Dieting is a complicated process! Choosing to diet is a small part of the battle. The hard part comes when you try to decide on the method. There are a million and one diet programs out there. If you don’t choose the right diet, the odds of success get even lower. If you’re like me, you have trouble even starting your diet because you’re too busy researching how.
After many failed attempts using popular diet programs, I have yet to find one that works. The thing is, yes they all work if you follow every detail, but not every detail is reasonable for me. Often they're too big of a life change to successfully jump into cold turkey. So I’ve decided to take a more eclectic and holistic approach. Here’s what I need in a diet:
1. The biggest reason I make the wrong choices with food is that I am trying to fill a need or desire in my heart with the joy of food or the fear of lack of food. Instead, I need to fill that with the only thing that will keep it full…God. I need to continually work at my relationship with Him. I need to daily seek His encouragement as this fight is too big for me alone. I need His help.
2. I need to be able to eat and not go hungry. I struggle with hypoglycemia so going hungry or not receiving enough calories makes me dizzy, confused, irritable and sick to my stomach. I need to be all there for my family, not a skinny mess.
3. I need to limit my portions. Let’s face it, Americans eat a TON! We eat until we cannot eat any more stretching our stomachs to take in more and more. That’s me! I will be using the principals for eating within your caloric needs in the Weigh Down Diet using your body as a guide rather than some generic points system.
4. I need to eat healthier options. Not only do I need to have a smaller body, I also need a healthier one. If I’m going to demand that my kids eat their fruits and veggies, I need to be prepared to do the same. I need to constantly be on the lookout for ways that I can make better choices.
Covered everything? I think so. The problem is, only superwoman can keep this diet. So I also need to be realistic. I refuse to set unbending rules for myself as I know there’s no way I’ll keep them. Instead, I’d like to set up goals. Every chance that I get to make a choice, I need to choose what is best according to the following goals for every day:
1. Read Scripture every day. Not just read with a blank mind, but truly study and internalize what I am reading.
2. Ask God daily for help and let Him be a part of the process.
3. Eat only when I am truly hungry, not just peckish.
4. Make sure to stop and eat when I am hungry so I do not splurge later out of desperation.
5. Eat every meal slowly, savoring and enjoying.
6. Stop eating the minute I become satisfied, not full.
7. Choose good food.
8. Be on top of my budget, menus, and grocery buying to insure that I have the food I need and the money it takes to buy it.
9. Exercise at least 4 days a week always working towards more.
I will do my best every day, every meal, every hungry thought to meet these goals. Being fat is a choice. Being unhealthy is a choice. I choose to start making the right choices.
The biggest part of this diet is that it is not just for a time period…this diet is for the rest of my life!
I will begin working towards these goals today. I do not expect to get it perfect at first or to even meet all of these goals, but this will be a lifestyle change, a process, a new beginning.
This journal will follow how I lost my weight, however if I ever do meet my weight loss goal it sure will not end there.
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