The Post Holiday Update

Well, how did Halloween go for you?

Wanna know how it went for me?

Cue the announcer voice..

  "When we last left our heroine she had just blown through her weekly's but had not gone over them.  So the question that's on everybody's mind- did she make it through the holiday weekend without going over?"

That would be a

BIG

FAT

NO

Geez, I so wish I could tell you otherwise but I'm here to tell the truth because I believe we can only move forward in Truth.

So here's what happened...

Sunday we had a trunk-or-treat to go to at church.

We actually decided to hand out candy this year too.

Unfortunately it looked something like "One for you and one for me".

I also had a quarter pounder(plain and no cheese please!) with a medium order of fries from McDonald's.

I haven't had that in over a year!!!

We went through the drive through on the way home that night because I didn't want to cook and I was tired, hungry, it was late and (insert many more excuses here).  :)

Sunday we went to our local mall to trick-or-treat and I was accosted by Auntie Anne's Pretzel's which are basically a foodie's crack cocaine.

Uggg!!!!

Now they have pretzel bites with little pepperonis on them.  Did you know that?!!!!

So now you know the down side.

I went off course despite my best intentions.

Here's what I did RIGHT~

My exercise had really fallen off the past month but in the past week I worked out almost EVERY SINGLE DAY.

And the fries at McDonald's?

I gave about 1/3 of them to my husband.

I also managed not to eat after we got home from the mall Monday.  No late night eating for me is like an Olympic event.

I got a Gold Medal that night!  Yay for me!

I will admit to you that I was twisted up in my head with disappointment, anger, frustration and embarrassment at what I did and it sat heavy on me before I weighed in today.

But, I actually lost 1 lb!

Thank you God!!!!

Now, hear this- there are weeks just like the one I described to you where I do end up gaining weight or staying the same.

And, in those times, I certainly know what I did that put the weight on.

So what makes this different for me now as opposed to a year and a half ago?

I'm not giving up.

I went to my meeting.

I tracked even when it was ugly.

I weighed in.

I exercised.

I didn't let shame keep me from moving forward because by and large I think this is what makes the difference between lifestyle and diet, between keeping the weight off or keeping yourself in check and gaining weight or staying out of shape(run-on sentence much?).

How many people DON'T go back to weigh in?

How many hide in shame and self-loathing and crawl back into their caves of gluttony and self deprecation?

How many hold every slip as a shield, fighting for their limitations saying "See?  What did I tell you?  I knew this would happen.  I knew this wouldn't work.  Nothing ever works.  I'm just fat.  I have a slow metabolism.  I'm too old to really lose weight.  Insert even more excuses here!"

Sometimes I sit back and I listen to all those ugly thoughts in my head telling me what to do or not to do and then I say "what's the opposite of that? Because I want to do something different.  Following those directions has kept me fat so obviously I need to do something different".

You know what else?

Everybody does this.  Everybody has times where they fall.  We're human.

You know what helps me?

Sharing it with someone.  Going through this stuff alone is hard and I don't think God ever intended it to be that way.

When we share it with someone else the burden becomes lighter, our thoughts become more rational and real.  The stories we tell ourselves are usually uglier than the reality of any given situation.

So get some support.  Surround yourself with people who love and support you because you deserve that.

That support person?  They also have to be real.

This can't be someone who only ever tells you what you want to hear and is ready to enable all your bad habits.

They need to speak the truth, gently, with love and with compassion.

It's helpful to have someone who will commiserate with you but also be ready to move forward and get back on track.

So even if you slipped up too remember these words and

DON'T

GIVE

UP