My Own Words Bite Me

October 14, 2021January 28, 2024 Margaret1 Comment

I’m at that place where the scales aren’t moving. I’m stuck at 73 pounds. I was stuck at 50 pounds a few months ago, but I knew why…I was pigging out on the weekends and behaving through the week. Took a month off from restaurants and that took care of the hump.

I did screw up a weekend a few weeks back. I think most people trying to lose weight can relate to this: I spend three weeks losing 4 pounds, binged on the weekend, and gained back the 4 pounds in two days! Took me two weeks to lose those pounds again. Vicious cycle.

I don’t know why our bodies will do that…hang on to every pound for dear life, and grab two pounds just by smelling the Krispy Kremes.

My first 50 pounds were easy. Melted right off without much struggle, and with no exercise. For the last month, I have been walking. I am now doing 50,000 – 70000 steps per week. It’s not always easy, but it’s doable.

Here’s were my words are slapping me around. I’ve been losing and gaining weight my entire adult life. And now I’m 57 years old and feel as if I can advise with some tiny bit of knowledge learned from my years of experience. So, I say about losing weight:

Find a way to eat that you can live with and do that.
Don’t engage in extreme exercise if you’ve never done it and don’t like it you won’t stick to it. Find the way to exercise that you can live with…and do that.
After the initial quick weight loss of a new diet, it’s going to be slow. Very slow. Very slow is better than not at all or gaining.

Slow is not an option,
but the rule.

But I find myself at the point where I’d rather eat than get on the scales after a week of walking over 10,000 steps each day, eating according to my chosen plan (Weight Watchers) and seeing a 2-ounce loss. Two. Ounces. I know my plan works, and I know that slow is not an option but the rule, and I am frustrated. I still have 88 pounds to lose. And I cannot use my upcoming vacation, Thanksgiving, and Christmas as reasons to quit or gain. And if I do gain, I must not quit.

To show my hypocritical thinking…I’m going on vacation next week. I do not plan to count points. Why commit to something I probably won’t do because it will be such a hassle? The best I can promise myself is to make wiser decisions. It will be a test, no doubt.

Breaking Good

January 1, 2020 Margaret1 Comment

We all know New Year’s resolutions rarely, if ever, work. We may not realize why, but we have repeatedly experienced the failures of the goals, aims, or changes we planned for a new year or various Mondays throughout the year. Over the past months, I came to realize something important. All of my past Words of the Year didn’t have the success I’d envisioned because I focused on the goal, not myself, not my own bad habits. It is a whole lot easier to give in a bad habit than it is to break it and build a new, better habit.

The word of the year for 2020:
Break

I was in WalMart a few months ago, looking at some sugary delights. I moseyed over to that section because I was sure I heard them calling my name. I reminded myself to only get a small item so when I ate it all without restraint, I wouldn’t have done too bad. I had already figured out that freedom didn’t look like I thought it should.

The truth of freedom is that, as born again Christians, Christ paid the heaviest of costs for our freedom on the cross. All the years I thought I was fighting demons, addiction, or some force I couldn’t name or understand, I was really only fighting myself. Or my self nature, to be more direct. Me…I was fighting ME! As I stood there looking at the table of sweets, I knew I really did have a choice.

If I chose the cookies, I could then choose to have only one of them, but would I? My habit was to mindlessly graze on junk the way home. Or I could walk away. If I take the cookies then I must consider the baggage that comes with it: I would, most likely, be dealing with the urge to eat with abandon the rest of the night if I overdosed on sugar. Did I really want to fight with myself all night long? How many times did I choose my bad habit over my desire to lose weight?

For all the times I times in my life I felt like I had no choice but to continue on in the very way that made me miserable I have to admit I believed a lie. Every time I said “It’s stronger than me.” I believed a lie and forgot the promise:

“I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13

No matter how strong the urge to give in to the very thing you want to avoid (be it sugar, relationships, addiction, spending…or anything else you fight) with Christ, you are stronger than the pull. If you do it anyway, you choose that path. Discipline comes when we begin to tell self “No.” And in the beginning, that’s a really hard thing to do. Break those habits, those chains, those unhealthy patterns. I know I am.

Happy New Year, my friends!
May you find a BREAK!

Don’t open that wormy can…

October 15, 2019June 11, 2020 Margaret3 Comments

We can sure find out a lot about others perusing social media. As I scroll through Facebook, I find myself saying, “I don’t believe I would have told that!” way too often. Smart people who have momentary lapses of good judgement and post things they shouldn’t find that once it’s out there, it’s there, even after you delete it. You don’t know who may have taken screenshots…and that can of worms is open!

There are times I am tempted to be more “open,” especially when I’m mad. It’s not that I want to post publicly who or what has made me angry, but I want to send a private message or two telling the person who is wreaking havoc in my family what people really think of them. By “people” I mean me. The evil some people hide so well is scary, and to be totally open with you, forgiveness doesn’t always come easy.

Thoughts from the other side…

October 5, 2019 Margaret3 Comments

In today’s divided America, when confronted by people on the other side, remember that they are fellow human humans with passions and feelings like you.
Folks on both sides of the debate can get self-righteous and downright mean when faced with opposition.
Both sides feel abused, maligned, picked on…if you listen to the comments and complaints, they have much the same complaints about the other side.
Both sides usually feel they are completely right, and that the other side couldn’t be more wrong.
Sometimes you have to accept that certain people are not going to like you for their own reasons, and you won’t be able to change that.
There are those on both sides who recognize that you don’t have to agree with someone to still like and respect them. Those people are few and far in-between.
Most of the time, both sides have some very heart-felt reasons for their stance.
Arguing, name-calling, back-biting, anger: None of these things help either side, ever.
If you can’t talk to the other side of the coin without the above mentioned arguing, name-calling, anger, etc., walking away is the best thing you can do.
No one can live a perfect life…don’t take it too personally when you’re called a hypocrite by people on the other side. They are making mistakes and bad choices, too. Everyone does, no one is exempt.
If, at some point, you realize you are wrong, say you’re wrong.
Don’t compromise your convictions to end harassment. Just walk away. If you know you’re right, you don’t have to defend yourself against others who would belittle you for your principles. You won’t change them, anyway.
No matter how right you are, or even how much you try to stay neutral, there are those who will find fault with you, who will talk about you, and who won’t treat you the way they’d like to be treated. Don’t let another’s bad behavior steal your peace.
One last thing a friend said yesterday, something her mother told her: You should always speak the truth, but not all truth needs to be spoken. Great words of wisdom.