Exercise has never been something I enjoyed (unless it was swimming). I've always had to push myself, and have never really had the motivation to do so. This last semester, I took to water courses (swimming and water aerobics) and I lost over 20 pounds....not sure where because I never went down in sizes in clothes, but the digital numbers on the scale don't lie, right? Well, in this last month or so since school let out, I've gained about 8 pounds of it back; which really depresses me. No, I haven't been working out. I haven't been eating right. In fact, I've done a lot of butt sitting & eating out.
So yesterday, I went to David's Bridal to try on a bridesmaid dress for my friends wedding in June. I expected it to be one size, but no, it was 4-6 sizes bigger than I expected. I knew that those dresses ran big, but I have never even tried on something in that size, and it just kinda freaked me out. I was almost immediately depressed and went home, determined to figure out how to squeeze into a smaller size. So, I went for a walk and came home and had 2 brownies, then went to dinner with my mom where I absolutely stuffed my face with salad, a huge baked potato (loaded with butter, cheese, and sour cream of course), and steak. After doing that, I of course felt horrible again.
So I was talking to my friend Zeke last night, and he made a really good point: God doesn't want us to feel like this. He doesn't want us to turn to food instead of Him. That when we're over-eating and not taking care of our bodies, we're letting Satan have that hold on us.
I never thought of me over-eating and not taking care of myself as sin or letting Satan have a grip on my life, but, if this is causing me to not focus myself on God, then it's a sin, right?
Zeke was so encouraging, and he asked me what I'm going to do about it, and, as I was eating a very large, yummy bowl of Cap'n Crunch...(lol), I told him I'm going to stop eating as much and so much junk and start working on exercise.
But, I really just needed to turn it over to God. To completely give him my body. I spent the late evening in prayer and just asking, begging God to help me overcome this sin. To help me to become healthier and to help me wake up in the morning on fire and ready to go.
So this morning, I woke up, before my alarm, and I was on fire and ready to go.
God, I just thank you. I thank you for always being here for me and for forgiving me of my sins. I ask that you keep me on fire...not just keeping me on fire for getting healthy. I long to be on fire for You. I long for you to use me in whatever way you want. Help me to bless others while blessing you. Help me to turn to you in all areas of my life, especially in this fight with Satan over my body. Help me to win this battle. Because with you, all things are possible...
I know the feeling of battling with your weight especially when you just want to be healthy. I think in this day and age we are tempted by so much easy food - processed food, fast food, microwave stuff that isn't good for us.
ReplyDeleteIf I could think of little ways to give advice it would be this - keep all the bad snack foods out of your house. Just don't buy anything with chocolate in it at all! Get a blender, get lots of frozen fruit, some juice and liquid vitamin stuff and make awesome fruit smoothies (I got addicted to Jamba Juice when I was in LA and now that I have a blender I make a smoothie like every other day). Take things like chips and put serving size amounts in little ziplock backs. It's like those instant 100 calorie packs. Eat little bits throughout the day and you won't be as hungry and what I found helps the most and I never did it for the longest time because it seemed tedious and annoying but write down the calories of everything you eat. It really works!
Those things are easy for you to do but I think that God can be the best motivator for you to exercise and just get out and do stuff. I think exercise is the hardest part and you need all the help you can get. Keep us updated on the blog! It's nice to hear about other people who are trying to work out and get fit.