I know. . . I know. . . You thought I was going to tell you my weight right?!?!?! Nope. Sorry not that!!!!! :-)
Okay, so you can hardly believe it. I'm still alive. Haven't blogged in weeks and you all thought I had run away from home. :-)
Okay, so maybe not quite that bad.
I have taken a bit of a hiatus. For a couple of reasons.
1. The first being that I realized that my blogging was becoming a bit of a God for me. ??? I know sounds a bit crazy, but I'll try to explain. When I started blogging, I just wanted to share some of the things God had taught me over the past several years. I wanted to share the journey that God had brought me on and if in the process of that God used what I had said, great. However, over the last several months, it was becoming something different. It was becoming . . . . shall I say. . . a popularity contest. Oh, not for anyone else. Just for me. I wanted to be this amazing person who touched everyone's life by what I was writing. It was becoming more about me, and less about God. More about what people would think, rather than what God wanted me to share. So I took a hiatus. I stopped looking at the stats and gave this back to God.
2. Second, I was feeling more pressure to keep up the writing every so and so many days. And as you can tell, that still goes back to number one, about the whole focus being misconstrued!! So I took some time to breathe. Truthfully, I have enjoyed the break, but I have also enjoyed doing my 100 days of Praise on my Facebook page as well. I'm on day 58 and it has been such a refreshing thing to focus on thanksgiving and praise. So many times it has changed my demeanor for the day.
So today, I thought I'd share with you my new "journey" I am starting on.
A little more than a week ago, I stepped on the scale to see numbers I hadn't ever seen before. Aghast, I stepped off and hoped for the error sign on my digital scale. Hmmm. . . . no error. (sometimes if the scale has been upright along the wall, the first reading is often incorrect - usually higher - and it shows that an error incurred). Unfortunately, this time there was no error reading. So I stepped off and got on again, in the hopes of a new number. . . . No. Really???? Step on again a few minutes later - perhaps that would change things. . . . still no. . . . .
So for a day or so, I sat down in the dumps. I'm old. I'm fat. I'm ugly. I'm awful!!! The lies came pouring in like a dam had just broken. As I sat at my desk, the devotional calendar from Sarah Young read like this: (based on Psalm 89:15, 16 1 John 3:19-20, Jude 24-25, Psalm 41:12
"FOCUS YOUR ENTIRE BEING on My living Presence. I am most assuredly with you, enveloping you in My Love and Peace. While you relax in My Presence, I am molding your mind and cleansing your heart. I am recreating you into the one I designed you to be. As you move from stillness into the activities of your day, do not relinquish your attentiveness. If something troubles you, talk it over with Me. If you get bored with what you are doing, fill the time with prayers and praise. When someone irritates you, don't let your thoughts linger on that person's faults. Gently nudge your mind back to Me. Every moment is precious if you keep your focus on Me. Any day can be a good day, because My Presence permeates all time."
Well, let me tell you, that was certainly NOT what I was doing. I was allowing Satan's lies to worm their way into my mind. I was NOT focusing any part of my being on God.
So as I prayed and thought about where I was physically, I made a decision to start to live healthier and start to work on my body. Not because I was believing Satan's lies that I was an awful person, but because I started to realize that I had started to use food, and a lifestyle of laziness to make excuses for myself. I had used the past years of anxiety and depression to justify allowing my physical body to become what it had. I was not honoring the temple that the Holy Spirit was dwelling in. I was treating it with disrespect and selfishness.
As I was looking through a variety of health websites, I saw several proclaiming the "sure fire way" to get healthy. The 5 foods you should never eat. The 3 exercises to become lean and fit. And then there was the one that actually caught my attention for real and I opened it. "The one thing that is keeping overweight people from getting healthy." I opened it and was amazed to find out that it wasn't over eating. It wasn't lack of exercise. Do you know what it was? LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY!!!! For those of you who have a gym membership. For those of you that walk regularly with someone else. For those of you that are involved in a weight loss program, you know that value of accountability.
So, today I am starting something called Wednesday's Weigh in. OH don't think for a moment, I'm going to be telling you what the numbers on the scale are. NO WAY! :-) Not even Keith or my kids see that. At least not yet! However, every Wednesday, I am going to share how my weekly journey has gone in the "getting healthy" department. So for today, I am going to share with you, what my plan is.
1. I am using myfitnesspal.com to track my progress. The food I eat. The exercising I do. etc.
2. I am starting to exercise more regularly. My goal at this point is to walk (and eventually run) 4 times a week. I have the luxury of having several mornings without students, so my goal is to be able to walk at least 20 minutes on those days. I am also starting a squat routine that hopefully I'll be able to stick too. Thankfully I've found one that is slow going and I still am able to walk after 3 days of doing it!!!! LOL
3. I am starting to eat healthier. Now. . . that doesn't mean every meal will be like that. (Today I had a wonderful lunch with an amazing group of friends, and chocolate cake is NOT on the healthy list, but it was amazing.) Like I said, it just eating healthier. So today, instead of drinking pop, I drank water instead. Instead of having double of what I normally would have of the pulled pork, I had a respectable amount. Instead of a second bun, I had lots of veggies - no dip. Little things like that. Small steps that I know will in the end make my body much healthier. The ironic thing is that during this first week of trying to do better, Keith just found out that his cholesterol is too high and he needs to be eating healthier as well - so it was perfect timing that we both have made this decision at this point!!!!
So my Wednesday weigh ins, will be how I am doing. My exercise progress. My healthy eating progress. But also my spiritual progress. How my week has been and the things that have gone well. As with my 100 days of Praise, I plan to focus on the positives. I plan on sharing the good things. Not to say that every week will be great progress. but I KNOW that every week will have something positive to share.
Let's weigh in together and grow together in our journeys. I'd love to hear how YOU are doing!!!
Blessings on you as you seek to follow God's journey for you!!!
*Hugs to you*
