2009 Scripture Memory Challenge #9 and How it Relates to My Weight Loss Journey

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. ~Colossians 1:10-12

God had been working on me for awhile. I’m ashamed to admit I tried to ignore His loving persistence. I can’t even tell you exactly how long this battle of heart wore on, but early one morning last fall, He finally got through to me and I surrendered. A day or two later, I received word that a Weight Watchers At Work group was starting in my office and they were seeking participants. I had to chuckle at God’s apparent swift work. He clearly didn’t want me to have time to change my mind (He knows me too well). I immediately signed up and later that week, attended my first meeting. I had done Weight Watchers one other time 7 years prior and had lost some, but I knew this time was different because my motivation had changed. This time, it was about being more pleasing to God and taking better care of the body He had given me.

During a difficult season early in my marriage, I began turning to food for comfort (unknowingly at first). Though I became a Christian at the age of 13, after high school I began drifting away from the Lord and soon there was little evidence of His presence in my life. I met and married Tom during this time. He was unsaved. Thanks be to God, eleven years into our marriage, Tom became a Christian and I returned to the Lord. As you can imagine, God worked within our family in amazing ways and our lives radically changed.

Years went by and though I believed I had given God full access to my heart, my previous coping patterns with food continued. Though I would typically cook relatively healthy meals for my family, my personal eating habits were horrible. I would buy pop-tarts, snack cakes and bags of mini candy bars and keep them hidden at work and at home. Even though most days I would eat a decent lunch and dinner, I would snack constantly on sweets. If I went to the grocery on my way home from work, I'd buy a candy bar (or two) in the checkout line and eat them immediately.

It wasn't always sweets...sometimes I'd stop at a local drive through for a cheeseburger and fries. I'd eat them in the parking lot, throw away the bag then go home to prepare dinner that I would also eat. Strange as it sounds, for the longest time, I didn't even see the irony of that. Once God began to open my eyes to what I was doing, I felt shame, which in some ways only made matters worse. I then shifted into denial mode which for a time, seemed to be working -- that is, until I began outgrowing all my clothes.

Over time, God began to wear away my defensiveness. Through scores of verses, through music and other believers, He showed me that only He was able to fulfill the needs I was trying to fill with food...but I had to let Him. Most importantly, he assured me of His love. Last September, I finally "put down my dukes" and laid aside the temporal comforts for His. Has it always been easy? No. It required accountability and sometimes moment by moment prayer. But God's strength and presence has been so evident. Often His spirit would speak love and encouragement during my exercise or a particularly hard day. Seeing the number on the scale go down, and knowing my food choices were healthy and pleasing to God brought much joy along the journey as well. I no longer crave "the junk" that was once a part of my daily eating habits, yet I know this struggle is not over. This battle is won, but the war itself will continue. This time, however, I believe I'm far better equipped to fight than ever before.

This verse has become a prayer of mine. How I truly desire to please God in every way, to fully surrender an undivided heart in order that I may be worthy of what He has given me and called me to be. 39 pounds lighter and several sizes smaller than where I started this journey, I'm living proof of the strength of His power. There is no greater comforter and there is indeed no greater coach. (It's true, Carrie!) Please know if you're struggling in this way He can and will help you, too. Feel free to e-mail me via my profile if I can help by answering any questions or lifting you in prayer.

Several have asked to see photos. I have wrestled with this for a number of days and had nearly determined not to include them. I then remembered how God used things like this to encourage me before I began, so in that light, I've decided to post them.

Before:
178 pounds

After:
139 pounds

Giving thanks and praise to God...

Tracy

Weigh-In Results...

I only have a minute. Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know…I met my goal!!!! Praise God!!! In fact, not only did I meet the goal, but surpassed it by another pound! I’m giving glory to God because He’s helped me every step of this journey since its beginning back in September. Thank you for your sweet words of encouragement! They definitely helped give me a little extra push these last few days. I’ll share more soon about the journey but for now, I’m rejoicing! = )

...and We're Walking

Let me tell you, if this post had a soundtrack, it would be "These Boots Were Made for Walking" by Nancy Sinatra or maybe "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash because this weekend, Tom and I did some walking! We love to walk anyway, but we doubled our usual weekend efforts. Why? First, because the weather in our part of the country was gorgeous! Hot for a spring day (yesterday 89 degrees) but windy, which helped keep us cool. Our secondary motive, however was to help me meet my weight loss goal. I'm 1.8 pounds away and our Weight Watchers session ends this Thursday! Only 1.8 pounds!!!

Saturday, we walked about 3 miles through a beautiful, very old local cemetery. We love walking through the cemeteries near our home, but hadn’t been to this one for a number of years. We both enjoyed it so very much.

After that, it was a pretty typical Saturday, went to the grocery, ran a couple of errands, worked in the yard. We fixed a huge salad with lots of great veggies for dinner.

After an awesome church service yesterday, we cooked up a quick lunch, changed into our comfy clothes headed outside again. This time, we walked a couple of miles on the track around a soccer field near our home. Surrounded almost entirely by woods, it’s beautiful…lots of wild flowers blooming along the edge of the track. Afterwards, we made our way back home and spent about an hour just relaxing in the back yard, listening to music and chatting (Glorious rest!) Then, we took about a 1/2 hour drive to visit a local arboretum (which happens to reside within a park.) What an incredible place! The walking trails are surrounded by a vast array of beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers. Truly God's creativity on display. We took a trail that was said to be 1 mile in length, but somehow managed to cross onto another trail along the way. Let me tell you, we walked ALOT further than 1 mile! Afterwards, with the help of their map, we concluded it was more like 3 and possibly more. It was positively gorgeous and we enjoyed it greatly, but we were two tired, sunburnt little cowboys by the time we finished! I carried my camera the entire time, in the hopes of capturing a few photos, but it was so windy yesterday (great for cooling you off when you walk, not so great for taking photos.) Maybe next time. = )

I typically walk 2 miles each night...I'll probably do 3 this week. I'm also being extra careful with my points, too. For some reason, this last 1.8 pounds has proven to be quite stubborn! I realize by sharing this I'll have to tell you how the weigh-in goes on Thursday. I'm hoping for a great report!

Hope it was beautiful where you live and that you, too had a great weekend!