The Neverending Story

Life is a story. A journey. One that never ends. We all have a beginning, one that was sparked into being by our Creator God. Along this journey there are many twists, turns, bumps, dips, scrapes, tears, and smiles. No one has an easy life. It isn't part of humanity, our fallen state...the chaos of sin and selfishness lead to pain and sorrow and the Cross of Christ points to joy everlasting and peace that surpasses understanding. I am so thankful for that. So, after cancer when my blood pressure meds quit working and were making my heartrate stay so low I could barely go to the basement and back up without feeling like I had just climbed Everest I had to see a cardiologist. I have been lamenting my weight since it became a problem around puberty. He told me let's get past breast cancer then you need to focus on your weight. One battle at a time. We came out on the other side weighing the same. He then told me it was time. Six months later after being forced into menopause by chemo I still weighed the same and his kind demeanor shifted slightly to that of serious scolding. The underlying message was, you have two beautiful children that need you, you just dodged the cancer bullet...are you going to let obesity take you out? I left his office knowing I had six months to get a plan in motion. Amazing how fast six months goes. I had been trolling the Trim Healthy Mama facebook page for months. Seeing their posts, their struggles, their victories. All totally normal mamas. My closest friend here moved out of state and her struggle with weight is real too. She was at the end of her rope as I was just finding the beginning of a new rope...one that I thought I could finally maintain a hold on...Trim Healthy Mama (THM). I told her about it and suggested we do this together long distance. She said she would think about it. The next day someone else told her about it. She said, let's do this thing. I cancelled my dr appointment to give myself a little more time before I had to see him to see if I could make a dent, thinking in 4 months I should have some noteable progress and he will be pleased. I borrowed the THM cookbook from a friend because I had it in my mind that all of the recipes called for unusual and special ingredients. To my delight they have tons of recipes marked NSI...No Special Ingredients. I chose a handful and fixed them for the family, who gave them their stamp of approval. I bought the cookbook and the plan book and began to dabble in it over the holidays committing to do a hard start on Jan. 1. In two weeks I lost five pounds just fooling around and in another two weeks committed I have lost another five pounds. Ten pounds in just under a month. Hey, I will take that. I have lost 4 inches off my belly and another 3 off my chest...but because of my reconstruction, that is really back fat! Listen...i will most defintely take THAT! I am no where near where I need to be...but I am ten pounds closer. I am not near as tired as I was and the pain in my feet brought on by chemo and age has decreased significantly. I am back in my pre chemo jeans and my post chemo jeans have turned into work jeans bc they are so baggy they are ridiculous. This is just a glimpse from where I currently stand on this journey. I hope to blog about how I arrived here and share glimpses of what I can see in the distance. I feel like I have finally found a lifestyle of eating I can live with, that makes sense, that is reasonable and doable. It isn't painful. I am not hungry. Yes there is sacrifice, but it is not harsh. No food police. Only freedom. It's for freedoom that we have been set free!