The Honest Post

 

For over 10 years, I have struggled with varying degrees of depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder.  Each one of these problems is intertwined with the others.

 

In college, I got a little help for my eating disorder, but I didn’t admit that I had a problem.  The bigger problem was that I didn’t want to change.

 

Anxiety runs in my family and I was aware of it at an early age.  I have always searched for ways to self-soothe and calm my anxieties, but I didn’t think I was worthy of any real help.

 

It was my struggle with a deep depression that eventually caused me to raise the white flag.  And in doing so, I began to recover from all three.

Just like one of the steps of the 12 step program for AA, admitting that there is a problem is the first step toward recovery from anything.

I did not admit that I had a real problem until about a year ago.

Since then, I have made huge strides…more like leaps and bounds.

I am really thankful that I made that first step.

I compare it to getting glasses.

 

I finally went to the eye doctor and I got glasses when I was a junior in college.  I admitted that I could not will myself to see better by just trying harder.  I admitted that I couldn’t eat enough carrots to improve my vision on my own.  Therefore, I made an appointment.

 

After I started wearing the glasses, I could not believe all the wonderful things I could see.  I could see definition in the tree branches, I could see the man on the moon, and I could see across campus and wave to my friends.  After I got used to wearing them, when I took them off, I could believe how blind I was.  Everything was so blurry!

 

How could I have possibly lived that way for so many years?  How much have I missed because I couldn’t see clearly?  Why did I put off going to the doctor for so long?  Why didn’t I get glasses ten years ago?  I wanted to return to Europe and revisit all the cathedrals and museums I had visited in the semester before.  I shudder at the thought of all the beautiful artwork I missed.

In a way, that is what it was like when I finally asked for help for my depression.

 

I finally admitted that I couldn’t do it on my own.  I admitted that I could not will myself out of my depression.  I admitted that I needed to get help.

 

After I started seeing a counselor and taking medicine, I could not believe how much better I started to feel.  I could see beauty in my life again.  I could see a life worth living and a purpose to fulfill.  Not at first, but eventually, I started to become less depressed.  After almost a year of receiving treatment, I cannot believe the difference I can see.

 

How could I have possibly lived that way for so long?  Why didn’t I get help ten years ago?  I wanted to re-live the last ten years of my life again because of all the things I might have missed.

But honestly, I wasn’t ready to do it two years ago, let alone, ten years ago.  I have to remember that everything that happened in the past has shaped me into the person I am today.  I cannot dwell on the past or worry about the future.  I can only make decisions for the present.

Instead of glasses, I wear contacts now.  Every morning when I put them in my eyes, I am reminded of the past and I say a prayer.  I say a prayer of thanksgiving.  In one eye, I thank God that he has given me this wonderful gift of sight.  In the other eye, I thank Him for the gift of insight.

 

I realize now that my life has value because I am a human being, not because I say it has value.

 

I am created in the image and likeness of God, just like every other human being in the world.  My life is beautiful, and I am worthy and deserving because He created me.   I am worthy and deserving of getting help and trying to recover from these illnesses.

 

 

 

 

 

I have typed and deleted this post about 27 times now...

{just a little backyard flower to remind you of the summer}

I have deleted this post and rewritten it many times in the past several weeks.

I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to do it or not.

After thinking about it for while, I’ve come up with some conclusions.

The cons of my argument were basically that I didn’t want to portray a story of self-loathing to get pity.  I hate reading sarcastic complaining or inadvertent self-degradation in order to get a compliment.  I didn’t want to come across like that at all.

Pros:  I must admit that reading honest stories of other people’s struggles have personally helped me very much.  You see, I thought that I was alone with my problems.  But, I read about other people who saw the world as I did and that was very comforting.  I learned a lot from reading about other people’s experiences.  If I can do the same for at least one other person, then it is worth it.

I have also asked myself about what I am interested in reading in a blog or what made those particular blogs appealing to me.  Well, first, I love reading inspirational stories, stories that make me hopeful and encouraged.  There is too much bad in the world as it is.  Second, I like reading about helpful tips to improve your life or helpful things that I have never thought of before.   Also, I like reading things that make me laugh.  But most of all, I love reading about people’s real life journeys.  I love reading honest accounts of survival in this world today.  I love reading about people who live life differently, or against the flow.  I love reading about people who are seeking truth, honesty, beauty, goodness, and, ultimately, Catholicism.

My conclusion is to try to write in this way.

So, after that long disclaimer, I think I am ready to begin.

“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

I will start by sharing with you some of my favorite bloggers who have helped me tremendously these past few years.  I might have quoted them in this blog before.  Each one has influenced me and helped shape me into a better person.  You will see similarities in style and objective.   I will not deny that I have stolen their ideas and techniques.  But in gathering all of the information from these blogs, I have transformed it into something new.  I am a unique person, therefore, I have something to offer that no one else can; my point of view.

 

I am going to have to keep you in suspense, however.

 

You will have to stay tuned until next time for the meat and potatoes of my story.

For now, just satisfy your hunger for honesty with some of the following posts from the masters:

Beyond Blue:  http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue/

Weightless:  http://blogs.psychcentral.com/weightless/

Airbrushed Nation:  http://airbrushednation.wordpress.com/

Health at Every Size:  http://healthateverysizeblog.org/

Medical Marzipan:  http://www.maraglatzel.com/blog/

The Fat Nutritionist:  http://www.fatnutritionist.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Beautiful You

{Photo taken by the one and only, Craig!}

Writing has opened doors and windows for me.

I have kept a journal since I was a girl.
Blogging is way different than I thought it would be.
I have to have a point.
I have to make each entry polished and clean.

In my journaling experience, I would ramble and either feed my anger or wallow in my sadness.

When writing a post, I have discovered that I can give purpose to my daily scribbles.
The more I write in this way, the more honest I want to be.
I have already experience numerous "vulnerability hangovers".

Some days, I can easily express my soul.

And the words on the page seem to take on a different life of their own.

Sometimes, a piece that I think might be dumb, ends up being someone’s fav.

Those moments are grand.

Today is not one of those moments.

Ever since I started posting, I’ve tried to write from where I am now.

Sometimes, all I can do is say it in a prayer, a poem, or a bunch of silly quotes.
Sometimes, I can't "say" (write) anything at all...for days.
And sometimes, the lyrics to a song can say it better than I ever could.

This is today’s song, well, really just today's line...

 

 

"You were made to fill a purpose that only you can do."

 

You can listen to the mystery song here.

I knew I liked G. K. Chesterton



I have always enjoyed reading the writings of G. K. Chesterton.

I first began to appreciate his work when I found out that we shared a birthday.

And I also like him because his middle name is Kevin.

Below are some of my fav GKC quotes:

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it.

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

 

 

 

 

 

Baby, it's cold out there

Snow is always beautiful…from the indoors.

I have a hard time with the cold.

For me, snow is a reminder.

The clean white snow reminds me of purity.

Also, during the coldest months, the living things hibernate, become dormant, or even die.

 

So snow also reminds me of purifying, the purifying fire, or refiners fire, if you will.

Once the winter is over, new life covers the land.

Winter is a purifying time for the world.

There has to be death for there to be new life.

When it is cold, I can shiver, complain, and be cold.

Or I can hope, I can hope that the Lord will make all things new again.

Winter is a reminder of our life on earth.

We all have to die in order to be reborn.

In C. S. Lewis’s story, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, the children discover a world in perpetual winter.  It is always winter, and never Christmas, always death but never new life.  It is a world without Aslan, symbolically, a world without God.  The children bring hope to the land, Aslan begins to move, and then, the spring returns.

Narnia is a tale of a magical land with magical creatures that cannot be seen by everyone.  It defies logic.  And the logical among them, are the first unbelievers.

But the story leads us to something a little more real than human logic.

We cannot see God.  We cannot see Heaven.  We cannot see, hear, taste, smell, or touch life after death.  Logically then, it must not exist.

Yet, there is something more powerful than logic.  Belief.  I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth…

Belief in things unseen is not a fruit of contemplative logic.  It is the result of a leap of faith.  It is an illogical leap that requires a pair of wings.

Unfortunately, belief is something we can easily lose as we grow into adults.  Our society operates under the pretense of logic.  In the culture, there is no place for the impossible.

 

Our imagination is a very powerful tool.  Remember your imagination.  It is also important to cultivate imagination in your children.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with reading fairy tales to your kids or playing games with them in imaginary worlds where anything is possible.  The children in our world are not going to learn imagination in school.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote that “Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

How can we grow up to believe in a God we cannot see if we have no imagination?  How can we believe in the impossible, or in life after death, if we spend our whole lives thinking logically?

 

“I am [in your world].’ said Aslan. ‘But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

“But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

 

 

 

 

 

When You Fall

{Photo publish on web here}

When you fall, don’t get back up…so quickly.

Everyone has heard that common response to failure to “get back up” or to “keep trying”.  Perhaps you have even said those phrases to others in times of trial.  Behind the words are sincere intentions, of course.

Sometimes, however, I think the advice is more of a reaction than a thoughtful response concluded from reflection.

I am human.  Everyone reading this is a human.  Thus, we have all “fallen”, and we have all failed at a something at some point in our life.  It’s been drilled into our brains to get back up and to keep trying.  It is so ingrained in our response that, I fear, we miss a key aspect about life.

By no means should you stop trying and stop getting back up when you fall.

Yet, as a Catholic, I believe that everything happens for reason.

If we get up too quickly after a mistake, we could miss that reason God allowed us to fail.

During my college years and the years after, I failed many times.  I got back up again as quickly as I could; so fast that I didn’t even acknowledging that I fell.  I was so perplexed as to why I continued to make the same mistakes over and over.

My real failure was that I never learned what it meant to be “fallen”.  I never learned how to live with my “broken” self.  I was so concerned with being raised up that I forgot about being saved, and the One who was doing the saving.

When I looked at my life through the brokenness, things looked different.  I realized my great need to be saved.  I realized my intense need for God.

Now when I fall, I see a glimpse of the incredible love God has for me.  He doesn’t need me at all.  But I need Him more than anything else.  If I never fell, if I never felt broken, would I have ever realized the depth of His love?

You are not a failure if you are “fallen”.  Jesus Christ came to restore the broken, and to raise up the fallen.  If you do not acknowledge your brokenness or your need to be saved, how can you allow Him to save you?

Be okay with being broken.  Be okay with not being perfect.  It is only in those experiences that one can witness perfect Love.

By all means, never stop trying to get back up again.  Don’t delay coming back to God in the sacraments.  But also, do not despair when you fall.

 

Because we cannot be raised unless first we fall.

 

 

 

 

 

What to do with Your Thoughts

{Photo published on web here}

I have a hand written note on my bathroom mirror that says, “Thoughts do NOT dictate actions”.  The reminder has helped me through many difficult times.  Thoughts come and go in and out of my head.  Often times, I am confused about what to do with them.

I went through a period of time when I was severely concerned about the thoughts in my head.  My thoughts were so contradictory to what I knew to be true.  My thoughts were all over the place and lacked continuity with reality.  The experience left me crippled.  I felt like I could no longer trust my judgment.  If I couldn’t trust my own thoughts, how was I supposed to live?

 

Some of these thoughts were: you are not good enough, you don't deserve anything good, you can't do anything right, and you are worthless.

It was a true “Eureka” moment when it finally sunk in that my thoughts were not an intrinsic part of me.  Thoughts are something that “happens” to me.  I cannot control what happens to me.  I cannot control those passive thoughts that come in and out of my brain.  What I can control is how I react to them.  I have to discern and separate the useful and important thoughts from the negative and damaging thoughts.

Now how can you tell the difference?

Well, when I find one of my thoughts conflicting with what I know to be true, I analyze (first) where it came from and (second) what it is prompting me to do.

If it came from a place of self hate then I know to throw out the thought and not act on it.  If it came from a place of empathy, then I can evaluate what it is calling me to do.

 

If the thought is prompting me to be productive, respectful, and thus, in line with what I believe and profess in the Catholic faith, then the thought is good and maybe inspired by the Holy Spirit.  If reacting to the thought causes self loathing, inactivity, feelings of being overwhelmed or discouraged, then the thought is negative and may have come from a bad habit or the enemy himself.

Another way to look at it is "realistic vs. inner critic".  Ask yourself if you are being true to reality or if it is just your inner criticism beating you down.

 

First, pay attention to the tone of the thought and how it is talking to you.  Is it anxious, nervous, rambling, and offers no solutions?  Or is it productive, optimistic, unbiased, and cheering you on?  The first kind of thought is from your inner critic.  The second kind is more realistic. 

An example is when I am getting ready for an event like a wedding.  In my mind, I know that looks are not important and I am loved no matter how I look.  But, having a history of extreme self criticism, I often fall to pieces when I am finding a dress to put and when I am doing my hair.  My thoughts tell me I am fat and ugly.  If I listened to my thoughts, I would never go anywhere ever.  But, I can discern that these self degrading thoughts come from a place of hatred and not love.  The thoughts do not inspire me to do anything good and actually don’t inspire me to do anything at all.  I know that I have to ignore those negative thoughts the best that I can and keep going with what I know to be true.

I repeat positive encouraging messages to myself over and over and over until I am no longer thinking about the negative thoughts.  Sometimes, it is so hard to do this on my own.  And that is why I have little notes around the house to help me when I am in need.

Other notes that I have visibly posted around the house are:
Feelings are not facts

You do NOT have to earn the right to eat

Be kind to yourself
I am body, mind, and soul

If you need extra reminders throughout the day to encourage your thoughts to be positive and realistic, I highly recommend making yourself little notes and posting them where you will see them often.  Sometimes, I don’t even realize that I am having an unrealistic thought until I see one of my reminders.

I will leave you with a favorite prayer of mine.

“O Lord, help me to realize that nothing will happen to me today that You and I cannot work out together. Amen”

 

 

 

Milestone

{Image published on web here}

Yesterday, I hit a milestone.

I went on my first real run.

Even though I ran a marathon last fall, it was the very first time I honesty ran for the sake of running.

"How can that be?"  You may ask.

Well, my outing was not part of a workout routine.  It was not a part of a pre-race regimen.  I did not run to make up for eating a large meal.  I was not running to burn off "X" amount of calories.  I was not exercising for the sake of my health.  And I was not trying to stay in shape.

It went like this: The sun was shining.  The temperature was well above freezing.  And I just felt like being outside and moving my body.

I did not keep track of my miles.  I did not even wear a watch.  I just went out and ran until I was satisfied.

The experience was a gift.  I felt so blessed to have two working legs, a young body, and a healthy mind.  I felt like I was glorifying God in that simple and seemingly unimportant activity.

The experience caused me to reflect on all my habits.  I realized that anything I do, no matter how minuscule the task, I can do for the honor and glory of God.

I wasn’t trying to work against my body.  I wasn’t abusing it to the point of near exhaustion as I have done in the past.  I was simply using the muscles God gave me.  I was using His gifts in a way that was gracious, respectful, and within my physical limits.

Our working muscles, our sound minds, and our intuitive brains are a tremendous gift from God. If we treat our body as a gift, we are more likely to cherish our body and treat it with respect and love. And in doing so, it follows that we will make better choices and form better habits.

It was an experience of true freedom.

It wasn’t freedom in the cultural sense that I did whatever I felt like doing.  That is not true freedom.  True freedom encompasses your intellect and your will, not your emotions and your instincts.  Freedom is knowing the difference between right and wrong and being completely willing and fully capable to choose what is right.

My running experience was just an example to me of what my life could really be like.

I saw the opportunity to do something good and I was able to choose to do it in the best way I could.

Don’t get me wrong.  It was, by no means, a piece of cake to get out there and run.  But my past experience and continual habit of running have taught me that the reward was well worth the effort.

I know I won’t always feel good when I am doing something right.  Most of the time, it’s the “fake it ‘till you make it” drill.  But in the moment when I know something is good and I am free to choose that good, I get a glimpse of eternal wisdom.

I am glad I did not miss this reflection.  Had I been cluttered with things like my iPod, or GPS watch, I might have been completely oblivious to this subtle insight.

Ernest Hemingway once said, “The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.”

I think you begin to live more simply when your choices turn into habits.

Maybe it’s not your thing to run.  Maybe you like to walk, ride a bike, or dance.  Or maybe you like to move your body in other ways, like scrubbing the kitchen floor, gardening, or chasing after little kids.

But anything we practice, over time, it will become a habit.  And we will begin to live more simply.  And in simplicity, we will find freedom.

And just maybe we will get to experience a taste of Heaven.

The Serenity Prayer (Original Form)

{Photo courtesy of here}

God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

 

By Reinhold Niebuhr

Recognize the Enemy

The enemy is so tricky.

Do not underestimate his tactics.

After much thought and reflection, I have made a personal choice to stay away from women’s magazines.  I think those particular publications are degrading to women.  The articles, the pictures, and the advertisements portray women as an object that needs to be manipulated to reach certain standards.  The author's and the editor's goals are to address those who read them as if they are hopelessly flawed and not good enough the way they are.  Each article is about how to better yourself, dress nicer, look prettier, have perfect hair, lose weight, and be the center of attention.  Each picture is airbrushed to an unrealistic cartoon-ish look.  Even though it is openly deceiving (and they admit it!), it still causes us to compare ourselves and become envious and discouraged.  If you read those magazines you will, most likely, be persuaded to change yourself in one form or another.  And yet it is completely unnecessary.  Completely. Unnecessary.

I once thought that women’s magazines were for our entertainment.  Yet, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, entertaining about feeling inadequate, trying to live up to phony standards, and being degraded to the level of an object.

The truth is, these magazines are not going to help us live better lives, contrary to what they say.  The truth is, these messages are definitely not going to help us get to Heaven.  These types of magazines, their Internet equivalents, television shows, and commercials are a deliberate way the devil is working against us.  He knows exactly what he is doing.  He is slowly taking control of our self worth and, thus, he is taking away our value as an individual human person.

To counteract the temptations, I use proactive methods.  When I am at the doctor, I bring my own reading material for waiting rooms.  I go through the self check-outs at the grocery store so I am not assaulted by all the images while I am waiting in line.  And we also do not have television in our home.

Since I have been really good at avoiding this trash, my self confidence has increased tremendously and I have a much healthier body image than I did before.  I am slowly, but surely, beginning to see myself as God sees me.

I should have known, however, that the devil would not give up on me so easily.

In the mail the other day, I received an issue of Cosmo.  It was delivered straight to my house and address to me, so it was no accident.  I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything; the temptation came right into my hands.  I couldn’t believe it.  Had I been by myself, I might have flipped through it out of curiosity.  Thankfully, my husband was home.  I had him throw it in the recycling bin immediately.  I might not have been able to do it on my own, but I want to be a better person for him.  And those rotten magazines will not help me do that.

You might think I am being a bit dramatic.  What harm can one little magazine do?  What is so wrong about watching TV?  Well, for me, it sends me down a road I do not want to be on.  I know that I am in a war.  Every day, I will have to fight battles.  I want to set myself up for victory.  And looking at those things will only set me up for failure.  I have to be 100% ready and at the top of my game.  A poor body image makes me cower and shrink back in fear and incompetence.  I have to be in tip top shape to achieve success.  The enemy is no dummy and he knows how to chip away at my weaknesses until I fail.  It is difficult at times to stay strong, but it is worth the fight.

I don’t want to live like everyone else in this world.  I want to be different.  I want to live a life for God.  I want to have happiness in this life and supreme joy in the next.  To do that, I have to make choices that are different than the norm.  I can't keep doing what everyone else is doing.  I think that avoiding degrading material like that in women's magazines is a key step in achieving this goal.



 

New Year’s Resolution Solution

{Photo courtesy of here}

Are you one of the millions of Americans who made a New Year’s Resolution that had to do with eating healthy, exercising, and losing weight?  If so, how is it going so far?

This is just my opinion, but I don’t think New Year’s Resolutions are good for you.

First of all, these resolutions cater to our “all or nothing” tendencies.  Everyone likes the appeal of a new beginning, a new day, a fresh start, and a “do over” with a clean slate.  However, as soon as we fail, our new beginning is stained and it seems not so good anymore.  Then we are tempted to give up on our resolution entirely until we have another new start.

The second reason I don’t like New Year’s Resolutions is because it is a unique time in which we let ourselves believe in magic.  Our resolution expectations are often way too high, very unrealistic, and even unhealthy.  Yet we still make these resolutions and we still expect success.  We believe the New Year’s magic will carry us to the fulfillment of our hopes and dreams.

As soon as life gets difficult, everyone knows the magic is gone.  And our hope is gone too.

Don’t put your hope in New Year’s magic.  Put your hope in something real.  Do you know what is more real than the chair you are sitting in?  Do you know what is more real that the clothes you are wearing?  Do you know what is more real than the world in which we live?  Yes, all those things are real in a physical sense.  But everything we see with our eyes is only temporary.

God is more real than anything we can see.  We cannot see God with our eyes but He is perfect reality, perfect truth, and perfect Love.  He is eternal, He knows what is best for you, and He wants you to live forever in Heaven with Him.  Put your hope in God.

I might be wrong, but I don’t think God wants us to be concerned with our weight and our looks.

I am at a point in life where I have had enough.  I have had enough of diets, weight loss talk, fat-free recipes, work out plans, and all the “should do this” and “ought to do that” when it comes to health.  I am sick of talking about it and I am sick of listening to it.  I have never heard anyone say that focusing on their appearance helped them get closer to God.

I got to this point in my life only after a long and difficult journey.  The path I used to tread was so painful and discouraging.  For years and years, I focused most of my time and energy on trying to lose weight, keeping the weight off, exercising, and not eating bad food.  Every since I can remember, I had to keep track of what I ate; every meal, every snack, every drink, every single tic-tac.  And I did it all in the name of health.

The devil knew my weakness and used it to draw me away from God.

Each Lent, my sacrifices were centered on extreme fasting.  Before each birthday, I wanted to reach a certain goal weight.  Before each winter, I had to lose weight because I knew I would gain weight over the holidays.  Every New Year’s Resolution was to not eat dessert, or to not eat sugar, or to exercise seven days a week, or lose a certain amount of weight, or whatever.  And I did it all in the name of sacrifice.

I could never live up to my own standards.  I was miserable almost every day because I felt like a failure.  And this was exactly what the devil wanted.

By the grace of God, I was able to take a step back and look at my life in reality.

The world is polluted with diets and healthy eating information.

But, I don’t want to live like that anymore.

I want to do other things with my life than try to lose weight.

The sacrifices I choose will no longer involve food.  And my resolutions will no longer be focused on weight and appearance.  I want to focus on my relationships, in particular, my relationship with God.

Keep your resolutions in check this year.  Link them up with God’s will for your life.  Look at the fruits of your efforts and be honest with yourself about whether or not they are helping you get closer to God.

If you want some other great reads, check out these two from my favorite blogger at PsychCentral:

What to consider when setting New Year's Resolutions

My favorite strategy to stop emotional overeating

 

 

 

Until next time, take care YOU!