Weight Loss vs. Life Gain

Yesterday I read a blog post by Isabeau Miller talking about her struggles with weight, and she used this line of "weight loss vs. life gain."  It really struck me, and started me thinking about what has changed in my life since I really began fighting this battle?  I thought I'd share a few things that have happened around our house since October, when this all began:

• My husband is so attentive!  He has told me numerous times that it isn't the physical part of the weight loss that is important to him.  What he's attracted to is my confidence in who I am in Christ.  This point is so very important because before I just stumbled around doubting myself in so many areas, struggling to believe I had any worth.  But since I began this journey and began it with Christ as my focus and seeing my body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, it has made all the difference in the world!

• I am much more alert.  Not just to details, but I actually feel like I'm seeing the world in a whole new light.  There is less "fog" in my vision...not literally, but I have so much more clarity.  There is a new sense of being present, if that makes sense.
• Financially, we're saving money by eating at home.  I used to be a "drive-thru Sue," as one of my friends called it! :)  There were weeks that we easily spent $50 collectively eating out, which is a ridiculous waste of money.  This change has benefited us because as we all know, eating healthy costs more money, but since we're "saving" by eating at home, we now have that money to put with the original grocery budget and it isn't hurting the pocketbook like I originally thought it would.

• My willpower has increased.  This is not of my own doing.  It has come directly from the help of the Lord, but each meal, each snack, each day that I get through without making the wrong choices puts that much more determination in my "tank" to keep making the correct decisions.  Last night my son asked if something was going to bother me if he purchased it and ate it in front of me and I said no.  His question was, "So, you've been without it for so long that you aren't even tempted by it?"  I'm not sure about "not even tempted," but I am finding out that the longer I've left carbs and sugar out of my body, the less cravings I have had for them.  But don't lock me into the local Krispy Kreme to see if I could last!  That might be too much.

So, those are just a few things, right off the top of my head, that I feel I have gained in my life from walking through this process.  It isn't over.  I'm in a constant battle that will never end.  There is NO "finish line" in this race, except the one that ends at my tombstone!  I have come to grips with the fact that this is something I will struggle with until my dying breath.  But I'm learning to embrace it; to revel in the concept that THIS is the struggle that God has chosen for me.  It's what it takes to keep me close to His side, to run to Him, to trust Him...this is OUR thing, me and God. 

And in THAT, there's LIFE GAIN!