Boot Camp...Day 33

Well, it has been a good day today! Here is how things went...

Wednesday, January 30

workout - Leslie Sansone Miracle Mile
B - popcorn/spoon of peanut butter
S - none
L - few bites of mac & chs. and chicken pot pie
S - piece of cheese
S - scallops (fried in butter flav cooking spray and lemon/pepper - not bad, also not my favorite), whole wheat pasta/sauce/chs., and green beans

I have had a really bad headache for the better part of the afternoon and into tonight, so when I got home I had to take some medicine and did not want to do so on an empty stomach. I had a mug of Lipton noodle soup - and I feel like I'm about to bust! Head feels some better though.

So, I am trying something a little bit tough for the next two weeks!!! Yes, two weeks! Are you ready for this???

Are you really ready...

Okay, here goes...

I am going to do a "boot camp" for the next two weeks. It will consist of the following:

Absolutely nothing but HEALTHY food, i.e., salads, vegetables, fish, lean meats, skim milk (if any), fruit. I will allow myself peanut butter, but only when accompanied by a fruit. ONLY whole wheat bread - and you can say that it is the same to eat just WHEAT bread, but it is absolutely NOT THE SAME! Unless it says WHOLE WHEAT you just might as well have white!

As far as workout time goes I will be working out every day if possible, skipping only Sunday if necessary. There is no reason that I cannot at least do a walking video every day.

I will be starting this boot camp on Friday of this week when I am able to get groceries. We are having a soup contest at our church Sunday, so I will also positively, absolutely, for sure, be taking that day off of the boot camp for that one day!

The reason I am doing this is because for the last few weeks I have been losing really slowly. It is good to lose slow, but honestly there is no reason I should not be losing one to two pounds a week, other than just being too lax in the routine. I am using this kind of as a tool to get me to 30 pounds, that is kind of a short-term goal for me at this point. At the end of two weeks I would like to have finally achieved a weight loss of 30 pounds. My total weight loss goal is 77 lb, so 30 lb would be a good portion of that total goal. It will also just be good to see how much of a difference it makes to eat nothing but healthy food and to exercise every day. And I'm not just talking about being active like I said in the previous post; I am actually going to be "working out" every day during this two weeks. I cannot wait to see what results this will produce!

One of the really, really great things about getting healthy is that I feel better about myself. I don't mean just because I'm looking better, I mean because I know that I'm taking care of myself and making good decisions each day. This has made me more confident in my ministry too. I used to have such a hard time singing at church because I knew that people would have to actually see me, and that really held me back because I was so ashamed of myself. Well, first of all, that was wrong! I know that our ability to minister is not based on how we look, but on how we allow God to use us, how we seek Him. But, not feeling bad about myself before I even get up there just gives me more freedom to allow him to use me. For too long I had my focus on the wrong place - on me, but now I am able to quit thinking "Oh, they are thinking I look horrible." I was always so afraid that by being overweight, that when people saw me they just thought I had no self-control. Honestly, I had no self-control! But, my weight didn't have anything to do with whether or not God used me, with whether or not he uses anybody. All he asks is that we are open and willing vessels for Him to work through. We need to remember that it is not about "us", it's about Jesus working through us to reach others for Him. And by the way, thankfully, I have some self-control now (it's important, fruit of the Spirit you know!)!

I am choosing to do this "boot camp" for my health. I talk about it on this blog to encourage others who are trying to do the same thing, and to help me to stick with it knowing I will have to talk about it. But, this is not my focus. My focus is on what I can do for Jesus to reach others. When we stand before God, it will not make any difference whether we weighed 100 lb, 200 lb, 300 lb, or more (it could quite possibly make a difference in our life span!), but it will make a difference how many people we told about Jesus, how much we shared the truth of His love. As a christian we have the hope of a perfect body one day, we have to make sure though that we are sharing that hope with everyone we meet. Each day should be a "boot camp" for Jesus too, not to see how many pounds we can lose, but how many people we can reach!