By far my most successful endeavor of the new year has been my commitment to losing weight and getting healthier. I have stuck with my eating and workout plan perfectly over the last four weeks. Every Saturday I sit at my computer and plan my menus for the week and order groceries, making lists of things I'll need at Safeway after church every Sunday. Having this plan and being able to write it out as my guidebook for the week helps me stick to my budget, my grocery list, and my meal plan. I also write out my workouts for the week. Walking on my lunch break at work every day. Running my Couch to 5K three days a week. Tap class on Tuesdays. Taking it easy on the weekends, or getting in activity with my girls. Seeing that plan written out keeps me accountable. I have dinners planned for the week, my groceries are fresh because they are ordered weekly, and it makes it easier to avoid the temptation of fast food when I know I have a meal ready to cook at home.
Because of my tenacity to sticking with my plan, I am proud to share that I am down 22.2 pounds and dropping! People are beginning to notice the change and I am feeling so proud of myself!
I have never been one that was fond of exercise. Well, maybe not in my adult life. I was very active with sports in school and was often a three season athlete, participating in volleyball, basketball, and track (throwing events...not running.) I didn't enjoy running but if you made me chase a ball down the court I could do that. As I got heavier and heavier in college and beyond it became harder and harder to move, let alone exercise. When I would lose weight before, I never exercised. It was always just watching what I was eating. This time I wanted to start exercising. So I put my plan in place. When I started week one of the app I was running in 30 second intervals. I started at 3.5 miles per hour on the treadmill and I thought I was going to die. Soon I was increasing to 4 miles per hour. Then 4.5. And then the app stretched my running intervals to one minute. And then a minute and a half. Last week I did six one and a half minute intervals of running at five miles per hour and I thought I maybe was on The Biggest Loser. It was terrible! But I finished. I did it! And I was so proud of myself. This week I started week three of the app and it increased some of my intervals to running for two and a half minutes solid. I was terrified and worried I wouldn't be able to do it. But I thought positively and started the treadmill. I decided to back off to four miles per hour. And I did it! In fact, it almost seemed like it was too slow! So today, I bumped up my last interval to 4.5 miles per hour. I did it! And I feel great about my accomplishments.
With my plan in place, tools such as my app, my Facebook weight loss challenge friends, my FitBit, my treadmill, and Weight Watchers, support in the form of two little cheerleaders cheering their momma on, and a few close friends that I share my eating and exercise plans with I am getting stronger every day! I'm eating delicious, healthy menus that I can sustain daily and I'm enjoying exercising and getting fit!
This all runs parallel to another part of my New Years goals: my spiritual life. I have always been a Christian. I grew up in the Lutheran church. But, just as life started piling on the pounds, life started piling on the stress. There was a lot of trauma introduced into my life in a short period of time. And I began to get lazy about my faith. I prayed. Maybe. I sometimes read my Bible. Eventually it led to "Oh. Yeah. Maybe I should pray about that. See if it'll help." I was fighting each and every day to simply survive the day. I wasn't living. I was a zombie, walking aimlessly through my days, struggling to right my sinking ship. Hoping that something would click and I'd find my purpose in life again. So I developed a plan. Just as I have my health and fitness journal, I have my faith journal. I write out my plan for what I need to do. Journal. Read my Bible. Have talks with my Heavenly Father. Pray constantly. Read devotions and scripture. Check in with a few close friends. All of these things are just as important, even MORE important than my physical health. I need to follow through on my plan for following Him through my daily life and relying on Him to carry me through each and every spot of my life. Because of the relationship I have with Jesus, I can now say that I am living! Is it ask easy path? Absolutely not! Every day is a battle. A battle to keep the demons out and to let the light and love of my Heavenly Father shine in. But the battle is not mine alone. Just as my process for losing weight and getting fit includes a plan and a journal and tools and support, my spiritual process includes a plan and a journal and tools and support.
With the plans that I have in place, I will continue to lose weight and run and walk and get healthier. And I will also continue to cement my faith even more in the love of Jesus and grow in my faith in Him and in fervent love toward others. Distinct, deliberate plans to get me from where I used to be to where I want to be! Healthy, fit, skinnier, and faithful in the Lord!
Stronger every day...this is my goal in all areas of my life. Not perfect. Not doing it all on my own. Just stronger every day. And I can already tell you, that living life rather existing through the days is so good! Thank you, Jesus, for carrying me this far. And thank you for teaching me to walk with you for the rest of this journey. With you...stronger every day!
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