Category Archives: b. Training Tuesday

Training Tuesday: 1 mile, stopping only if I keel over and die

b. Training Tuesday

I have been in a major funk… a major no exercising, eating out of control, no Bible reading, messy, selfish, lazy, uninspired, grumpy funk.  But today the sun was shining and inexplicably I decided to run. It had been way too long since my last run so I knew it would not be pretty.  But I decided that I had to “run” at least a mile – that the only way I would stop running before I hit the mile mark was if I keeled over and died.

Well I hit the mile mark and hadn’t died, so I said to myself that I could definitely do 2 miles and the only way I’d stop was if I keeled over and died.  I didn’t die.  Instead as I hit the 2 mile mark, I decided I could do 3 miles and the only way I’d stop was if I keeled over and died.  Well, I’m proud to say that with my guilty pleasure song Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” blaring I passed the 3 mile mark today.  I know you are probably thinking “big deal, you ran 3 miles before” but it is a big deal.  I have been so unfaithful to my running and eating that the fact that I could run and actually did run a mile was miraculous too me – let alone 3.

As I was running, I started making all sorts of other mental goals of things that I should just do and the only reason to stop working towards is if I keel over and die.  Here’s probably the biggest one on my list:

  1. Be in single digit size clothes by the time I turn 40 (346 days away!)  I spent my teens, 20s, and 30s in double digit size clothes… I’d rather not spend the next 4 decades the same way.
So for today, I’m thankful for the sun shining and motivating me to get out and run.  I’m thankful I didn’t keel over and die, but went beyond what I originally thought I’d be able to do.  For tomorrow, I’m looking for accountability to keep running and eating healthy so that next year this time, my tiny hiny can be sitting here in my single digit clothes typing about something inspiring…

❤Becki, imperfect runner

Do you have a do unless you keel over and die goal?  I’d love to hear about it!  On a much less important note, but maybe more fun note… do you have a guilty pleasure song – what  is it?

 

Training Tuesday: Back on the wagon…

b. Training Tuesday

Ok, so it’s January 3rd, the kids are back in school and I know it’s time to get back on the eating right / exercising / blogging wagon that I’ve fallen hard off of!  Problem is yesterday I started reading a really good book, The Hunger Games, and I stayed up late last night and this morning came way too soon.  I babysat this morning and was able to steal a couple chapters in while the kids all played.  I took my youngest to kindergarten with the intention of coming home, typing the blog, doing some quick cleaning and going for a run before I picked him up.  Again, the problem is the book… I dropped him off, came home and heated up some soup that I made last week in my new stock pot and curled up on the couch with the book.  Then I made a cup of coffee and ate 2 of the Christmas cookies that are still lingering while finishing the book.  And now, even while I type this, I’m contemplating ordering the 2nd book for the kindle and ditching the cleaning or run that I’m still hoping to get in before I have to pick son up at school.

Somehow I’m going to will myself to wait to order the book until at least after my meeting tonight.  And then I may need to set some parameters into my reading time… why didn’t I read this last week instead of rereading the Twilight books?

So like I said earlier… I’m hoping to get back on the wagon.  My scale is broken, but my clothes are telling me the sad story as well as my bloated face in the holiday pictures.  Not sure the full extent of damage… not sure that I want to know… I can’t change where I am today, but I’m hoping to change where I’ll be in a few months.  One of my plans is to be intentional about my Bible reading.  I know many of you may not be able to relate, but I find that when I’m rooted in God’s word, I take better care of myself.  So I have 2 reading plans.  The first one is to read through the Bible in Chronological order (read through in order the events happened) in one year.  This is something my small group from church has committed to do together.  (Click here for Bible Reading Plan) The second is a 3 month reading of Ephesians.  (The plan can be found here.)  I got the second idea from Women Living Well’s gentleness challenge for mothers who want to learn to yell less.

So that’s what I’m up to… I now have 45 minutes before I have to leave to get my son… will I put away laundry and clean, run, read the Bible, or read book 2 of Hunger Games… hmmm??????  I know I should do 1 of the first 3, but…

♥Becki

Training Tuesday: The family that runs together

b. Training Tuesday

We did it!  Instead of loafing around Saturday morning with the kids watching TV and Jeff and I catching up on sleep, we woke to the 7:10 alarm and laced and velcroed up our sneakers.  My almost 11-year-old was surprisingly excited – you would have thought it was Christmas morning.  We hopped in the car ready for our adventure.  We got to the park, registered and put racing bibs on.  And then we stood in the cold and waited.  Perhaps not wearing coats wasn’t the best idea… but we knew we wouldn’t need them soon.

When it was time, we headed to the starting line.  Knowing we weren’t the fastest, but with plans on running more than walking, we went to the middle of the line.  Next thing we knew the mass of people was moving – we didn’t hear any starting gun.  And so we started going too.  My whole family, all 5 of us, were running in a 5k.   I replaced my goal of improving my 5k time with getting everyone across the finish line.  Through it all, I was reminded of some of the most important lessons I’ve learned about exercise and training.

My 5-year-old did not want to do it.  In our awesome parenting, (said dripping with sarcasm) we did not give him a choice.  And soon into the race, he was crying.  I wonder what it must have felt like… a whole mass of people running and you can’t see anything but the butts of those in front of you.  The start of the race was all uphill and those little legs really had to move.  He was holding onto my hand as he ran.  When the crowd thinned out and we could slow down, the tears began.  Uh oh… what did I do?  Was this OK?  Could he do it?  Should we stop?

Not knowing what to do, I asked him if he wanted to quit.  “No,” he said through tears.  So we kept going.  But then he said he was tired so I pointed to a balloon (the course was lined with balloons) and said, “What if I carry you to that balloon?”  He liked that idea.  So I picked him up.  While I was holding him, he saw all the people that were behind us.  It completely surprised him that he was beating that many people.  This got him a little excited and when I put him down, he started running.  Knowing he wouldn’t be able to run too long, we picked a balloon that we would run to and then we’d take a break and walk for a little.  Then when we were ready we’d start running again until we reached another balloon.  Those little legs worked so hard.  But he really got into it.  The “workers” along the way cheered for him, “Awesome job Flyers guy!”  (He was wearing a flyers sweatsuit.)  It was an “out and back” course so he loved when he saw his dad and brothers running on their way back.   Then he was excited to reach the turnaround himself.  He turned down the cups of water that were being held out and laughed at the boy holding and offering a chunk of snow.   We rotated the walking and the running, with 2 more carries about the distance of home plate to first base.  Of course, the highlight was running through the finish line!  It was probably the most physically difficult thing he’s done.  But he did it – in 55 minutes!  And boy was he proud of himself.  He loved seeing his bib tear off on the finisher’s board.  He loved telling people about it.  There was absolutely no part of him that wanted to do it – but now he’s so glad he did and wants to do it again.  That’s always how I feel about any type of exercise – I never want to do it, and may feel like crying during it, but I’m always proud of myself and glad I did it when I’m done!

My 7-year-old didn’t express too much emotion before the race, so I had no idea how he was feeling except that he was freezing.  His lips were actually blue (I’m such an awesome mom, aren’t I?).  So anyway, I think he was thankful when the race started so he could actually get moving!  My husband, Jeff, ran with him and not me so I can’t go into as much detail.  But, it sounds like Bryan ran a pretty solid race.  He controlled their pace.  He stopped to walk a few times.  And apparently he kicked it into a faster gear on the final leg of the race.  A friend of mine who was running said that towards the end she was being passed by a little kid and laughed that it was him.  (He ended up beating her.)

He finished the race in 33 minutes.  He was all smiles when I saw him.  He also was really proud of himself.  At the awards ceremony he was really hoping to hear his name called even though we told him that he wasn’t going to win anything.  The age group he was in was under 18 – so definitely tough competition.  There were a lot of kids running though, and as his mom, I really wish they would have had a 12 and under category because he would have come in 3rd if they did.  But, they didn’t and so he didn’t get an award.  But he’s still proud of himself.  He ran his own race, not worrying about anyone else’s pace.  He ran a steady race and then to push himself he sped up.  His focus was on doing the best he could, it didn’t earn him an award… but that disappointment was short lived.

My almost 11-year-old was the one I was most worried about finishing.  He describes himself as an “indoor kid” and would much rather be playing video games than outside running around.  Back in the summer he decided that he was going to run this, but was not faithful to his training.  I had no idea how we was going to do, but I figured he’d end up walking most of the way.  Well, like I said, he was the most excited.  The race started and he was off.  For the first mile he was beating all of us, but then Jeff and my 7-year-old caught him and then passed him.  Then he spent the rest of the race trying to catch up to them… but couldn’t.  He finished the race with an impressive time of 41 minutes.  Considering his lack of training, I’m amazed.  But he’s angry, embarrassed, humiliated because his little brother beat him.

So instead of being proud of himself and happy that he actually did it, he was mad.  He didn’t want to talk about the race.  He didn’t want his brother to talk about the race.  He’s not in as good of shape as he wants to be, and the fact that his little brother beat him by 8 minutes showed that.  If his brother hadn’t beat him, instead of being upset about the shape he’s in, he would have been proud of himself for doing it.  But since he had someone to compare to, he didn’t measure up.  I’ve done that.  But I’m learning more and more when trying to get into shape, you have to compete against yourself not others.  Thankfully after his anger settled down, I think he understood that because instead of saying, “I’m never doing that again,” he said, “The next time I run a 5k, I’d rather not have my brothers run it too.”  We smiled, breathed a sigh of relief that he wanted to do it again, and agreed.  He plans on training to beat his time.

So when you’re training, remember: 1.  You may not want to run/swim/turbo-kick/cycle (whatever it is you do).  You might actually cry during it.  But you’ll be glad you did it and proud of yourself for it.  2.  Run your own race – find the pace that works for you and then push yourself to go even faster / longer.  3.  Compete against yourself, work on improving your speed, the length of time you can do something, the distance you can go and don’t worry about what others are doing.

Beyond those lessons, I am so thankful for the experience.  The race was in remembrance and to raise money for my friend who passed away this summer – my friend who was a mom of 3 boys.  So the fact that I was able to run with my husband and 3 boys – that we were all healthy enough and strong enough to do it… I am so thankful for that.  Hope you enjoyed a (lengthy – sorry about that) glimpse of my Saturday, and hope that it encourages you in some way.

♥Becki

 

 

Wednesday’s Wisdom from the Word: God’s food

a. Mothering Monday, b. Training Tuesday, c. Wednesday's Wisdom from the Word

I’ll admit, there are many times that I’m sitting at church thinking about what we are going to have for lunch.  “Should we go out?  Should we go home to eat?  What do we have?  Do we have enough eggs to make eggs or pancakes?  I think we have hot dogs, maybe we could do that.  No, let’s just go out.  Where should we go?  I wonder what we should have for dinner.  If we go out for lunch, we definitely need to eat dinner at home.  Maybe we could have the hot dogs for dinner.”  Of course this internal conversation is going on while the pastor is teaching a lesson from the Bible.  A lesson that he has prayed about.  A lesson that he spent time preparing.  A lesson that God made sure I got out of bed, my family dressed, and at church to hear.  And my mind is on food.

“My food,” said Jesus,”is to do the will of Him who sent me to finish His work.”  -John 4:34

When Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, the one who had several husbands and was currently with a man who was not her husband, the disciples came up to them.  They couldn’t understand why Jesus would be talking to this Samaritan (Samaritan’s were half-breed Jews who were considered unworthy and repulsive to the Jews) woman (at the time, rabbis didn’t talk to women without their husbands there).  But they didn’t ask Jesus why He was talking to her.  Instead they tried to change the subject.  “Rabbi, eat something.” His reply was, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me to finish His work.”  My translation, “How can I even think of food when people need me, when people need to know God?”

Jesus was saying that He got his nourishment from his service.  Food wasn’t even on his mind.  The woman by the way became a follower of Jesus, she went and told others about Jesus.  “Many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony.”  To read the whole account in John 4, click here.

As someone whose mind always seems to be on food, this verse really stuck out to me.  Whether I am eating “correctly” or not, if my mind is more on food than it is on God and the work God has for me, then there is a problem.  So what do I do to get my mind off of food and onto God?  The only way I know how is to make sure I’m spending time in the Bible and praying.  And when my mind starts drifting to food when it shouldn’t, I need to pray and ask God to take control of my thoughts.  I need to be purposeful in focusing my thoughts on God and not on food.  Obviously, I have not yet achieved this, I’m still pressing on in the process.  I can’t wait for the day, that I can write about this in a past tense instead of a present one!

I also am more and more realizing that while I’m training myself to focus my thoughts on God, I need to be training my boys as well.  Just as I need more than a Sunday morning sermon to grow in my relationship with Jesus, my boys do too.  So I can’t expect their Sunday school class to be enough to foster that growth.  Over the summer, we read as a family a great book:

Basically it was a book with all the “popular” stories from the Bible from Genesis through Revelation.  Every story though ended pointing back to Jesus.  As an adult, I enjoyed it and thought it did a really good job of tying the Bible together.  My boys loved the stories, the pictures and talking about it.

Currently, we are doing daily devotions from this book:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are great, because they are quick, written for children, have “fill in the blank” prayers and cover a variety of topics.  Even though it’s for younger kids, my 5, 7, and almost 11-year olds enjoy it.  My 7-year-old loves to then take the suggested Bible verse, look it up in his Bible and read it to us.  I love that he’s learning how to find books, chapters, and verses in the Bible, that he’s reading, and that he’s reading God’s word.  He loves the Bible that he uses, Hands-On Bible.

It’s the full Bible with a lot of fun, practical applications to make the Bible real and accessible for children.  And I think that’s important, after all, Jesus did say:

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” -Matthew 19:14

Which, by the way is a Bible verse that I memorized through Steve Green’s children’s Bible verse memory songs:

Click on the picture of the CD to go to Amazon to preview it.

So as I’m learning to be in God’s word everyday and make my food the same as Jesus’ food, to do the will of God, I am trying to be purposeful in feeding my children that same food.  What are you feeding your children?

♥Becki

P.S. Sorry I didn’t post on Monday or Tuesday.  Monday was a busy, busy day and Tuesday was a sick day – I actually took 3 naps and then was still able to sleep through the night!  I must have been really run down.  So today’s post actually was a combination of Mothering Monday, Training Tuesday, and Wednesday’s Wisdom from the Word.

Thanks for reading!  And if you think any of your friends would enjoy reading, feel free to click on the share buttons below!  Have a great day feasting on God’s food.

Training Tuesday: The threshold

b. Training Tuesday

I did it!  I “ran” 3 miles for the first time since early July.  As usual, I use the term run very loosely, because my time for 3 miles was 46 minutes, which is over a 15 minute mile, but I didn’t stop to walk to take any breaks and I made it.  I’m pretty sure mentally the first mile was the toughest and I’m also pretty sure I could have run another mile when I was done, so I know I can push myself harder… but really with the way I’ve been slacking, it feels fabulous to know I can still “run” 3 miles.

On the flip side, according to the scale this morning, I’m up .4 pounds from last Tuesday.  Really, that’s no surprise because I certainly wasn’t eating like I wanted to lose weight.  As I was running today, I sat down on my mental therapist couch and was trying to figure out what’s going on that I seem stuck.  Last Spring, I broke 2 weight barriers, the second one was one that I hadn’t broken for 7 years. Seven years ago when I finally got down to that weight, which was a pre-pregnancy weight from 3 years prior, I got pregnant again.  And once again, my weight rose.  So I was pretty excited to hit that mark 7 years later, but then I stopped losing.  I stagnated… not because it is a healthy weight for me.  It was more like mentally I felt like that was a threshold I am unable to pass.  It is almost as if I don’t think that I am someone who weighs less than that.  Am I scared?  I’m not sure.  But I know when I got there, I stopped and then slowly started gaining weight again.

So now, I’m 6 pounds above that mark.  And I ask myself, is this who I see myself as?  Someone destined to be overweight for her whole life?  Or am I a skinny girl in a fat girl’s body – needing to step out of it?  I think in the quietness of my heart, I see myself as someone destined to be overweight for her whole life.  But… I know that’s not how God sees me.    His word tells me over and over otherwise.  But am I willing to trust Him on that?  Am I willing to sacrifice and exercise and deny myself the indulgence of food in exchange for being who He has created me to be?  I know there are probably some of you who want to scream at me, “Just do it… join Weight Watchers and stick to it!”  Well to be honest, I want to scream that to myself also… but I know there is a strong heart issue going on that I need to work out with God.  Because when this weight comes off, I want it to be for good.

So forgive my whining, I’m getting off the mental therapist couch and for now going to celebrate that I did my run.  And truly I pray that in the next month, I’ll be rejoicing on a Tuesday post that I’m below that threshold again.  Thanks for reading and giving me a forum to voice my frustrations and to hold myself accountable.  Hope you are doing better than me on your own health journey!

♥Becki

Training Tuesday: Praying about eating

b. Training Tuesday

“God, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which You have called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)  Help me to forget all past failures or even achievements and to focus on pressing forward with You now.” (Beth Moore, Praying God’s Word)

Yesterday I talked about praying for my children and my home.  Today, continuing with prayer, I pulled out Beth Moore’s Praying God’s Word.  There’s a section in it on “Overcoming Food Related Strongholds.”  So today, in addition to praying for my boys and my home (with the candle reminder), I’m praying for my eating.  But instead of using the candle to remind me to pray about my eating, I’m doing it whenever I think about or see food… which means I’m pretty much praying all day long about it!

Some of the prayer was intentional, sit down with the Bible or Beth Moore’s book, but most of it was quick pleas: “God I’m going to eat lunch, help me to eat wisely and in moderation.”  “God, that candy looks so good, help take my mind off of it.” “God, I know it’s crappy for me and won’t satisfy me at all, but I really want to eat that macaroni and cheese, please help me to resist.”  “God, thank you that right now that piece of cake is absolutely no temptation for me.  But I know there will be times it is, help me to stand firm in temptation.”

And then there was also the prayer for mercy as I stood on the scale for the first time in a long time.  I offered a prayer of thanksgiving that my weight didn’t go back over a certain threshold that I celebrated last spring.  But I also had to offer a prayer of confession as my weight was showing the consequence of overeating and many “I’ll get on track tomorrow” days.  So today I’m praying for the discipline, the strength, and the fight to overcome this food related strong hold in my life.  And I’m choosing to make good decisions.  To help keep me accountable without going to weight watchers for a weigh-in, I’ve decided that I’ll use Training Tuesday’s blog posts as my check in with my weight fluctuations (preferably losses!).  I’m not ready to “own” my current weight here, but I’m hoping to lose 40 pounds by bathing suit weather.

So thanks for giving me an outlet to work through this battle and place to hold me accountable.  If you are currently trying to lose weight, or inches, or sizes or however you measure, or know you need to gain weight or stop bingeing and purging or whatever your food related battle, feel free to join me and use Tuesday’s comment section as a place to check in and hold yourself accountable as well.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls down and has no one to help him up!” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12)

♥Becki, imperfect weight loss journeyer

Training Tuesday: Excuses and discipline

b. Training Tuesday

Ok, today I traded a run for a nap… but I think I would have felt better if I did the run.  But my oldest son has been throwing up each of the past 3 nights, so I haven’t been sleeping well at night.  I couldn’t run yesterday because I had a meeting in the morning and then had to stay home with my sick son and get caught up on laundry.  And then today I had a morning meeting again, and then had to stay home with my sick son again, and I had to wait for the guy to come clean our boiler and I fell asleep waiting… and basically yesterday and today have been full of excuses why I couldn’t run.  Valid excuses, but still – excuses.

So, I need to figure out how to keep with the training when life gets in the way.  I know I should have a workout planned that I can do at home.  I know I should get to bed earlier so I can wake up at the crack of dawn and exercise.  I know all these things that I should do, but knowing and doing are different things.  My friend Jen, who by the way lost 85 pounds recently, posted a photo from MotivateHopeStrength on Facebook:

Sounds like I need a little discipline, OK a lot of discipline in my life.  So thank you, Jen for being inspiring and I think as soon as Jeff gets home, I’ll have to tell him I’m going for a run… I really don’t want to, I mean really, really, really don’t want to, but I also really, really, really don’t want to be overweight…  which don’t I want more?

♥Becki

 

Mothering Monday / Training Tuesday: School lunch

a. Mothering Monday, b. Training Tuesday

Since I didn’t post yesterday on Mothering Monday, I’m combining it with Training Tuesday… mothering and nutrition…

Growing up, I remember my mom giving me a dollar every morning for lunch.  I’d get to school, and every teacher had a different way for ordering whether you were going to get the hot or cold lunch and white or chocolate milk.  For one of the years, I can remember putting rectangle sheets of colored paper (brown for chocolate milk, white for white milk, blue for cold lunch, red for hot lunch) into a pocket with my name on it, all stapled to a bulletin board outside the classroom.  I’m pretty sure I always ordered the hot lunch with chocolate milk.  I remember the cold lunch being a disgusting looking triple-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut diagonally, stacked together to form a tall triangle and wrapped in saran wrap.  I remember the jello with the little pieces of unidentified fruit in them.  Canned peaches or pears constituted the fruit selection.  I remember learning to fill my milk carton with my untouched green beans because Mrs. Evans wouldn’t let you take your tray back if you didn’t eat your vegetables too.  I’m pretty sure the lunch used to be 70 cents but I don’t remember ever giving my mom the change.  Pretzel day was Wednesday and they cost 10 cents and ice cream day was Friday and that cost a quarter or 30 cents for the nutty buddy ice cream cone.  We didn’t have a snack at school, but I never remember being hungry during the day.

Now, 30ish years later, I’m sending my boys off to school mostly with their packed insulated lunch boxes.  But of course, there’s days when I woke up too late to pack the lunch or days that they choose to buy lunch.  But oh how the elementary school cafeteria has changed.  Lunch is now $2.45.  You can still pay cash, but the kids all have accounts that you are asked to send cash or checks in with large amounts of money so that the kids have an endless supply of funds.  The kids have account numbers that they use to pay for their purchase.  If you happen to let the account run out of money, they still let your child purchase food (because they wouldn’t want your child to go hungry…) and your account has a negative balance.  You then get an annoying automated phone call and email telling you to add funds every day until you do.  (Can you tell that I have experience with this?)  This bugs me for several reasons: <<stepping on soap box>> 1. The children are learning all about a cashless society living on credit when they don’t have enough to pay for something.  (Huge problem today in our society)  2.  The children can buy something without my permission or consent.  3. No one is assisting the children in making smart decisions.

It’s not just how you pay that has changed in the elementary school cafeteria, but the choices as well.  They still have a hot and cold lunch – but now instead of peanut butter they have sunbutter.  But they also have an additional weekly option that includes a nacho fun lunch (tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, salsa) or a monthly alternative (this month it is a hot ham and cheese pretzelwich).  The lunches also still come with a vegetable (steamed peas, steamed carrots, fresh carrot sticks, steamed corn…) and some type of fruit (fruit cup, pears, mandarin oranges, applesauce, pineapple…) and milk.  But here’s the kicker – they don’t make the kids take these things.  In fact, last year, my first grader didn’t know he was supposed to.  When he bought pizza, he only took the pizza.

But then he’d get to the end of the food line and to the big, bright, beautiful display of every kind of chip you’d want and the cookies and the ice cream and he’d take some of this too.  (They even offer fresh made funnel cakes because of course every child should have the option to have a funnel cake every day of his life if he wants, right????)  When he got to the drink section, he’d take the milk because he likes milk.  But my older son doesn’t and he’d take the capris sun or lemonade instead.  Well that stuff isn’t free – the chips, cookies and ice cream cost 50 cents or 75 cents and the lemonade costs 60 cents and the capris sun costs 75 cents (at Giant, I can buy 10 for $1.99).  No one was telling them, “No you get milk with your lunch.” So now the lunch was costing anywhere from $2.95 – $3.70.  Also, they were going up and buying snacks when I packed them a lunch.  So, I have a financial issue, of spending way too much money on lunch without my consent.

In addition there’s also a nutrition issue.  When they came home asking for a snack, sometimes I’d give them cookies or ice cream not realizing that they already had that at school.  I was giving my oldest water instead of milk to drink at dinner thinking he had milk in his cereal and milk for lunch not realizing that he bought a capris sun  instead.  The nutrition of the school lunch is already pretty crappy, so let’s throw some junk on top of it.  And then of course, make sure to send in a snack every day for their morning snack time because apparently our children will starve otherwise.  (OK, sending a snack doesn’t bother me that much, it’s just throwing that on top of all the snack choices they are given at lunch.)

So what does the school say when I ask about it?  I can check online every day what they purchase and to talk to my kids about making the right choices.  Well, yes I can, but to be honest, I have a lot of issues to battle and work on and this really is not a battle I want.  These are elementary school kids.  At home, I don’t say to my kids, go get yourself some lunch or dinner, I do it because their choices are never going to be as good as mine.  I could freeze their account and not allow them to make purchases – but my oldest son is autistic and has melt downs about certain things, and I’d rather he didn’t have a melt down because the lunch lady is not letting him purchase something.  No, I’m not really happy with those options.

What I’d like is for the school to not offer 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10-year olds cookies and chips and doritos and ice cream and lemonade and funnel cakes every single day.  What I’d like is when I pay $2.45 for school pizza, is for them to give my kids the carrot sticks and the pears and the milk that I’m paying for with it.  Because if that was all they had, they would eat them.

I think I need Jaime Oliver to come to my school…

♥Becki, imperfect nutritionist

P.S. If you are in Phoenixville School District, our district’s contract with Chartwell’s is up for renewal this year.  I am sending emails to superintendent, Dr. Fegley, fegleya@pasd.k12.pa.us and to asst. superintendent, Dr. Palubinsky, palubinskyr@pasd.k12.pa.us voicing my frustration and disappointment in our school lunch.

<<stepping off my soap box>>

 

Training Tuesday: Not doing what I want to do…

b. Training Tuesday

So how are you doing taking care of your body?  I’m doing better than I was a few weeks ago… I’ve gotten back to running.  I’m still not back up to a 5k… but I will be!  My eating… well… I know what to do and what not to do, but knowing and doing seem to be two different things!  I feel like the Apostle Paul, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19, 20)  I’m pretty sure he wasn’t talking about eating… but that seems to be my “evil”.

So I press on.  Confessing yesterday and praying for strength for today.  Tomorrow, I’ll ask for strength again, because I know I’ll need it.  Does it sound odd to you that I am spiritualizing food and eating?  I know some of you are saying, “Just eat the right things.”  “Just don’t eat the bad stuff.” “Just limit your portions.” “Just join weight watchers, or jenny craig, or LA weight loss, or just start atkins” Just, just, just.  I wish it was just that easy…

Honestly I think for me, it’s like telling a heroin addict to just stop using.  I’ve tried it on my own strength for 20 some years and it doesn’t work for more than a few months.  It has to be a spiritual issue / discipline for me.  There’s something in my heart that is holding onto eating and I know I need to surrender it to God.  But, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

So I press on.  Asking for God to show me what I’m holding onto.  Asking God to help me let go of it.  Asking God to help me not delight in brownies and chocolate and pizza and really any food that happens to be there, but to delight in Him, and my family, and the people around me.  And God says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, so I’m asking God for Christ’s strength.  And I do know that I will be victorious.  (I just pray that my victory comes on earth and that I don’t have to wait for my new heavenly body to be victorious!)

Do you struggle with food?  Do you have a different addiction/obsession?  Drugs? Alcohol? Shopping? Exercising in excess? Cutting? Escaping into TV? Cleaning? Gossiping?  Is there something that you don’t want to do, but you keep doing?  Or something that you want to do, but don’t?  I’m praying for you now as I’m praying for myself.  I hope you will join me in pressing on and allowing God to work on our heart and strengthen us to victory over that stronghold in our life.

♥Becki, imperfect eater

P.S.  I’m reading a book called “Thin Within” to help with my eating.  It really is an awesome read if food is a struggle for you.