Twenty Pounds Gone

At the end of December I found out at a routine visit to my endocrinologist (for my thyroid) that I was about one pound away from being obese. Yikes! My doctor told me that I needed to lose weight and recommended that I see a dietician, but I knew what the real problem was: turning to food instead of to the Lord. Again, yikes! Since then, I’ve lost about twenty pounds by doing a few different things. I’d like to share them with you today!

First, diagnosing the spiritual problem behind my over-eating was the key to losing weight. I realized that since I was young, I had been turning to food for comfort instead of to the Lord. So, now when I feel stressed out, nervous, or just plain uncomfortable, I turn to the Lord in prayer and then find something else to do. I frequently play piano, play with Samuel, sing, or color. I praise the Lord for giving me self-control and trust in Him!

Second, I changed a lot of things about my diet! I eat much, much less sugar than I used to. I allow myself added sugar in non-dessert foods and then the occasional dessert, but usually not at home. I find that if I eat dessert out of the house my craving for more disappears faster than at home. I also allow myself one sweetened coffee drink at work and to bring home, but use less than half the flavor syrup the recipe calls for and 1% milk instead of 2%. I eat some dark chocolate every day, too, but the sugar content is so low that I don’t count dark chocolate as a dessert.

I eat six smaller meals a day, or roughly something like that! Sometimes I eat three 300-400 calories meals and three 200 calorie snacks, sometimes I eat a couple 500 calorie meals with a few 100 calorie snacks, but most days I combine all those different methods. The main idea is that I try not to over-eat at meal times so I can have a small snack, which keeps me from getting super hungry before the next meal. I also feel like I should say that I don’t actually count calories every day. Over time I’ve just gotten a better idea of how many calories are in certain foods. Veggies have very few calories per serving, while nuts, even though they are healthy, have a lot of calories per serving. I try to eat a variety of healthy foods throughout the day, not just at meal times.

I did a lot of research about the “when” of dieting. I tried eating more in the morning and less at night. I tried eating no snacks at all. I tried fasting during the middle of the day. What I realized is that losing weight reduces to eating fewer calories than the calories you burn. So, sometimes I eat a lot at night because I ate a little in the morning. Sometimes I eat too much in the morning, so I adjust what I eat at night. Sometimes I eat too much at one meal, and then I have a smaller snack. The point is that losing weight comes down to calories eaten versus calories burned. I use Fit Bit Zip to track my calories burned and steps taken.

I also had trouble at first balancing exercise and eating. Sometimes I don’t have the time or the focus to keep up both. I found a lot of encouraging research saying that when losing weight, diet is much more important than exercise, although exercise still has enormous health benefits. Now, if I have a busy week ahead of me, I focus more on diet than exercise and I try not to get too upset with myself if I can’t exercise that often. As long as I’m eating healthy and getting at least a couple days of exercise, I feel like I’m making progress.

Finally, my two philosophies while losing weight have been “All things in moderation” and “It’s never too late to eat healthy!” The second is especially helpful to me on the days when I’ve eaten too much. Tomorrow is another day to try again. So, if you’re trying to lose weight, I encourage you to rely on the Lord for self-control and I encourage you to find a way of eating the works for you and that you enjoy.

And remember, it’s never too late to eat healthy!