It is all about Freedom!!!

Tonight I went to my regular Tuesday night bible study. We just wrapped up the Beth Moore study called Living Beyond Yourself. Session 10 was all about the fruit of the spirit that is self-control. How appropriate a topic is that for someone on a weightloss/healthy living journey?!?!!? All I can say is WOW.

It was great. I came home just wanting to pour out everything she talked about right here on this blog.

She discussed that on one side of the spectrum there is neglect. When we "let ourselves go" or when we have given up for awhile and need a jump start again. We are not respecting ourselves.

The other end is obsession. Obsession with fitness, obsession with calories, obsession with food in general.

She suggested we need to find a balance and that balance is RESPECT. Respect for ourselves. To quote her study guide "Deeply absorbing a biblical perspective of our physical bodies would free us from the horrific stress our culture has placed on us." "Therefore honor God with your body." (or in other words...Respect Yourself) I'm not meaning to preach here, but this stuff really spoke to me. In our media and culture today we are bombarded with images that make us feel bad about ourselves. We are wonderful people that deserve to be happy and respected. And if we don't respect ourselves we are telling the rest of the world they don't need to respect us either.

She was saying that we need to find a place of freedom and that is some place between neglect and obsession. We should be attentive to the point of respect and work on "recapturing the lost art of moderation." We can be attentive by paying attention to what we eat and how much exercise we get, but not to the point that it becomes all consuming.

Chubby Chick has a great post today on something very similar to this topic. She mentions being free several times. When we find this balance we will be free to play with our kids without being winded or tired. We will be free to go to any store and shop. We will be free to go to any restaurant and sit in any booth or chair they take us too. We will have freedom.

Your freedom and mine might be two different things. Your freedom might be a size two, while my freedom might be a size ten (I took that from Beth's lesson too.) We need to find a place were we use moderation as our guide.

Victory happens one day at a time. So go out there and find your freedom....you deserve it!!!

food log Monday August 27, 2007

Goal for this week

I am heading out of town over the holiday weekend. This means being away from home and away from my normal foods. The goal this week is to watch my hunger scale. To stop eating when I am hungry, not matter if that hurts peoples feelings or they think I haven't had enough to eat. This also means hurting my feelings by telling myself I have had enough.


Breakfast
Coffee, decaffeinated, made from ground ( 10 fl oz ) 6 cals
Milk, cow's, fluid, whole ( 0.25 cup ) 36 cals
Muffin, English, whole wheat, 100% ( 1 muffin ) 118 cals
Cheese, Colby ( 1 slice (1 oz) ) 112
Turkey or chicken breast, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat ( 1.5 slice (1 oz) ) 47

snack
Beef jerky ( 3 cubic inch ) 148

lunc h
Vegetable beef soup, canned, undiluted ( 1 can ) 220
crackers, saltine ( 8 cracker ) 104


dinner at the Melting pot (I had to plug in items that were as close as I could get)
Cheese fondue ( 0.5 cup ) 246
Mixed salad greens, raw ( 2 cup, shredded or chopped ) 18
walnuts 80
dressing 80
Milk, chocolate, NFS ( 0.5 cup ) fondue 104
Strawberries, raw ( 0.5 cup, NFS ) 23
Bread, French or Vienna ( 3 large slice (5" x 2-1/2" x 1") ) 288
cheesecake pieces 182
pound cake pieces 58
brownie pieces 38
2 marshmallows 38
4 almond cookies 111

total for the day 1864

Total

Sooooo not a healthy eating weekend

breakfast -
2 bacon cheese kolaches
non-fat latte (1 cup skim)

Lunch
Beef brisket and sausage sandwich ( 1 sandwich )
onion rings
sweet Tea

dinner
left over chicken enchiliada's
tortilla chips
queso

Total for the day...approx. 1785 (that is from fitday and I tried to be as exactly with my food as possible, but it has to be more calories than that...it feels like it.)

Keep Walking

Last week I received 3 comments on my weight or better yet, on my size, because they don't know what I my weigh. Three different co-workers/friends made comments. One said that I "was looking skinny", another said, "Girl, you are looking good in those jeans." and yet another asked if I was losing weight because "I am seeing less and less of you when you walk down the hall." My scale hasn't budged so it makes me think that my walking is slimming me down even if the scale isn't showing it. That or the rules I've learned on "What not to Wear" are really paying off.

Lately I have forgotten my ipod while walking. This leaves me with whatever is in my head. Lately it has been a little song that repeats over and over and over in my head when I am taking my walks. It is from a Veggie Tales DVD called Joshua and the big wall. If there is a little kid in your life that likes Veggie Tales, this is one of their cuter songs in my opinion.

It is called Keep Walking. It is sung by little french peas with little french accents.

It is a mean little song actually. It kind of sounds like a Monte Python song. Here are the actual lyrics and little audio. But here is the piece that keeps repeating in my head.

Keep walking, but you won't knock down our wall.

Keep walking. But she isn't gonna to fall!

It's plain to see, your brains are very small..

To think walking, will be knocking down our wall.

When I was walking on friday afternoon I changed up the lyrics to fit my situation a little better. It goes a little something like this

Keep walking, your butt is getting small.

Keep walking. It will be tiny by the fall!

It's plain to see, it is getting very small..

and to think walking, is what did it all!!!

So to all you walkers out there...Keep walking...your butt is getting small!!!

food log August 25

Breakfast - 2 biscuits, 1 piece sausage, 3Tbs gravy
lunch - 1 hot dog, 1 cup mac and cheese
dinner - chips with queso, ice tea, enchilada diavlo (about 6 bites)

I walked just under 4 miles today, about 8500 step just with that walk. I'm sure my steps were over 10,000 for the whole day. I have a little sunburn to show for my walk, but I'm still feeling good. The entire walk took me over an hour. I pushed the stroller and we took a few water breaks because we were walking from 10:45 to about noon and it was HOT!

Friday August 24 food log

Breakfast - breakfast bite (140), blueberry juice smoothie (70),

Lunch - OH BOY! this one was bad. The office catered in Mexican food. I had too much. 1 cheese enchilada, 2 beef fajita tacos with sour cream and guac., chips & queso, 1/2 a brownie

Dinner - 1/2 cup corn, 2 hot dogs

dessert - 1 cup ice cream.

I did get out an do my walk (20 mins) and my steps yesterday were over 6300.

It is hubby's birthday weekend. That means cooking him breakfast of his choice and dinner out with friends and family.
The breakfast he has requested in biscuits, sausage, strawberries and he has requested Kolaches for Sunday . I am planning a 1 hour walk on Saturday to help combat this menu.

Diet Library

I have developed quite the diet/healthy lifestyle library over the last several years.

My little library currently includes:



Bob Green The Best Life Diet

You! The owners manual

You! on a Diet

Superfood Rx: 14 Foods that will save your life

Beck Diet Solution

South Beach Diet

South Beach Diet Cookbook

Omega Diet

Ultimate Fitness

Secrets of a Former Fat Girl

My 2 cent reviews
South Beach Diet/South Beach Diet Cookbook (purchased spring 2003)
This jump started my healthy eating lifestyle. I feel like I learned a lot about how my body processes foods. I lost and kept off about 15 lbs while exercising and following South Beach. I went from about 183 to 165. I was slowly gaining the weight back, then I got pregnant. Post pregnancy I haven't been able to drop back down to my pre-preg. weight (172), just about 5 lbs shy of that goal. But just before I got pregnancy I was 7 lbs higher than my lowest post South Beach weight (165). My ultimate goal weight is 140 to 145, so I have a way to go.

Omega Diet (purchased summer 2003) I found this book to be very informative and had some great recipes. They have a wonderful healthy granola recipe. I would eat 1/4 cup with some yogurt and it would keep my satisfied until lunch. I came across this book when my father in law was having heart surgery. The hospital was advertising this book. I thought that if a book a hospital advertising it, it must be healthy. It taught me a lot about the benefits of canola oil and eating whole grains, veggies and fruits. It also helped explain why when we eat meat from grain fed cows we are just getting more Omega 6's but if we buy grass fed beef we get more of the good Omega 3's. There was so much good stuff in this book for me.


Superfood Rx: 14 foods that will save your life (purchased sometime in 2004) I think I heard about this book on Oprah, as you can tell I did with many of my other selections. It was very insightful on the health benefits of eating certain foods. I learned how good for you blueberries, pumpkin, nuts, wheat germ and spinach can be for you. I have tried to incorporate more superfood into my diet ever since.

You! the Owners Manual (2005?) I have to confess, I don't remember too much about this one. I read most of it but I think it is more of a reference book for me now. If something is wrong with me I go to this book to see my body should be working. I do like to learn about how my body works and why it does the things it does.

You! on a Diet (2006?) I think I need to go back to this one more. I have tried to eliminate the bad ingredients this book mentions. Most notably high fructose corn syrup and enriched flour. Hubby and I threw out most of our pantry after reading about this stuff. We are label readers now. One thing this book suggests that I liked and need to follow more is repetition. Dr. Oz suggests eating the same breakfast and lunch everyday and then changing things up at dinner. I also liked that they focus on your waist measure and not just the scale. It was something else I could use to see if I'm at risk for certain chronic diseases. The part of the You! books I didn't like were their use of silly pop-culture references. In ten years those jokes will not make any sense.

Bob Green's the Best Life Diet (2007) I liked parts of this book, but didn't like the way it would always refer to his website and pay eating plan. It turned me off. I do believe that stopping eating 2 hour before bed time can make a big difference. I still try to follow this rule. I like the idea of being active by just taking more steps in a day. I bought a pedometer and wear it all the time now. It helps me gauge how active I have been on any given day. I've only hit 10,000 steps twice, but I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I hit over 6,500. A normal day at the office barely gets me 3,000.

Beck Diet Solution (April 2007) This one really helped me. It was like a breakthrough. Finally a book not about what to eat, but about how to change the way I think about eating. I really think that is the key for me. If it was as easy as just saying no then I would be a size 2. But why can't I seem to say no! that was my question.

Secrets of a Former Fat Girl (Summer 2007) SFF for short. SFF was very similar to Beck Diet Solution, but it was one girls personal journey. I could identify with what she had to go through to lose her weight. The changes she had to make forever in her life. She has been able to keep habits forever that I have tried to establish in myself. Her ideas parallel the Beck Diet Solution so I think these book compliment each other well.

I'm always looking to read more and learn more about healthy eating and living. If you have any book recommendation, please let me know.