A Little Chat about Weight Loss and Clothes

As you know, I’ve been losing a little weight. I have a range of clothing sizes in my closet. One day I was wearing my “these are just a little too big” pants around the house, and I changed into my “these are just a wee bit snug” jeans before I went out to a meeting. Honestly, I felt a little schizophrenic that day. Because when I am wearing the loose ones, I feel good. I recognize that I have lost weight, and I feel ‘thin’ for a little while. When I am wearing the tight ones, yes, it is nice that I can fit in those again, but I feel ’fat.’

I think there’s a place for both types of clothes during weight loss. I hear some bloggers say that they will only wear their super tight clothes as a constant reminder that they need to lose weight. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wearing my loose clothes and enjoying the fruits of my labor. Its pleasurable to be able to feel the weight loss in this way.

On the other hand, I also hear bloggers saying they are not going to buy any new clothes until they reach X weight, or even goal. They sometimes complain that their clothes are practically falling off of them. That’s not right! Its unnecessary. Right or wrong, in this country, where we buy way more than we need, there are always practically new clothes available in the thrift store in almost every size. I am not even a good “thrifter.” I am impatient and get bored easily. But I can usually breeze through a thrift store and find an item of clothing or two that fits my new size (bigger or smaller :} )

Wearing clothing that is way too large or way too small is not self-respecting. And self-respect is something I hear a lot of women seeking to lose weight say they lack. Wearing clothes that fit and make you feel good about yourself is a simple and cheap way to start working on that.

P.S. Important recipe information! When you try a new recipe its always good to run it through the calorie counter yourself. Especially when it seems too good to be true. I routinely do that. So imagine my distress when I double checked the calories on the two recipes I recently shared (the Shut Up Brownies and the Banana Muffins) and then I got my bag of oat bran out of the freezer and noticed that stats on it were significantly different than what calorie count (and my little calorie book) give oat bran. It changed the calories in the brownies from 80 to 110, which is still a good deal IMO. So just double check the calories in your oat bran if you are planning to try these recipes. The oat bran I actually had was 390 calories per cup. The oat bran I used in the calorie counter was only 240 calories per cup.

One Good Day

Honestly, for the past few days, I’ve been thinking that I was doomed.  Doomed to gain all my weight back, I mean.  Just what I feared from the very start–that it would all disappear, and I would go back to the way (weight) I was before, just like in the movie “Awakenings.”  And I’ve been trying to figure out what to say about it.

Make no mistake about it.  I have been in a gaining trend.  And this past weekend when I was out of town, I was very unhappy with my image in the mirror.  I know.  All that stuff I’ve said about accepting my body image…  I’ve had some stressful stuff to deal with the past two weeks, and there were a couple of times I COULDN’T STOP EATING.  Believe it or not,  the stress was more about other people and things that were out of my control, instead of the anxiety that used to make me overeat.  Even when I wasn’t stressed, I was just eating a little too much.

So I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know I had one good day today.  I wrote down my four meals and one snack and stuck right to them.  (Ha–I should probably eat my last snack and go immediately to bed so the spell won’t be broken!)  I chose low calorie, nutrient dense foods so I wouldn’t get too hungry between meals.  And I even thought a little bit about ‘its okay to be hungry.’  And tonight when I was working on a new experimental low calorie recipe for dinner just because that’s what I wanted to eat, I thought, well, this isn’t the behavior of a person who has given up.  So we’ll see.

That recipe I was making?  Turned out pretty darn good!  I was inspired by Helen’s cauliflower recipe and the fact that I had a head of cauliflower in the refrigerator.  I didn’t have any of the other ingredients in her recipe though, so I tried something different.  Mexican Cauliflower Pork Casserole.  Quite yummy!  And a big serving, and when I plugged the ingredients into caloriecount, I was very happy with the stats on it.

(Honestly, sometimes I think a lot of my food pictures look like cat food, but you’ll have to take my word for it–they taste good!)

A few other good food ideas from the past week:

Pina Colada Yogurt.  Just a serving of my homemade yogurt with a teaspoon of unsweetened coconut and a little coconut extract, topped with some crushed pineapple and a sprinkle of granola.

I am in love with turkey burgers.  And honestly, I like them just as much without the bun, plus, they’re a whole lot less messy to eat.

Okay, this one veers into processed food a bit, but it sure was a tasty combo.  A serving of strawberries with a spray of reddi whip light on top, paired with a caramel rice cake (50 calories.)  Yumm yumm.

I am fascinated with the little froggies that appear at my front door.  This little guy has perched up on the door knob for the past two days.  How did he get here all by himself, and why does he like it up there?  I worry about him.

And finally, an update on the sheep rug.  I was very pleased when I took it off the frame to take these photos.  It looks better from a distance than I thought.  Still a lot to do, but I am making steady progress now.  Of course, rug camp is in 2 1/2 weeks, so I don’t think I’ll finish it.

Close-ups.  I dyed some of the wool for the grass myself, so I am very happy about how that turned out.  I used some angora sweaters, so that adds a neat texture to it.  (Rugs are traditionally hooked with plain wool.)

So that’s about it for tonight.  I have some busy, packed, slightly stressful days ahead.  I am glad I have some food pre-cooked for ready-to-eat meals.

A Different Way to Weigh

Okay, here goes.  A disjointed (ooh, good ‘j’ word–I’ve been playing Words with Friends lately,) unprofessional review of a very interesting book.

Health at Every Size was written by Linda Bacon, who started out with a masters degree in psychotherapy, and then went back to school to get her doctorate in physiology with a focus on nutrition and weight regulation.  She struggled for years with her own weight.  ”Bacon’s pain and obsession about her weight fueled her determination to understand everything about weight regulation.”

The main point she tries to make in this book is that most people are not going to lose weight.  Period.  And if they do lose weight, in all probability they will regain that weight.  She spends a lot of time going over extensive research that shows this is true. (that’s the part I skimmed.)  And she points to many studies that show that being overweight is not necessarily detrimental to your health. (also skimmed.) I think she’s trying to say that if you accept your weight and stop judging yourself for it, it is easier to move forward and make changes that are truly healthy IN SPITE OF your weight.

“Self-love may be the most revolutionary act you can engage in.  A person who is content in his or her body–fat or thin–disempowers the industries that prey on us and helps rewrite cultural mores.”

She doesn’t promote “Health at Any and All Food.”  That’s kind of what I thought the “Health at Every Size” movement was about.  Not at all.  She actually promotes eating very healthy whole foods.  And makes a statement that sounds vaguely familiar.  ”Enjoy a variety of real food, primarily plants.” Similar to Michael Pollan’s famous saying, “Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.”  Who came first?

This was probably the most outstanding and interesting passage in the book:

Then recognize that you have a choice.  You can choose your own standard of beauty, one that is realistic and respectful, or you can choose society’s hurtful standards.  Just remember:  You only have one body and despite how well you live your life, it may never change.  Can you afford to hate yourself for the rest of your life?

 

Bring this new thinking to how you view your body.  Experts call this vision kinesthesia, which simply means how you sense and feel about your body.  Kinesthesia is a product of your imagination, much more influenced by your self-esteem than by others’ perception of you.  Only you have the power to alter it.

This might be what happened to me when I made that New Year’s Day list:

Most of all I want to live a balanced  healthful life.  WITHOUT ANGST.

I want to be

• Active.
• Creative.
• Spiritual.
• Generous.
• Joyful.

I want to be all of these things.  I want them to be balanced in my life.  I even wrote “If being a little heavier is part of this, so be it.”

Something changed that day.  Well, lets be real.  This whole thing has been a process.  A LONG DRAWN-OUT PROCESS.  I started changing the way I think and the way I viewed myself.  I would no longer be embarrassed that I was ‘too fat’ to go to the gym, and put it off for a week or two until I ‘got the pounds off.’  I went to the gym as a proud overweight woman who wanted to continue to grow stronger.  I looked at myself in the mirror and liked what I saw.  Not compared to anyone else, either fatter or thinner.  I just was pleased with me.  Now don’t get me wrong.  That is in no way a 24 hour a day feeling.  In fact, last night I had to ask myself, so why DO you continue to weigh yourself?  Well the truth is, many times, mostly in the evening when I am sitting, I ‘feel’ very fat.  So I weigh myself to reassure myself that nothing has really changed.

And it has not.  I weigh almost exactly the same every time I get on the scale.  For the last few weeks I’ve taken a break from writing down everything I eat, and have not counted the calories either.  This does not mean that I have thrown out everything I have learned along the way.  Far from it.  Even my most recent foray into eating more protein has come into play.  I still am choosing good foods, balanced meals, basically no processed foods (except the most excellent cake at the missions weekend banquet ) )  I am not engaging in angst over meals out, or wanting a treat now and again.  I am, however, still battling that feeling of ‘being bad’  even when I have only THOUGHT about eating something too rich.  So I’m a work in progress.  Still.  sigh.

Towards the end of the book she makes this statement:

“Failed attempts at losing weight make people feel like failures, and even those who succeed feel a never-ending pressure to retain that success that will always limit their ability to feel comfortable around food and in their bodies.”

This is what I was feeling a wee bit.  Like a ‘successful maintainer’ who was actually always failing.  I am thinking of changing the byline of my blog to something like ‘thoughts on a whole and healthy life.’  That would be more in line with what I write about anyway.  Since I really have nothing left to say about weight LOSS.

One more thought.  For some of us, who are attempting to maintain a weight lower that what our body wants, or perhaps we have mucked with our internal body mechanism by gaining and maintaining extreme amounts of weight, I do believe that if we don’t continue to ‘try’ to lose weight, or at least remain ‘vigilant’ in maintaining our weight, there is the distinct probability that we will regain weight.

This book was quite scientific, especially the first half, where she uses EXTENSIVE research to try to prove her point (that you can be overweight and healthy.)  But it was much more balanced in its approach to life and food and exercise than I expected.  I have written before that I am scared by some of the HAES advocates.  They seem so angry.  I think my life experience is much much different than many persons.  I was ‘morbidly obese’ for many years, but for the most part I was loved, and treated with respect, and had a very full and fulfilling life.  For some people that is not their experience, and thus, their anger and frustration.  Overall, this book had a lot to offer. (plus it was very cheap to download on my kindle.)  I wish so much that people would learn to be content with their bodies and just eat healthy foods and move around a bit.

Pondering

Yep.  I’ve been pondering my own blog post.  Ever since I wrote that last one.  I feel fitter and healthier than I ever have.  But when I catch a glimpse of myself in a window or the mirrors at the gym, or horrors, some very unflattering picture that some other blogger posted on their blog (NO, I am not providing a link to that blog, LOL,) it does not match how I feel.  So can I be content with that being the image that others see me as, and only the inner knowledge that I am fit and healthy?  I think my brother’s words were wiser than I first thought–”Don’t settle.”

Yesterday I went for a walk–the four mile version.  I went for a walk the day before that. Today I will go for another walk.  I am still tracking all my activities on the  President’s Challenge:  I have earned 10,000 points since April 27.  Almost all of those points are from walking.  You have to earn 40,000 points for the bronze award.  I’m aiming to earn the bronze award by the end of the year.  In case anyone is interested, that works out to approximately 101 miles walked in the past two months.

I think a lot about my time these days.  Having three dogs takes quite a bit of time.  In and out. Out and in.  Take this collar off, put that collar off.  Really, its time to eat AGAIN?  I started feeding all my dogs twice a day.  Sophie was glad that I finally caught on that it is also best for doggies to eat small frequent meals throughout the day.  Did I ever tell you that when I went to get Mr. Monk, they had a female pug that had come in at the same time as him?  I was willing to adopt both of them, but the female had already been reserved.  Good thing for me.  Can you imagine if I had a Dowager Empress in the house competing with the Queen for top spot?

Me thinks not.

I do believe those Rocco Dispirito brownies are the best healthy brownies I have ever made.  I think Rocco went overboard trying to make healthy brownies, because I found a different recipe online that was only 53 calories per brownie, and from the looks of that recipe, that is all they would taste like.  I think he developed this recipe second.  It is definitely worthy.  I gave most of them away, to two Weight Watcher friends, to get their opinion.  One of them said they were almost too rich.  Her non-dieting husband ate all the rest of them.  He didn’t know til afterwards that they were ‘black bean brownies.’  Anyway, I found them to be rich and fudgy, and definitely satisfying to have just one.  135 calories with 1/4 cup of raisins and 1/4 cup of walnuts added.  I read somewhere about someone taking the time to remove the skins off of the beans.  This might improve the texture a little bit, but I don’t know that it would be worth the time.  I think the secret is really pulverizing those beans in the blender or the food processor.

The last brownie.

Yesterday on the walk, I challenged myself to walk as quickly as I could up the steep hill with no stops or slowdowns.  I counted the steps–275.  That’s the same as going up 11 flights of stairs without stopping!  Me and Noah did 4 miles.  That’s cause we got out before 7:30, before it got too hot.  On the way home I saw a baby bird just sitting on the road.  It looked a little stunned.  I nudged it a bit, and thankfully,  it flew up into a nearby branch.  I bet it crash landed on its first flight out of the nest.

Did I tell you I did take my first swim of the year?  that was a relief to get that over with.  And I couldn’t believe how out of swimming shape I was.  I did four laps and thought I couldn’t go any longer!  I did keep swimming for about 20 minutes.  Does anybody else have the experience of swimming making them extra hungry?

The scale seems to be moving slowly in the right direction.  I am cautiously optimistic.  I will let you know when I reach ‘goal’ again.

Well, those are the random thoughts for the past few days.  Here is Noah’s blinky face.  We need to get out for a walk before it gets too hot, and before I have to leave for my long-awaited appointment at the ortho doctor (for my hands.)

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Amazing Flax Seed. And Other Good Stuff.

That amazing flax seed

I can’t stop eating Spackle 2.0.  Its like eating Better-than-Cookie-Dough for breakfast every morning.  In fact, I should re-name it that.  Doesn’t it sound more appetizing?  Its fun to eat, but the real reason I like it is that it keeps me full and not thinking about food for up to six hours.  Very few 300 calorie foods have that effect on me.  Lori noticed the same thing with her one-minute muffin.  (I’ve got to try that again if I can ever stop eating the spackle long enough.)

Besides the filling effect, flax seed meal is touted to have a myriad of health benefits.  Here’s a really good article I found on it.  Be sure to scroll to the end of the article.  There is a fantastic sounding muffin recipe that I am going to try later this week.

But the best part about flax seed meal, aside from its filling benefits and its health benefits, is that it tastes great!  That was really the first thing I noticed about it.  It has a nutty flavor that I really like.  I’ve had it on top of cottage cheese and fruit, used it in an apple dessert, of course my muffin recipe has the whole seeds in it, added it to my scone recipe and really improved the end product, enjoyed it in Miz’s smoothie recipe, and of course there is the spackle.

One thing I have been thinking about (when my thoughts drift to obsession) is that a good thing can be carried too far.  I think it could be possible to eat so much flaxseed that you develop a sensitivity to it, like how so many Americans seemingly have a sensitivity to wheat.  Everything in moderation, people!  But if you haven’t, please give flax seed meal a try.  Its scrumptious!

Lynn

Okay, I haven’t even listened to it (saving it for my lunchtime listening) but just wanted to shout out about Lynn being on the newest Two Fit Chicks podcast, talking about my favorite subject (besides food):  weight maintenance!!  I’m so excited!!  Lynn is one of my all time most favorite bloggers in the whole world.    Lynn’s the reason I discovered blogs in the first place.  And many thanks to Miz and Dietgirl for their hard work on these podcasts.  I look forward to each and every one.

The Queen’s response

Did anyone notice in the last post–the last comment was from my good friend Juice, who pointed out the study that had found that Dachshunds were the most aggressive breed of all?  The Queen heard this and demanded an audience to defend her heritage.

To the uninformed masses:  I feel the need to defend my heritage.  My ancestors were bred to hunt down one of the most fearless and aggressive animals around–the badger.  In fact, Dachshund means ‘badger dog.’  Although our legs are short (so we can get down into their underground tunnels,) you might notice the extra large chest size –that’s not just a vanity feature–my people have HEART.  We are not just aggressive without reason.  (ed. note:  unfortunately, dachshunds seem to have trouble distinguishing small people from varmints.)

My guardian

This morning Noah and I set out on our walk.  As usual, I told myself, you only have to take a short walk.  After we had walked up one hill I was feeling more energetic so we headed on up the next hill, where there is a nice flat surface at the top.  As we headed up, Noah had that extra alert look that he sometimes gets when there is a dog or a deer ahead of us.  Only I noticed it was a quieter look than when there is a dog ahead.  And then, my guardian dog sat down!  Alrighty then, we won’t go up that hill.  I am so proud of how Noah has grown up.  Here he is at Canine Good Citizen Training class.  Red flag or no, he was the star of the class.  The trainer even used him for a demonstration!

I asked someone to take this picture for a couple of reasons–to have a picture of me and Noah together, and because Noah was freshly bathed, and also to have a ‘truthful’ picture of myself at this current weight.  There is a weird shadow on my face that I don’t like, but other than that it is a good truthful picture.  I wish I weighed less, and I am working on it.  But on the other hand, I still feel comfortable wearing a white tank top.  I think working out so hard gives me more confidence and makes me more comfortable with my body the way it is.  For me, that’s a good thing.

Storm Watch, Part 2

THAT’S IT!  That’s all the snow we got out of these ‘two big arctic storms.’ Noah does love the snow though.  This morning we were out for an hour walking in mostly rain, and occasional snow falling.  I didn’t get nearly as wet as I did last night just walking out to the car.  That was some crazy rain.  BTW, Jenn asked how I keep Noah so white.  I don’t!  You can see in the pic that Noah is not white compared to the snow.  I am lucky, though, that for the most part his coat is very dirt resistant.  Even when he goes to the trainer to be boarded, and is outside for several days in red dirt, it seems to fall off of him once he is home.  I actually do like bathing my dogs, but not in the cold!  I have a hose with a shower nozzle that is attached to hot and cold  water faucets, so I can give him a bath on the back deck.  And, I have a high-powered blow dryer that works pretty good too.  Leftover remnants from my days as a dog groomer.

I saw these two berry bushes and thought they were so pretty.  I suppose they are the same species, but I wonder why the berries are a different color and they are right next to each other.  Aren’t the drops of water beautiful on them?  Just like a Christmas ornament!

All the rest of the day I stayed inside trying to keep warm, and waiting for the BIG STORM to hit.  I got a little cooking done–made a batch of my ‘Darn Good Spaghetti Sauce.’  Darn, that stuff IS good LOL!  I ate it on a big plateful of sauteed zucchini strips, onions, and mushrooms.  Yumm.  I gave myself permission to have pasta, and even got it down out of the cupboard.  But then I decided I actually wanted more veggies.  (Don’t ask what I ate at work yesterday.  It wasn’t good.)  To make the zucchini strips, just use a potato peeler and keep rotating the zucchini and peeling it until you get down to the seedy center.  Don’t use that part.

Oh, here’s how I actually had it–with a little shredded parmesan on top.  Perfection!

I made some more banana cubes.   I love getting the ‘over ripe’ bananas on sale for 20 cents a pound and making these cubes.  I just mash them up with a potato masher and pour them into ice cube trays.  Then when they are frozen, I store them in a ziplock bag, and they are ready to use for smoothies, recipes, or as a topping on my protein pancakes.  Which I had this morning–oh yumm.  I put a few (about 3 half walnuts?) chopped walnut pieces into the pancake batter in the pan, and then top the pancake with the thawed banana cubes.  The bananas are so sweet this way, I don’t have to add any other sweetener.

Went out for the late afternoon walk with Noah, and noticed these Japanese Maples.  The light seemed just right again.  ( I actually shot these two pics on the night time setting on my camera.)

I kept looking at this group of leaves, and then I realized that the ‘star’ of the group was the lowly dogwood tree in the back.  You gotta love God’s coloring book!

 

 

So, reading around the blogs today, came across a couple of long time bloggers still talking about the frustration of struggling with wanting to eat too much or not the most healthy choices.  Wanting to be done with the struggle.  I feel that way too.  Sometimes I am afraid, especially after a day where I am just eating too much because its fun or its there or whatever.  So a day like today gives me reassurance.  I didn’t have to muscle through my choices.  I just wanted to eat what I ate.  I didn’t want to eat when I was still full from the previous meal.  I didn’t have to trick myself into waiting a little longer.  But still, there’s that wish that the struggle would be over.  That I wouldn’t have days like yesterday.  That I wouldn’t have to be afraid.  I guess I think its part of the human  condition.  We (us weight loss ragamuffins) tend to think that we are the only ones who have these struggles.  I don’t think that’s true.   Its natural to wish that things were ‘other.’  I think the key is to keep working on accepting what is.  For me, this Bible verse is something I have aspired to for a long time, in many areas of my life.  And now I apply its wisdom to accepting the body God gave me.

I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

 

Post in Real Time

5am:What time is it?  TOO EARLY!!!

5:45am:  What time is it now?  Okay.  That’s good enough.

6am:  Making coffee (Starbuck’s Anniversary Blend–yumm) and some homemade yogurt with muesli and walnuts on top.  Very satisfying.  New practice–let the dogs ‘sleep in’ while I have a little quiet time.  I highly  recommend this to you mothers of young children!  Of course it only works in the winter when its still dark outside…

7am:  The natives are restless.  Let them out, and get dressed while they are outside.  Saw this when I looked out the door this morning.

Well, it WAS first thing in the morning...

8am:  Out the door for a walk with Noah.  Funny thing’s been happening.  Even when I give myself ‘permission’ to take a short walk, I just keep on walking for an hour.  Almost exactly, even though I don’t have a watch on me.  Here’s some of the scenes from this morning’s walk.

Spy cam in action again (first pic is what I can actually see, second pic is with my camera zoomed in 12X–there’s people living over in them thar hills!)

The road home.  But we turned and walked for a bit longer.

It was cold this morning!  My angora gloves came in handy.  Did you know that angora is 7X warmer than wool?  What else do you want to know about angora?  Did you know I used to raise angora rabbits?  I raised the rabbits, ‘plucked’ their wool (its shedding) dyed the wool, spun the wool into yarn, and knit these gloves.

 

English angora rabbit--aren't they the funniest little creatures?

9am:  Back home, make a cup of TJ’s Gingerbread Spice coffee (DELISH,) check a few blogs, look HIGH AND LOW for my bag of buttons (I’m working on the fourth ‘Pay It Forward  Quilt’–mine!)  Cannot find them.  Read a few blogs, then get cleaned up and ready to leave the house.  Grab a couple of lo-bars for a pre-workout snack.

11am:  Hit the gym, do a vigorous weights workout.  Ooh–the scale was down 3.5 pounds from my goal weight.  What does that mean?  Absolutely nothin’.  But it makes me inexplicably happy for a while.

Here’s my favorite machine at the gym.  Its the only one I am glad is facing the mirrors LOL at myself.  Can you guess why?

That white bar across the middle is in *just* the right place.

12noon:  Lunch with a good friend.  I parked in front of the new W.W. meeting room, and went in to see my old leader and tell her I was still holding the line.  I think I am exactly the same weight I was the last time she saw me about three years ago.

Lunch was good.  Salad was too big, but a great combo:  romaine lettuce with walnuts, avocado, blue cheese, cranberries, and mandarin oranges, with an oriental dressing.  Sorry, no pic, even though I had my camera with me.  Great conversation with my friend, and we shared a mini-pumpkin pie.  Probably the only one I’ll have this year.

2pm:  Went to my favorite Costless Market.  I got a little turkey for $3.50!  I had just realized that I was not going to have leftovers this year (working, we will have a nice meal there.)  So decided to get myself a turkey.  I also got a cauliflower to try those cauliflower ‘mashed potatoes.’  Joanna described them in such glowing terms that I decided I had to try them.  I guess that will cancel out the calories from the turkey gravy…

3:30pm:  Home again.  Writing a blog…trying to sew between  uploading pics…BFF calls, good chat…the natives are getting restless again…

4:30pm  Leash up all three dogs and run outside again for a quick walk before it gets dark.  Back home, I load the batteries into the flashlight and LOOK FOR THE $%^%$## BUTTONS AGAIN.  No luck.  I guess I’m meant to work on another quilt for now.

6:00  Having a light dinner to ‘make up’ for the big lunch.  I’m not suffering here.  This is what I ‘felt’ like eating.

Boiled zucchini, small bowl of cottage cheese, pineapple and a couple of walnuts, and a cup of that delicious Candy Cane Lane tea. Yummm.

And yes, I was  blogging while eating this dinner.  Not very mindful of me, I know.

Back to work tomorrow, so will spend another hour or so with the doggies while watching yet another episode of the Dog Whisperer.  Habanada everbody!

I Am More Than My Body

I’ve been thinking about this ever since National Love Your Body day, and meant to include these thoughts on this post. That was the post about choosing to be different and trying to maintain my weight at 168 pounds. The truth is, I don’t ‘love’ my body.  Blame it on our national obsession, or cultural conditioning or whatever, but I find smooth firm skin appealing on a body.  Which mostly I do not have.  Blame it on being overweight most of my life, or aging or whatever.  That’s just the way it is.  But don’t worry about me–there’s plenty of self-love going on over here.  That’s never  been a problem for me.  Maybe a little too much, but never too little.

Plenty of doggie love, too!

What I was thinking about is this.  I am more than my body.  We all are.  We are all body, mind, and spirit. As a Christ-follower, this takes a specific slant for me.  So part of choosing to maintain at 168 pounds is so that, hopefully, I will not have to spend quite as much time thinking about food/exercise.  But also a most important part is that I want to be strong and healthy so that I am able to follow God wherever he might lead  me in this world.  That ‘s the part I left out of that definition of me:

Something along the lines of ‘an older woman who is overweight but still reasonably attractive, who exercises not in the hopes that her body shape will change or become smaller, but to stay strong and healthy and flexible and mobile so that I am able to follow God wherever he might lead me.’

We are all spiritual beings, whether you like it or not.  We all have wonderful minds (I know, I read your excellent posts.)  I encourage you to think as much about these aspects of your life as you do about improving your physical body.

Here is my most favorite quilt from the show.  Japanese quilters do the most amazing beautiful detailed work on their quilts.  Their quilts have a different look that I am drawn to.  When I first saw it, this quilt reminded me of getting a glimpse into heaven.   That was almost the same meaning as the quilter wrote in her description.

Detail shots:

I’m off to take on the day,  which will include the obligatory long walk with Noah, a lot of clutter-removal (creativity creates clutter, in case you didn’t know,) a little baking, and hopefully more creating!  I started the day by reading the most amazing Psalm in The Message (modern version of the Bible)–Psalm 19.  Check it out–it’ll lift your spirits!