GOALLLLL!!!!!!

*Disclaimer, I've been maintaining a little bit higher than where I wanted to be for the last several years, and recently made the decision to get "that last 20" off and live in ultra-health.  So I jumped back on the weight-loss portion of our system, and today I write that I have arrived at my goal weight.**

I love these blogs that announce "Goal!"

Today I write one of my own.

TODAY I am 128.  Sunday I begin transition for the LAST time.

Because losing the weight is only the 1st STEP in the process of attaining and maintaining optimal (and even ultra) health. 

Back when I began this process, I began at 272 walking with a cane with a BMI of over 47 and my body fat percentage was OVER 50%.  It was July of 2010.  I knew it was a turning point in my life, and I knew that if nothing truly changed, then nothing would truly change.

So I submitted myself to a plan called Take Shape For Life.  Take Shape For Life was not just a "diet" (I call it "eating plan"), it was:

* an EATING plan (utilizing the Medifast 5&1 PCMR program which, when followed, gives a 2-5 lbs/week weight loss for the first 2 weeks, and a 1-2 lb/wk weight loss every week thereafter, results vary)

* Personal one-on-one accountability with a FREE TSFL Health Coach.  Yes, I have a wonderful Health Coach.  Yes, I've called her just about every WEEK for a 5-10 minute conversation for YEARS now, because she will ALWAYS be my health coach no matter whether I utilize the products in maintenance or not!

* Behavior Modification as directed in Dr. A's Habits of Health System, and the SYSTEM is the book, the companion guide workbook, and the DVD.

* The Additional Bionetwork of support that TSFL offers it clients, which includes this site as well as weekly support calls on a conference format.  These three calls are:  Doctors Call, Nurses Call, and Habits of Health Call.  I was able to log on to these anytime I wanted even if I missed the live call during the week by going to supportcallsonline.com and choosing from the archived calls.  And I DID.

So when people ask me "How did you DO that?" (Lose 144 pounds), and "How do you plan on continuing to KEEP IT OFF?" I tell them those 4 things. 

FOR ME, "just" doing the "eating part" was NOT sufficient for me to change my lifestyle.  For me, "just" doing the "eating part" was like holding my breath, white-knuckling it, viewing it as a big deprivation and having a "when will this be OVER so I can go back to being NORMAL" mindset.  I'm not just speaking hypothetically that I THINK it wouldn't be enough for me, I KNOW it wasn't enough for me because in 06/07 I DID just do the "eating part" and yes it did "work", I lost 140 pounds (from 268 to 128) and when Nutrition Support wisely advised me that I could NOT transition because I had JUST found out I was pregnant, I happily obliged that advice.  Twelve weeks later I had a miscarraige (not my first, I was prone to them, it was actually my 5th), and because I had NOT LEARNED the "Habits of Health", because I had NOT been incrementally adding them to my life and my routine, my mind snapped right back to pre-Medifast days and I "ate normally" for the next year, managing to GAIN BACK everything I had lost, plus 4 more pesky pounds to boot.

I was even LARGER than I had been.  I felt HOPELESS and I felt HELPLESS.

Until two things happened.

#1  I went to  Beth Moore Conference, and I still have my notes from it, where she was talking about discovering, in as best as we can, what our full God-given potential is ON THIS EARTH and LIVING IT.  I knew that my keeping my "fat suit" was actually keeping ME from living the life God wanted me to live HERE.  So many of us Christians (including me) forget that WE HAVE A PURPOSE here, this life isn't merely just a waiting room for Heaven.  Our purpose is to REFLECT HIS GLORY, since we ARE His creation.  I knew that I was NOT doing that, I'll tell you I didn't feel so gosh-darn glorious hobbling around on my cane singing the "poor me I gained back all my weight I'm such a failure" tune in my head.

#2  I went on a Make-a-Wish trip with my son who received a Kidney Transplant, and we went to Disneyworld on a co-sponsored trip with Kurt Warner's "First Things First" Foundation.  I didn't know who Kurt Warner even WAS at the time, and when they said "do you want to go with Kurt Warner's family?"  I said "Sure!  Who is he?"  Turns out he is only one of the BEST Quarterbacks in the NFL who EVER LIVED!  He was not retired yet, and was still with the Cardinals, but he and his ENTIRE FAMILY (wife and 7 children) would be coming with us!  So we went.  During that trip I was able to talk with his wife, Brenda Warner, a few times and get to know her.  She is a former Marine sharp-shooter, and let me tell you she is an AWESOME and classy lady who has been dealt her hard times in life but has used them to truly become the person she 'might have' been!  In fact, that was her motto: "It is never too late to become the person we 'might have' been!", and I adopted it as my own, I think she recycled it from a famous philosopher.  During that trip we talked about nutrition, and potential, and living our best lives to the glory of God, etc, and although I was at my heaviest and got stuck in the turnstiles getting into the park (they had to let me through the stroller gate with no stroller!), she treated me as if I WERE THAT PERSON already.  She respected and valued me as a precious individual, and I can tell you that is more than I had been allowing myself, and it wasn't how I WAS treating myself!  I had been viewing myself with disgust and an overriding sense of failure.  And that is a very dark place to be.

Perhaps it was HER belief in ME that I borrowed to place my first order and get going again.  Her attitude when I spoke to her of doing it again (losing weight and getting healthy) was "but of COURSE you can do that!" 

The second person who believed in my ability to get healthy was my husband.  He said "Honey, you know the program works for you, why not do it again?  It will work again!"

So I bundled up their faith in my abilities and I KNEW that THIS TIME would HAVE to be different in my MIND because NO WAY was I going to put forward all the effort I knew it would take to lose 140 pounds "again" and it was too heartbreaking of a scenario to even THINK of the possibility I would gain it all back YET AGAIN.  I knew that I only had it "in me" to "do this" one more time in my life.  That is how I felt at the time.

Enter Take Shape For Life.

It has been a wild ride, I can honestly assure you there has been no downside.  It has been 4 years of growth, mental gymnastics, self-discovery, and some tears.  It has ranged from almost banging my head against a wall because I didn't understand "why" I tended towards certain behaviors that I couldn't seem to change, and the "ah-ha" moments of realizing I didn't HAVE to understand the WHY, I only needed to adopt HEALTHIER HABITS to over-ride those habits of disease that had been firmly entrenched in my earlier life and were stubborn to dislodge.  The WHY's hardly even existed anymore, the REASON I had developed those unhealthy habits were likely coping mechanisms I had turned to in childhood and adolesence which had simply become habits.  Stress-eating?  Habit.  Comfort-eating?  Habit.  Bored-eating?  Habit.  Conflict-eating?  Habit.  Now it was time to develop HEALTHY habits and focus on those.  So I did. 

And it didn't take rocket science to do so, it didn't take me inventing the wheel.  The system and tools and methods were ALL THERE provided for me, I simply needed to submit myself to doing the work of those who had developed it.  I read the book.  I did the workbook.  I followed their instruction and advice, meanwhile adhering as close as humanly possible to "the eating part" of the Medifast 5&1, which is the tool that TSFL uses in the science of fat-burning, to actually USE UP our fat reserves.

Was I perfect?  Can I get a clear and resounding "NO!"  But I view it similarly to how I view Bible Studies.  I don't have to be perfect to point people to the materials.  I don't have to be perfect to host a Bible Study in my home, for example.  Can you imagine if we set the same expectations of perfection on Pastors and Bible Study Leaders?  "You aren't a perfect person, you must have 'sinned' this week therefore you are disqualified from hosting the Bible Study."  Whew!  Our entire Church, Inc. in this country would shut down OVERNIGHT!

No, not being perfect doesn't make me a hypocrite.  I live an authentic life in both my faith AND my health.  And it is authentically transparent.  I'm not afraid of my faults, and I share them whenever I can LOL!  They are many.  But my overriding orientation is towards optimal and ultra-health, and if I stumble I get up and make my next meal a Medifast one.  Period.  Rinse and Repeat!  Period.

And I have never given up.  Nor have I ever just decided to give FOOD a place on the throne of my life.  So many people ditch the plan and ditch their health goals because they wanted the yummy food.

I want more out of life than food can give me.  Food, when used improperly in my life, gave me heartache, disease, pain, and a feeling of emptiness, a feeling that I was missing my purpose.  And I was.  By my own doing. 

How I feel now is so night-and-day different than how I felt 4 years ago I can't even describe to you the place I am in now without sounding like I am bragging or something. 

I give credit where credit is due.  I am no superwoman.  I simply agreed to following a system and I will be forever grateful to Medifast and Take Shape For Life and Dr. Andersen for making it their BUSINESS to get America healthy.  I simply followed.  I followed and followed until someone told me I couldn't follow anymore, and guess what, no one has EVER said I couldn't follow anymore.  And so, I "found myself" here.  Because of the choice I made to follow, adhere, submit, and live authentically.

Where is YOUR "here?"  Are you happy with where you are?  Are you thrilled with where you are going?  The tools are here.  The tools are waiting for you.  Connect with your Coach.  Read the book.  Yes there is a fair amount of DOING involved, but that is how healthy habits are built.  By doing.

And have a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Goal.  Of Phase 1.  Now on to Phase 2:  Transition!