ENJOYING THE JOURNEY -
A journal of thankfulness and inspiration as I travel the paths of spiritual awakening and a healthy lifestyle

"Enjoy the journey; rest in God's love."

Monday, June 11, 2012

The Time Has Come...

The time has come to reactivate "Enjoying the Journey" blog.  I apologize to my 3 loyal followers (HAHA!)for going on vacation for over 2 1/2 years!

What has brought about this change of heart, you may ask.  My life is constantly changing, growing, improving.  I have undertaken a great journey lately, and would like to share thoughts and ideas about it.  This blog was originally created as a thankfulness journal, and I do intend to keep it along those lines.  I also plan on posting once or twice a week about my life journeys... into spiritual awakening and healthy living.

My eyes were opened a few months ago to the realization of where I was headed.  I had been afraid to really look carefully at the road I was on because it meant facing some very difficult truths.

1.  I was headed to a life of severe health problems.  I look at others in my family that are struggling with diabetes, kidney failure, and heart disease and realize that unless I change things I am headed for that, too.  I am very healthy right now, but it is inevitable my good health will not last if I don't take care of myself.

2.  Denial will not change the consequenses of being overweight and a not-so-healthy diet.

3.  As surely as there are drug addicts, nicotine addicts, and alcoholics, I am also an addict... to food.  It has filled empty spots in my life for many years and offered comfort to me when things were difficult.  But like all addictions, it is a big deceiver.  Food tells me it is OK because I NEED to eat to survive.  It tells me a little won't hurt.  It tells me that I can always start a diet tomorrow, or next week, or after the holidays.

4.  Diets don't work.  I have had to fully embrace the truth that diets are temporary, and as soon as you get tired of it, you go back to old eating ways.  And then the weight comes back.  I have proven this many times.

5.  It is all about a commitment.  I am committed to eating wisely for THE REST OF MY LIFE.  I am committed to getting as much activity worked into my week as I can, FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.  I am committed to following an eating plan, counting my Weight Watchers points carefully FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.  It does no good to whine about those who can eat anything they want in huge amounts, never exercise, and still don't gain.  That is not ME, so it really doesn't matter what their metabolism is like.  I have to face the facts and accept them. 

6.  My relationship with Jesus will fill the voids in my life.  This takes effort on my part, and I am committed to regularly schedule time with Him rather than just trying to somewhere squeeze Him into my busy days.  I highly recommend the book Born to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire, by Lysa Terkeurst.

March 15th was the beginning of the journey to greater health.  There have been bumps along the road... a foot injury that brought distance walking to a halt for a few weeks.  But it is working!  This morning I reached a total of 18.5 pounds lost.  In just a couple of weeks I will be at the 10% loss level.  I must admit, that feels GREAT!  I am feeling much better about myself these days, and I am just plain feeling better.  No extra serving of food or huge amounts of calorie laden treats are better than this, or worth the health consequenses.

So there you have it... the map for the journey I am now on.  I'll share with you my journey, the ups, the downs, and other things that pop up along the way.  And the amazing thing is that through God's grace and strength, I really Am "Enjoying the Journey".

Would you like to join me?  Search for a reason to commit.  I have found healthy eating and exercising so much easier this time because I have a strong commitment... I know where I WANT to go (a healthy body and active lifestyle), and I also know where I DON'T want to go (chronic illness and disease) in life.   That makes things easier for me when faced with choices to be made.

KAT

THANKFULNESS MOMENT:  I am thankful my eyes were opened before it was too late, before chronic health problems became a reality in my life.

4 comments:

  1. Let me start by saying that I could have written this post - all of it. I have been down this road so many times and tried every possible diet, and like you, I discovered that diets are temporary; lifestyle, is permanent.

    Committing to exercise was a big leap for me, but I joined a gym in October, and have exercised five days a week since then. Exercise and healthy eating are the keys to weight loss. I struggle with both EVERY day, but I am making progress.

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  2. Love this! So inspiring and honest! Thank you for sharing!

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  3. It's a path I should be doing once again. I'm very much in the same boat as you and many other women. Your inspiration may be getting to me...........and I will stay tuned to listen and hopefully stay on the right path of this journey. I'm pretty darn healthy but realize it could change any moment and know that I have to get my weight down. Maybe I'm not all that healthy and more like blessed that it hasn't happened already. How can one expect an over weight body to keep working properly when it has so much to do.

    Thanks for the inspiration

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