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"I'm Too Old to Change"

TTTT: “I’m too old to change.” Truth: It’s still worth it! This is a special edition in the TTTT series spotlighting a guest contributor, Louise Lefler.  This is her story... Two years ago, at the age of 68, my health was spiraling down.   I was eating fast food for most meals, not exercising, and stress was a huge issue.   I started having daily digestive problems.   I was telling myself, “ I am too old to make any changes and too old to start trying to lose weight and eat healthy.”   No one else told me that I was too old, but I believed this for several years. I was missing out on family gatherings and my grandchildren’s sports activities.   Continuing to miss their important future events was a struggle I had to overcome.   Something had to change.   After much prayer and listening to what God said about me, not what I said, things started to change.   My mind was where all the negative talk and self-destructive conversati...
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"Fat Genes"

  TTTT: “I got fat genes.” Truth: Weight is not an inherited trait. I used to say it a little differently.   I would say “I didn’t get skinny genes.”   Or “Everyone in my family is fat.   I am supposed to be fat and there’s nothing I can do about that.”   This wasn’t a huge exaggeration.   Both sides of my family tree are filled with people who are overweight and obese.   It is a prevalent theme in my family heritage, and those who don’t measure up to these labels are the outliers.    I don’t know EVERY one of their stories, but I do know several- many of them maintain terrible diets, lead inactive lifestyles, have physical handicaps, unaddressed traumas, etc.   There are SO many factors outside of genetics that are contributing to the shape of my family tree.   Yes, genetics and DNA are real, but BMI is not an inherited trait.   Your height is an inherited trait.   Certain things about your skeletal frame influen...
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"Fat & Happy"

  I used to say this on the regular.   “I might be fat, but I’ll be fat & happy.”   I would say this before or after consuming a meal that I knew contained an exorbitant number of calories.    I would say this while savoring every bite of my ColdStone ice cream filled with mix-ins.   I would say this while enjoying fried avocados, dipped in queso- two appetizers ordered before a full meal, usually for two people.   “I might be fat, but I’ll be fat & happy.” The statement was a lie that I believed, but the statement and the context together point to the truth.   I was looking for food to make me happy.   I was constantly expecting food to make my bad days good, and my good days better.   My response to every special occasion, and every disappointment , was food.   I don’t believe that this is entirely, 100% bad.   There is room and place for food to contribute to life.   But there is a very faint line that I h...
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"That's Bad Stewardship" - Part 2

 TTTT:  Spending the extra money to eat healthy is bad stewardship. Truth:   Eating healthy isn’t prohibitively expensive.      Once upon a time, my grocery cart would be filled with frozen pizzas, the blue box macaroni dinner, refrigerated cans of biscuits, processed cheese, lunch meat and bread.   I believed that I was eating “cheap,” because it was what I had to do to save money.   I believed that was the diet we could afford.   It is true, if you live off of rice and beans or instant ramen noodles- then eating healthy is relatively expensive.   But most of us are not living off of rice and beans and the economics of eating healthy aren’t as dramatic as you would think.   Here’s why… ¨ If you’re eating healthy, you’re going to consume a smaller volume of food.   With each bite, you get more nutritional bang for your buck and thereby, you need less of it.   That saves you money. ¨ Chips, cereal, soda, and m...
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"That's Bad Stewardship." - Part 1

 TTTT: I believed that I was too committed to being a good steward of our finances to “waste” money on a gym membership. The Truth:   Money wasn’t preventing me from getting active.   Keep reading to learn more about how accessible an active lifestyle really is.   I used to say, “I don’t want to be one of those people.”   “Those” people who pay for a gym membership.   I didn’t like the identity that I believed came along with it.   I equated a gym membership with being vain and self-absorbed.   I convinced myself that NOT having a gym membership was proof of my Christian values and prioritizing others with my finances.   ANNND I used this as justification for why I didn’t work out.   Some of you are cringing with concerns about the bad theology referenced above.   It is bad, but that’s a blog post for a different day.   Today’s post is about removing the mental barriers that we build to prevent us from working out. ...
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"That's Not Me"

 My internal dialogue was something like this... “I don’t look like THAAAT.” “That’s not me.” Do you see the articulation?   I wasn’t just expressing disapproval.   I didn’t just say, “I don’t like that picture of me.”   I was so embarrassed by the photos, that I was doing everything I could to discredit them .   I was dismissing concrete evidence.   I was denying reality. Caveat 1: If you’re looking at photos of yourself and your thoughts are something like, “I look ugly.” Then, you’re facing a different battle- that’s not about your weight.   Caveat 2: If you’re looking at photos of yourself and the thoughts are things like, “oh, that’s a bad angle,” or “oh, I had an awkward face”- then it’s possible that you’re just not photogenic. But if you’re saying something to convince yourself that the picture is not an accurate representation of you or your health , then please know, you’re not alone.   I’ve been there.   Also, ple...
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"I'm Big-Boned"

  “I’m big-boned.” I used to say this.  I don’t know when or where I learned this phrase, but I know I didn’t use it when I was kid.  I never heard a medical professional describe me as big-boned.  But as I became unhappy with my weight and appearance, this phrase became something that I kept repeating. In truth, I’m not big-boned.  Maybe you are.  But that’s not the point. Our skeletal mass accounts for 12-15% of our total body mass.  Being big-boned adds an extra 5 to 10 pounds.  (that's all) Not only that, but think about it...  Being big-boned shows up in an x-ray, not a traditional photo. You can keep describing yourself as big-boned.  You CAN keep pointing to something that you cannot change and use it to console yourself about your health.  OR you can start focusing on the things that you can control - your diet, your lifestyle, your mental & emotional health. I described myself as big-boned more times...
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