Conscious Eating

    I had to put that on here LOL. That quote basically says it all. If I'm bored or stressed, I eat. I'm usually not hungry, but that doesn't stop me. I try and mask my problems with food. Does that help? NO! No it does not. What it does is make me feel stressed and completely terrible about myself and then the whole cycle starts again. I have decided that I need to start eating consciously. What does it mean to “eat consciously”? Think about the last time you had a really great meal. Even though you were trying to satisfy hunger, you savored each taste, and you knew how much to eat in order to feel content, not overly full. You eat a normal sized portion of food until you are content...not bloated. That is eating consciously. Now compare that to a time when you were overly hungry. You chewed and swallowed, without really being aware of it, or of your surroundings. You may have wound up feeling uncomfortably full and lethargic. That is eating unconsciously.
     Does that sound familiar? We've all done it. Some of you are saying, "I never do that!". Really? Thanksgiving? Christmas? I rest my case. It may start out with a conscious choice. It may taste great, but doesn't lead to any sense of satisfaction, only discomfort (and maybe a little nauseousness?). The emotions that come with this type of eating are very unhealthy and usually lead to more unconscious eating. If you listen to your inner dialogue and you hear justifying or rationalizing your food choices and portions, it’s a good sign you are drifting toward unconscious eating. Unconscious eating may also be a symptom of deeper emotional issues. When we use food to calm our emotional hurts, to numb the experience of the emotion, we are focused on finding a distraction. Some of us, sometimes without even being aware of it, depend on food to take the edge off all kinds of discomforts.
     Having such an unhealthy relationship with food can only cause bigger problems. More self-hatred. More Self-Doubt. More stress which leads to more eating. We need to change our mind before we can ever change our body. Maybe you're thinking, "If I can just reach my goal weight, then I'll be happy". Let me tell you that's not the way it works. If you don't like yourself now, you won't like yourself then. So let's make this our year. The year that we start loving ourselves and being healthier. Learning to recognize this behavior is the first step towards that goal. So let's start changing from the inside...out. This verse feels appropriate...at least for me. 

Romans 12:1-2-
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

In Christ,
Summer

Defeated

     I'm feeling kind of down today...hence my late post. I haven't really felt like blogging about how much I feel like a failure at this whole weight loss thing. I feel like I have so much weight to lose that it will NEVER happen. Since I'm being completely honest on this blog, I have steadily been gaining weight over the last 8 years since my kids were born, but in the last year I have gained...30.4 lbs!!! It's not like I have changed much. I have always eaten terrible, but I guess my age is catching up with me. It could have something to do with my hysterectomy this year, I know my hormones have been crazy every since but I'm not sure. Bottom line is that it doesn't matter how it happened, what matters is that I'm beyond unhealthy and unless I change something quick, I'm not going to live a long life. Why is this so difficult? For all the already skinny people who would say, "just stop eating unhealthy things" I say it's SO much more than that. If I could change my mind and the way I handle stress, it would be much easier to stop eating the things that are not good for me.
     So why then sudden despair? It's simple. For the first time in months, I looked at my reflection in the mirror last night. Don't get me wrong I have looked in the mirror, but it was always a quick look...usually trying only to look at my face, and I was always sucking in. I have mastered the skill of sucking in over the years, so much so that I always do it...even when 'm alone :-/ However I'm not going to let the Devil win. I'm not going to give up. It might take me years, but I will eventually get to my goal weight. I have decided to hold myself more accountable I'm going to post my weight loss once a week...no not my actually weight, just how much I've lost. So far it's nothing so I will post again next Weds. That's all for now, just a short post today. Thanks to everyone who is and has been supporting me on this journey, may God bless you all.

Isaiah 40:29He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Good News

     Could it be that I'm actually writing another post already? "Two in a row, beat that!" Ok I'm done with being Dory. Here's the real deal, I am going to try to do a post every morning as part of my quiet time with God. You see I have realized that if I don't plan out quiet time...it doesn't happen. Other things push it aside and  then I "run out of time". So I'm going to make spending time with God a priority. So here we go. Let's start off with a bible verse.

Psalm 8:4

"What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?" 

     That verse keeps going trough my head today. Who am I God that you even give thought to me? I have done so much and have at times strayed so far away from Him...I guess it's just hard for me to fathom that God would still want me back. I'm spiritually lazy, and I seem to be in a constant battle; getting close to God, then wandering away,then repeat. I feel very unworthy to allow God to use me, but I just need to realize that no matter how "good" I am, my greatest efforts, compared to what Christ did for us, doesn't really amount to much of anything. I have to realize that I am just the messenger. My Job is to allow God to use me. I haven't been doing that...at least not consistently. I should be sharing the Good News of Christ. How can I be so lazy and selfish to not tell others about God? That's like being in a plane that's crashing, and not sharing the extra parachute. There is always at least a small percentage of us that does things for a selfish motive because of our sin nature, but God still uses us in spite of our selfishness. So I will start ...again today.

Here's the truth of the Gospel that I learned how to explain on a mission trip:

The Bible has some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is something about us.

The Good new is something about God.

Let's talk about the bad news first.

1. We are all sinners-

Romans 3:23- "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

The bad news get worse...

2. The penalty for sin is death-

Romans 6:23- "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"

BUT HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS...

1. Christ died for you-

Romans 5:8- " But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Just like the bad news got worse, the Good news gets better...

2. You can be saved!-

Ephesians 2:8-9-, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Is there anything that is holding you back from trusting in Jesus as your Savior today? Please contact me if you want to pursue a relationship with Christ.

There it is the Good news of the Gospel. We all have sinned and have earned Hell and no matter how many "good deeds" you do, you can never come close to meeting God's perfect holiness without Christ. It's like if you and I picked up a couple rocks and tried to throw them to the North Pole, You might get closer than me, but you still fall short of the goal. Christ is the only way. So I'll leave you with this verse:

John 14:6- "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

Never Give Up

So...wow...it's almost been a month since I've written a post.  I could give you a long list of excuses as to why, but I'm committed to being honest on here so the bottom line is...I messed up. Not sure who reads this, but for those of you who do, I'm sorry. Something I have realized in the last month is that you can get to a very bad place in a hurry. One minute you can be right where you know God wants you to be, and the next...BAM...you are right back where you started. Why is that? Well it happens when you take your eyes off of the Lord. You focus on the problems instead of God. Let's take Peter for example in Matthew 14:28-31.

"28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' "

Peter was walking on the water! But notice in verse 30 where it says, but when he saw the wind he was afraid. He took his eyes off of Jesus. He saw the wind and waves and focused on that instead of Jesus. That's what I did. I took my eyes off of God. I started looking at my circumstances. Just the stress of the day to day. My kids. My marriage. My lack of self control. The overwhelming task of losing weight. Why do we focus on all of the craziness of life? I have a God that is SO powerful! We need to lift up our eyes and focus on God because the moment we take our eyes off of Him, chaos and despair will soon follow. For me I need to focus on the bigger picture. Being a Christian should mean that we have something that non-Christians don't. When people look at me, they should see a difference...if they don't then I'm doing something wrong. There are SO many people that say that they are Christians, but they don't have any joy and they are filled with so much hate. They are acting the same way that everyone else does. There is no difference and that's a big reason why people say that they want nothing to do with God. It's the hypocrisy of it all. People now associate Christians with bigotry, hatred, and judgement. This is not how it should be! We should be treating others(especially non-Christians) with love. We claim to love God, but what do our actions say? We need to live our lives in a salty way. Here's what I mean by that. Matthew 5:13 says

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."

Salt makes people thirsty. So we need to salt our speech and our actions...make people thirsty for God. Otherwise everything we do is in vain. If the salt loses it's taste, it isn't good for anything. If we are going to claim to be a Christian then we need to be authentic. It's hard, but being authentic is the only way to live your life in a way that draws people TO God, not away from Him. So I'll leave you with the mission statement I learned on my first mission trip and may we strive to adhere to it.

"Today I will live honorably through my thoughts, actions, and speech. I choose to be full of faith; I will not only be a hearer, but a doer of the word of God. I will serve before I demand, I will love and not hate, I will give before I take. Today, I choose to make a difference in this world & be a part of something bigger than myself. I choose to dedicate my life to prayer and ask God for His miraculous power and the courage to do the impossible. I will make Godly relationships a priority in my life as I esteem others higher than myself. Today I will live my life in such a way that I WILL CHANGE THE WORLD!"

In Christ,

Summer