Health Update – July, Month 1

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After months of not even trying to look after my health, I started July with some new determination to do things differently. As someone who is both obese and diabetic, taking better care of myself needs to become a priority. My best win was remembering to actually prep my food for the week on Sunday afternoons. It has made such a HUGE difference in how I eat during the week. Did you know that not only salads can be made in a jar, but overnight oatmeal and shakes? They will all keep for at least a week and sometimes longer. I generally make a salad-in-a-jar for every week day and then make either an overnight oatmeal or a protein shake for every breakfast. For the shakes, I put in all the ingredients except the ice, then add that in the morning and blend away.

This prepping saves me both time and brain power, as I don’t have to figure out what I am eating each morning. I also prepped some Bust a Myth Banana Cake from the Trim Healthy Mama cookbook, and a couple of desserts.

Another help for me was a trial of the Noom app. As a list person, I really liked Noom. It has daily checklists, encouragement, goal setting, and best of all, it was helping me to focus on the things I knew I should be doing. At the end of the two-week trial I had to weigh one goal, losing weight, against another, sticking to our budget. It was a close call, but I decided to stick to the budget. If I can find a month to fit Noom in, I will consider it again. So I am back to trying to better my health without that accountability and it is going fairly well.

Successes

First, my weight. I lost 6 pounds! While less than the ten pounds I was wishing for, it is better than the nothing or weight gain I had been experiencing since February. Without the Noom app, I am not as consistent with recording my food, there was just something about their color-coding that was motivating. However, I do want to mention that the color-coding is not real THM (Trim Healthy Mama) friendly, since it counts all fats in the red (or limit) category.

But the best news is that my blood sugar readings are the lowest they have been in years. Still on the same medication, just watching my diet. And the numbers are good! I am so excited by this. It gives me the impetus to keep on with the plan.

Trim Healthy Mama

I started using THM a couple of years ago, with good success for my weight and health. But then I added in a few more “Cross-overs”, that then devolved into cheats, that then devolved into my going totally off plan. My hardest challenge with THM is it does take time to prep meals, there are a limited number of grab and go snacks available at stores, and the fact that my family has no intention of eating this way. In the past, I let all these challenges derail what I was doing.

But I decided to try again in July. My prepped meals are THM, and most of my snacks are as well. I still tend to eat whatever the family is eating for dinner, but I try to make mine as close to THM friendly as possible without making a totally separate meal. My next step will be to make some THM dinners ahead and have them ready in the freezer for my meals.

Cravings

(Note: the links in this post are affiliate links, and I will be compensated when you purchase by clicking on my link.)

Also at the beginning of July, I started reading Made to Crave: Satisfying your deepest desires with God, not food by Lysa Terkeurst. This book challenged me to see my struggles with food as having a spiritual component. I came to realize that while God was providing me a way out of my temptations, I was not willing to take it. Like a toddler I scream, “But I want it!!”

So now I see that my health is a battleground for my soul. Who do I want to worship? This is a far bigger question than am I losing weight, or even if my glucose readings are in a healthy range.

“Everything is permissible to me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” 1 Corinthians 6:12.NIV

When I open a party sized bag of peanut butter M & Ms and cannot stop until the bag is mostly empty, I am mastered. So my option right now is I am not buying the “treat” because I cannot handle it. Maybe someday I will, but not now. I am avoiding sugar and flour, not because they are evil, but because I cannot handle them. Realizing my limitations was my second step for July.

Mental Health

On the mental front, my depression was controlled this month, with only a couple of brief dips. Keeping my brain active seems to help. So I have a few reading challenges going. One is to read 100 books this year. I just finished Radical: Taking back your faith from the American dream by David Platt. which I found challenging and convicting. I am not sure that I agree with everything in the book, but it is pushing me to consider how I am following Jesus.

How is the typical American lifestyle, complete with debt, keeping me from participating in the Great Commission? I need to prayerfully clean up our finances so that we are freed up to give more.  I knew our debt was a problem, but I has avoided thinking about it as a spiritual issue.

Also, I am committing to praying for all the nations of the world over the course of the next 12 months. Where will that lead? I am not sure. I have been thinking about going on a missions trip for a while, so as I pray I am going to be open to God’s leading in this area as well.

Is God challenging you in some special way right now?

Coming Up Next

For August, I will be continuing to prep my meals for the week on Sunday afternoons. I do need to do some planning for the weekends, because those have proven challenging. Somehow being off my work schedule and having tons of off-plan food available is more temptation than I am good with right now.

I also need to plan more exercise. While I have a fit-bit, I am not challenging myself to get my steps in. Working in an office in front of a computer all day does not lend itself to walking a lot, but I need to make myself move [not a huge fan of exercise right now]. So my goal for August is to work up to 8000 steps per day. I will need to increase my steps about 1000 per week to meet this goal, so it will be challenging, yet doable.

The easiest part of my goal will be to keep reading. I have read 74 books so far this year of various kinds, so I am ahead of schedule. I’ll let you know the best ones I read.

What are you doing to improve your health this month?