Month One SUCCESS!!!!

There are certain simple things in life that bring me joy.  Not just happiness, but absolute joy.  Quiet mornings with my Bible, a long walk, a good cup of coffee, the way my kids look when they first wake up in the morning, the way my dog flops back in my arms and wants to be held like a baby, a great book.  I have added to this list this month, YOU.  Honestly, the way you guys have stepped up and committed to living a healthy lifestyle and making changes has brought me real joy.  A friend the other day referred to me "mothering Team PHAT" and I laughed, because that is how I feel!

Congratulations on Month One!  You stayed the course!  Ups and downs, highs and lows, you are still here.  You lost tons of weight and are feeling great?  So proud.  You are still the same (or even up?), but are still committed and here?  So proud.  Honestly, I'm proud of you no matter what, because you made a commitment, you're still here, you are staying the course.  Monumental changes don't happen in one month, it's a baby-stepping sort of adventure.  Baby-step one - check!

You know, most people who make New Year's resolutions to lose weight have already quit.  This can't be a resolution, this has to be a REVOLUTION.  A total life-change.  I feel like we're walking that change together, one step at a time.

We've committed to drinking more water because hydration is key to health.  We've committed to making regular exercise a part of our life, not just something that happens every now and then.  Now let's commit together to really put a microscope on our diet.  Now, I didn't say "let's go on a diet", I said let's dig into the diet we currently have.  We all have a diet - it only refers to the way you eat.

Are we eating more processed food than REAL food?
Are we choosing fried over grilled or baked?
Are all the starches we consume WHITE, or have we leaned a little more towards brown?
Are vegetables something we make sure our kids get, but forget to eat ourselves?

I've always loved the "Change One" approach to weight loss.  It simply means you change one thing at a time.  Not GIANT diet changes that will eventually burn you out and make you give up.  What is something you already know needs to change?  Do you drink a lot of soda?  Do you add tons of sugar and sugary creamer to your coffee?  Does everything you eat come out of a package or machine?  Is fast food a way of life?  I'll bet that everyone reading this has already thought of ONE thing they could start changing TODAY that could make a huge difference down the road.

The one think I thought of?  Stop eating leftovers off my kids plates.  I have no idea why I do this, I even think it's kind of gross.  But, those leftover bites add up to an extra 100 or so calories a day that could make the difference between me losing or gaining weight.

What's your "one thing"?  Think it through, write it down, put it somewhere you see all the time and start to MAKE THAT CHANGE.  Change one thing today, add something else to it a few days from now, and so on and so on.  You'll look up a few months from now and realize your whole diet is different, and it won't feel like you've deprived yourself because you did it SLOWLY....

So proud of my team!  Praying that the Preparation for Health And Transformation continues!

Steak Knife or Butter Knife...?

PHAT Faith with Friends~

And so the question remains...who is keeping you in check? 
I am telling you, guys - we need each other. 

  Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Can you imagine how effective a dull sword would be?  Not very.  We are meant to live abundant lives of purpose and meaning, sharp and effective, making a difference in each others lives.  A sharp sword makes a difference, a dull one...not so much.  It is like a butter knife or a steak knife.  You get to choose which one you want to be.  It is easy to give in, give up, stick your knife in the butter and lay out this round, but don't!  You are worth the fight.  In this fight, I would rather have a steak knife by my side (I do enjoy a good filet mignon...but that is beside the point).  I imagine that some people don't care about their health because they don't feel they have any worth.  But be assured, You are worth so much more than you could ever imagine.  "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him."  
1 Corinthians 2:9  
Every morning when you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror and say, "I am worth it!  I am worth the fight."  Then look up to heaven and tell God, "Let's do this!"  
Remembering that with God all things are possible...all things.


So, get up off the couch, drop the twinky, pick up your steak knife and
let's get sharpened!

SHARPENING TOOL #1:  A GOOD FRIEND (or two)


<< Ecclesiastes 4 >>

If one falls down,

his friend can help him up.

But pity the man who falls

and has no one to help him up! 

Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, 

but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: 

                                                                                      “Bad company corrupts good character.”

 

You can choose friends who push you off the cliff or 

friends who catch you as you go~

 

Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

Proverbs 19:20 Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

Choose friends who love God first.  For you see, "God is love." (1John 4:8)  So, without God (who is Love) they wouldn't even know how to begin to love.

I have already told some of you guys on our Facebook page that my brother, Joe, and I are reading 1 Corinthians together.  He asked me last night if I had started reading it yet.  I had to answer truthfully that I had not...(ouch, getting sharpened here!)  But what did I do that night?  Yes!  I dug into 1Corinthians with a renewed passion.   You need a brother, sister, friend who will hold you to the fire, and love you enough to sharpen you.  And so I ask, "Have you been in God's Word  today? this week? this month?  Even those of us with the bestest of intentions still fall, and how sad it would be if there were no one there to catch us...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~thanks for catching me this time little brother!





 C.S. Lewis Friendship Quotes

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”

“Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?”

“The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.”

 

 

 

 

...stay tuned for more sharpening tools....

Don't Give Up!

"Six out of ten of us will give up and revert to our usual eating habits after just six days of trying to eat healthily." webmd.


Well, we've surpassed that stat, but the biggest statistic is that people give up after two weeks of trying to change their lifestyle.  DON'T BE THAT PERSON!  Stick with it, guys!  You're doing GREAT.  You will be so glad in June that you didn't quit two weeks in, that you didn't give up when it got hard.

PHAT FAITH....with FRIENDS!
Some of you might say, 
"What's faith got to do, got to do with it
What's faith but a second hand emotion"  
(sorry for the lyrical change up, Tina)
Faith is the foundation. Without a firm foundation whatever it is you are building will fall.  (Mt. 7:24)

Hey Friends, just jane here...
I used to get to teach abstinence in public schools.  I would go in there with great intentions, great lessons, great passion, and I still left feeling like I had given them false hope for they were powerless.  It was like I was giving them a flashlight without the batteries.   I couldn't pray or mention my faith in God.  I felt like I was saying, "Hey!  Here's this great tool to help you see in the dark, batteries not included"...the only problem is that it doesn't really work without the power source, does it?  The power source for those students and the power source for us is simple....just God.  “What is impossible for people is possible with God.” Lk. 18:27  Just God.  Nothing needs to be added, no extra parts, potions, or batteries needed.  Don't make it complicated...just God.  He loves us so much that He gives us a book ~the Bible~ to help us along the way, not just for this journey, but for the journey of life!  So, grab your bible and buckle up tight guys this is going to be like adding a Vita-mix shake of joy and strength to your already fun diet!  (Daymond can tell you that in our past attempts at "the year of fitness," I have encouraged him to drink some of my healthy shakes.  I think his favorite so far was the one that smelled like grass and looked like something you may have seen in changing a diaper.)  Well hopefully our little visits will be a little more appetizing than that!  That is what PHAT FAITH will be about - precious times of digging in God's Word to find help and encouragement as we  
Prepare for Health And Transformation.

 

The first Phat Faith with Friends will be coming soon....
you gotta have 
faith a faith a faith...

 

Try to print this verse out, write it on your mirror or maybe better.....on your fridge.  Read it over and over and over until you have it written on your heart. Just remember the price, what a price.  "You are not your own; you were bought with a price.  Therefore honor God with your body."  

Keep on keepin' on Friend, for you are not alone.  This may be the fight of your life or for some of us, the fight for our life.  But believe me when I say, "You are worth the fight!"
May you find strength in Christ, in Christ alone.

Amy's Big PHAT Idea #1

Any time you go on a trip, you plan first. Well, you SHOULD plan first.  Sane people do.  Trips go so much smoother when you have mapped out a route to your destination, packed appropriately and planned your days.   I know, because I've been on 10,000 trips, some well planned and others not-so-much.  The not-so-much ones tend to make me want to go home and cry for a few days....

But that's me....anyway...

This "trip" is no different.  Let's say we jump in the VW, and get 10 miles down the road before someone says "hey, where are we going?", to which the driver replies "Well, I was thinking we'd just start and see where we get to...".  Next comes "I'm hungry, did anyone pack snacks?"..."of course not, we assumed there would be snacks along the way."  And then there is a snarky "Well, you know what 'assuming' does..."  "HEY!  He's running around in his underwear!", "Well, that's because my clothes are dirty and I forgot to pack!"  You see where I'm going with this.

We need a plan.  We need a destination.  Your plan will not be my plan.  Our destinations will look different.  Yours may be to lose 50 pounds, someone else's may be lowering their cholesterol, and another to firm up the "bingo flaps" (as one of my friends calls them) on the back of your arms.  Different destinations, different routes, but all in need of a PLAN.

What are your goals for The PHAT Year?  I would say the majority of us are here to lose weight (with hopes of those health benefits coming in somewhere along the way).  You need goals and objectives. Written ones.  Posted where you can see them EVERY DAY.   If you have no goals, then how will you know when you have arrived?  Write a mission statement, put it where you can see it, live it, RULE it, and then get on with it!

What is your goal weight?  Is it realistic?  Is it where you were before you had kids?  Where you were in high school (I hope not!)  Have you set a goal weight?  Have you made plans for how you're going to get there?  We can't just get in the van and start driving, hoping somehow we will get there with no idea how.

And, if we go with the GPS way of life - not knowing the next turn until it's RIGHT THERE, then we're sure to fail.  We need the big picture.

So, number one - decide a goal weight.  A realistic, healthy one.  Here's a good way to start - your BMI.  BMI stands for Body Mass Index and  
"is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. BMI is a fairly reliable indicator of body fatness for most people. BMI does not measure body fat directly, but research has shown that BMI correlates to direct measures of body fat" (copied from CDC website) 


Here's how to calculate it - find your height on the left side and then move over to your weight.  This will give you your BMI number.

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
• Overweight = 25–29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

So, find your BMI, then find a normal BMI for your height,  subtract your current weight from the normal BMI weight and this should give you a good number to shoot for.  Example:

I have realized the hypocrisy of the fact that everyone had to send me their weight, but I haven't told anyone mine yet....ICK - here I go.  

I am 5'6", 163 pounds.    BMI - 26.5 - clearly overweight.

To get into the normal category I would need to be 148.  

163-148 = 15 pounds to "normal"

So, normal for me could be anywhere from 118 to 148, but I can assure you - 118 would be anorexic for me.  I want to set REALISTIC, HEALTHY goals.  Remember that!  

A realistic, healthy goal for me is a 20 pound weight loss.  This is what I'm shooting for.  One day, maybe a little more, but in a six month period 20 pounds is a good goal.  That's about 3.3 pounds a month which is VERY doable.  

So, with my goal weight in mind I have put a calendar on my fridge with objectives to meet my goal clearly set.  

I hope this helps.  I would love to know your goals and objectives for The PHAT Year.  

Get our your maps, ladies and gentleman, and mark out your route!  This is the journey of a lifetime and you want to be ready for every twist and turn!

"Made to Crave" Webcast recap

7:00 PM, cup of coffee in hand, kids planted firmly in front of a movie, pajamas already on, notebook at the ready - I tuned in to the Made to Crave webcast.  SO glad I did!  I really like Lysa Terkeurst, she tells is like it is from the vantage point of someone who has BEEN there.  It makes such a difference to know someone is giving advice from a place of "been-there, done-that, still struggling with you, ".

In case you didn't get to tune in to the webcast last night, I thought I would recap it for everyone.  Lysa gave a great devotional in the beginning about stopping to think when you reach for food - is it a hunger-craving or a soul-craving?  Are you actually hungry, or is there some other thing your soul is craving that you are trying to fill with Ho Hos? (well, she didn't put it exactly that way....)  Good question, eh?  Most of the time I overeat out of boredom or just total lack of THINKING through it.  How about you?

Then she had Dr. Ski Chilton tell us about the 5 principles that could transform our health this year.  Seriously, five little things.  Who CAN'T do 5 things?  I know when I think about the mountain of healthy living I need to climb I generally visualize hundreds of things that need to happen, so someone saying only 5 can really help made me relax a little.

1. Reduce Calories
1. okay, this seems like "duh".  Dr. Chilton pointed out that we need to understand how our bodies work, how calories work.  Calories are little pieces of energy that our body uses to function.  Too many will be stored instead of used.  Honestly, it's not that hard to cut a few calories here and there.  I'm not talking monumental change, I'm talking less sugar in your coffee, 3 Ritz crackers instead of 10, unsweet tea instead of soda.  Several of those little decisions add up to pounds lost
2. Fiber
1. He called this the secret weapon!  If your body has the right amount of fiber, our satiety tells us that we are full.  To STOP eating.  28 grams of fiber a day is what you're shooting for.  I proved this theory last night with the beans I ate for supper and then felt so full I was going to pop for an hour.
3. Eat Fish or take fish oil
1. BUT, the right kind of fish.  Oily fish is the best - like wild caught salmon.  We eat a lot of Tilapia and they called that junk fish! (boo)  Apparently eating whatever fish you can is not good enough (boo again).  If you can't eat fish, then take fish oil supplements.  Good for your heart!
4. Polyphenols
1. I'm sure you're heard of these at some point.  One of those words that sounds vaguely familiar.  “They’re present in things that are usually good for you—fruits, berries, and green leafy vegetables,” Parks says. “Polyphenols have been proposed to exhibit health benefits in atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis and have been linked to increased longevity. There actually may be some truth to the statement that ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away.’” (copied from blog)
5. Exercise
1. Dr. Chilton recommended hard exercise for a short amount of time.  We're going to delve more into the exercise subject in another blog post soon, but for now - just MOVE, do SOMETHING.  

And there you have it!  5 things you could start TODAY that would revolutionize your health by the end of The PHAT Year!  I'm jumping in with both feet.  Today I'm starting to take fish oil supplements (I've been meaning to forever) and I'll be dipping into my hubby's sacred bag of frozen wild blueberries alot more often!  

Jane and I both have a copy of the book "Made to Crave" and have decided to start a lending library!  As soon as we're both done with our books we would like to mail them to you!  We can start a chain - whoever has it mails it on to whoever wants it next.  First two who claim them on the facebook page gets them next!

Happy PHATing.  

Packed and Ready to Go!

Well, hello there.  Nice to meet you.  Pull up a chair, sit back and sip on some coffee while I tell you about this adventure we're embarking on.

26 people.  Packed tightly into a VW van.  On our way to a destination that we've been anxious to get to for a long time.  Maybe months, maybe years, maybe a lifetime.  We've been meaning to get in this van for a while.  So many excuses have kept us from jumping in.

- I'm just too busy right now.  Maybe when life slows down.
- I don't want to do this alone, and I have no one around me for support.
- I'll start Monday.  One more nacho won't hurt anything.
- I think I'm allergic to exercise.

BUT, no more excuses.  So, you're too busy?  One day when you're sitting in the doctor's office with diabetes or cancer you will wonder why you didn't make time.  One day when your kids want to go out to play, but you are too winded to keep up, you'll wonder why you didn't make time.  We all have exactly the same amount of time in a day, and we all SOMEHOW make time to watch TV, play on facebook or some other such diversion.

Need accountability?  Well, here you go!  That's why we are here!  We are sitting next to you on this journey, moving in the same direction you are, wondering if the ride will be bumpy or smooth, if we'll get snacks along the way, and when we're going to stop for a pee break.  All in this together.

What is our destination?  Good health.  That's it, that's the big one! (for you Christmas Vacation fans out there....)  Yes we want to lose weight, yes we'd like a shot at the monthly prizes and the grand prize (for that new wardrobe in smaller sizes....), but the ultimate goal in this journey is health.  Life style change, not quick-fix diets.  Eating and exercise habits that will follow you until you are 80 (but looking 60 because you're so dang healthy).

Here's where Jane and I come in.  We offer ourselves to you as a cheerleader, coach, teacher, encourager, and fellow passenger.  We'll be following all of your progress closely in our facebook group, but we'll also be jumping in on the blog with some practical how-to's and encouragement.

PHAT Challenge of the Week:  a weekly specific challenge to help you step in the right direction
Amy's Big PHAT Ideas:  a monthly (or more) idea (what's a better word for lesson?...) to give us some  practical ways of making this a lifelong adventure.
Jane's PHAT faith: a monthly (or more) reminder that this journey is not only about weight, but is a faith adventure as well.

There will be work.  There will be highs and lows.  Cheers and tears.  Big prizes and small ones.  But one thing is for sure - I can GUARANTEE that anyone getting in the van with us will NOT regret that they did when we reach our destination.

Buckle your seatbelt, your body will thank you.