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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 ...
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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...
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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...
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"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...
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Health & Leadership

 TTTT: “My physical health doesn’t affect my ability to lead others.” Truth: ‘Good leadership starts with leading yourself well and then letting that overflow into the lives of others.’  ...paraphrased from Steven Furtick I once believed there was a dichotomy separating my leadership and my physical health.  I was reading leadership books and having lots of leadership conversations.  I served as a volunteer leading the children’s ministry at my church.  I was young.  I made lots of mistakes and I did a few things well.  I knew my physical health was lacking, but I didn’t believe that it had any impact on my leadership.   I thought- ‘if it isn’t important to me, why should it be important to anyone else?’   As I have improved my health year over year, I have been shocked by how much my physical health is connected to every other component of health.     It sounds crazy until you experience it for yourself, but I can’t tell you ...
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"Unrealistic Standard"

“The ideal weight range for my height is an unrealistic standard for me.” Truth:  Your mindset is what needs to be adjusted, not the standard.   I used to say this one A LOT!  I would look at those numbers and it felt like they were on a completely different planet.  At one point, I was 100 pounds heavier than the bottom number for my height, almost double the “recommended” size.  It’s no surprise that those numbers felt impossible.  I had a long list of reasons why those numbers were unrealistic (my weight in high school, my athletic build, prescriptions I was taking, etc.).  There are a LOT of factors that affect your weight.  That is real.  ANNND that is why the recommended weight is given as a weight range , not a singular number. The range accounts for the variables and factors.  Don’t be confused, I’m not dismissing your list.  Even today, as a “healthy weight” individual, I still have a list of variables and factors ...
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"Diets don't work for me."

  TTTT: “Diets don’t work for me.” Truth:   Diets don’t work for anyone, lifestyle changes do.   I don’t recall ever saying this one out loud.   I reserved this one exclusively for the internal dialogue because, even back then, I knew it was a lie .   Verbally lying to someone else is a sin, but somehow lying to myself felt less dramatic.   I told myself that diets (plural) didn’t work for me, but I had made a respectable effort on only one (singular) diet.   It WAS working.   …It was also working for Matt (my husband).   It worked better for him than it did for me.   I fell victim to the comparison trap and I quit. I said it didn’t work for me.   But it did work.   It worked better for him, and I used the relative comparison to convince myself that it wasn’t working for me . Many of us are susceptible to this.   Maybe it is working but it’s not working as well for us as it did for someone else.   Or, m...
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