I’ve done a Whole24 before and had REALLY good results from it! It increased my energy and regularity and it helped TREMENDOUSLY with my sugar cravings and even sugar toleration. Even now, almost two years later, I drink unsweet tea or unsweet tea with flavoring at Sonic which is still sometimes almost too sweet. I have managed to work up a toleration for Dr. Pepper again, but that took awhile!

So, in trying to finish up the weight loss portion of this temple journey, I’ve toyed with the idea of doing another Whole24 and making it the Whole30 this time!! I’ve only toyed with the idea because deprivation is HARD and usually unsustainable. After all, this journey is supposed to be about sustainable, holy, Christ following changes! The last time my sister and I lugged our munchkins to the Library and the Savoy Tea Company I stumbled across Dallas and Melissa Hartwig’s book, It All Starts With Food. And, I’ve read most of it. There is SO much MORE information in this book about their perspective and the whys and the lifestyle philosophies behind the Whole30 than I found reading on the internet prior to my first Whole24. It turns out that the Whole30 is supposed to springboard you to a sustainable, healthy-eating lifestyle that generally propels you toward greater health with a few thoughtful indulgences along the way just for fun! Hmmmm…. sound like any goals you’ve read on here or found in your own journey toward honoring Christ with the health of your temple!?!

Since it turns out that the philosophy of this way of eating lines up with my heart’s desire to honor Christ, I am going to take the plunge again! It also happens to line up quite nicely with my September 6 goal while still allowing me to start after we take the girls out for a last hurrah tomorrow before I go back to work on Wednesday. The more difficult part will be that it also lines up quite nicely with going back to work (aka increased stress). I also means provided lunch during in services and NO END of sweets and temptations during Meet the Teacher Nights and the the first week or two back at school! Although, health-wise this will be great and help me stay on track during a VERY derailing time, it will also likely lead to some struggles! However, I think, although I truly don’t want to be sacrilegious, “if God is for me who can be against me” can apply even here. I know that these last 4 pounds do not matter to eternity! I also know that they are important to me. And I know that God cares about me and therefore cares about what I care about. I think this will turn out to be a lovely chance to honor Him, and allow Him to continue to shape and sanctify my perspective to focus on Him in all things, through all things and NO MATTER what things!

I have reached the half way point of my weight loss!  I have lost 8 pounds and have 8 more to go!  I will hit the halfway mark in my 5 week exercise plan tomorrow.  This morning as I was contemplating the difficulties of this journey and hoping against hope that these last 8 pounds will come off faster than the first 8.  I realize this is a rather unrealistic hope as the closer you get to your ideal weight it is typically harder to lose weight.  However, the hunger I’ve been dealing with and the tiredness after my workouts has been wearying.  So, I am hoping to get to the end of the weight loss part of this journey sooner than later.

I remembered this morning, as I was thinking through all of these halfway points I’ve hit or am coming upon, that this is the part of the “race” that I always struggled with in the half-marathons I’ve run.  I’d try to tell myself that I’d already finished half and I had less left than I’d already accomplished.  It never worked though, and I always felt like I could not run a step further and had to take a walk break.  And, once I took the first walking break, I had to take more and would alternate between walking and running for the whole second half of the race.  I do NOT want to do that in this race.  I am trying to accelerate during the second half this time.  I DO NOT want to prolong this part of the journey!

I also added (kind of) to my title because I am working hard to keep in mind that this journey is forever. Once I reach my weight loss goal, I may or may not have reached my inches or clothing goals. Then once I’ve reached all of those goals I have to maintain them and that is the part of the journey that, for me, is uncharted! I’ve successfully lost all of this weight before! Some might even say I maintained it for a little bit. However, I don’t think I actually, truly maintained it. I was nursing my youngest when I reached my goal weight the first time and only maintained the loss as long as I nursed. Once I stopped nursing, I started gaining. That was because I wasn’t actually maintaining my health or well being and therefore wasn’t able to maintain my weight loss either.

So, now I am staying aware of my tendency to take breaks in the second half of journeys so that I do not take a break this time. And I am working to prepare myself mentally and praying for strength spiritually to maintain or even accelerate my progress in the second half of this part of the journey, and BEYOND!!

So, I started this journey at 144.4 pounds.  My goal weight is 128 pounds.  My non scale goal is more muscle than fat and some definition.  I have been doing my best to be faithful to the process while still living life.  I am trying to make changes that I could do forever since I am coming to accept that this is a life long journey.  There have already been some pretty great super-highs and some pretty rough super-lows.  I have done my best to stick with the process and the point through them all.  It’s hard, it’s draining and it can be rewarding!

I have managed in the last 6 weeks to lose just under 6 pounds and 8 inches. I know that this is great and sustainable progress. And that is what I tell myself when the going gets rough! It is also feeling SOOOOO slow! My original goal was to reach my goal weight by the time I went back to school for in-service on August 7th. That doesn’t seem likely given my other and more important goal of doing this without being on a “diet”. It is WAY more important that I model healthy, balanced eating for my girls. So, we have charts for ourselves counting how many fruits and vegetables and cups of water we have each day to give them ownership of their health and good things to add to what they eat. I have one too so that I can continue to focus on what actually matters most: treating my body like a temple, not getting this temple to look like this or fit into that (those are just nice side effects, I’m hoping for!!)

So, I’ve had to extend my date goal to my 40th birthday on September 6th. I continue to tweak things like lowering my daily calorie intake a couple of times in the My Fitness Pal app that I use. I am currently at the lowest calorie amount I will allow myself since these changes need to be sustainable. And I only lowered the calories after I felt that my body had adjusted to where the previous count. When I started tracking calories this time I was starving for 3-4 days. Then things seemed manageable and my weight wasn’t going down like I wanted it to. So, my accountability friend and I decided it would be best for me to stop entering my exercise into the app. That lowered my allowable calories by 100-200 calories. I felt like I was starving for another few days. I think that was due in part to being at training for most of those hungry days. Since I am choosing to “live life” through this process I ate the food that was provided. This meant that sometimes the food had more calories than fullness in it. Then, once I felt like I got good at managing that level of allowable calories, I increased the amount of weight I wanted to lose each week within the app. That brought me to my current allowable 1200 calories a day. This seems doable most days. Life still makes it harder some days than others! Such as when we take the girls out for donuts for breakfast. However, I also want to reach my goal weight!! I hope and pray that THEN maybe I can have a meal or even a day or two when I don’t enter everything I eat and I am still where I need to be health and weight wise.

Like I said earlier, I am coming to accept the truth that I know. There is no finish line and this is a forever journey (at least until my “new” body in heaven!!). Still, I do think it is a legitimate expectation that when I am maintaining there will be more wiggle room. However, for right now I try to keep everything pretty tied down. I do know I cannot handle going lower with my calories. So, if I plateau than I will have to pay closer attention to my macro counts to try to keep moving forward. I may add exercise if I find myself truly stuck, but that I also have to monitor that closely because I can only handle so much time commitment with my family’s schedules. Because I only have so few things left that I can change or moderate AND more importantly and wisely because slow weight loss is the longest lasting weight loss, I will continue to work to be content with my slow progress. I will also remind myself to thank God and rejoice because it is progress! I just read today from Kelsey at Hiitburn that we should focus on “progress not perfection”. I think that mentality matches up very well with this journey toward Jesus in this temple of His that He’s loaned me!

Thanks for reading! It helps me to type about it!!