Point Eight Mile Walk

It poured rain on me this morning, but I didn't care. I was so happy to just be walking. It surprised me when I mapped my walk, that it was 8/10 mile. It felt really good and I could have done it twice! My feet were starting to feel a bit damp on the top, so it was OK that I was done! I liked this route enough that I will do it again. There are many little side streets, so I think this neighborhood is going to keep me busy and engaged for quite awhile...there's also many gardeners! I look forward to seeing how their yards progress through the summer and fall!

The past ten days have been just silly...I've eaten more on a daily basis than I have since I started (or so it seems). I'm not ready for 1200 calories per day, but I do think I'm close.

We moved here March 1st. I haven't established consistent patterns yet. I think I need to do that for awhile before I add something else. My friend Marilyn even said this to me on Wednesday and my friend Christi said the exact same thing to me on Thursday. Thank you Marilyn and Christi for both encouraging me!

So today was about walking. I think it would be wise to gather up the things I was doing before, and getting really solid. Those things are:
-walking everyday
-drinking water
-daily salad (I've been doing quite well with this discipline)
-daily fiber one
-no obvious sugars (doing very well, except for last week!)
-getting to bed earlier/up earlier (I was doing this quite well before we moved, but have been very consistently going to bed LATE!)


So, I actually feel relieved to step back as I now can see I was totally pushing myself unnecessarily. Today was a victory instead of a big defeat!

After getting more consistent with the above five, I'll need to work on:
-eat half dinner
-count calories
-get strong

I haven't figured out "get strong" yet and I'm not entirely excited about eating half of dinner! But for now, I have plenty to do. I've kept off about ten pounds over the past year, so that isn't bad. I've also established some really good new eating habits and don't overeat like I used to.

New Walk This Morning

I decided to try a different walk. I'm so uninspired about my boring walk, I find that I haven't been walking and that is unacceptable! I don't really like walking on gravel, but I like the incline and might do that one on hot days because it will be in the morning shade. Now I have two options, how very UNboring!

Just a little farther in the opposite direction is a neighborhood similar to my old one. It is a five minute drive each way. It was GLORIOUS! Thank You Lord!

Lots of lovely houses with even lovelier flower beds! Everything is blooming! I only wish I had taken my camera because the sky was gorgeous with lots of God rays. I tried to get a photo when I got home but it isn't as wonderful.

Now I just need to map it out to find distances. There are many possible routes and the only negative is that it is pretty flat. But it was sooooooo awesome to be walking on sidewalk and passing by flowers again!

On a caloric note, I've planned out what I'm going to eat today...1198 calories. There's enough chicken enchiladas and rice to serve my family leftovers tonight if I eat a frozen meal. I'm going to get breakfast, lunch, two snacks and the frozen meal! Maybe I can go for 10 points today!

OH NO

What a disaster!

I had this plan to give ten possible points per day and thinking I just needed to have a snack before dinner so I wasn't ravenous has FAILED! The past four days have been horrible! I get to dinner and totally lose it! This isn't the plan!

Tuesday night I just completely lost control over the ziti, Wednesday night I thought I could have one piece of pizza and then make a frozen meal for 280 calories. I never eat cheese pizza and it is sooooo good! We usually get combo, but I had my husband just bring home pizza "for the kids".

I thought pizza was about 300 per piece, but when I decided to look it up, it is 700 and 70 carbs! That is SCARY! I ended up eating two pieces, which is MORE than my TOTAL calories for the day-F A I L! Tonight I did ok with chicken enchiladas (one of my favorite meals with lots of melty cheese), but I didn't eat half.

On Monday I was asking myself, "what could happen in the next 40 days?", but I've wasted 10% of my time by blowing the past four days! Lord, HELP!

So where do I go from here?

One thing that makes this difficult is that I don't really know the calories for the meals I cook...how many calories IS a chicken enchilada? I think eating half is good, but it helps me to know the numbers if I'm going to enter weight loss territory. But then I'm not doing what the Lord told me to do-eat half. I'm not surrendering this...help Lord!

The Next Step-Weight Loss

Thank You Lord for all you are doing! I'm really excited about surrendering. I have the next step to add onto all the other steps I've been taking over the past year plus. I know you will be with me tonight as I STOP taking more than I need and START eating half of dinner.

OK, so I need to track daily and I have 10 areas. I can get a maximum score of 10 each day. I want to see as many high numbers as possible each day (10s would be good). Then I know I should be losing weight sometime soon.

1-any amount of daily walking
2-5 water
3-5 more water
4-fiber one cereal
5-daily salad
6-daily snack (eating it gives me a point!)
7-half of dinner
8-get strong (ddp yoga or praise moves, some extra moving besides the walk, when I lose weight I'll be able to DO MORE exercise)
9-no sugar
10-under 1200 calories (for weight loss)

I'm looking at my water bottle...my glass is 13oz so 10 of those is 130oz. I would need to drink 7.6 bottles to get that everyday. Thinking about doing that instead of 10 glasses...

OK, I set up a cup with 10 pennies on top of the water tank. Each time I refill my bottle, I'll toss in a penny. Refining previous systems, I think this will work!

I'm adjusting my salad to have more sunflower seeds. They are my favorite part of my salad and the fat stays with me, besides liking the crunch.

I love that this tracking sheet is NOT a burden because it is fueled by surrender and death to self. If I was just trying to manipulate my eating, it would be a burden. But it turns out it is tool and sometime in the future, I won't need it anymore! Like all my other spreadsheets I've used up until now!

Thank You Lord for time this morning to align my heart with Yours and to create a tool and have a plan!

Tired of the Struggle

This was Easter...today, again, it is GRAY and wet. I don't have many pictures for my blog because I haven't taken my camera with me yet on my walk. Not that there's much to photograph (except for rock hearts)!

I haven't walked in two weeks. I've gotten into a bad habit of staying up late and getting up late...I stopped setting my alarm and now I'm trying to get back to walking. I set my alarm this morning and got up in time for a walk and to make a smoothie for my husband before he left for work. I'm drinking water and have my cereal bowl reading and waiting. Hard boiled eggs are in the frig. Salad makings are all ready.

I am miserable. Though the scale read 220 last week, I know I've gained weight. I am tired of this struggle. I want to surrender more. I'm holding onto dinner and I just want to release it. I want to die to my own selfish desires with regards to eating half of dinner. He's been telling me to eat half of dinner since last May. What a glorious thing it has been to surrender sugar, oh thank You Lord!

He is so good to guide me! I want to cooperate with Him and hold nothing back. I'm so quick to settle for less, half way, a little bit of surrender. NO MORE, Lord. I want this process you are leading me through. I want it ALL. I want to stop denying that You want to do this! I want to die to get it all, because You offer life!

So...

I've been thinking...each meal is an eating opportunity...breakfast and lunch are pretty much the same...I need to deal with eating half at dinner. Whoah, Lord how am I going to do this? I am in control of my faculties...I am ABLE to control what I put in my mouth (I have control over my fork), but often I am overcome with...LUST, desire, gluttony and wanting more for myself than I really need. I am TAKING.

I was thinking the other day when we went grocery shopping how I spend too much because I like to buy several of everything...for the pantry. Now that we've moved and have a big pantry, I want to stock it. I like having one (or ten) in the pantry so when I run out of something, I grab the backup and put it on the shopping list to replace. That's efficient, true. But I wonder if there's an attitude that needs to be uncovered...in fact, I know this to be true, but I'm not exactly sure what it is...please help Lord. I think this same attitude is affecting my overeating...taking more than what I need at the time. Yes! Lord I repent of taking more than I need, I do this in many areas of my life, including dinner.

Not surprisingly, this is about self-government, about dying to my fleshly desires. Lord, I surrender. I give this willingly to You and I desire to expose my flesh and desire You give it a death blow. Please free me!

I realize that each meal is an opportunity to cooperate with You. I want Your ways Lord, not my own ways (which reap death).

There are some practical things I can do...I could have a snack before dinner. I eat lunch in the afternoon and by 7pm I'm really, really hungry and I inhale my food. I'm not eating enough calories before dinner, hmmmm, it would be good to have about 200 calories for snack and 400 for dinner to lose weight. Lord, what snack could I have? OK, greek yogurt! I love the stuff!  I also don't mind cottage cheese. Hmmm! What a new thought!

So I have weighed out 100g of Fred Meyer Greek Yogurt Vanilla. The plain is horrid, but OK in a smoothie. So this is a good portion, plenty. I could get it ready in the morning or lunch when I made my salad and have it ready for a 4pm or 5pm snack (we eat dinner late now that my husband's commute is longer). That works out to:
68 calories
8.5 protein
6 carbs
0 fat
5.5 sugars
0 fiber
Hmmm, that's only 68 calories...I could toss in a few slices of lunch meat. Yummy! OK, afternoon snack - here I come! If I'm not hungry in the afternoon (that salad really works!) I could have my snack WHILE I'm preparing dinner (instead of snacking on dinner preparations). This is really exciting!!!!!

Another practical thing, how to actually eat HALF? I've never done this successfully before. I could load up my plate like normal and scoop half off and not have seconds. OK, but I can see myself heaping that plate and then not actually eating half because I've put so much food on it.

How to do this Lord?

Ah! You answer my prayers! He is telling me to use a salad plate, serve up what I think I want (the smaller plate will limit the amount) and then scoop off half! I've never had that idea before, YES, I can do that! Thank you for the plan to get me started eating less, Lord. I want to govern myself SOON! Thank You for this practical thing to do. I'm excited to be surrendering this that You've wanted for so long. I'm glad to be doing it now, but sad it has taken me so long to do it Your way!

Since I'm going for weight loss, I'm going to need to do some daily tracking of calories so I can tell myself the truth (the Truth will set me free)!