How Are You Feeling This Morning?

I think I'm in disbelief this morning as I flipped my calendar over to June - we're into the sixth month of the year already!!

Some of you started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast right after the holidays in anticipation of being ready for summer and wearing your goal size (or at least several sizes smaller) shorts and swimsuits. How are you doing? Hopefully you've seen great progress and are continuing to move towards your goal! Others started on the program fairly recently and won't see their goal until fall or winter, or perhaps not until next spring, while others have been on the plan a long time and have seen their hoped-for at-goal dates come and go, sometimes more than once.

Regardless of where you are on your journey, the fact that you're here is a good sign - really it is! Are you feeling strong and ready to take on the world of food challenges today, or are you feeling weak and unsure of yourself?

If you're feeling weak, I want to suggest something that may sound surprising to you: feeling weak is a good thing! In fact, feeling weak and vulnerable may actually better work to your advantage than feeling strong and able to take on the food world.

Before you think I've lost my mind and gotten it totally wrong, here's my thinking on this. When we are feeling weak and vulnerable, two important things can happen. First of all, we're on guard. We know we're weak, so we're more likely to put on some armor. We'll avoid the things that tempt us; perhaps we'll take a different route on our way to work so we don't pass by our former favorite food stop; we clean out our cupboards and get rid of the things that aren't on plan. If we're wise, we'll also seek out the support of trusted family members and friends (including our health coach). When we're feeling weak, we tend to take things a day at a time and we're thankful when we get to the end of the day on plan - we don't take it for granted because we know how easy it would have been to mess up.

Strength isn't a bad thing, of course, and if you're feeling strong today, good for you! I just want to gently caution you to not let your guard down. Slips can come when we least expect them, and they can be especially upsetting to us when we think they can't happen and then they do. Sometimes when we're feeling strong, we're more likely to allow ourselves to get into situations where we'll be tempted because we're confident we can handle it, and we're less likely to reach out to others for support because we think we can do this on our own.

For all of my prior [failed] dieting efforts, I pretty much did them on my own. I didn't think I needed any support, and I wasn't about to allow myself to become vulnerable in this very difficult and embarrassing area of my life. Did I mention this was true of all of my previous FAILED attempts at losing weight? :-)

One of the things that changed for me when I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast was finally admitting that I couldn't do this on my own. Twenty years of failed dieting attempts had proved that to me beyond any shadow of a doubt. I started this program feeling about as weak as a person could feel, and I decided to reach out to the Take Shape for Life/Medifast on-line community for support. Doing that was a huge step for me, because being vulnerable doesn't come easily. As I shared my struggles and reached out for help, I received an unbelievable level of support. I was weak, but many came alongside me and walked the journey with me, and I drew strength from them. Because I felt weak in my own ability, I also set up guards and made the decision to not put myself in places where I might be tempted. I cleaned out my cabinets and got rid of anything that might tempt me. I recognized my own weakness and took action accordingly.

As you know because I've blogged about this often, I also realized that the strength I needed for the journey had to come from the Lord, and I went to Him daily asking for the strength I needed. I really hadn't done that faithfully on my other diets; I'd start out asking for His help, but would usually reach a point where I felt (or at least acted) like I could do it on my own - kind of a "thanks, God, but I think I can handle it going forward." This time I kept my hand tightly in His and never let go - and neither did He!

So if you're feeling weak this morning, if you're not sure you have in you what you need to do this plan, take heart! That may be exactly where you need to be in order to reach your goal!