It's Time

(photo taken before my walk this morning-6am sunrise!!!)

The past week, I've been in weight loss crisis.

I've been honest with myself. Nothing is happening because I'm not doing anything. I don't want to float along anymore. I've been comparing my weight loss journey to the personal/spiritual growth I've experienced over the past three years. I did a lot of things right in that process to move my life forward with the Lord. It seems like I'm NOT doing those good things in this process. I find it so interesting that the Lord gave me the steps AHEAD of time. Not so in my other process, it was always "per the moment", I never had revelation ahead of time. Virtually all of this process has been revealed and I've been practicing. Interesting.

I want to change that...NOW.

I'm DONE. It is "do it or quit". I can't just keep being willy-nilly. I'm making a list for myself WHY I want to lose weight. Hoping this will help motivate me as I'm expecting to enter into a 12 month serious effort to lose weight. I know what to do. I need to do it.

So I've been digging in the past few days to try to figure out what to do next.

I went back to the beginning.

The first thing the Lord told me was to WALK. I've done a great job obeying in this! But I'm lacking consistency, so I took a look at that evaluating what needs to happen there.

Since I can't walk if I'm snuggling in my sheets, the reality is...I must get out of bed in the morning. I've been sleeping in lately! I decided I need 30 days to get focused and getting up in the morning is on that list. I've been collecting data (for some reason when I "track" myself, I go nuts, so this is "collecting data" where there's no expectation, just get the numbers). There really IS a correlation between when I go to sleep and when I wake up! Early to bed, early to rise...

I did some searching online and found this little tidbit of info which recommends PRACTICING getting out of bed! During the day, get in bed, set the alarm to go off and GET OUT OF BED without hitting the snooze button. I'm trying to be in the sheets by 10:30pm and get up with NO snooze at 6am. Tomorrow will be Day 3...I am astonished that I haven't used the snooze like I was before!

The next thing, sugar. That is a hot topic. Today I stumbled onto a site that got me really pumped up and helped me identify in my MIND why I need to obey NO SUGAR even more.
Next thing, fiber. Done. I have Fiber One and lots of veggies in my salad everyday.
Next thing, water. Oooooh, water. Yes, I've been trying to drink 10 glasses for like a year! So let's do this thing! YESTERDAY was fantastic! I've finally figured it out! So easy to do this everyday! Done.

Next thing, get up earlier. Doing it!
Next thing, this is where I got a Shake Weight and started counting calories to see where I'm at.
Next thing, GET STRONG. This involves additional exercise beyond my morning walk. This is on the back-burner for right now while I get strong in my other disciplines.
Next thing, eat half of dinner. Eat LESS dinner. This area is causing a crisis. I'm really finding it nearly impossible to eat less dinner. Dinner is always something I like (since I'm the cook). My husband wants me to nix the yummy recipes and cook healthier. I wonder if I could eat half of a healthy meal?! This entire area is being rocked. So this area needs some attention.

Next thing, eat one salad a day. This has been amazing! I've spent the past 18 months having a salad for lunch everyday. Delicious! I'm getting really tired of making it, though...but I still like eating it! Trim Healthy Mama has caused me to take a look at my lunch. This is soooo good! I want my salad to be an "S" meal, so that means low carbs and higher fat. I've adjusted my recipe to include salmon for awhile, such a welcome change! And no beans, no sesame stix. I just can't live without the few dried cranberries, so those get tossed in even though they really aren't on plan. But we're talking a few carbs, which if I have the balsamic dressing, we're still really close.
SO...
to explain, no...to sum up:
-Walk Daily
-Abstain from Refined Sugar
-Drink 10 glasses of water daily
-Get Up Earlier
-Get Strong
-Eat half dinner
-Eat One Salad a Day

That's it. This is what I'm supposed to do. The rest of my time (one year or so) has been trying to get serious to do it all together (and we moved, which has played a part in this timeframe).

Now Trim Healthy Mama has come across my path. It is forcing a crisis that I have to figure out. What am I going to do with this information?

Today was good. I made some decisions and during this 30 days I'm going to make even more. What do I want after the 30 days?
-to have walked a good portion of those days
-to master drinking the water
-to be getting up at 6am
-to deal a death blow to sugar and have a breakthrough
-develop a system for eating less (and healthier) at dinner
-solidify my breakfast and lunches according to THM principles (one fuel only per meal, either fats or carbs, but not both together...this is not really a burden once I figure it out)

I have some goals for my family, one is to eradicate all soda consumption. Regular and diet soda are both death. I'm going to switch it out for Zevia...at least the kids. John will have to let that go on his own when he's ready.

Excited for tomorrow...better head to bed.