Week 6: Back in the Saddle

Weight loss is not an exercise in perfection. Thank you God for that small mercy. I had two days of what I would call “bad sweets days”. However, in the past, I would have described them as “good days”, so progress is being made. I have discovered that eating too many sweets have started to bring on feelings of nausea. Apparently, I can no longer drink a full bottle of I.B.C. root beer. Nor can I eat more than three chocolate chip cookies. I wonder how much ice cream will make me sick—just kidding! I think God has actually answered a prayer that I have only half seriously prayed for the last four years when I have told the story of my daughter’s problem with sugar. One night, when she was six, she ate seven or eight oreo cookies during small group Bible study in our home. That night, she threw up. She had one other incident of eating too many sweets and throwing up and now, she will start feeling sick as she is reaching the threshold of too much sugar and will stop and refuse to eat any more of a dessert. Whenever I have told the story, I usually end it with, “May God smite me with that affliction.” I am usually laughing after the last line because God usually does not answer those types of prayers. However, over the past four weeks, He has changed something in my body so that I feel the consequences of too much sugar pretty quickly. Or, maybe with eating fewer calories in general, sugar has more of an impact on my system than when I was eating excessive amounts of good food as well as more sugary foods. Even that, however is to His glory since He made the human body “fearfully and wonderfully” (Psalm 139).

I have developed some strategies for our upcoming trip. First of all, we aren’t always going to be eating dinner out. We are staying at a Residence Inn throughout our trip because they are cheaper than the two hotel rooms needed for a family of six, which especially add up in the Boston/Philly area. This means that we can cook meals there. I think part of vacation is getting to try new restaurants and not having to cook and clean. However, having a pot of spaghetti one night or something just as simple another night isn’t too much work. The second strategy is to bring a pair of shorts that are still snug. They are not as snug as they used to be, but I am sure that if I consistently eat too much, they will get snuggier (yes, I know that "snuggier" is not a word). I am also bringing some exercise shorts that Eric purchased for me last year that are a bit snug so that I can be reminded to not eat as much. I will also deliberately leave food on my plate. And of course, the strategy that I am continuing to work out imperfectly is to rely on God rather than on food when I am stressed or lonely or frustrated.

I am still exercising five times a week. I am jogging/shambling almost a mile now. For two days this week, I walked away from the dinner table still hungry after eating a little bit, which coincided with those two bad sweets days. I have imperfectly memorized Ephesians 3:16-21 and will be working on it more this week, as well as reviewing 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Ephesians 1:18-20. The real key is remembering and reciting the verses in Ephesians when some sort of sugary temptation is singing its siren song so that I can actually resist temptation. 2 Corinthians 3:18 is what I remember when I fail those temptations. I have to praise God for all He is doing and all that I know that He will continue to do to change me from the inside out.

The result for this week: down 2 pounds, 35 to go.