Happy

I'm feeling so good about the start of this week. Yesterday was such a good day. I confess that as weight loss goes, I need some hand holding. That's why I told you in my previous post that I have decided to rejoin WW. I am telling you that the points system that WW implements is a great formula for me. It is a great balance between someone taking the guess work out of the hardest thing on earth for me and taking responsibility for my own actions--the stuff that goes into my mouth. I fully expect to have success this time, once and for all. As I said to Eric yesterday, it feels so good to actually take back my body and feel like I have some control over my health instead of just surrendering to my food addiction. Again and again I have said, "why would I ever want to do it any different?"

Weight Sense week 3

Week 3: Energy Expenditure

This was a great week. I love talking about exercise cause it really motivates me to get moving. This week I have my fitness evaluation which I'm very excited about, but I'm also bracing myself for my performance to be way less than I hope. Oh well, I gotta start somewhere.
Here's the things we learned today:

* The 3 components that make up our metabolism are:
resting metabolic rate
food
exercise

* Cardiovascular exercise is the most effective type of exercise for fat burn.
* Strength training is important because muscle burns more calories than fat, even at rest

* The greatest control over metabolism lies with physical activity

* It is recommended that we burn an extra 500 calories per day for weight loss.

* The challenges this week were:
Journal what we eat, how we are feeling when we eat and when and how we exercise
Get organized with planning meals so that we are not as likely to eat and go
Find ways to add exta activity in our days like parking further away and not using drive-ups

A New Vision

For a while now, I have had a desire to write. Of course, it is clear that I enjoy writing about various topics. I have found these blogs to be an excellent outlet for me and I have found that the more I write, the more I love it. I am convinced that God has placed this desire in my soul to be "a writer." I had a vision some time ago that I have hung onto. I have a dream of writing for God's glory and certainly not my own. I have fear and I have doubts about exactly how it will all go and I am certainly not getting my hopes up to be among the best. However, I have this dream and this vision that I cannot shake and that is to somehow serve the Kingdom by writing. I have been unsure of how exactly I would accomplish this. I've had fleeting thoughts that fleeted more than they stuck. But today, I had a vision that I believe could have been the Spirit's stir in my heart, to just begin reading the Word and blogging about the things I'm reading. I envision my writing to be geared toward Women since I am a woman and I don't believe my life to be any more extraordinary than any other woman that I know. Perhaps, I thought, my journey through the Word could indeed minister to someone else.

I am praying today that God would direct my study and reveal truths that lie in the written Word of the Gospel Truth. Help me gain truths and believe them for my life and if it is in your plan and your perfect Will, please let my insight and my study speak to just one other woman. This is my prayer.

A Good Day

Ahhh, it feels really good to have such a productive day. I'm not sure which feels better, having a productive day where lots of house projects get done or have a relationally productive day. Obviously, the relationally productive day has more eternal value. And that's the type of day today was. We started our day going to church, which is something we have each begun to really long for each week. Even the kids are thrilled to go to their classes! What a blessing for us. This week, Eric and I were both gripped by the Spirit during the message. The challenge was to discover or rediscover your identity in Christ. He referenced the scene from Genesis where Adam and Eve hide from God after they've done wrong in his eyes. God asks the question, "Where are you?", which is obviously much deeper than the physical location of their presence. The question that we were left with is this: "What trees are we hiding behind?" What are the things that stealing our identity in Christ? It's a fabulous question and extremely relevant in our lives now.

When we returned home we made lunch and helped the kids engage in some playtime together as Eric and I spent some much needed talk time together. It was one of those moments that is almost worth memorializing. And so we did.
We spent time setting goals and planning. Something we aspire to do regularly, but rarely follow through with faithfully. To remember this day as a day of new beginnings, we each got a rock from our garden outside and we will use it to remember this day. We take this from the passage of scripture in Joshua 4 & 5 where the Israelites finally reach Gilgal...their promised land. Gilgal, in Hebrew actually means "circle or wheel." As if to suggest that Gilgal was the coming full circle for these people who had wandered in the desert for 40 years. I have read that it is believed that the monument that God commanded they set up to memorialize this spot was placed in a circle. It is worth mentioning that the book from which I have drawn this particular inspiration (Believing God by Beth Moore) is also the book that inspired me to begin praying that God would redirect our lives. The same book that prompted me to believe God for bigger things, for my Promised Land. The prayers that led us to this geographic location. It is not a coincidence!

Among the goal that we set today were goals that were long overdue. It is rather shameful to admit that we have once again let our health fall by the wayside. We have let ourselves go and we are both feeling the effects of poor eating and rapid weight gain. It is not good!
But the silver lining is that we are more ready than ever to make a life change. And we are excited about it. I have always said that I'd rather be married to someone who struggles the same as me cause at least we can tackle this thing together. We have both decided to rejoin Weight Watchers. We have been successful together with the WW plan before and we are confident that we can finally be "lifers" together, once and for all.

Besides the tremendous prayer time and talk time that Eric and I had together, we also made the kids a priority by taking them to the zoo. The zoo closes for the fall and winter in another week and we had only visited the zoo one time. It was a lovely day to be outside and to enjoy God's creation so that what we did. It is priceless to experience the zoo with kids. Alissa spent most of the time saying, "Waaaaaaaow!" Andrew and Anna were of course taken with the fish and the sharks. We got to experience a close encounter with some kangaroos who literally hopped in a line about 5 feet from us. It was very exciting! It's so fun to build into the kids and watch them love life! We had a lot of fun too!

Weight Sense Concepts Weeks 1 & 2

Week 1
* 100% Carbs convert to glucose which gets stored as fat if not burned by the body as energy
* Carbs provide energy in it's shortest timeframe. In other words, if all I eat for breakfast is carbs, I'll be hungry in 1.5 hours. If I add a protein, I'll be sustained for 4-6 hours.
* Every potato chip has 1gm of fat in it
* Substitute oils with sprays
* Women should eat 120-180 carbs/day, Men should eat 200 carbs/day
* 1 serving of carbs = 15 carb gms.
* Women should eat 20-30gms of fiber/day
* 90% of fats are stored by the body as fat--that's why a low fat diet is best

Week2
* Look for reduced fat and light
* Fat free is usually higher calorie because to take the fat out, manufacturers have to add sugar
* Fiber is harder for the body to breakdown, therefore takes longer to leave the system and leaves you feeling full for longer
* It's best to shop in the perimeters of the store
* Meals should consist of: small starch, lean protien, lots of fruits and veggies
* Hamburger should be at least 90% lean
* Not drinking enough water causes the kidneys to work harder, causes the liver to work harder and therefore causes the body to store more fat. DRINK WATER!
* 7-10 oz of protien/meal
* Leanest meats are loin or round
* Women should have 7-9 servings of fruits and veggies/day and less than 40gm of fat/day
* Food label; for each 1 gm fat, there should be 100 cal.

Goals 9/17

I am having a really hard time staying motivated to change my eating habits. It's true what they say about a diet. Being on a diet is tricky cause it indicates that it's something that you can go off of. And I have many, many times in my life. The key to true success is to make a life change. It's so hard to do.

My goal this week is to begin practicing the concepts learned in Weight Sense.
1) Reduce the carbs in my diet
2) Make sure that I am eating a protien with every meal and snack
3) Stop multi tasking while I eat
4) 150gm of carbs/day max (10 servings of carbs)

1) Purchase only light or reduced fat items at the store
2) Drink more water
3) 30gm of fat/day max

1) Exercise 3 days per week at least

Those are all things that are related to my physical health, which we all know has a great deal to do with our mental health. I am at my best mentally when i am feeling good about myself and I only feel good about myself when I am healthy and making strides to be even healthier. But I have also learned that acheiving physical and mental health is a very nice byproduct of spiritual health. When I commit my efforts to God and say "God, I know I need your help in this." It's always more doable. And for that I am grateful.

Spiritual goals for this week

1) Begin each day seeking the Lord; be it in prayer, scripture, journaling, worship
2) Be specific with God

My Daily Stuff

I am starting yet another blog, but this one I intend to make public. I have the one that I post for mostly my mommy joys and trials with many other things mixed in. I am inspired to keep this blog as a record of my goals. I realize that by doing this and making it public, I am setting myself up for some serious scrutiny, but I've always done better in life with a little accountability. So, if by reading this you are inclined to "hold me accountable" I guess this is your chance, though I am not asking you to do that.

I have started attending a class at the Y called Weight Sense. The class is taught by several professionals; 2 registered dietitians, and an exercise physiologist. It's great cause each week they cover a different topic to help us make better choices in our diets and with exercise. So far it's been worth the money for the content, but the key is implementing the content into my life. I find it to be an interesting fact of life and psychology that I have a wealth of knowledge to share with my peers and patients, but find myself practicing a very small portion of that knowledge. This class is great cause its teaching me things I didn't know before and reintroducing concepts that I know, but don't use.

One of the purposes of this blog is to recap those concepts so that I can refer to them and use them.
Each week I hope that you will find new concepts learned that week. I'll start with a new post.

Otherwise, I hope to post some goals for my week. I am hopeful that keeping a record of these things will in fact cause me to be more successful in my life.