4 lbs. I was amazed that it wasn't more. My six week maintenance period is now officially over and I am returning to weight loss points again. My 20 year high school reunion is in 48 days and I have 8.6 lbs to lose to be back at my goal weight. Not impossible, but not a breeze either.

I am happy to be back home and back to my healthy habits and healthy eating and exercise. After a week of indulging, it feels good to return to discipline.

Settling into Maintenance

This is week 5 of my 6 week weight maintenance break. I was reflecting on the previous weeks and it occurred to me that it wasn't until last week that I really relaxed in maintenance mode. I was struggling with binge eating (which is part of the reason I decided to take the maintenance break) for the first three weeks. I would binge and then want to go back to weight loss points. Then I finally decided that binging was "no longer an option." I want to give it up FOREVER. Now that I have done that and feel like the issue is settled, I feel very comfortable at maintenance points. And interestingly, the scale has gone down about a pound after 11 days of no binging (even though I am eating 27 points a day).

I know I have to be on my guard though. I need to stay close to God because the "binge monster" could attack at any time. I reviewed my list of differences between a binge and a splurge yesterday, just to keep me on my toes. I bought some Ginger Chews at Drug Emporium yesterday. I could have easily eaten the entire bag (and made myself sick in the process, I'm sure), but I recognized I was on the verge of a binge and I did not want to go there. I do realize I need to be on alert though...I could have easily eaten through the entire bag before I realized I had just binged. As it turns out, I had five pieces - 100 calories. God is my strength and I am sure that He is responsible for alerting me to the danger I was encountering. I can't even remember how he "snapped me out of it" but I know that it was Him. I must watch and listen for His voice.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the awareness you gave me yesterday. I was tempted to eat that entire bag, but you rescued me. I am your little sheep who so easily wanders off and gets trapped in the brush or falls into the river. Please keep a watch on me and continue to rescue me when I get too close to danger. It feels good to have been saved BEFORE I needed it. Thank you. In Jesus Name I Praise You. Amen.

Give up on Maintenance?

Isn't There Some Misunderstanding? (My Utmost for His Highest - March 28th)

Just because I don't understand what Jesus Christ says, I have no right to determine that He must be mistaken in what He says. That is a dangerous view, and it is never right to think that my obedience to God's directive will bring dishonor to Jesus. The only thing that will bring dishonor is not obeying Him. To put my view of His honor ahead of what He is plainly guiding me to do is never right, even though it may come from a real desire to prevent Him from being put to open shame. I know when the instructions have come from God because of their quiet persistence. But when I begin to weigh the pros and cons, and doubt and debate enter into my mind, I am bringing in an element that is not of God. This will only result in my concluding that His instructions to me were not right. Many of us are faithful to our ideas about Jesus Christ, but how many of us are faithful to Jesus Himself? Faithfulness to Jesus means that I must step out even when and where I can't see anything (see Matt. 14:29). But faithfulness to my own ideas means that I first clear the way mentally. Faith, however, is not intellectual understanding; faith is a deliberate commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ, even when I can't see the way ahead.
Are you debating whether you should take a step in faith in Jesus, or whether you should wait until you can see clearly how to do what He has asked? Simply obey Him with unrestrained joy. When He tells you something and you begin to debate, it is because you have missunderstanding of what honors Him and what doesn't. Are you faithful to Jesus, or faithful to your ideas about Him? Are you faithful to what He says, or are you trying to compromise His words with thoughts that never came from Him? "Whatever He says to you, do it." (John 2:5)

Two days ago, in the midst of a cheez-its and vanilla wafer eating fest, I wanted to give up on this idea of maintenance for six weeks and return to weight loss and lose this extra 6 lbs or so. Then the next morning, I read this. So, I won't. God is teaching me during this time and I will keep learning. I will continue to obey God on this.

Continued Maintenance

I am beginning Week 3 of my Six Week Maintenance period I talked about here. These past two weeks have been good, although I still find it difficult looking at those higher numbers on the scale and not "doing" anything about them. You might think I should stop weighing daily, but I won't. I have done that in the past and the numbers just went up. Seeing the number every morning keeps me mindful of what I am eating and prevents me from "throwing it all to the wind." I also think that in the long run it will be helpful because the number won't mean as much. It will just be data that gets collected and put in a spreadsheet.

I am enjoying having the extra "points" to eat each day. WW weight loss points is 20 for me and I am eating 27. The extra points I am getting in are coming from healthy oils, extra proteins, nuts, and whole grains. (Well, except for last weekend...then they came from cookies!) When I return to weight loss mode, those will be easy things to cut back on.

Today I read a post from Jonathon on slow weight loss. It was full of wisdom and in 5 weeks (Yes, there is an extra week in there because of the week we will be in Nashville for GMA Week.) I want to remember that lasting weight loss is slow weight loss. I don't want to rush losing these 6 extra pounds. I will be patient.

The Next Six Weeks

I've been struggling with losing a few pounds for months now. I am really getting aggravated with it and I am feeling very obsessed with the number on the scale. I've been having binges more often which is making it even harder to get the weight off.

This weekend the sermon was on "How to Make Important Changes" and it had me thinking about my weight loss, binging, fitness, etc. I want to stop the binging. Don talked about "Rear View Mirror Practice" and the different places we identify the behavior we are wanting to change. Imagine the behavior is a car passing us on the right side. If we don't see the car (behavior) until it is passed us (we done it again), that is not a failure. It is a victory because we are identifying it. As we practice the change, we start to notice the "car" when it is beside (we are in the middle of the behavior) and we catch ourself. That is also a victory. With time we begin to use the mirror and see the behavior coming up behind us and put our self on alert.

Anyway, I was thinking about this during communion time and how I have been struggling with the number on the scale and with binging and eating healthy and all that "stuff." It came to me that I need to just do maintenance for six weeks. I almost recoil at the thought of it because I want to see that magic number. However, I also want to take some pressure off myself. I mulled it over all day yesterday and since I got up this morning. I believe the idea of doing maintenance came from God as it was nothing I had even pondered until communion yesterday. I am going to trust Him and work on maintenance the next six weeks.