Absolute.

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To Him Who Is Able

TTTT: 155 pounds is the lightest I will get. Truth: God “is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20) I put 155 in the Facebook post, but the truth is, this number has changed many times. Back when I was over 200 pounds, the 150’s sounded like a pipe dream. When I finally started losing weight, I thought 155 was the lightest I would get. I remember my disbelief when I saw the 140’s on the scale. Later, I broke that threshold as well. The lightest I ever weighed in Minnesota was 135. … TWENTY pounds less than what I thought my dream weight was! Fast forward a few years, I put a lot of weight back on after moving to Texas (details in other posts). I refocused and started dropping the pounds again. I told myself “145 is the lightest I will get”- things were different, I had more muscles, I was older, etc., etc. I hit 145 and bought new clothes to celebrate. I had momen...

I'm An Athlete

TTTT: “I'm an athlete. There’s a lot of muscle in here.” Truth: Muscles don’t hide. “I’m an athlete, I’m supposed to have a stocky build. And there’s a lot of muscle in here.” I used to tell myself this as I was buying larger and larger clothing sizes. The truth is, I was an athlete. Before the days of being overweight, I was a multi-sport athlete. But during my season of obesity, I couldn’t do a 20-minute at-home workout video without pausing it… multiple times. Being an athlete was still part of my identity , but it wasn’t part of my reality or my lifestyle. Being an athlete is tied to physical activity AND physical appearance. But the connection to physical appearance doesn’t match what I was describing. Yes, it’s true, muscle weighs more than fat. But you know what else is true? Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat. So “a lot of muscle in here” might justify what you see on the scale, but it ...

3 Meals a Day

It started in elementary school. I learned from a presentation that I was supposed to have 3 meals a day and I was convinced. I began fighting for that normal rhythm as a child. In my mind, my mom was obligated to provide me with 3 square meals a day and I even argued that a sandwich counted as a snack, not a meal. 25 years later, not much had changed. I remember when Matt (my husband) first brought up intermittent fasting to me. He was sharing his YouTube education, and I was NOT impressed. I dismissed it quickly with confidence that I was supposed to have three meals a day. That is what is “healthy.” The average American has 11 eating events in a day, stretched over the course of 15 hours. Think that over. That’s one hour a day that you’re not eating, and about 8 snacks a day. Maybe you don’t look like the average American. But the statistic alone, should be alarming for all of us, because this IS impacting ...

Broken Scale

“That number can’t be right. It isn’t right. I’m sure.” “Something is wrong with the scale.” These are thoughts that came to my mind each time the scale reported a number to me that sounded astronomically high. I remember once anticipating a doctor’s appointment. I was thinking about how I knew the scale at home was wrong and I was looking forward to getting an ACCURATE weight. I went to the doctor’s appointment and weighed even more. I justified it by pointing to my breakfast, clothes, shoes, etc. AND… I used the variation in the two different numbers to ascribe them both as unreliable . I was in such complete denial about my health I was willing to dismiss data, numbers, and hard facts. Maybe that’s where you are today. If you find yourself arguing with scale, weighing multiple times because you’re sure the first number was wrong, or throwing out the number altogether, please know, I’ve been the...

Forever Curved

“I’ve always had these curves and I always will.” I used to believe this. But when I said “always,” that wasn’t true. I wasn’t overweight as a child. Maybe you were, but I would still be willing to bet you- your body can change . It’s kind of a double-edged sword for women. In general, when we lose weight, the butt and boobs are the first things to go. You’ll notice that some of your curves are missing and you might not be thrilled about those. And then as you continue in your health journey, you’ll find yourself frustrated because the belly fat seems to be the last thing to go. For men, it seems to be the opposite. The dad bod/beer belly is the first thing to show the difference. So, that makes it even more frustrating if your weight loss partner is your husband. [Sidenote: Your belly is getting smaller, but because everything else is getting smaller, it is hard to monitor it accurately. If you know yo...

"Sugar is not a drug."

TTTT: “Sugar is not a drug.” Truth: If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's probably a duck. Or in this case, a drug. I can picture it like it was yesterday. I remember the scene perfectly. The first time I ever heard someone compare sugar to a drug. I was approaching 200 pounds and in a room full of people of similar and larger sizes. …And stilllll oblivious to the fact that this was an effort to get me (and others) to think critically about what we were eating. He spoke of his own efforts to avoid added sugars. He told “folklore” of how processed sugar was originally kept under lock and key. I didn’t think he was lying, but I thought he was seriously misguided. I compared the lock and key story to prohibition and dismissed both as mistakes. (Alcohol not addressed in this post, TMTR for sure!) About 3 years later, I did my first round of Whole30 . Whole30 allows ZERO sugars- natura...