Was the Bowl of Red Stew Worth It?

 “One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”) “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.” “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?””
Genesis 25:29-32 NLT

I love this story. It describes us perfectly with our food issues. Esau was willing to sell his rights as a first born for a bowl of red stew. We are shocked that he would make such a terrible trade. But we do this often

We all desire to eat in a way that brings God's glory. We have all made promises to ourselves to not put certain food before our health this year. But all it takes is a "bowl of that red stew." We make up reasons why it's okay to load our plate with chips or cookies or whatever. It seems insignificant at the time. It seemed insignificant to Esau. All he knew was that his hunger was satisfied. 

The point of this post is not that certain foods are bad. But I think we all realize that by sacrificing our health for a piece of cheesecake is a poor trade. Next time that bowl of red stew is tempting us, think about what we are trading and make sure that food is worth it.

I praise you because you made me in such a wonderful way. I know how amazing that was! Psalm 139:14 ERV

"Working on your body image is a long-term job. Many of us have spent years comparing ourselves to models and Hollywood stars and we're so used to putting ourselves down that it's a difficult habit to break." ~ Paige Waehner

I was reading this article and I thought about how the enemy wants us to feel bad about the way we look. The more he gets us discouraged and depressed about our appearance, the more we take our eyes off the Lord and become frantic to try to look better. Think about this for a minute…would God ever ever look at us in disgust and say "you are so unattractive!" 

Next time you are tempted to compare yourself to someone else, stop right there and retrain your thoughts. Start praising God about the way we are fearfully and wonderfully made. I start thanking the Lord for the way he made my legs really thick:):):). The world will not ever complement me on my legs. But God made me exactly this way and he loves my legs...and I sure can walk around good with these legs!

Freedom fromFood

I thought it might be helpful to share some things I have learned about managing my weight. This has been a life long struggle. After years of trying diets, I have realized that some things just work and others not so much:).  So for what it is worth, here is my list of things that work for me.

1)  Plan ahead what you will eat for the coming day and/or coming week.  If you know that you will have a tricky situation, plan for it. Pre-decide ahead of time. Decision anxiety will set you up for failure.  Decide which restaurants are good for you and which restaurants are a death sentence, in terms of fattening foods that you know you can't resist. Decide before you go to that restaurant what you will order and do not look at the menu.  Look online to see what a good choice will be. I tell the waiter when I order EXACTLY what I want and ask if that is okay.  For example, I would never let them put salad dressing on the salad. It must be on the side so that I can dip my fork(yes, I said fork) and drizzle it on the salad. Make all tricky decisions ahead of time.

2)  Make a mental box of what food items that you will eat for the rest of your life. Sometimes I think this is where we get bitter about having to diet. I came to this important conclusion...we do not have to have anything we want, anytime we want. As a Christian, I especially want to speak to that. We give up our rights to our life when we accept Jesus as our Saviour. We do this because his terms are so much better than our terms.  His ways ALWAYS satisfy beyond what we can imagine.
We need to realize that as rich Americans(and we are all rich in comparison to most of the world) we have come to expect to have countless different food choices to consume. We think this is our right!  Most of the world probably has 5 food choices.  I have come to realize that the fewer the food choices I allow in my mouth, the simpler it is to make choices and the easier it is to eat healthy. We all need a denial list to be more focused in any area of our lives, especially in the area of food. I LOVE having fewer food choices. It has provided me freedom from food that I have not experienced before.

3)  Track what you eat.  This is an easy task, but not always done by dieters.  Why?  Too confronting!!!  We don't want to confront the slice of pizza or the 7 cookies we ate. Because I am a Christian blogger, I need to add this perspective.  Whenever we keep things secret, whether from shame or conviction, we will not be able to receive that grace that God offers us. For example, if we know that eating too many sweets is not healthy for us and we try to hide that act from ourselves or others in our lives, we are missing out on the grieving and healing process that is available to us. There are many ways to track our food and exercises.  I love the smart phone apps that are free. Lose It or My Fitness Pal are just two of the ones that I know are easy to use and help set your calories and track them.  For a small fee, there are apps that allow you to plan ahead and track even more than just exercises and food consumed.

4)  This is not a well-known diet tip but it has worked for me.  Have a meal replacement once a day.  It is hard, if not impossible, to eat three low calorie meals a day without a lot of planning and commitment.  I have found that if I replace one meal per day with a protein shake, I reach my calorie goals for the day with much less grief and struggle.  There are many good quality shakes on the market at many price ranges.  Slim fast(not very filling), Shakeology(my husband has used this for three years), Whey protein shakes, ...the list is endless.

Notice that I am not advocating a certain diet plan.  I am promoting a total life style change.  When I think of all that I missed by being overweight, it grieves me.  Now when I am tempted with a slice of cheesecake, I quickly remind myself that I do not want to head back down that road. I cannot think of a single food item that it worth it. Try to hold up everything item of food that you know it not good for you but you don't think you could give up. Is that food item worth that much???  I realize that most people would say, " a bite of that would not matter." You have to decide for yourself if it would matter to you.  Only you can decide that.

Last tidbit I want to share.  I heard a well-known Navy SEAL speak this morning at my church. He said something profound.  He shared that when we accepted Christ as our Saviour, we became a "marked man or woman." By that he meant that Satan has put his "scope" on my back and he will stop at nothing to bring me down. When I was lost, he was not zeroing in on my life because I was not a threat to him. But when I gave my life to Christ, I became a threat to his kingdom because I may help bring other people to Christ. For some reason this afternoon, I was contemplating discontinuing this blog. However, God can use something that I say to plant a little seed in someones heart that will ultimately bring them to saving knowledge of Jesus. I think I will accept the fact that if I stand behind Jesus, my self-esteem will be okay because writing this blog is very scary to my self-esteem. Hope this helped someone to experience freedom from food because we can be set free from areas that have us in bondage.  

A Blog About Exercising

Some people are too lazy to plant seeds. So at harvest time, they look for food and find nothing. (Proverbs 20:4 ERV)

Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.(Proverbs 13:4 NLB)

As I continue with the theme of transforming your mind, I wanted to talk about some of the reasons I believe we are not successful in the area of weight management.  Keep in mind, these are areas that I have struggled with and had to confront.

The major component of success in managing our health is grit. Grit is a favorite quality of mine:) Grit is defined as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals. A person possessing grit does not require immediate positive feedback. Individuals high in grit are able to maintain their motivation and focus over long periods of time despite experiences with failure and adversity." Wow! How true in the area of weight management. We did not become out of shape overnight and yet we want to become in shape instantly. Remember that managing our health is a marathon and not a sprint.

The opposite of grit is laziness. Everyone has to struggle with laziness. Our first response is to skip the workout. Always! Our second response is to do an easier workout:). We have to keep in mind that the instant gratification is not worth it. The long term reward is always worth the wait.   The principal of delayed gratification is true in every area of life...money, relationships, success in school, diet and especially exercise. That is where grit comes in.  Exercise will never be convenient or easy. It does not  show immediate results, other than the way you feel about yourself when you are finished!  

The single most important thing that I started doing as far as managing my health was weight lifting. Yep, you read that correctly...building muscle. As an older woman, I did not grow up seeing other women lifting weights. Now that I have completed 1 1/2 years of weight training, so many pieces of the puzzle are making sense. I started looking differently even before I lost an ounce. Once I began to change my eating habits, I found it easier to actually lose weight. I will not get into the concepts of "muscle burns more fat" or "you will continue to burn calories after a weight training day."  I do not feel knowledgeable enough on those topics.  I will say that I am a believer in weight training and wonder why I never knew about it for most of my life:)

In addition to weight lifting, I began riding bikes. The first time I rode a bike, I thought I would die.  It was just too difficult. I continued because of the grit factor. I purposefully attempt to do things now that are physically unpleasant in the short term because there are very pleasant in the long run...having to buy smaller sizes. In the beginning of my weight loss phase, all I could do was walk. I would encourage you to try something more difficult as you are able. I just finished week 4 of a running program. I do not even know who I am these days!

Long term results concerning exercise are listed in many articles...even increased mental acuity. A physically fit 75 year old will be miles ahead, mentally speaking, than an out-of- shape 75 year old. I think it is worth it to make small investments of time, consistently, to reap large benefits in the years to come.

I will blog about what I eat in my next blog. Nutrition is 80%. Exercise is 20%. You cannot walk enough to take off all the weight you want to lose. I am convinced that both components are necessary to achieving the health that we desire.

I exercised everyday on my vacation this past week. I am amazed.