Walking Away

Today I thought I'd share a blog that I wrote back on September 1, 2007,  just a little over two months after starting on plan.  The blog chronicled a real turning point in my thinking.  I hope it will be helpful to you today!

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I read an interesting story not too long ago, and it's been rambling around in my brain until today, when I decided to blog about it.

Have you ever seen an elephant at the circus?  I don't know if they still do this, but years ago circus elephants could be seen standing next to a small wooden stake in the ground with a chain around one ankle. In the story I read, the writer became rather curious as to how one small wooden stake could hold a large elephant captive, so he did some investigating.  As it turns out, the trainer begins using the chain and stake when the elephant is just a baby.  The baby elephant is unable to pull free and, over time, gradually accepts the chain and the restriction it provides.  What the elephant never realizes is that as it grows stronger, it could easily pull the stake out of the ground and be free.  You see, the elephant adapts itself so completely to the chain that it loses sight of the fact that it could free itself in a moment, if it only realized that the chain no longer had any power over it.

This is a powerful illustration for me!  I feel like I have been chained to unhealthy food choices for a long time, a prisoner of stress eating and unending cycles of yo-yo dieting.  I felt like I was trapped and would never be set free.  What I didn't realize, until recently, is that all I have ever had to do was gently but firmly pull and the chain would fall away.  I stood next to a weak wooden stake called "food addiction" and allowed myself to think that it held me captive - I gave it power it never had on its own.

As God continues to work in my life through Take Shape for Life and so many of the people here, I have finally walked away from this chain and it no longer has the power to hold me captive.  I am learning to put food into its proper place and not run to it to deal with stress, smooth a hurt, or celebrate a victory.  This is so freeing!

One of my new favorite songs is called "Finally Free" by Nichole Nordeman. Here are the lyrics:

No chain is strong enough, no choice is wrong enough 
No mountain high enough that He can't climb 
No shadow dark enough, no night is black enough 
No road is lost enough that He can't find 

*chorus*
And if the Son has set us free, then we must be free indeed 
Let the chains fall away, starting today 
Everything has changed...I'm finally free 

v.2
No pain is deep enough, no heart could bleed enough 
Nothing but Jesus' love can make a way 

*chorus*
And if the Son has set us free, then we must be free indeed 
Let the chains fall away, starting today 
Everything has changed...I'm finally free 

http://youtu.be/rzcuYGj3VQI
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That day, almost six and a half years ago, I celebrated a new-found freedom.  Today, over 5-1/2 years since reaching my goal, I'm still celebrating that freedom!  I tell people all the time that when I started on Take Shape for Life, I was just hoping to lose a little bit of weight - I had NO idea that there would be so much emotional and spiritual growth in the process.  

The freedom from my long-standing food addition didn't happen in an instant, but each day as I made the choice to stay on plan and chose to find healthier ways to deal with stress and emotional issues (and for me, that healthier way was turning to my Heavenly Father), I took another step away from my food addiction and another step towards a healthier rest of my life.

I write this knowing that some of you are dealing with a lot of emotional eating issues.  I've been there, I've walked a similar path, and I understand probably more than you could ever know.  I also know that we can be set free, completely free, starting today.  Those chains will begin to fall, one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

A Penny for Your Choice

I write a lot about making wise choices, so here's an interesting choice to contemplate:  I'll write you a check today for a million dollars or I'll give you a penny today and double it every day for thirty-one days.  Two choices - a million dollars today or the sum of a penny doubled for one month.

Would it surprise you to know that if you chose to receive a penny a day for 31 days, you would end up with $10,737,418?  (This example is from page 17 of "Dr. A's Habits of Health".)

If we didn't pull out a calculator and figure out the difference, I think most of us would be inclined to take the million dollar check and run.  Waiting for something, even if it will be a lot better in the long run, isn't something we like to do.  Instant gratification is almost hard-wired into us.  I remember as a kid hearing my dad say "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," and I took that saying to heart.  The problem with that saying (and my dad is a wise person who didn't really live by that saying) is that we end up settling for the immediate gratification, and that often means we settle for less than the best.

Dr. Andersen uses this example in his book to illustrate the art of compounding.  One penny on day one doesn't seem like a big deal after all - how many of us will even stoop down to pick up a penny on the sidewalk?  But one penny doubled day after day eventually becomes something that's valuable indeed.

Those new, healthy habits that we're working to incorporate into our lives take time.  One day of eating right or exercising doesn't really make any difference one way or the other, like a lone penny lying on the sidewalk.  But when those healthy choices are repeated day after day, the compounded effect is profound - and it's life changing.  The challenge is to not expect instant results, because when it comes to making permanent changes, the results don't show up overnight.  But they will show up, I promise you, as you make one wise choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

Just a Little Cheating, Part 2

Last week I blogged about how just a little cheating could result in a much longer journey to goal.  While taking a little - or a lot - longer to reach goal may be reason enough to not cheat, there is an even more important reason to stay on plan.

My friend, Freida, is a nurse and also a health coach and told me that  "making "wiggle room" on this plan can actually be very harmful. Eating 'off plan' foods, such as wine, can keep your body out of fat burning. This means your body will not burn the fat needed for energy to get through the day. Without fat burning, we ask our bodies to function on 800 to 1000 calories we ingest each day. This could mean no weight loss and may lead to metabolism slow down or worse yet, muscle wasting as the body begins to starve. Choosing to just cheat "a little," can actually cause you great harm!"  

In addition to being a nurse and a health coach, Freida is also one of the nurses who hosts the weekly Take Shape for Life nurses's call - she knows what she's talking about!  

Her comment really puts "a little cheating" on an entirely new level.  I've known individuals who insist that they will follow 5&1 plus have a glass of wine or a piece of fruit every day, reasoning that their calories are still low and they're still losing weight, even if the weight loss is slower.  But fat burning protects our bodies, including our muscles.  This isn't an extremely low-calorie diet, as some reason.  5&1 is carefully designed to provide all of the nutrition we need while we safely drop our calories, and we can safely drop our calories to under 1,000 because our bodies are in fat burning.

Thanks, Freida, for providing another - and critically important - perspective on this issue!  Staying on plan is not only the fastest way to reach goal, it is also the safest and healthiest way to get there.  As always, the choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)

Just a Little Cheating

The 5&1 weight loss phase of Take Shape for Life's program is a very rigid and restrictive plan, and for a lot of people, the restrictions are challenging to live with.  Having been on other plans that allow for "wiggle room", some individuals keep looking for a way to somehow incorporate some of their favorite foods into this program and still make it work.  They want to be have the kind of success they see others have, in the same amount of time, while being able to cheat on the weekends.

The truth is that you CAN cheat if you choose to do so, and you can do this and still reach your goal . . . it will just take you a lot longer.  Here's a real-life example from a couple who both went on the program at the same time.  The wife made the decision to stay on plan 100% of the time and she lost 50 pounds.  Her husband also made the decision to follow the program, with one exception:  he did the 5&1 plan plus had a glass of wine every evening with dinner.  In the same amount of time that his wife lost 50 pounds, he lost 20.  Yep - his wife lost over twice as much weight in the same amount of time!

So often we may think that it's OK to modify the plan just a little . . . after all, we reason, it's only a LITTLE bit off plan, so how much could it hurt?  I guess the question each person has to ask is, "how quickly do I want to reach my goal?"  If you aren't in a hurry, then perhaps having a glass of wine or eating something off plan might be OK for you. 

When I started on Take Shape for Life and began to realize that I had finally found a program that actually worked, something that really WOULD help me to reach my goal, I wanted to get there as quickly as I possibly could.  I fought obesity for over twenty years and I didn't want to be obese for one day longer than I had to.  I knew I didn't have any control over how fast my body released the weight, but I COULD control whether or not I stayed on plan.  I knew that staying on plan would get me to my goal the fastest.  It's not that I didn't miss a lot of things while I was on plan, but I figured that nothing was worth keeping me obese a day longer than necessary.  As I approach the six-year anniversary of reaching my goal, I certainly don't regret the decision I made to stay on plan :-).

Almost every day presents a challenge to stay on plan.  If it's not stress, it's an occasion of one kind or another (Super Bowl last weekend, Valentine's Day next week, for instance).  If it's not an occasion, perhaps it's a friend or loved one who's less than supportive.  Regardless of the challenge, the choice is ultimately ours.  As we consider the choices we face, it might help to ask ourselves how fast we want to reach our goal.  After we honestly ask - and answer - that question, we'll make the choices that support what we want.  Think carefully about what you really want, then choose wisely :-)

Wrestling With a Grizzly Bear

Like much of the country, we have been hammered with snow over the past few weeks. Our snowfall for the season - so far - is 8 feet . . . and counting.  I joke that those of us who experience this type of weather (I resisted the urge to write "endure"!) have a deeper appreciation for spring, summer and fall than those who are surrounded by green grass and flowers twelve months of the year, but the truth is that this kind of weather has a tendency to drag me down.  Because we live very near Lake Michigan, we typically get a lot of cloud cover most of the winter and going for days without sunshine probably contributes to that dragged-down feeling.

Truth is, this time of year brings out the grizzly bear in me - all I want to do is put on a nice layer of fat via lots of carbs and sugar and then sleep until spring :-).  For years, that's pretty much how I coped with our Michigan winters.  Even in my 20's and early 30's when I was at a healthy weight, I'd pick up around 10 pounds every winter then take it off in the spring and summer and just accepted the fact that my winter slacks were a size larger than my summer ones.  I didn't understand at that time that I was really yo-yo dieting and that each gain/lose/gain cycle was actually increasing my percentage of body fat, so I succumbed to the inclination to carb load and curl up under a blanket with a book.

To be honest, that is STILL my inclination . . . but that's not what I do anymore.  As tempting as it is to reach for those carbs and vegetate under a blanket, I'm making different choices these days.  That grizzly bear tendency is still there and it still growls at me, but I'm growling back :-).  I know that what I really want is to be thin and healthy, and grizzly bear living is NOT the way to have what I really want.  So, whether I feel like it or not, I make healthy choices and I move my body.

I think that my seasonal battle with the grizzly bear can most likely be attributed to my self-diagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but I've found that eating right and staying active actually helps to calm the grizzly bear.  I also take extra Vitamin D to make up for the sunshine that we miss - the extra D helps minimize some of the winter blahs, too, and I have a light therapy box that I can use as well.

Sometimes it's just plain hard to make the choices we know we should be making when we frankly feel like doing something else.  If we are taking a short view of life, we'll go for the immediate gratification and follow our instincts almost every time.  The challenge is to shift our focus and look at where we want to be in 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months from now.  If we stay focused on where we want to be, and if that's what we REALLY want, we will then be able to make choices that will support what we want.

So it really doesn't matter how we feel today - what matters is what we want tomorrow and the day after that.  Focus on what you want, then choose wisely :-

Raise Your Hand if This Isn't Fun Anymore

I've received several positive comments from individuals who enjoy reading some of the blogs I wrote six years ago while I was on 5&1.  Since it's good for me to remember and since it's helpful to at least a few of you, today I'm posting a blog I wrote six years ago, in January of 2008.

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I'm still 100% on plan and have been since starting Medifast last June 24, but wow, am I getting a bit weary of the whole thing!  I'm two pounds away from my BMI dropping below 30 (I will officially be "overweight" - woo hoo!!) and I'm looking pretty darn good for a grandmother of 4 closing in on my 56th birthday.  However, I recognize this as VERY dangerous thinking for me.  I don't want to settle for "good enough" or certainly for "good enough for someone MY age."  I want (and need) the satisfaction of seeing this through all the way to my goal.  And since my doctor agreed with my goal of 130, I can't exactly rationalize quitting early.  I know myself well enough to know that if I stop now, even though I've come a long way and am wearing sizes I haven't been able to wear in over 20 years, I will feel, in my heart of hearts, that I failed.  I'm afraid that thinking could be the first step towards regaining all of the weight that I've lost so far, and I can't go there.

Because I'm one pound away from having lost 80 pounds, I had my husband take a couple pictures of me so I could get them ready for my (hopefully soon!) "80 Pounds Gone Progress Photos" post (I figure I won't look any different one pound from now).  I put the progress photos together with a few "before" photos and Photoshopped all of them into a single photo.  I did this as much for me as for anyone else, because I really need to SEE where I was and how far I've come.  That helps to keep me motivated, even on days when I'm sick of being on MF, sick of skipping over all of the really YUMMY food selections on the restaurant's menu and deciding between which kind of grilled meat I'm going to order THIS time.  I'm tired of skipping the sauces, holding the butter, passing on the bread, and saying no to the desserts.  BUT then I look at my "before" pictures and realize all over again how worth it all of this is, and I know that's exactly how I'll feel when I reach my final goal. 

I also have to remind myself that in the past six months I have gone from being on the brink of diabetes to NORMAL (even my doctor said so!), from needing meds to keep my cholesterol down to having normal cholesterol WITHOUT meds, from having blood pressure that was on the rise to NORMAL, HEALTHY blood pressure, and from having so much pain in my knee that I could hardly walk to literally running up and down stairs.  All of that is worth it - wow, is it EVER! 

So my thinking today is something like this:  Is this still fun for me?  Not particularly, but so what?  Am I getting a bit bored with the whole thing?  Yes, but so what?  Was it fun being 260 pounds????  Was it fun shopping for the very largest sizes my local woman's store carried?  Was it fun worrying about being diabetic?  Was it fun paying the copay every month for my cholesterol meds?  Was it fun having pain with every step, taking stairs one at a time, and not being able to wear some fun high heels? 

This is my reality check on a very cold January in Michigan.  Yes, I'm bored and a bit tired of the whole thing, but boredom won't kill me and obesity might.  And I'm worth reaching my goal, and my family is worth me reaching my goal.  For once in my life, it's about doing what I KNOW I need to do, not what I feel like doing. 

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I had many days after I wrote this blog when I wasn't having fun staying on plan, when I was bored to death with my food choices (there are a lot more Medifast food options now than there were six years ago).  However, I stayed on plan regardless of how I felt.  When I reached my goal, I had NO regrets for having made the choices I did!  Six years later, I still have to choose every day whether or not I'm going to do what I need to do or what I want to do (still waiting for the "want" and "need" to consistently be one and the same!).  You face the same choice every day, too.  Let's choose wisely :-)

Holding On and Letting Go

What are you holding on to today?  I'm asking this question because I've realized that sometimes we desperately hold on to things that are no longer serving our best interest - sometimes they never did.  

When it comes to losing weight and getting healthy, many of us struggle to release old patterns of eating.  We struggle and want to hold on to our favorite foods, even when those foods and our relationship to them landed us in an unhealthy BMI range, perhaps even contributing to illness and disease.  When we struggle to let go of what is no longer working for us, we may end up going off plan repeatedly.  We hang on to those old things and look at them as forbidden fruit; we feel deprived because we can't have the very things that got us here in the first place.

In Beth Moore's Bible study, "Breaking Free," one of the things she said that really resonated with me is that "whatever we give up is only to free our hands so we can receive all God has for us."  We can't receive something new if our hands are full of old stuff.

I have a picture in mind right now of hands that are tightly gripped around something old and rotting, fingertips white because the grip is so tight.  Within reach is something new and beautiful, but to take that new thing into the hand, the old will first have to be released.  The problem is that the old, while rotting, is familiar - it fits in the hand and the hand is warm from holding it for so long.  Letting go of the old thing means that, for a split second, the hand will be empty and cold.  It's uncertain how the new thing will fit and feel in the hand, so even though it looks beautiful and most desirable, the idea of actually having that in hand is pretty scary.

Some of us have struggled with being overweight or obese for a long time.  We hate how we look and feel, and part of us really wants to reach out and claim the healthy body and new life that is within our reach.  Before we can do that, we have to let go of the old, rotting habits.  Letting go of them isn't deprivation - it's freedom.  It doesn't feel like that at first because those habits have become so comfortable and warm in our hands.  But once we're willing to recognize them for what they are, things that are keeping us in a place we don't want to be, and once we're willing to loosen our grip and let them go, we are able to receive something far better.

It's not easy!  I wish it was, but it's not.  But it's worth it.  Shift your eyes from what you're hanging on to and really focus on what is is that you want.  Shift your focus, then choose wisely :-)