It was just over a year ago that I discovered Trim Healthy Mama. I have eaten according to this plan off and on this year. I was completely committed to this plan for 5 months last summer/fall, but the holidays and homeschooling and traveling for our adoption and finances kept me from doing it full time since November. I have gone back and done it for a few weeks here and there, but something would come up and derail my best laid plans. I truly love how I feel with I'm eating the THM way, but it takes planning and in many cases preparation, which can be difficult if not impossible with my busy lifestyle! Plus, I just seem to easily return to my eating for the wrong reasons.
Between August of 2012 and October of 2013 I lost a total of 50 pounds. As of Monday, I had gained back 7 of those pounds. Not bad! But I have more to lose. I'm not sure how many pounds I need to lose (somewhere around 40 - 70 pounds - 70 pounds would be the weight I was at my wedding but I was not exercising at the time) in order to achieve my goal (to be able to wear my wedding dress!!), but the pounds don't really matter, I just want to be at a healthy weight and no saddle bags!
Food has always been something I turn to for just about anything. If I'm super happy or want to celebrate something, it's time for a treat, if I'm depressed I turn to sugar loaded treats, especially chocolate, I looked forward to the food at events almost as much as I looked forward to the events....you get the idea. Definitely a problem for me. I do have to say that I have rarely gained weight when I was not pregnant, and I would often lose weight between pregnancies, but being pregnant about every 2 years for 25 years makes one not exactly motivated to try to lose weight....only to get pregnant and gain it (and maybe more) back! And nursing didn't help me in the least - I never lost weight from nursing alone!
This past month Chessa Honey shared a book, Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food,
that was a huge part of her weight loss journey (she has love 85 pounds over the past 2 years through healthy eating and running). I've seen lots of women lose weight, lots of weight, but usually I won't pay attention to how they did it unless I see that they've lost and kept it off for years. So why would I look into what Chessa did to lose weight? Especially since a huge part of her weight loss was through running, something I could not do even if I wanted to due to the type of knee injury I sustained 2 1/2 years ago (hole in the cartilage on the weight bearing surface of my femur)??? Well, it was what she said about no longer eating to fulfill her needs. Turning her craving for food into a craving for God. THAT got my attention. I immediately ordered the book "Made to Crave" on Amazon!So I am almost done with the book (I have one chapter left), and this past Monday I began a journey that I am hoping will be for the rest of my life. That of eating healthy for the sake of being healthy and going to God to fulfill my needs. This will be hard, very hard. Changing habits and seemingly natural reflexes will be something that I could not possibly do on my own. I don't like change. I don't like "hard," But sometimes I am up for "hard" if the carrot at the proverbial end of the stick is good enough. Growing closer to God and stronger in my faith is something I always desire. That is the carrot that works for me. While weight loss is something I greatly desire, it is not enough to keep me from eating that dessert when it's calling my name. Instant gratification wins out every time for me over long term goals. I'm weak that way.
Here are some of the things I'm committed to thinking when I am tempted to eat things that are not good for me:
"God has given me power over my food choices
"I was made for more than being stuck in a vicious cycle of defeat)
"How will I feel about this choice tomorrow morning?"
"Is this within the parameters of my FREEDOM?"
(These are taken from Made to Crave
, some of them direct quotes, some of them my paraphrase)So what, exactly will this eating healthy look like? For me this means avoiding refined carbs (sugar, while flour, white rice, potatoes etc), leaning on the fatter side of life (heavy whipping cream, cheeses, nuts, butter, coconut oil) and balances complex carbs/protein. It's a lot like Trim Healthy Mama, but I am also going to be eating some fruits too, and not freaking out about "S" meals and "E" meals...just eating fruit now and then as treats and trying to always have protein whenever I eat.
As far as exercising goes, I am working on learning the Total Workout from T-Tapp. The Basic Workout that I've been doing since last November is the first 15 minutes of the 40 minute Total Workout. So I'm planning to to The Basic Workout every other day, and on the other days do what I can out of the Total Work out, working up to learning it all. I do plan to take weekends off though!
So, two days into this journey I am looking for accountability. This is going to be hard. This will take a mental shift and knowing that I will have to answer to someone will be very helpful, especially in these early months when change is so hard and new habits have not gotten embedded in my brain! So I am going to, as much as it is possible, to post here on my blog once a week how it's going to me. I'm going to answer the following questions (these are from Made to Crave
):Did I overeat this week on any given day?
Did I move more and exercise regularly?
Do I feel lighter than I did at this time last week?
Did I eat in secret or out of anger/frustration/happiness?
Did I feel that, at any time, I ran to food instead of to God?
Before I hopped on the scale, did I think I'd had a successful, God pleasing week?
Here are my answers for this week (well, the past two days):
No
Yes (Basic Workout on Mon and today, 15 minutes of Total Workout on Tuesday)
Yes (lost 1 1/2 pounds of water weight and my ankles prove that!)
No
No (but I wasn't very good at turning to Him to deal with temptation yet either)
Yes
I am looking for a partner in my journey. Someone to pray for me, and I pray for them, and to hold me accountable to these questions. Are you that someone? If you think you might want to partner with me, please email me and we'll see if it can work for both of us! I'm thinking a few emails/week or maybe even just one a week....
I love tickers - do you? I'm going to set my first goal at losing 54 more pounds from where I am now. That would make a total weight loss of 97 pounds (that sounds insane!). This should get me into my wedding dress, if not really close!
If I've inspired you to read the book, I'd love to hear from you. I am so excited to see where this journey takes me!
PS. The links in this blog post are such that if you purchase the book after using the link, I will earn a small commission, just wanted you to know!
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