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!