Growing up in a family of 7 kids, I was part of a family that enjoyed eating. It wasn’t just my immediate family that enjoyed eating, but my family as a whole thoroughly enjoyed food, especially during the various holidays. And when I got old enough to learn how to cook, it was a joy to me for my mom to allow me in the kitchen to experiment with new and unique recipes. I loved “different”, things that had never been prepared in our home (and still do to this day). But my particular interest was baking. I love baking; and sweets are my weakness to this very day. It’s not things like bread, fried chicken, potatoes…things of that sort that I have to stay away from or can’t have anywhere in the house because I’ll eat it, it’s the sweets (candy, cookies, cake) that I can’t keep in the house. Now keep in mind, because of my new lifestyle I don’t keep regular foods that are unhealthy for me in the house but I want to point out where my main source or GREATEST source of unhealthy eating has lied. And you need to be asking yourself this same question, “what is my greatest source of unhealthy eating?” You’ll want to keep that in mind as I begin to get into what I personally had to do to change my eating habits.
So, anyway here I was this person who loved her sugar. If the truth be known, I was hooked on sugar. I could literally eat up a whole box of Girl Scout Thin Mints or Samoas cookies, or other cookies, in an hour or less. The more chocolate involved the better for me. While living at home I’d joined Jenny Craig, lost weight and gained it back. Due to the financial costs I switched to Weight Watchers but quickly ended that program maybe after only 1 or 2 weeks. While others had been successful on such programs, I couldn’t stand the rules, the writing, the logging…. It was just too mentally draining for me. There was a period in my life that that I was so ashamed of the times when I would try to lose weight by just cutting back on the food and the sweets that I was eating, and I would crave the sweets so bad that I would hit the vending machine at work for whatever sweet thing I wanted at that time. That shame would cause me to find a stairwell and eat those sweets there, all the time hoping and praying that no one would use the stairs while I was enjoying my sweets. I couldn’t dare take it back to my desk because if I did my co-workers would see what a big failure I was. So, I was lying to myself by thinking that if no one saw me hoarding my sweets I could convince others that I was sticking with my plan. What I didn’t realize is that it didn’t matter what anyone else thought, it was all about what I thought of myself and what truth I refused to face about WHY I couldn’t lose weight and keep it off. This takes me to the stage in my life when I moved from home at the age of 30…. This time to myself…this time of what I thought was going to be “unhindered self-control” would be the beginning of me finally getting the excess weight off and being happy with myself; a period which really became the beginning of my 10 year journey to where I am today. Keep in mind I never, EVER thought it was going to take 10 years for me to get it right! And hopefully what I say here today will keep you from walking around in the wilderness for 10 years (or more) like I did.
So, after I moved from home I did start “attempting” to be a little more consistent with my exercise but exercising when I got home from work was always a challenge for me. But anyway, I went back and forth between exercising in the mornings and exercising in the evenings 4 or 5 times a week. For as my eating, during this time I had been having horrible sinus problems where my nose just seemed to run like a faucet ALL THE TIME! My doctor had suggested I drink more water. I had little doubt this would help my sinus problems but because I was so frustrated with the nose blowing I decided to try it. Now you’re probably thinking, “What In the world does this have to do with weight-loss or developing healthy eating habits.” Just stick with me and you’ll begin to get the total picture and more fully understand my journey. So, okay…here I was doing my daily exercise, which mainly consisted of me marching or jogging in place while listening to music or watching TV in my apartment. For as me upping my water in-take, this was going to require me breaking my Pepsi and Coke drinking habits. I would have at least 2 -12 oz. Pepsis a day, operative word here being “least”. We know soda is loaded with sugar! So in order to break away from my desire for Pepsi or any other soda, I went to drinking lemonade when I felt I wanted soda. It still had to have a certain level of sweetness for me but I was slowly changing my taste buds from needing that acid and sugar taste I felt I needed from soda. It was probably about a year or a little less before I didn’t need lemonade at all and I was content with just water. To this very day 90% of the time my choice of beverage of is water, NOT BECAUSE I’m concerned about my sinuses but because I just truly love and desire water and have learned to drink it because of its many benefits to me. Keep in mind that during that time I learned to love water I was still eating my sweets. HA HA HA! BUT…coupled with my attempt to be more consistent with some form of exercise for awhile I tried just eating reserving my weekends to eat sweets instead of eating it throughout the week. That worked for a while but I quickly noticed that I was beginning to eat just as many sweets on the weekend as I would if I’d just been eating it though out the week. Though I felt like I was fighting a losing battle with myself, to my surprise I did find that the diminishing of the soda, consistent exercise, and my attempts to reserve the weekend as my period of “sweet-treats” became catalysts for my clothing sizes to drop somewhat. I noticed I had dropped from 22 & 24 women’s plus size clothing to 18 & 20 women’s plus size clothing! And I was feeling pretty good about that until one day I had an eye infection, which of course had me going to the doctor. So, I got to the doctor and as is standard practice, they did blood pressure check & weigh-in. I can’t tell you when was the last time I’d been to the doctor for anything before this point (I probably was still living at home –time of my last asthma attack. We’ll talk about the asthma later). So, when the practitioner did my weight I was in so much shock! “265 lbs,” she said. “You don’t look like 265…” That makes 2 of us lady because I didn’t realize how much I weighed either! So, I was standing there thinking…I was wearing a size 18 in plus size women’s or 20 plus size women’s jeans at the time and I knew the size I used to wear, so I could only assume that at some point I had to have weighed pretty close to 300 lbs! That was it! I didn’t own a scale so I went out and bought one.
At this point it probably had been between one and two years that I’d been living on my own with my new quest for change and realizing I needed a scale and I became almost obsessed with losing the weight. In addition to me buying a scale, I started buying different fitness gadgets and videos to move up from just walking or running in place in my apartment while listening to music or watching TV. It wasn’t before long that I added Metabolife, a weight-loss pill, to my regimen. By the time my weight-loss stopped moving with Metabolife I had found out about another pill called Zymax. I was taking it and saw great success. The progress wasn’t as fast as I wanted but I saw results. And of course, that too stopped working and for a very, very short time I started taking Dexatrim, another weight-loss pill. In my spirit I really felt God urging me to stop taking all of these various pills. I had absolutely no idea what the long-term effects might be (if any) and I didn’t want to find out. Even though I was incorporating more vegetables into my daily eating and changing the type of meats I ate (no beef or processed meats, just baked chicken, turkey (ground or baked), and fish), I knew something was still missing. At some point I bought myself a juicer and started buying up fresh fruits & vegetables. I started juicing. One of my sisters felt alarmed because she would only see what she called twigs & figs in my refrigerator, despite the fact that I was truly eating but just eating a lot healthier. After some time, I had gone from the 265 lbs I found out about in the doctor’s office to between 210 and 215 lbs. Keep in mind that during this period of weight loss I was not learning any real principles. I was not learning how to “truly” eat healthy as a way of life. I was not learning to be active through exercise as a way of life. I was not learning “how to change”. But what I was learning is that I was doing a bunch of things that would cause me to lose weight and then become stagnant with my exercise and eating patterns because my only goal was to reach a certain weight. I was not considering what realistically I’d have to do to keep the weight off. My mind was not on any of that. My mind was on reaching a certain weight only. And in my mind once I got there I could lay off some of the exercise. And you know what? With those thoughts I began a roller-coaster of inconsistency with my exercise because I felt like it was unrealistic to have to do exercise for the rest of my life. I was not considering that I do not have a job where I’m active all day so it was really unrealistic for me to think I could even eat normally everyday and not do any activity to use what I’d eaten. Also, in my mind I couldn’t see how I would survive continuing to diet until I reached my goal weight when I had so far to go for my 5’ 1 medium sized frame. And how do I allow myself to eat sweets at a party or other foods I shouldn’t indulge in at a minimal as people would suggest without sending my sugar urges on a rampage? And you know what? With those thoughts, my healthy eating habits became inconsistent, so the scales began to creep back up on me. No, they never reached the 265 lbs I’d seen in the doctor’s office or some number I never knew before I owned a scale, but I was on a yo-yo with the scales, with my exercise, and with my eating.
Then there came the period when I wasn’t losing and I wasn’t gaining weight. I was just maintaining my weight. And every year I’d vow to get to a certain weight by the end of the year. It never happened and I was so frustrated! I couldn’t figure out why the scale wasn’t moving. Yes, I was still eating my sweets but I didn’t feel I was eating that much. So I began to write prayers and notes to God regarding helping me with my eating habits and help me not crave sweets and help me crave fruit instead. I would stick these little notes and prayers in my Bible right in between the pages for Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. One year would pass, another year pass…and another…and another. During that time I would gain maybe 10 or 20 lbs and eventually get it off again. And at the beginning of every year I’d vow that by the end of the year I was going to reach the goal weight I had in mind…and every year I’d fail. But I noticed something very different was happening within me at the end of 2007. Have you ever felt like you had a great expectation of something, but at the same time another part of you is in complete objection to anything happening any different than had already been happening? Like a war of negativity and positivity going on within you at the exact same time? That’s what I had going on within in me on December 23, 2007 on a Sunday morning. It was like I could so clearly hear God speaking to me telling me some things He was going to do for me concerning my health, my eating habits…some things I’ve dealt with for years – one of those things being asthma. Now I’m going to share this but this is not for everybody. I’m not a doctor and absolutely offer no advisement for anyone. I’m just sharing with you today what God gave me. Perhaps by me sharing these things with you it will be confirmation to you regarding some things specific to yourself. For some time I felt God had been telling me that when I lose all the weight that He wants me to lose I would no longer deal with asthma. I can truthfully say that as I’ve lost weight I’ve had to use the inhaler less. What was once me using the inhaler once or twice a day is now maybe twice a week at the most. Sometimes it’s a little bit more. But in my spirit, in my being, I believe that God has been telling me that the times I’m having to use my medication is because that as years of fat stores break down in my body to be released from my body, with that storage are old toxins that are released into my blood stream contributing to those episodes of needing the inhaler. Once those years of fatty storage are dissipated I will no longer be bothered with the asthma, is what I believe God has revealed to me. So, again I stress here that I am making no medical claim as to what goes on in the body of an asthmatic. I’ve never, EVER read this anywhere…never heard anyone say anything remotely close to what I’m telling you right now. I’m only revealing to you what I believe God has revealed to me “about me”. I believe and know God to be “the great physician” in my life. After all, He made my body. And I believe that just as He reveals things to me about me He can and will reveal things to you “about you”, when you allow Him into “all of those area” of your life. Ok so we’ve zoned in on one of the things that I believe God is going to do for me and has been doing for me through weight loss, or shall we say – fat storage loss, which in essence adds up to weight…. But let’s get back to this date, December 23, 2007 which was a Sunday morning. I can recall this date and day particularly because I believe God spoke to me and told me to write these list of things, which I did and have it in my Bible still today (along with other notes & prayers – ha ha ha!). And I’m glad that I did because after 3 years had passed I would not have remembered that the rest of this journey I’m about to tell you about was attributed to some of the very things God told me that “HE” was going to do, not CHARLOTTE..no, not CHARLOTTE finally LUCKING up on a way to lose weight and keep it off – BUT HIM. I’d tried everything my way…Weight Watchers…Jenny Craig…Metabolife pills…Zymax pills…Dexitrim pills…juicing…dieting…cutting back…so many different tactics. So, after having no accountability for as my eating habits between April 2000 and December 2007, I’d lost 39 lbs that I was aware of after obtaining a scale. And I’d dropped in dress size from 22/24 plus size women’s to 16/18 plus size women’s.
So, here we are the start of a new - 2008 and I still have my same plan to reach a certain weight by the end of the year. But then I encountered Wednesday, February 20, 2008. A group of ladies where I work had organized a Biggest Loser Contest, so to my own surprise I decided to use this contest as a vehicle of accountability. I thought if I did this maybe I’d make some headway once and for all with my weight. I paid my $10 towards the bucket of winnings and joined the contest. That day when I left home I weighed 226 lbs. and I was determined to never ever see that number again at the start of another year. But more importantly I wanted to win this contest so I started praying, of course not leaving behind my ideas about how fast I wanted to lose weight. I told God I wanted to lose at least 2 lbs a week. The contest was going to be over May 14th and I wanted to be on the other side of 200 lbs. I was tired of seeing that “2” at the start of my weight. But you know what? During this period that I was doing this contest, God didn’t do any of what I asked. But what He did do is begin to calm my spirit and talk to me about taking one day at a time. He talked to me about not looking at where I wanted to be by May 14, 2008 or even December 31, 2008 but about what I wanted to see within myself from week to week. And it was then that I was able to say, “God I want to see daily changes in myself…weekly changes in myself.” I wanted to see new habits. But in my mind I felt I could not do this. God showed me that I could change. He reminded me of the main fruit…the one of the main characteristics of those who claim to have the Spirit of God tend to neglect – TEMPERANCE. It’s the last one named in the list in Galatians 5:22-23. He spoke to me just as plainly as I’m talking to you right now, He told me that I have every fruit – every characteristic listed there but some of those characteristics need a little more cultivating in me than some of the others, and one of those was temperance… moderation. He said if I would just get that under control by just reminding myself of that scripture every time I felt weak or overcome, I could win in the area of changing of my eating habits – and THAT, He said, would result in my weight loss and the ability to maintain healthy weight. But I had to truly know who I was. Too many times we who claim to be Christians put God in a box where we feel so victorious in certain areas in our lives and can almost make the next person feel like…wow I need to really grow to your level huh? But yet in other areas of our lives we look and feel, if we’re being real honest with ourselves, like complete failures. And that is not the way God intended for us to be. Jesus said in John 10:10 in the Amplified version, “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” How could I enjoy life when I didn’t even like the size that I was at that time? My size had nothing to do with my genes or some hereditary makeup, it had everything to do with me allowing my body and my eating habits to become like a runaway train. And God told me I had to stop that. So, during this time God began to teach me and tell me exactly what to do. Why did it take over 7 years you might ask? I asked myself the same question AND GOD. Perhaps I wasn’t ready. Until we are ready for certain things there isn’t a thing anyone or anybody can tell us to make a difference. And God, unlike ourselves or anybody else, knows when we’re ready.
So as the weeks went on with this Biggest Loser Contest I was following a pattern of eating about 5 times a day; something I had started doing a few years prior but paying closer attention to my portions. Also, instead of having any sweets I would have a 6 oz. cup of yogurt after my lunch and another 6 oz. cup after my dinner. I continued to be consistent with my exercise of 5 days a week every morning to start my day. I was also particularly focusing on the idea of if the food was not grown (no by-products) or didn’t consist of fish, chicken, or turkey, then I shouldn’t eat it. This is what God gave me to do. There was a period of maybe 3 weeks or a month after I’d begun the contest that I kept feeling this nudge, like God was telling me to eat a piece of chocolate. And this felt so strange and odd to me. So, I chalked it off to just being my mind. But now I have to tell you this was no craving that I was having…I felt strong and determined to not eat any sweets while I was doing this contest because I was afraid if I did I’d wake up my taste buds to the sugar and not be able to stop. But this “nudge” I was feeling was so strong that I gave into it. I remember it was a miniature piece of Hershey’s chocolate. I ate it. And being the “chocoholic” that I call myself, I have to tell you all it was SOOOO GOOD! But after I ate it, it was as if I heard God say, ok that’s it. Don’t eat anymore. And it was odd to me because you know what, I didn’t! ha ha ha! And that was the beginning of what I have come to know as me following the principle of what I call “spirit-led” eating. I felt so proud of myself because I had never in the past been able to do that…it’s always been that I had to follow with another and then another. Never just one! But I also want to quickly tell you that this does not mean that I keep sweets in my house. God has told me not to, so I don’t. I am well aware that I have an addiction to sweets so I don’t leave room for myself to fall into a temptation that I can’t escape. For awhile I use to compare myself to others who have conquered things and thought something was wrong with me until I found peace in realizing that everyone has what I call “their thorn in the flesh”. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, when you have time go and read II Corinthians 12:7-10. Paul had prayed three times for God to take away this difficulty He was having which he referred to as his thorn in the flesh. But the Lord assured Paul that His strength, God’s strength, is made perfect, made of most use in the presence of weakness. Also, keep in mind the scripture that lets us know that we are not subject to any UNCOMMON TEMPTATIONS and when those temptations come He will make a way of escape. My way of escape is to do what I know to do. Salvation and the Holy Spirit is not for the sole purpose of overcoming people on the job, dealing with loved ones, being able to pay our bills…it’s for EVERY facet of life. Too many times we try to compare ourselves to others or find reasons why some things are as they are for us instead of leaving it to God and letting Him work in us the way He desires to. Stop comparing your journey to someone else’s. God made you and He knows why a burden for you is nothing to someone else. Or what might be such a great burden to someone else is absolutely nothing to you. Let God be God in every area of our lives.
So day by day I’d check the scale to see my progress. I want to point out here that I do not recommend weighing everyday for everyone. Some people can’t handle seeing some weight gain or seeing the scale not move at all. For me, weighing everyday is an instant gauge for what I’m eating or not eating or the impact certain exercise is having on me. It’s my journal. Some people love to write down their exercise and foods they’ve eaten. Weighing works best for me. If I have to document the foods I eat I will quickly get frustrated. But if I see the scale suddenly go up 5 lbs the next day, for me I instantly know it’s that thick bread I had on that Subway sandwich. During this period, God taught me how to study my body and pay attention so much to the simple things in my eating and exercise habits that I instantly know why I see a sudden increase. And I can instantly make a change to rectify that increase (which is normally water for me) rather than allowing my body to become a runaway train because I haven’t been paying attention to myself. And it’s important for me to say right here…never let anyone tell you, “oh…it doesn’t take all that. Oh you’re becoming obsessed. That’s going a little overboard. Oh…you’re really going to start living like that?” YES – it does take all that. YES – if living the way God requires of me means I’m obsessed, then YES I am. YES – I’m going to start living just like this. We wouldn’t dare tell another Christian that it doesn’t take all that if they stated I’m going to stay sexually pure until I’m married – unless we had were living by the world’s view. We wouldn’t dare tell another Christian they’re going overboard if they said they read their Bible everyday for spiritual growth…or would we? The Bible tells us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is our reasonable service…meaning that’s the LEAST we could over Him. It doesn’t say present your spirits or your minds a living sacrifice. It says “our bodies”. And if your spirit isn’t in tune with God, as I’m trying to point out today, it’s a little difficult for your body to be in tune with Him. You can’t focus on someone else who has needs if you’re so uncomfortable with how you look. Some of us are not going to join that group to serve that we may want to join because we feel so uncomfortable around people due to our bodies. So, how can God use us they way He wants to if our bodies aren’t yielded to Him? Let’s move on in my journey regarding the Biggest Loser Contest.
So, remember that 2 lbs. I wanted to lose every week? Well, that wasn’t happening but I was losing about 1 lb on average every week. There would be weeks I did not lose anything then all of a sudden 3 weeks would pass and I’d step on the scale and see 3 or 4 lbs lost all at once. Remember God made our bodies and we can’t confine ourselves to diets or plans that promise you should be “seeing your results” every week. Just stick with God’s direction and you’ll be okay. What was even more important for me to see during this time is that I was learning positive habits. Removing the focus from numbers on the scale and placing the focus on why I ate certain foods and why God didn’t want me to eat certain foods was building discipline in me; ammunition for long-term weight loss and healthy habits. During this time God had me paying attention to the ingredients in the things I’d buy instead of arbitrarily just pulling it off the shelf and placing it in the shopping cart. I believe that the words in Hosea 4:6 are so true for us today; we are destroyed due to a lack of knowledge. Our health fails because we just eat without considering what we’re placing in us. Even too much of what is good is bad for us, so we still need to always be on guard for exercising every aspect of God’s Spirit within us; that fruit of temperance, otherwise known as moderation. Now does that mean I don’t go out to eat because I don’t know what’s in the food…I don’t know all the ingredients that they use? NO, it does not mean that but I do purpose to have control as much as possible over what I consume on a regular basis. God has taught me that limiting processed foods and other things as much as possible impacts my overall health and weight. Again, today I’m sharing with you my journey. And you have to resolve within yourself what the right journey is for you. Also, I want to point out that just as with any other area of my Christian walk, sometimes I mess up and I don’t eat as God might be instructing me for that day. Do I do it on purpose? No, just like I don’t purposely plan to say that mean thing to that person who made me so upset. But I correct my wrong and purpose to do the right thing going forward. Yes, at times I deviate from how God wants me to eat but I don’t allow those times to become runaway trains sending me back into bondage to food, in particularly sweets. And I believe that there are times when God permits me to eat things I wouldn’t normally eat on a regular basis. Perhaps it’s for my balance? I don’t know. I’ve stopped trying to figure God out in His instructions for as my eating habits just as I try to not to spend time figuring Him out in other areas of my life.
So we come to May 14, 2008, the last day of the Biggest Loser Contest at work. All the contestants gathered on the 21st floor to do our final weigh-in. Guess what y’all?! Nope! I didn’t win! HA HA HA! No, I didn’t…and I was disappointed, especially because the person who did win, in the eyes of us who had serious weight to lose, this girl didn’t have any weight problems. But I understand more now than I did then, that excess weight is relative to the person who is actually carrying the weight. But admittedly, at that time I was just a little upset that girl won. The contest was based on the percentage of body weight lost and not the actual number of pounds lost. Looking back now I realize that at that time I should have been celebrating my own personal winning, my winnings at learning how to change my lifestyle and actually be consistent. But instead, I expressed even more disappointment in myself by not recording the weight I had lost during that contest. Can you believe that? See you have to realize that I am one of those people who records milestones like this on my calendar. I still have my 2008 calendar from that year, and trust me…I checked and I did not write my weight on the calendar! But I can tell you that I believe my weight loss during that time was about 15 or 20 lbs. Even more importantly, I can definitely tell you that I did not let my disappointment in that contest keep me from seeing the bigger picture. I continued with my new lifestyle. My 2008 calendar shows that on Saturday, June 7th I started herbal supplements to detox and then on Friday, June 27th I noted that the scales showed me at 202.7 lbs. On the following Monday, June 30th I recorded my weight at 201.2 lbs! On July 5th the scales showed me at 200.4 and then a week later I hit a glorious milestone! On July 11, 2008 I weighed 199.5 lbs! Finally, the 1st digit in my weight was a 1 instead of a 2! HA HA HA! So, from the time I started my new lifestyle in February 2008 to July 2008 I’d lost 26.5 lbs. Twenty-six and ½ lbs in 5 months! That might seem too slow for some people but I have found the slow way to be so much better long-term.
But besides all the pounds lost, I want to take a few minutes to go back to my mention of the detoxing. Remember earlier I mentioned God’s emphasis on me learning my body and how it works? Well, you will eventually find when you get serious about your overall health that you will do what you need to do to educate yourself and have optimal health. Because of health issues I’ve gone beyond the scope of just eating better and exercising. Between 2007 and 2008 I’d discovered that I was constantly having problems with in-grown eyelashes and eyes that would suddenly get irritated and red, more red than usual as if there was an infection. I’d seen a number of doctors who had run tests and could not find the source of the problem. The last doctor I saw was a specialist who basically told me that we’d need to do a biopsy on your eye to get to the root of the problem and we can only do that when your eyes turn red again. Of course, I did not like what this doctor told me. So in addition to prayer, I started to seek God for what else I could do. One of those answers came in the way of a detox plan one of my brothers told me about, which I’ll point out I didn’t start right away. I had already been doing my own herbal detoxification and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to devote to the extreme 10 day plan he’d made me aware of through a book he gave me called the Master Cleanse. Basically it involved eating no food while drinking a mixture of fresh lemon juice, mixed with water, cayenne pepper, and pure maple syrup during those days. There was also a requirement of drinking a laxative tea and salt water at the start and end of each day to aid in the cleansing process. So, though I was reluctant to go through this process because I didn’t think I could do it, I took the challenge and started the Cleanse on July 23, 2008. At the end of the Cleanse not only did I see improvement in my eyes and the infections ceased, but I felt better in my overall health and I dropped another 11 lbs. So, now 26.5 lbs. after the start of adopting a new lifestyle, turned into 37.5 lbs lost. And of course, this loss just enforced my drive even more to continue my new positive habits. I did not dare compare a loss of 11 lbs. in 10 days to the weight that God was allowing me to lose naturally through just eating healthy, exercising, and simply following His instructions to me day by day. As I normally do, I continued to weigh myself daily and so no movement. But then about 3 weeks after the Cleanse, after the big 11 lbs. lost, I stepped on the scale and saw 187.8 lbs. That was on August 23, 2008. It was only a .7 lb loss but it didn’t matter. I’d spent prior years going year in and year out with no scale movement; not unless I was gaining. On September 14, 2008 I stepped on the scale and saw 185.6 lbs., another 2.2 lbs. lost after another 3 weeks. It seemed God was moving me in 3 week segments…HA HA HA! Now keep in mind what I said earlier, you can’t get hung up on seeing results every week when you’re doing things the way God has for you to do it. You will go weeks seeing nothing and then BOOM! SOMETHING! Here I was still another 3 weeks later…actually a day shy of three weeks, October 4th I stepped on the scale again to see 184.4 lbs. This time was a 1.2 lbs. lost. Then something very out of the ordinary happened between October 18th and 19th. On the 18th I weighed 183.5 lbs and exactly a day later I weighed 180.9 lbs., that was a 2.6 lbs. difference in one day. Why our bodies do the things that they do? I don’t know. I could have been that I was still holding water in my body and my body was doing its job to release that water retention, which is another reason that for some people it may not be good to weigh everyday if you’re the type to get too hung up on what the scale is doing. And I do want to note here that there were times that I’d gain a lb here or there and then I’d lose it. It’s important to learn your body and not mistake the changes your body may be going through for being true weight gain. But getting back to my numbers, October 19, 2008 marked a day of significance for me because it was the last day for the rest of the year that I would lose any weight. I had lost 45.1 lbs in the 2008. At the end of 2008 I could say I went from 226 lbs to 180.9 lbs. And yes, I count every oz. lost! HA HA HA!
January 1, 2009 did present me with a little gift of shedding that odd .9 oz., for which I was grateful. After all, ounces add up to pounds! But truthfully speaking I was feeling like I needed another boost in moving some weight off my body and toxins out of my body that might have found their home over the holidays, so I did the 10 day Master Cleanse again on January 17, 2009. At the end I’d lost 6 lbs; I was down to 174 lbs. After this I was coming up on my birthday, February 5th and there is something I want to note here…. I am so glad I documented some of these things as much as I did but I also feel like now that I wish I’d kept a journal of my e-motions. But hopefully you all are getting some inspiration from these things that I am telling you. Okay…I wanted to point out that my calendar shows that for 3 weeks after my birthday I had written on there…NO MORE ICE CREAM OR CAKE FROM THE FREEZER (TEMPERANCE). Remember I said earlier that I don’t keep sweets in the house because I’m easily tempted. Well, I don’t know what my struggles were for those 3 weeks but having that visual on my calendar must have helped to a degree because February 26, 2009 shows that I dropped down to 172.8 lbs., 1.2 lbs lost. This was 3 weeks after my birthday. You know I never realized until taking time to reflect back on my weight-loss the role these 3 week periods were playing in my weight loss. Amazing! Exactly a week later I lost 1 oz. A little over 2 weeks later I lost another 3 oz. Almost 4 weeks later, April 17th, I moved up to losing 1.1 lbs. So, I was now at 171.3 lbs. The 1st week of May I was seeing small increments of weight loss every other day. May 4th – I showed a drop from 171.3 lbs to 169.1 lbs. Two days later I showed 167.9 lbs. Another 2 days later I’d dropped to just 167 lbs. The last day I saw weight loss in 2009 was July 29th; I’d dropped to 161.4 lbs.
Then 2010 rolled around and I decide to do a beginning of the year cleanse. With that cleanse came a 5.8 lbs lost. Unfortunately, I must admit I gained that weight back in February during my birthday, I celebrated more than one day and of course some good eating was involved. But I did not allow that gain to become a runaway train for me as I had in the past. I quickly zoned in on what I needed to do, eating salads, veggies, fruit, turkey, fish…all those things that would shake my cravings for things that was not a part of my daily lifestyle. I didn’t get back to the weight loss I’d obtained after my January cleanse but eventually I did get back to the pre-weight – 161 lbs. It took me some weeks to get there but God and my devotion to consistency was the key. Since that time my focus has continued to be on eating healthy and making my workouts more challenging to produce the change that I seek in my body. For me it’s been more than just about weight-loss, I want overall optimum health. I want to point out that due to my type of workouts I have seen some weight gain due to what has been fat storage turning into muscle. And I’m at the point now where I’m able to discern what my weight gain is when I see it instead of me going into a depression. I pay attention to my clothes which fit better, which is another testament to the changes that my body is still going through, though I’m not seeing what I want on the scales. And I want to point out to all of you that you should take heed as well while you’re on your journey. Do not fall into the trap of just playing the numbers game with the scale. If it helps you, put things on the calendar so that you can visually see what’s going on with your body. Buy some piece of clothing that is at least 2 sizes smaller than what you are and hang it somewhere in your bedroom where you can keep it in view. Attempt to try it on every 3 weeks or so to see how you’re progressing in “inches” loss rather than just depending on what the scale has to say. Experiment with eating vegetables you have never eaten before in your life. Even though you may not be a vegetarian and don’t desire to be, find some vegetarian recipes to try. Mix up your eating routine. All of these things I’ve tried on my journey to keep me from becoming stagnant in my weight-loss or becoming bored. But more than anything, SEEK GOD FOR YOUR JOURNEY TO HEALTHIER LIVING and you won’t need anybody’s list of ideas. This is what I did and am yet doing, and you can do it too! If you have a real relationship with God, vow to a daily diet of what I call “spirit-led” eating.
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