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Friday, February 26, 2010

Full Friday

"Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God". 1 Cor 10:31

Well, I was supposed to weigh myself today and completely forgot! So, I plan on weighing myself tomorrow morning. At any rate, this week has been tough for me. Because I have been trying to focus on the Lord more so than I was before, Satan has been tailgating me! Like the sinner I am, I have given into temptation (food) a few times, but I refuse to let it bring me down. I have really tried the "portion control" concept this week - with a good amount of luck, actually! I also did Yoga through P90x today - wow! That was ROUGH, but I got through it, cramped toes and all!


I'll update you all tomorrow on my weight... even if I haven't lost anything, these pants are fitting a lot better!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Rough

I'm having a rough week. Please pray for me.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Find Your Escape

This weekend was tough for me. Well, Sunday was tough for me - food wise. Saturday went well, put in all my food, added up all of my points, did my P90x and jogged a mile. I was feeling pretty great, actually! Then, Sunday hit. My morning started off with a very sick husband and two rather unhappy children. However, I still ate a good breakfast, headed off to church (with LIPSTICK on! Wow.) and had a good friend with me who I haven't seen in forever. I came home though and made one huge mistake: I failed to plan my eating for the remainder of the day. Without a plan, I had nothing to go by, and a doughnut and 5 oreos later... I was very unhappy. Today was also my day off from work out - which made it all the worse. I pretty much used up my entire 35 point allowance for the week. Bummer.

So, what did I learn?

A. Doughnuts smell great, taste good and sit right on my hips.
B. Even if Oreos are free and a bag of your favorite Hershey Cherry Cordial Kisses are only $0.75, that doesn't mean you should pick them up. Once they're in the house, they somehow find their way into my stomach and... right on my hips.
C. But, chocolate is so good.
D. Just staring at carrots is not enough.
E. Try the pink lipstick - you actually might like it.
F. If God is bigger than the boogie man, He's bigger than your appetite, too.

So, now it's coming up to Monday. I finally have all of the P90x DVDs and the schedule so I officially kick off my 90 day program tomorrow. (I've been doing what DVDs I have for the past few weeks, which have been very helpful.) I have no more "extra points" to splurge on, so it's going to be an interesting rest of the week.

This Week's Goal:
To begin the process of destroying my idol: food.

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 1 Cor 10:13-14

I love that this verse says that God will provide an escape. We all must find what our "escape" is. I'm sure reading the Word is always a good start.

Hope your weekend was as productive as mine, let me know how it went. Even if you had struggles, like myself, try to learn what you can from them and continue on.

God is good! WE CAN DO THIS!

Friday, February 19, 2010

First Day of the Rest of My Life

I wieghed in this morning... something I have refused to do these last few weeks. I have decided that I want to lose 50lbs. I originally was only going to lose the 30lbs I gained, but I want to get down to the weight I was when I was married, so this is my goal. I'm not very good at measuring my body, but I'm going to try, so that if I don't seem to be losing the weight very quickly, perhaps I'll still see the inches fall off :).



Here is my plan of attack for now:

Diet: I am currently a member of Weight Watchers Online. My daily points allowance is 29, and I do plan on using the extra 35 points a week if needed. What I like about WW is that I'm able to incorporate all kinds of different foods while gaining an understanding of food itself. For instance, I grabbed a yogurt parfait the other day at a fast food restaurant, thinking I was doing myself a favor, only to find out it was worth 5 points! I plan on eating 3 meals and 2 snacks, with 2 - 3 hours in between each one.

Exercise: I will be doing the P90x program along with jogging 2 miles on the treadmill a few days a week.

When I feel the need to eat out of boredom, anger, emotional anything, I will instead read something out of the bible or recite a verse a few times. I want to overcome my "emotional eating", and filling my soul with spiritual food will be a great alternative!

I also will be trying out new foods, drinks, recipes, etc., and I will blog about the experiences. I'm always on the look out for good substitues for my favorite foods, and of course, I'll hardly ever pay full price!

Here's an overview of Goals:

My Big Goals:
-Lose 50lbs
-Be able to pass an Army PT Test. Requirements: 17 Push ups in 2 min, 50 Sit Ups in 2 min and a 2 mile run in 19:36.


My Mini Goals:
-Lose 5lbs, Lose 10lbs, etc. I'm going to work in 5lb incriments.
-Be able to do 1 real military style push up. No knees.
-Run a 2 mile the entire time at 5 mph.


Rewards:
Eyebrows Waxed. Fun, huh?
Hair Colored/Cut
Manicure
Pedicure

Motivation:
Getting closer to my Saviour.
Feel healthier.
To be comfortable in my clothing!
Trip to the Bahamas in September.
Trying on Bridesmaid dresses in June.
ATC in the Fall/Winter
Natalie's Wedding!
Family Reunion in July.
Hiking with the family for a day. (can you believe it?!)
Enjoying summer with my children more than I did the last year, going swimming, etc.

I have plenty of motivation, so let's go!

I'm sure I'll be adding more as time goes by, but for right now, this is where I'm at. I'm very excited to start all of this! I also be putting up pictures here soon and as I progress. :)

Thank you for all of you who will be reading this blog and holding me accountable. Please leave comments occasionally so I know you're there!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Can you do this?

Hello all. My name is Erin (for those of you who don't know me!). I'm 6' tall and overweight. I have struggled with my weight my entire life. I was blessed to grow up in a house where "organic" and "natural" were all over the foods we ate. My mother did not allow Oreos, Sodas or White Bread. I remember being the only child in 5th grade who knew that pumpernickle bread was not really chocolate cake in disguise (although American pumpernickle bread can contain some cocoa powder!), and that milk was for cows, not for little girls. Both of my parents are excellent cooks, and neither gives into the average run of the mill recipe, every ingredient was substitued for it's healthier alternative. My mom shopped at Trader Joe's (yum!) and my father worked for a German meat store, so we always had quality food over quantity. We also got into juicing and it was a routine thing to have beet and apple juice, even if I was in the shower and my dad didn't realize that I had now set boundries for daddies to NOT come into the bathroom and hand me the juice he just made, even if his eyes were closed. (I *was* still young, for those weirdos out there.) I knew what "whole wheat pasta" was before it tasted good (like they make it today!) and often found carob chips in place of my favorite semi-sweet chocolate chips in the "healthy" cookies my mom baked up. We always had our vitamins in the morning and before bed, brushed with all natural toothpaste and washed our hair with all natural shampoo. I felt important using things that you couldn't find in the normal store, like I knew some secret that all of these other kids were missing out on, and I did, thanks to my mom's dilligence in learning about a healthier lifestyle. I have carried over these concepts into my life now, especially with having my own children. I often get picked on for the "Organic Apple Juice" that sits in my refrigerator or the "Double Fiber Whole Grain Bread" we eat, but that's all I know, and I love it that way.

I also grew up with plenty of activities in my life. We always owned bikes, in fact my first bike was all pink and had a pink and white polka dotted banana seat and a pretty little bell attached to the left handle. The summers were filled with swimming in the community pool (which was by far the BEST pool I have ever seen!) and the winters were consumed with sledding and hours building snow forts and snow familes. I also was apart of a basketball team, so for a while I could honestly say "yes" when ignorant folks looked up at me from their small frames and asked the worst question ever "woah, you're tall - do you play basketball?". However, even with my height, I was incredibly clumsy and often got hit with the ball, so my basketball career was short lived.

So, with all of this healthy eating and constant activity, how did I gain weight? Why did I continue to gain it? Where is the flaw in the system? Is it me? The most amount of weight I had ever gained was with my first pregnancy and that was due to a poor diet and lack of movement. I felt that sitting on the couch and eating ice cream with my sister was much more fun than trying to do Pregnancy Yoga. I'm so glad that there are people out there who can still stretch with a 7lb baby growing in their stomach, but NOT me.

I went on a program with all my food delivered to me, and it worked like a charm. In less than 6 months I lost 70lbs! It was such a great feeling. However, over the course of the next year I gained 30lbs back. How depressing to have such a great sucess to only follow it by such a terrible failure? All of that money, time, willpower... wasted. I didn't know how to transition from such a regimented way of living to a normal life, because my "normal" life was why I needed to be on the diet in the first place!

So, through this blog I am attempting at recreating a "normal" life. Dictionary.com defines a "Diet" as the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group. I am not here to "go on" a diet, I am here to create a "diet". Create a habit of foods eaten that are healthy and normal and work for my body. I don't want to have a catagory of "bad" foods a mile long. I want to realize there are foods you can eat more often than others, but that very little is really harmful for my body in the correct portions.

Ahh... portions. That will be another lesson I will learn. The infamous "portion control". We've all heard the saying "too much of a good thing is bad", that is lack of portion control! A slice of cake is "ok" but 2? Not so much. How often do I go back for seconds? Too often, obviously.

Most importantly though, I am recreating this way of thinking because I am a child of God, and being a "glutton" is not a virtue by any sense of the imagination! Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 1 Cor 6:19. Over and over God speaks out against Gluttons, often putting them in the same boat as "drunkards" Prov 23:21 and Matt 11:19. Why is this? It is because it is such a visible sign of our lack of self-control. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Gal 5:22-24. As children of God, we are given a spirt of self control! We have it in is! And as we are reminded: For Nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1:37.

It is not ok to be overweight. No matter how much you want to tell yourself it is so that you don't have to work towards bettering yourself, it's NOT ok. It's unhealthy and it makes you unhappy. I know it does, because it always makes me unhappy. However, our happiness has to be derived from different areas than before. When I lost those 70lbs, I was finally happy because I could fit into the jeans I wore before I was pregnant. I failed to realize that I needed to be thankful that God blessed me with such a dramatic weightloss and that I was now healthier. I now was less uncomfortable, but no, I kept my happiness based on the clothes I wanted to wear. This time around, I'm basing it on deeper things. My happiness will be based on my Saviour. I will not lose weight soley for the jeans that have stayed folded in my drawers for the last year. I am losing weight for my health, for myself, for my ability to be more comfortable both physically and mentally. I am losing weight so I can do my part in living a longer life for my husband and for my children, so that I can build up my immune system. I am losing weight so I can be a stronger person, so that maybe, when all is said and done, I can do a real push up! I am losing weight so I can do more with my children, so maybe I can actually take my husband up on that offer to go hiking for the day, and so I can take control of a part of my life that is in desperate need of it. Perhaps through controlling an area that I have never been able to, maybe that control will flow over to other areas in my life. But most importantly, I'm losing weight to get closer to my God.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil 3: 12 - 14.

Our ultimate Goal (like my mother used to always tell us) is HEAVEN, but we all have other little goals in between now and the day we meet our Creator. What's your's? Is it to lose the weight? To strengthen your body? To organize your life? To better your marriage? Find your weakness and put your heart into it. Work on overcoming what has overcome you. Take control and do not give the devil a foothold (eph 4:27)

I CAN DO THIS.
YOU CAN DO THIS.

So... let's do this!