My mountain

My daily devotion the other day said “you are not meant for crawling, so don’t. You were born with wings”

That sums up my first 4 weeks here. I crawled.

I found the best statement from a weight loss success story today “Renewing your mind is a key concept weight loss. One reason people fail in losing weight is attempting to pile new behaviors on top of an old mindset. Sooner or later, your old mindset convinces you to quit and you wind up in the same shape as before or even worse.”

What I woke up to this morning was the realization that I’m relying on everyone and everything around me to make this happen for me. So much focus on food. I swear that’s all I think about.  The only place I should be focusing on is inside me. It’s like I’m trying to push the same stupid boulder the same 3 inches and getting nowhere but tired and sore. Is it Mylie Cyrus that sings about that mountain, how I want to make it move. It’s the climb up that mountain that God has in store for me; he has no intention of it ever moving. Only then will I build the strength to overcome all my struggles. He will provide me the strength to keep climbing when I’m ready to quit or too weak to continue and at risk of falling.

Along these first 4 weeks, there have been numerous snares and snags. The devils little trip wires. It would be something as simple as a post on Facebook to pull the rug out from under me. EVERYONE has an opinion about what I’m doing, how I’m doing it. The ones I’m referring to are the ones telling me I’m doing it wrong. Or better yet about how they hate dieting, why even bother because you just gain it all back, it’s stupid and a waste of time. You’ll never actually do it, you know that right? How many times have you done this? Then there it is, the smirk. Nothing beats the time I was approached out of the blue by someone who came up to me and said “There is a diet you have got to try, ya know when you’re ready to do something”. This wasn’t recently, this was last summer at a time when I wasn’t even thinking about my weight or on a diet. Gee, am I fat? Thanks for letting me know. I’m pretty sure my chin hit the ground.

The devils snares are going to be everywhere

Oh, I could grab this diet or that diet and lose 50 lbs. without thinking twice about it. But…I don’t want to do that. If I do that and have done NOTHING to change my mindset, what will I have gained? I’m trying to change my life, not just my waist line.  I’m trying to build a new lifestyle, new behaviors and habits. There’s only so much room inside of me and if it’s taken up by my old self, where with the new me go?

In the past I’ve always convinced myself that if I just hurry up and get the weight off, I’ll worry about setting new habits then and how to keep it off when I get there.

Well, look at me today. Did a good job of that, didn’t I!

I will continue to peel back my onion one layer at a time. There will be tears and I will more than likely slip and skin my knees from time to time climbing that mountain.

Did I mention I’ve lost 12 pounds as of today? 

Ya, I kinda did!!!

Isaiah 40:31: "Those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary."

Romans 14:17: "...for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

Philippians 1:6: "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."

Hebrews 12:11: "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

3 John 1:2: "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers."