Changes

Change...for many, this is almost a forbidden word.  No one really likes change but sometimes change can bring on a whole new outlook in life.  We have change in the weather, change in careers, change in homes, etc.  This year has brought on a lot of changes for me.  

One change that I felt I was ready to make was a change in my health and fitness.  At the beginning of the year I was continually seeing my weight go up.  This was causing me to have less energy and when I am working with the youth at our church, less energy is not good.  So, after seeing my mother-in-law join Weight Watchers and begin losing weight, I decided it was time.  I began counting calories, watching what I was putting into my mouth and writing everything I ate down in an on-line log called my fitness pal.  I also began to exercise.  It started out as once a week at the gym and has progressed up to 4-6 times per week of exercising either at the gym or at home.  The outcome of both of these changes has caused me to lose 37 pounds and now I have way more energy to work with the youth at our church and I feel better for doing things with my own active teenagers.  

There were several things that had to happen for me to get to this point.  I had lost weight before but it always came back.  So why would I return to my old ways of eating after working so hard to lose weight?  God, throughout the course of the last few years, has shown me what triggers my unhealthy eating.  I am now in the maintenance phase of my weight lose journey and God is helping me hear and see when those triggers get pushed.  He has given me words to say when I feel those triggers rising.  Granted, I have not been in the maintenance phase for very long yet, but I can already see the difference from times past.  Part of my focus this time is just being healthier - not skinner, although that is an outcome of eating healthier.  I am not on a diet - I eat whatever I want, I just count the cost first.  Some days are better than others.  This is going to be a "rest of my life" journey.  

Another thing that has made this journey possible is my spiritual health.  In the past few years, there have been some major hurts that have happened.  God and I have walked through those hurts and I believe there has been major healing there.  It is due to this healing that I am able to become physically healed.  No longer am I medicating my hurt and pain with food but with the Word of God first and that is the key.  


God is so good.  He meets us right where we're at.  He doesn't ask us to get our act together first and them come to him.  No matter what the issues are, he is there to meet us and heal us.  Do I still struggle with weight issues and eating?  Of course I do.  Do I continue to be tempted to sit down with that bag of Lays potato chips or those brownies?  Of course I do?  Do I ever give in to that?  Of course I do.  The difference is, I am more in tune with the Holy Spirit and I hear him asking me, do you really want to do that?  Then I put the bag away or cut a smaller piece of brownie and give thanks to my Creator, who knows me so well.  


What is God asking you to change today?  What challenges are you facing or better yet, avoiding?  Don't let those things continue to drag you down. Allow God to heal you and to show you how to overcome.  If you do, you will find that you won't regret it.  


By the way...my mother-in-law, who I said joined Weight Watchers, has lost 45 pounds since January!  Way to go Mother!!!