NEWSLETTERS

30-Day Balance Experiment 2010 Day 12

My husband Mike always reminds me that our freedoms are won by warriors, not preachers, not politicians. I appreciate his comment. My father was a USAF pilot, as was my uncle and cousin. I was relatively good this past Memorial Day weekend. Lots of protein- oysters, shrimp, halibut, and salmon, and very little carbs. If I had just consumed Perrier (not with Vodka) I would be slimmer for sure. But at least there were no mounds of ice cream. For the month of May, I "dotted" my calendar with little green dots 16 times representing 16 miles I either walked or did the elliptical. (My goal for June is to increase that to 25 miles.) What positive results did you see in yourself this first leg of our journey?

When I asked a neighbor recently how she lost weight, she said she first started exercising. Then after the second week, she started "eating right." So here we are, sojourners, going into our second week and our ‘training' is going to start kicking in!

SPIRITUAL thought/action: "In the moment you reach for potato chips [or wine or chocolate] to avoid what you feel, you are effectively saying, ‘I have no choice but to numb myself. Some things can't be felt, understood, or worked through.' You are saying ‘there is no possibility of change so I might as well eat.'"Geneen Roth, Women Food and God. Today I will let go of compulsive eating; it never gives me what I seek.

PHYSICAL thought/action: Instead of following a new diet from one of the numerous books in my Diet Library, I am taking a different tack. My new game is- save a calorie here, save a calorie there. I am not including certain things that are usually in my daily food intake, or at least I am reducing the amount. Less bread, less chocolate (1 piece, not 3 all at once), no ice cream, less rice, pasta, potatoes, one egg not two. One glass of wine instead of 3 (120 calories instead of 360!). I am leaving a little wine in my glass not licking the last drop. I am leaving food on my plate- especially the carbs and I don't feel deprived. Today I will ‘save' 600 calories; I will leave that extra bite of _____. I don't want it.

MENTAL thought/action: Dawn Markova in her book, I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, urges us to tell ourselves "river stories" of hope not "rut stories" of defeat. Our river stories, dear sojourners, are that we can change, we are changing. We are balancing our lives. We can live the lives God intended for us, a life of abundance and love. We have already started!

The Spiritual Times