Ouch!

So, yesterday I made this completely offhand comment in my post about doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred last night. You might have even missed it, as I didn't give it much air time.

I should have. Oh. My. Gosh.

If anyone wants to know JUST how out of shape they are (and no, I'm not talking to those of you who ARE in shape!), just do this 20-minute workout. Seriously.

There are 3 levels, and I clearly started on Level 1 (Jillian suggests this, no matter who you are). She takes you through three circuits each of 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs for about a 20-minute workout. Sounds easy, right?

I actually could NOT do the entire workout. I made it through, but I had to stop and rest several times!!

But, there is a silver-lining in this: I now know JUST how out of shape I truly am. Being thin does NOT = in shape. I have a lot of work to do in this area and I'm thinking Journey #2 (exercise) may just take as long as Journey #1 (weight-loss)!

Pray for me!! I will need prayers and strength to get through this even more than the weight-loss phase. There wasn't physical pain that made it hard to get up the stairs when all I was doing was dieting. THIS is going to take God's strength, not my own, to see through!!

Post Plateau-Breaker Blues

It happens every time, without fail.

When I do a plateau-breaker, they tell me that you're not supposed to lose a lot DURING the plateau-breaker, but they're designed to get you going like gang-busters AFTER the breaker is over.

Not for me.

I lose like a rock star the week of, and then... nothing.

As I already posted, I lost 3.75 lbs last week - the week OF the breaker. Weighed in Monday and was UP .5 lbs. Now, they said this is fairly common because of water retention from all the increased sodium (I figured as much) from the unlimited skin-on, meat-on-the-bone protein allowed for the two days prior.

But today when I weighed in, I was only down that 1/2 lb, putting me right back to where I was on Saturday, meaning I've lost NOTHING so far this week. I did ACV 3 times on Saturday, cut the sodium back a bit on Sunday and did ACV again Monday and AGAIN last night.

So, we're trying something new. I am going to alternate removing one starch and one fruit every other day. So today, I'm removing a starch, tomorrow a fruit, then a starch, etc.

One of the counselors had told me that when I had 15 lbs to go, they were going to switch me to Plan 1, but I am at 12.5 lbs to go and they don't want to do that until nothing else works.

I'm open to seeing how this goes, since I would have to permanently remove one starch if I moved to Plan 1 and this way I only have to do it every other day.

I'm definitely running out of time to get to balance 4 weeks before we leave for Texas, so I will do whatever it takes to get to goal - I have 5 weeks (after this week) left to get to goal. I'm going to give it my best and keep praying that God will help get me there!

Blogs That Are Not My Own #2

I'm starting off the week on a killer 7-Day Plateau Breaker, so some spiritual reminders couldn't come at a better time for me.

This is the other blog that I didn't write that I want to share with you. I received it as a daily devotional last week and the author is Lysa TerKeurst, author of the fabulous book "Made to Crave". I'll let the entry, Shocked by My Own Advice, speak for itself. I hope you enjoy it and take as much away from it as I did!

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate
and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and
many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow
the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)

The choice is mine. If I want to be a sold out somebody for God, I have to break away from the everybody crowd.

Today’s key verses are not easy for a girl who wanted nothing more growing up than to fit in. Don’t cause waves. Don’t stand out. Don’t stand up. Don’t rock the boat of norm in anyway. Just go with the flow in the same direction as everyone else.

But somewhere along my Christian journey, going with the flow started to bother me.

Verses like the one above in Matthew 7 and Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” started to mess with my status quo existence.

Conformed or transformed? The choice is mine. If I want to be a sold out somebody for God, I have to break away from the everybody crowd.

This is a message I shared with my son one day when he came to me scared. He admitted things had gone a little too far with his girlfriend and wanted help processing what to do. They hadn’t crossed every line but enough that he knew they were headed in a dangerous direction.

We sat on the back deck and processed the situation together. We read a list of empowering Scripture verses seeking to filter every part of this situation through God’s truth. In the end, he and his girlfriend came to the realization they needed to break up. It’s really hard to put things in reverse after certain lines have been crossed.

I walked back into the house after that conversation with two things running through my brain. I was thrilled my son came to me to talk about such a sensitive issue. What an honor to breathe Truth into his physical struggle.

But, I was also feeling a little panicked at the realities of parenting older teenagers. And that feeling led me straight to the pantry, convinced I needed some chocolate. I deserved some chips! As I loaded my arms full of treats, I was suddenly struck by a gut wrenching question. How can I expect my son to apply Truth to his area of physical struggle but refuse to apply it to my area of physical struggle?

Ouch. I was shocked by my own advice.

If I wanted to model what it looks like to live out truth in my physical struggles, I would have to break up with unhealthy choices. God made me to consume food, but food was never supposed to consume me.

Making healthy choices with my food would have to be part of my breaking away. I would have to distance myself from my distraction if I wanted to become truly transformed.

What’s your distraction? What’s the one way you can start to break away from the everybody crowd?

The everybody crowd says, “if it feels good it is good.” The everybody crowd says, “don’t deny yourself… that’s so old school.” The everybody crowd says, “everybody’s living it up – so should you.”

Conformed or transformed? The choice is ours. If we want to be a sold out somebody for God, we have to break away from the everybody crowd.

Dear Lord, I want and need to live apart from the everybody crowd. Free me of my distractions. Remove my insecurities. Help me to follow You with my whole heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Please visit Lysa's site with the links above; she has far more valuable resources and insight in this area than I do (she is a professional writer, after all )

She did a follow-up blog,  I'm More Than the Sum Total of my Taste Buds, that provides the list of verses she used with her son. This is just a sampling of the additional resources you will find at her site that can hopefully help along your weight loss journey, as it has helped with mine. I've found her to be invaluable, because she's been there!

Have a great week everyone and please pray for me that I hang in there with this plateau breaker. as this one is going to be a killer!

Blogs That Are Not My Own #1

...but so good that I have to share them with you!!

First a quick update on my week: I lost 2 lbs this week for a total of 83.25. I am happy to have a much better week than the week before (only .5 lbs), but SlimGenics is still having me start a 7-day plateau breaker on Monday to assist things and keep them moving. I'm guessing that I will be starting Plan 1 after the breaker, as I'm only  1.25 lbs away from when they said they were going to switch me. I only have 16.25 lbs to go before I reach my original goal, but as I've said, I'm seriously considering adding 10 more lbs to that goal. We shall see. Now, onto the first of 2 blog posts that I did not write, but feel speak to what I believe and feel very well!

The first is a blog post written by my fabulous husband that so eloquently speaks to the issue of gluttony in a way I could never elucidate myself. I do not believe simply linking to it does it justice, so I'm going to simply re-post it in its entirety below. Enjoy:

We entertained a nice couple last night. Two very good people who sought our counsel in regards to Angie’s recent weight loss. During the conversation, Angie illustrated her views on gluttony and while I was very well aware of them, and the sound, God honoring logic behind them, I don’t know that it had ever clicked so well in my mind as it did last night.

The early church identified seven deadly sins: Lust, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride and… yes, Gluttony.

Gluttony, as defined by Merriam-Webster is excess in eating or drinking, greedy or excessive indulgence.

I think we can also expand that definition to encompass anything from cooking to video games to scrap booking or sports; anything that takes more of our time than is necessary and/or healthy. Overindulgence is to do anything to an excessive degree. Anything.

It’s pretty obvious God doesn’t want us overindulging, especially in light of passages such as:

James 5:5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self‑indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

By indulging in overeating we:

• Devote a significant portion of our attention to food. Attention that could be better spent in the Word, or doing His will.

• Devote a larger than necessary portion of our time and resources to food; time and resources better spent on Godly things.

• Harm our bodies, and decrease our body’s ability to perform as God designed it to. By harming our bodies, we drag down our spirit and emotional lives, for the spirit is anchored to the flesh, and if the flesh is already weak, how much weaker does it become when subjected to overindulgence?

• By dragging down our spirit and emotions, we become less effective for God, missing the opportunities to do things for Him at our full potential. God puts others in our path that we might shine His love on them, but how much are we shortchanging those people if we’re not at 100% because we overindulge in food?

• Our weakened body, mind and spirit become easy prey for those engaging in spiritual warfare. If God designed us to be spiritual prize fighters, yet we turn our bodies and spirits into those of couch potatoes, how easy is it for a fit enemy to defeat us?

Like everything sin related it’s a slippery slope that begins with baby missteps. No one wakes up one morning deciding to get physically, emotionally a spiritually unfit, instead we think, “It won’t hurt to grab some fast food for breakfast” Or “I’ve had a tough week, I deserve some comfort food” Or “We all have to eat, right?” or “one more chip won’t hurt anything…”

From there, it moves from “just this once” to “Well, I’ve done it before…” to “That’s what I do…” and pretty soon, our bodies, minds and souls are in worse shape than we care to admit or even realize. We’re soldiers in the army of the Lord trying to fight a war with broken down, poorly maintained equipment while telling ourselves we deserve this, selling ourselves on the notion that overindulging in food is a reward. A reward our society sells us daily. And we buy that sales pitch willingly.

I understand overindulgence more than most, I would guess. As a child, I was forced to endure hunger and often a lack of the creature comforts many of my peers took for granted. What this led to was a desire to escape my perception that my life was so much less than those around me by diving into a beer bottle. From there, I swam deeper into the waters of alcoholism and did so as if my ability to drink anyone I knew under the table was a badge of honor: Sure I didn’t have a nice car or awesome home life, but I could down a fifth of Vodka and still beat a sobriety test. Pretty soon, I didn’t drink for fun, or drink to blow off steam, I drank because it’s just what I did. I was a drinker; no longer a guy who drank, but a drinker… then a drunk.

After my awesome wife came into my life and I put that aside, I simply traded one overindulgence for another and turned into an eater; a full blown foodaholic.

From society’s point of view, I’d overcome this terrible vice of alcohol and straightened my life out.

From God’s point of view, I’d merely replaced one deadly sin with another.

Thankfully, I’ve overcome that too. Well, let me rephrase that, God has overcome that in my life. Without Him, nothing is done that has been done.

So, my question to you is: Are you moderating your indulgence? Or, are you worshipping at the altar of a false idol and rationalizing it as a reward for yourself, a deserved pleasure, as “just what you do,” “something I enjoy” another “where’s the harm in that” endeavor?

Maybe you spend too much time focused on food. Too much energy invested in a hobby. Too much time taken away from God and given to an indulgence that might be legal in man’s world, but by the very nature of your relationship with it, is illegal in the Kingdom.

If you don’t think this applies to you in any way, that’s awesome. You rock. But, before you decide it does, pray that God would show you whether your thinking on this matter is correct. If He shows you otherwise, turn it over to Him and watch as He transforms you into the son or daughter He had in mind when He knit you in your mother’s womb.

Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 

He then added an additional piece of very relevant scripture that he received in a daily devotional email as a comment:

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

I hope you enjoyed my hubby's blog post as much as I did and I thank him for writing it. I am blessed beyond measure to have him as my husband. I love you baby.

All for Him!

If you've been here since the beginning of my journey, you know that I believe that God wants me to be a better steward of the body he's given me for my time here on this earth. I have not done a very good job of honoring that body.

Until now.

I am not there yet; however, I am close. And I know that this was possible (80 lbs in 7 months!) only by the grace of God. It took changes in my spiritual thinking to truly gain the wisdom that I needed to make real changes in my eating habits. And you know what? God noticed. He has been with me every step of the journey and now He wants to use me and my weight loss to motivate and inspire others that they can do it too!

A couple weeks ago the senior pastor of my church and employer (Eagle Brook Church) approached me and two other women at the office to interview us about our successful weight loss journeys. All 3 of us are currently on SlimGenics and enjoying success. It was an amazing opportunity to sit down and watch my pastor furiously take notes as we talked in preparation for an upcoming message on doing things you can't do.

That message was this weekend. I sat in the worship center with family and friends at my side for 2 separate services and I cried both times as he told my story and showed before and after pictures for all 14,000ish people attending this weekend to see.

God is amazing and I want to publicly thank and acknowledge all He's done in my life for me and through me and I pray that there will be others out there who might be inspired and start a similar journey of their own.

If anyone is interested in watching the message delivered by Bob Merritt this weekend, here is the link. He starts talking about the 3 of us just before 18 minutes in, but I highly suggest watching the entire message to hear it in the context he prepared it.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been here supporting me and praying for me! I know I'm not there yet, but I'm confident that I will be there and I will be there soon. In the meantime, I'm praying for all of you as well.

SO CLOSE!

So I am again frustrated, mostly because I have no patience whatsoever!!

I was very happy Monday after having a nice loss over the weekend and weighing in at SlimGenics 29.25 lbs down. Of course, I convinced myself that I would hit 30 lbs by my weigh-in today, because 1/2 lb a day has been the minimum loss I've been seeing. And of course, I did the plateau-breaker last week that was supposed to kick my weight loss into high gear again this week.

Apparently I got cocky. Forgot to recognize continually that this success is NOT something I'm obtaining on my own, and that I have to keep giving it to God. He is why I have been so successful so far; there is no way I could have lost 28 lbs in 7 weeks on my own; it's because I keep praying and giving it to Him that I've come this far.

Soooo... I get on the scale Tuesday morning.... and I'm UP .2 lbs!! Now, .2 lbs isn't very much and it does happen from time to time. Did I mention I have no patience?

Ok, no biggie. It and more will be gone today! I get on the scale this morning and the .2 lbs are gone, BUT NOTHING MORE!! WHAT?! How can I weigh the same thing on Wednesday morning as Monday morning when I'm supposed to be shedding weight like crazy because of last week's plateau-breaker?

So I went to weigh in and at least I was down another 1/2 lb with them (probably had lighter clothes!!), bringing me to 29.75 lbs! SO CLOSE.

They are convinced that I'll hit my 30 lb milestone on Friday, but I'm going to be doing some extra praying and handing my health over to God (again and again and again!!).