We ate late last night, after yet another baseball and basketball game. I shared a bacon cheeseburger and fries with my son and I was actually pretty full. However due to to the high salt content and lying down on a full stomach, I awakened with sausage fingers and toes. I was swollen. Silly me? I know better right?!
So what I had intended to wear was no longer in my purview. I wrestled with a few ideas, tried on different outfits and grew more and more frustrated. I went to the kitchen, drank some hot lemon water and stepped on the scale. Okay, so how did my scale break from the last time I stepped on it? Doggone scale malfunction! The devil is a liar!
Yes the devil is a liar, but he didn't make me eat that bacon cheeseburger last night, pasta the night before last, cake last weekend, fudge brownies last week or the sips of wine here and there (only for medicinal purposes........NOT.) I quickly realized that my diet is out-of-control! Yes I have been going to the gym, but I've not been making the healthiest choices as far as food is concerned. Jumping in a zumba class, but jumping on every french fry I could get my hand on. Gliding on the elliptical machine, but mindlessly allowing that cinnamon roll to gently glide down the back of my throat. OUT OF CONTROL, I say!
Because I have been exercising, my legs are actually pretty strong..... I could drop kick you in a minute. But my midsection is another story. Muffin tops are meant to be eaten with the rest of the muffin, but this muffin top that is sitting over the top of my jeans is not appetizing. I must make a change!
The challenge is in changing my mindset and then changing my actions. Rather than say that I am going to eat nuts and berries for 10 days and drink only water, I decided to be a little more realistic. (We both know that at that 11th day, I would probably binge and mess up the whole plan anyway.) I will start small and focus on being mindful.
I have decided to change one thing.....
I vow to practice mindfulness and actually taste my food.
You might be saying, Sharri that is pretty lame! But when I think about my eating pattern, I realize that this must be MY first step. If you've read any of my other blogs, you will realize that we are a very active family. Because my boys have seemingly hundreds of sporting events each week and we have responsibilities at church and work, we are always on the run. So I eat on the run and I eat between fixing meals and I eat standing up leaning over the kitchen island, rather than sitting down in a chair and allowing my food to digest properly. I honestly can't tell you the last time that I actually tasted my food after the first bite. Why? Because I'm always in a rush. Yes, the first bite is always so delicious, but the rest of the meal is usually a blur. (I know that you've experienced this before, as well.)
So this morning I made the first step. I made a banana, blueberries, strawberries and orange juice smoothie before leaving for work and it took me 2 hours to sip on it (I can usually scarf it down in 7 minutes flat). I honed in on the little pieces of blueberry skin and the tiny seeds from the outside of the strawberry that don't totally blend. I focussed on the sweetness of the banana that raises the smoothie to another level. I made myself taste all of it. As I was mindful in my tasting of every component, I slowed down and enjoyed the drink. I couldn't scarf it down, because I had to allow each sip to linger on my taste buds for a moment. "This tastes really good! Not only that, but I don't feel bloated and full." There was no back up in the digestive process because I allowed my body to work on it a little at a time. (By the way, I sipped the smoothie as I slowly ate a wholesome grains & cranberries nutrition bar. I could actually taste the cranberries in the bar. Wow!)
I tell this story, not to make you change your diet, but to help you change your mindset. Everything we do begins as a thought and whether we realize it or not, that thought quickly becomes an action and that action soon becomes a pattern. This is about changing your mindset and making a vow to yourself to do something differently.
So for me, I want to change my eating pattern, but it begins with the vow that I made to taste my food, one bite at a time.
- You might need to change your pattern of complaining about your job, make a vow to wake up every morning in gratitude for your job.
- You might need to change your pattern of gossiping, make a vow to delete the contacts of negative people from your phone.
- You might need to change your pattern of eating, make a vow to try one new vegetable or fruit each week.
- You might need to change your pattern of living a sedentary lifestyle (you don't have to go to the gym), make a vow to get up and walk in place during each TV commercial.
- You might need to change your pattern of belittling your children, make a vow to quote Psalm 127:3 each morning, "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him".
- You might need to change your pattern of criticizing your spouse, make a vow to say one nice thing to him/her each day.
One simple vow leads to one tiny change, which leads to a change in mindset, which will determine your actions and develop a new pattern, which ultimately makes you better!
Focus in on that ONE pattern or habit that you need to break and start by making just ONE vow!
Now walk it out.............
(Yes, I vow to walk to that store and get my money back for that malfunctioned scale! Okay, so maybe that's a little too extreme. Maybe I'll just try it again in a week or so and see what it reads then. Hopefully one vow, new thoughts, new actions and a new pattern will give me a new result the next time I step on the scale.)
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