Friday, September 16, 2011

33.3 in 3!

Well friends, today is the 3 month anniversary of my new, healthier lifestyle and I have officially lost 33.3 pounds in the past 3 months! 

I've been thinking a great deal lately about perseverance. As with most major changes people willingly make, there's an initial rush of excitement that fuels motivation, and although it starts you off with a bang, that warm and fuzzy feeling doesn't last forever. When the "honeymoon" phase is over, that's when you find out whether or not you truly made a committment to your decision, or whether it was merely a good thought at the time but not worth the effort to continue for the long haul.

In our early morning service at church on Sunday, I was listening to Pastor Paul talk about the Christian walk, and how it's not always about what you feel, it's about what you know to be true.  He went on to talk about how, if you just keep on doing what you know you're supposed to do, whether you feel like it or not, one day you're going to reap the reward of your faithfulness.  Although this is not a new concept to me, I had never really thought about it in terms of the decision I made to overhaul my lifestyle and strive for good health until I heard him preaching it this week.   

You see, over the last three months, I have kept a journal of EVERY SINGLE BITE of food I have eaten.  Since I am eating within a specific calorie count each day to target a healthy rate of weight loss, I use an app on my phone to log in everything I eat.  (So if you see me at a restaurant with my phone in my hand while looking through the menu, just know that I'm not THAT addicted to checking my email, I'm just trying to figure out what I can eat and get it logged!)  Even though I have a great affinity for all things numerical, organizational, and generally spreadsheet oriented, logging my food and seeing the nutritional content every time I eat is just not as "fun" as it was in the beginning. 

My commitment to logging my food and sticking to it, whether I feel like it or not, is paying off with each pound I lose.  In the process, I'm learning exactly what proper portions look like, I'm reviewing my nutritional intake on a macro level in addition to counting calories (which allows me to make sure my body is not just getting the right number of calories, but also the right balance of foods), and I'm instilling a sense of discipline in my life regarding food that I have never had before.  One day, when I reach my goal weight, I'll look back and know that it was definitely worth the time and effort I put into keeping up with my journal.  So...I'm going to keep on logging, whether I feel like it or not!