365 DAYS to Transform Your Life

IN OUR STRUGGLE WITH FOOD AND WEIGHT, TIME IS EITHER OUR FRIEND OR FOE, EVERY DAY COUNTS. Just think how quickly your next birthday or next Christmas keeps rolling around, while you still find yourself stuck.

All the promises that you can lose 20 pounds in 7 days are just not true. Even if you find that “perfect” diet and lose 20 pounds in 30 days, it’s bound to backfire, leaving you with more weight in the end and an even slower metabolism.

PLEASE BELIEVE ME: THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS, WE HAVE TO CHANGE OUR LIVES FOR GOOD.

I have been at that place where NOTHING SEEMS TO WORK more times than I can count. Even after I dealt with many of my issues, I kept looking for ways to lose the extra weight I’ve gained over the years. It was a constant battle because after years of dieting my body was not doing quite what it was supposed to.

So I took up the challenge that I set before many ladies in my small groups and the ladies who joined my online membership site: GIVE IT ONE YEAR – 365 DAYS OF HEALTHY HABITS.

Now this way of eating has absolutely nothing to do with FOLLOWING A DIET.

It’s about changing your life, and especially your health,  by consistently eating healthy EVERY DAY FOR ONE YEAR. It’s especially about making up your mind to not be sidetrack by SLOW OR NO WEIGHT LOSS, STRESS, SICKNESS, HOLIDAYS, RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS, AND A BUSY LIFE. These things are difficult, but I’m afraid it’s part of life, so you can not let it become your excuse. During this year it is crucial to COMMIT to eat healthy NO MATTER WHAT CONSISTENTLY.

Of course I knew this would benefit me, and sure enough, it did. I lost weight, slowly, but the pounds kept coming off. Also, it was such a relief to be rid of the ever-present anxiety of “I messed up” or “I better eat all I can tonight because my diet will start tomorrow”. I had a year so I had time to recover from slip-ups.

Other benefits caught me entirely by surprise. After eating vegetables with lean meats and fruit as the main course of every meal for about six months, I realized that while people around me got colds and illnesses, I didn’t. This was huge. We have a big family, and as the mom, I always got sick alongside my “patients,” but not anymore.

Also, cravings all but vanished. Not in my wildest dreams would I ever have guessed that there would come a day that I would NOT WANT CAKE. After eating fruit often for months, I stopped craving sweets. So yes, sometimes I still eat sweets, and there had been times when I got myself into a bind and had to go through a time of resisting again, but my body is now working with me not sabotaging me. Getting up after a short relapse is so much easier because for the most part (at least 80% of the time) I eat healthily. Please note: You can fool others and even yourself, but you can not trick your body. If the food you eat is not truly healthy and in it’s purest form, I’m afraid nothing will change.

I also picked up the challenge to exercise CONSISTENTLY for one year. Not the kind of exercise where you work out like a maniac for three days and then take a break for three months (been there, done that). No, instead, the kind where you exercise 4 to 5 times a week, NEVER MIND WHAT HAPPENS AND NEVER MIND HOW MEDIOCRE THE EFFORT.

I agree that merely strolling forever will not help much, but it is the consistency that changes your life. After six months, I was excited to start doing more. Who would have thought that I would actually like exercise? However, this would never have happened if I didn’t first make it a part of my life. Make no mistake I felt sorry for myself EVERY DAY FOR THE FIRST THREE MONTHS, and I had to call out to God every day to help me.

Also, consistency in your Spiritual life WILL TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE: I always thought that this “pray-and-read-your-Bible” every day was just a legalistic thing that we don’t have to obey. It turns out, we don’t have to, but “eating” spiritual food can also transform our lives. Sure it might not feel good at first, and it might get “boring” after a month or so, but if you keep at it you will not believe what it will add to your life.

Every day the enemy, the world and the people around us pin “things” to our lives. We get saddled with stress, loneliness, pride, responsibilities, and temptations. Imagine yourself walking around with those things, and getting more piled on for a month or a year without being washed by the water of the Word or letting Jesus heal your broken heart with His Word and by his Spirit. It’s unhealthy, like eating junk food for a year. It clogs your spiritual arteries, and it leaves you depleted and sick. TIME IN GOD’S PRESENCE AND IN HIS WORD IT’S NOT FOR GOD’S BENEFIT, IT’S FOR US.

Eating healthy, exercising and most importantly, spending time in God’s presence are gifts that He gave us. However, the enemy blinds our eyes and the eyes of the people around us so that we believe those gifts are burdens.

TAKE ONE YEAR

• EAT HEALTHY – IGNORE THE SLIP-UPS
• EXERCISE – STOP THE EXCUSES
• LET GOD INTO YOUR LIFE BY GIVING HIM YOUR MOST PRIZED POSSESSION: TIME

TODAY CAN BE THE FIRST DAY OF YOUR 365 DAYS.  If I could do it, so can you. I’m just another girl like you with a lot of issues and a lifetime of struggling with food, but we have an awesome God.