My childhood was difficult at best (my son keeps begging me to write about it and perhaps, some day, I will!) and my weight has yo-yo'ed my entire life. When I was a young girl in junior high, it was customary in PE class for our coach to weigh us and get our height. I was so skinny and barely weighed 85 pounds and I already stood at 5 feet 3 inches. I remember the girls behind me laughing at me as she called out my weight and I was so embarrassed that I decided to eat everything I could get my hands on. By the time, I was in high school, I had gained about fifty pounds! For the next four years I would lose a lot of weight and then I would binge eat which, I know, must have wreaked havoc on my metabolism even at such a young age.
My highest weight was just under 180 pounds and it was after my third son was born. Since I have been hormonal and peri-menopausal for the past seven years, it has become much more difficult to lose weight and keep it off. I have gone from being 145 to 175 pounds and fluctuated with much more frequency. It is apparent to me that I have to change my entire thinking about food and live this last part of my life as healthy as I can make it, especially since, I am on medications for high-cholesterol, GERD, and hair loss for stress! I have also realized that if I don't use my muscles, that at my age, I will just lose them and with arthritis in my hands and hips that is like a death sentence!
As of five days ago, on Ash Wednesday, I started my Lenten journey. For those of you who do not know what Lent is for a Catholic christian, it is our time to "wander in the desert" just as Jesus did when he fasted and was tempted by Satan (Matt. 4:1-11). The goal is to give up those things that we are enslaved to. Now, as a devout Catholic, I realize that it is not "cool" to talk about what we give up, and without talking about my own personal covenant with God, I will just say that I decided that one of the things I would give up is sugar. I like sugar, but even more than that is I LOVE high-carbohydrate foods, like chips, potatoes, rice, breads, etc. which turn to sugar if not metabolized quickly. I have decided that if I can give up sugar during Lent, it will help to springboard me into a much more healthy lifestyle.
It has been five days since I had sugar and with the help of my niece's blog, Shabby Chic and Sugar Free and a shopping list to help me buy products without sugar, I feel well armed to try and beat my sugar and high carbohydrate addiction. Also, I am incorporating more physical activities to keep me moving so that I can see the scale make it's way slowly back down. It is so hard to admit how much I have let myself go and even though I have taken "Before" shots, I am not yet ready to post them. Hopefully, I will have the courage to do so soon, so please be patient with me. :) For now, I will try to post the ups and downs of trying to live sugar free, walking every day, at least 30 minutes, and eating more healthy. More than anything, writing this blog makes me ACCOUNTABLE for everything that I do to get myself healthy. With a lot of prayer and God's help along with the thought that there are others out there struggling with the same thing, I just might succeed finally! God bless and may you all love yourselves for who you are TODAY!!!
