The Battle Has Begun

I am so grateful for all of the positive feedback that I have received, as the support is greatly needed and appreciated.    I thank God for his healing power, as he continues to touch my body.  I have made it through another week of my journey to Praise Away Pounds. 

Now I really feel like the battle has begun.  By battle, I primarily mean the mental struggle to get and stay on track to meet my weight loss goals.  With all of the positive feedback, I have still struggled with why anyone would really care that I chronicle my weight loss journey.  I have to constantly pray that I will not allow fear to stop me from sharing what I am going through, as I know that the feedback may not always be positive.  What helps me is that I understand there are so many other people going through this daily mental and physical struggle to lose weight.  If by sharing my story, I can just help a few more people, then I am willing to be transparent, and chronicle my journey. 

 I have discovered over the years that one of my biggest challenges to losing weight has to do with my emotional eating.  We as a society tend to use food to commemorate many occasions from happy to sad, and this has definitely spilled over into my personal life.  I believe that there are times when it is perfectly fine to share meals with friends or family to celebrate, or comfort each other in a tough situation.  For me personally, the danger is when food is constantly used as a way of coping with daily issues that we all are faced with.   When I’m stressed at work, the first thing I want to do is start snacking, and not on healthy food.  In those stressful moments, I either want something salty or sweet, nothing else seems to do the trick.  When I’m disappointed, chocolate seems to always boost my mood.  When I’m mad, there’s nothing like a good Cheeseburger to “calm” my nerves.  To combat this urge to comfort myself by eating, while not even hungry, I have been making an extra effort to choose a different activity to ease my mind.  Prayer is obviously the best way to hand it over to God and leave it there.  Going for a walk seems to also help in that moment, because it is another way for me to get my mind off of whatever is bothering me.  In addition, listening to encouraging music has really helped change my mood and get me back on the right track.

My current approach is to make small changes that I will be able to stick to, as I have tried the drastic diets where you cut out everything that tastes good.  While I might last a week, I would quickly be back to all of my old bad habits.  I am all about making a lifestyle change, as a temporary fix, will give me a temporary results.  I am determined to make life long changes that will help me to become healthier, and look and feel better.  Because let’s be real, while we can appreciate the health benefits, I think that I am safe to say that most of us like the way that we look in our slimmer body.  While I am not trying to get to a particular number on the scale, I am aware that there needs to be some way to track my progress, as well as have some accountability.

The changes that I have made in the last week have been to drastically minimize my sweet intake as sweets are definitely my weakness.  I also plan to log anything that I am eating and will have to be honest, that I did not successfully complete this within the last week, so I will make an extra effort to do better in the coming weeks.  Logging what I eat is so important, because I definitely tend to have selective memory, when it comes to what I have eaten on a daily basis.  As far as my fitness, I had already begun walking on my lunch hour, for a few days out of the week, and have been working on my Praise Away Pounds fitness routine, which includes high energy aerobics to gospel music.  I am going to begin sharing these routines, as I get them a little more polished, as I would love to hear feedback throughout the process. 

God Bless and Praise Away Pounds!