Tipping the Scale

My scale of food choices has been tipped! My desire for health outweighs any other desire causing me to eat. The number one reason for food choice is taste. I like fruit teas, rolls, creamy salads, and cookies right out of the oven. As a dietitian, I love that a moderate and balanced diet makes room for every food to fit. However, I fit these foods into my daily routine until it caused my body not fit into my life. My thinking was thwarted. I habitually ate calories above my need for them. There are many reasons I ate what I ate, but now I’m finding that the emotion for health outweighs any desire to choose calorie-rich foods for taste or otherwise. Yes, there are thoughts that, “I would like to have ____.” But those thoughts have a small voice compared to the excitement that makes health an easy choice. And you know what else? If I really want it, I know I can have it. Suddenly calorie-dense beverages are just not as appealing. Sure I still like the taste, but I do not like how it makes me feel or look after I feed it to my body. Some of my favorite foods are just not worth the calories anymore. I still might have something occasionally, but now I make sure that it fits within my calorie allotment that will still promote weight loss. This feels like LIFE. It feels easy. I’m losing weight faster now. 

Oh and I've lost another four pounds! 

Nutritional Nugget:

Baby it is HOT outside!  I know I've posted several things about water, but these temperatures remind me again.  

This first sign for dehydration is thirst.  Other symptoms include dry sticky mouth, tiredness, headache, constipation, dizziness, light-headedness. If dehydration persists, it could lead to more severe symptoms and even cause heat-stroke.  Make sure you've always got plenty of fluids with you even when you are swimming.  Water and sports drinks are the best for outside activity.  Avoid colas because they bind up water.  Knowing the unhealthy benefits of soft drinks as well as the empty calories they have makes it easy for me to stay away from them especially in this heat. 

DRINK WATER! 

Excercise Excitement

I forgot to post this one last week...

I am driven to exercise by forces that I cannot explain. Although I have had bursts of desires for physical activity at times, never has it been this constant or this much. There seems to be a snowball effect of energy. The more I “move” the more I can’t wait until I get to again. It is getting harder and harder to wait through my rest-up days. It feels like a kid waiting in line for a ride on the roller coaster. Perhaps the most unlike me is getting up EARLY just to go for a walk/run. (Evidence of transformation due to two things: 1. Run/walking. And 2. Waking up to do so.) I chuckle at all the comments regarding marathon runners I’ve made in the past such as, “What kind of idiot would want to train to jog 26 miles for no reason?” Well, now I can’t wait to run my first half marathon I plan to run with my sister in one year. I am in no way close to being ready for it. (Good thing I’m starting now.) I’m not even fit enough to train for it properly. I’m in training to pre-train for the training. Do I think running a marathon will make me a more accomplished person? Do I think I’ll be somebody by completing such a ridiculous task? Do I think all the cool kids run marathons and maybe I’ll fit in with them now? No, No, and No. I desire to run it just because I think it will be fun. Gasp! Can it be that simple? I think not only can it be, but it MUST be in order for it to be real. I get excited thinking about the next time I can squeeze in a walk/run. I find myself doing odd little things throughout the day. When I use the bathroom, I do about 60 seconds of arm exercises. Most recently, I added in 20 minutes of walking during my lunch break the three times a week I get a lunch break. When I learned we were only about a quarter mile from our campground, I hopped out and walked the rest of the way.  (Never mind I was extremely carsick.  I was still excited to have the chance to walk.)  No longer do I have self-imposed rules/expectations on the kind and amount of exercises that are proper for me to promote weight loss. I just do what I want, and every day, I find I’ve added something new. I listen to my body. If my knees are a little too achy, I have wisdom to protect them. I ordered a new pair of squishy work shoes to preserve my “go” muscles and feel better during exercise time. There is no formula, but this is just what LIFE tastes like for me. The magical thing is that delivery of this new motivation only came when I aborted expectations of exercise. (And other lame-brained imaginations of what I should look like.)  Can I confess something? I have a secret desire to teach a fitness class when my body is able. Exciting! The desire to teach a class, run a marathon, and just to be that physically fit still isn’t the primary force driving me to move. I just want to. That’s it. All the other stuff is just extra little goodies. Ahhhhh...Feels so good to be free to be me.

Bread of Life...
So many years I put pressure on myself to live according some man made rules (mine or somebody else.)   "How" I should exercise is only one of the expectations I spent years feeling condemned about.  This is one of the verses that set me free:

2 Corinthians 12:4 “-how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”

When Paul wrote this, he understood better than anybody about the Old Testament Law of Moses.  When he went up to heaven, he heard things there that would be illegal for him to say according to that law.  GLORY!  GLORY!  I realized that the truth of heaven, which IS my reality, is not the man made law and misinterpretations I believed were truth.  I can think of no better practical example than exercising.  I have heard so much information regarding exercise.  I took aerobics in college.  I have taught whole chapters on exercise at TTU.  I know the benefits and “rules” about it.  All the information on what was “right” did not make me want to do it.  It was a law to me.  I was a bit rebellious to it because I thought it was something I had to do to become “right” in the health world. Since I didn’t do what I and others thought I SHOULD do, I felt condemned about it.  If I did start exercising, I would have a false sense of  pride about it.  I thought I was really doing good.  Self righteous about exercise.  Shoowee.  But then I would stop and the condemnation would come again. Now I SEE the TRUTH of heaven of who I am, and it literally makes me want to run.  Woooo….Think I will right now.  (Just ‘cause I want to.)

Nutritional Nugget
Water….zero calories and one of the six nutrient classes.  I drink water all the time now.  I think maybe in the last two weeks I have 2 or 3 beverages besides water (and coffee).   There was a time when I hated the fact I needed water.  I had a little taste aversion to it from being sick when I was pregnant, but more than that I thought it was the thing I had to do.  Now I drink it all the time because I desire it.  I love it with lemon.  I love it with cucumbers.  I love it with mint leaves.  When I think I want a little something late at night, I choose water instead of a comfort carb.  I only do this because I want to.  Our bodies are mostly made of water.  I love the way I feel after drinking only water.  I love knowing it helps to flush out toxins from my body.  I love that the lack of calories mean I can eat more of other things I enjoy.  Water taste better to me now than any fruit tea drink that used to be my favorite.  Thankful for this transformation to health in me. 

...Hey! This reminds me of somebody!

"Scoth and water.  Hold the scotch." ----Water Boy

  

The Weight Loss Dream

The night before last I dreamed I woke up and as I was getting dressed for the day, I realized I had lost a huge amount of weight. I had no idea that the weight was gone until I looked down at myself and my belly was not there. The dream was so real, that when I woke up in real life this morning, I thought the weight was gone to the point that I didn’t even check to see. I only noticed I still had my belly as I was getting dressed for my day. What amazed me the most in my dream is my mild emotional reaction to the weight loss. I felt more curious than happy. The same sort of reaction I would imagine I would have hearing the news that a past acquaintance bought a new car. “I’m happy about this, but the news affects me little.” The second thing that I ponder about my dream is how effortlessly the weight disappeared. I literally saw myself wake up unaware I had lost the weight I was sure I carried the night before.

I love dreams…especially this one. I believe this is a picture of what really is happening on the inside of me right now. I'm waking up.  Then without effort or surprise, I find I really am the way I always meant to be.

FLOG:

Much-needed Sissy coffee.

Chocolate Health Shake for a quick breakfast with 5 grams of fiber.

Water Water Water

Lunch at work:

Fabulous chicken stir-fry on 1/3 cup of noodles

Roll

¼ cup of a low calorie Oreo pudding. (Yes, I realize I said “oreo” and “low calorie” in the same sentence.)

Snack:

Apple (I was starting to wilt.)

Frappacino. (Yes it had 180 calories, but I’ve never had one and wanted to try it, and NEEDED the boost to help me finish my work day.)

Supper:

Grilled Pork Tenderloin made by the Fabulous Wayne Blaylock.

Grilled Corn

Baked Potato with salt and pepper only.

Perfectly roasted marshmallows roasted by the Fabulous Mr. Blaylock and the only person I know who can cook 'em like that. 

(Sigh) and I ate a s'more.  Wished I wouldn't have. It wasn't worth the calories.  I made it myself instead of having Wayne make it.    

Daily Bread:

“Agape”-----I’ve always heard that to mean a God-kind of love incapable of our understanding. A.k.a loved A LOT. Now I understand it to further be the expression for a contented love for us where our creator sees no need to add anything else to us. He loves us right where we are. No need to add anything! A love that causes him to lose his breath. An unconditional, perfect love of his perfection.

Can you believe that? Can you believe that the God in heaven sees no need to add anything else to you? This may be the biggest, (and most difficult,) revelation to produce “change” such as weight loss in a person whose weight is deeper than just a lack of practical knowledge of nutrition. (Words are tricky here, I know. It’s just so hard to transmit revelation into English!) This way of thinking is so contrary to the world’s way of thinking. I’m glad His thoughts are higher than our thoughts! I’ve never had so much fun than to understand that living in God’s kingdom is opposite world. This makes me feel like a kid again playing in a perfect imaginary world, except this is reality! Wow! An understanding that YOU are perfect the way you are awakens you to the truth about reality. Your heart produces in the physical what it believes on the inside. See yourself the way HE sees you and transformation happens “overnight” ----just like my dream! Chew on this and be transformed. Lawd have mercy, I hope you catch this with your heart!

Nutritional Nugget:

Well, it seems like common sense, but it bears repeating…The best food of choice for you would most definitely be the foods that are closest to the way God made them. The less processed, the better. Although as a dietitian, I am trained to make every food (approved by the FDA) fit into a daily food plan, there are some things, I personally shy away from. For example, I would rather just go ahead and have the calories that come with real sugar instead of the artificial sweeteners that are technically okay. I would eat it if I had too, but if given the choice, I will choose the foods with the least about chemical processes.