I'm sure you are amazed to see a new post here today. What can I say? I just can't stay away!
Cheryl wrote an amazing post about her recent weight loss accomplishments. She recently met her goal of losing 39 pounds and her hubby has also lost 50 pounds. Pretty amazing stuff, hu? You can go and check out some of the things that were important for her here.
I'm not really overweight. I am in a normal range for my height and age. This is good, but I feel like there are a few pounds I'd like to eliminate and more than anything I want to get a few of those good old favorite areas looking more firm. My hubby and I are trying to figure out how to get our exercise routine kicked up a notch without spending money. Hubby can go use the physical facilities at his University, but that's not an option for me. Currently, I'm doing some of those good old (get real stale after a while) workout DVDs and trying to get some more walking in. Summer's coming though and in Arizona, you don't go outside during the summer. Anywho...I'm sure we'll things figured out.
But this post isn't really about that...or at least it's not just about that.
I went on a mission to Toronto Canada. For part of the time I spent there, I served in Spanish speaking wards. At that point in my mission, I lost control of my weight. Again, I wasn't really badly overweight, I could still wear all of my clothes, but they were tight and didn't look good. Why did this happen? Because that is the time I was not in control of how much I was eating. Why? Because when you have a dinner appointment with a Latino family whom you will offend if you don't eat what they have prepared...you feel that you must make the sacrifice. If you wonder if they would really be offended, I can honestly say that...yes, they would. I saw it many, many times. How often did we have DAs in the Latino wards? Every day...Every. Day.
I won't go into all the awful details of the amounts of food I was expected to eat at that time, but I will just say, there were times I honestly became sick from it. A take home message here would be...when you have the missionaries over to eat...just make something simple and not huge. If they are large...realize that you are doing them a favor by not making too much food. I knew missionaries who feigned allergies to get out of eating, but I felt that it was dishonest and since honesty is, you know, pretty important for a missionary, I never went there. Seriously, to eat the food you were given, you kind of had to do a mental detachment and just think of it as something to get through.
It was a good thing that I was in areas where we used our feet and good old public transportation to get where we needed to go. At least when I got home, people could still recognize me. Seriously, it wasn't that bad, but you could see it in my face for sure!!!
I remember one night not long after I got home. I went out to eat with my family. When the waitress brought us our food, I looked at the heaping plate and just stared for a while, preparing for the mental detachment from food that I was used to. I'll never forget my sweet mom (she later told me that I had a look of terror on my face) leaning over to me and saying..."Don't worry, you don't have to eat all of that." I literally started crying with relief.
So...here's the point. After that experience, I learned that too much food is not my friend. That food is going to be wasted one way or another...I get to decide...am I going to waste it by throwing away (actually nowadays...you could just compost) the portion that is left when I am full, or do I waste it inside my body. Now...when I am full, I'm done eating. Do I ever overeat? Yes, but not very often.
The battle of the bluge is always there my friends...I still choose what foods I use to get myself feeling full. At this point in my life...I'm trying to stay healthy and if I can get myself looking great too...all the better. For me it's health...not weight - muscle definition...not dress size. Time to get my exercise routine figured out.
8 comments:
Restaurant portions are ridiculously large here in America. I don't know about anywhere else. I can never fiinish it all when we go out to eat.
Just be glad all that food wasn't deep fat fried. I ate so many fish and chips on my mission (and fried pizza, cheeseburgers, and um, candy bars--ok, no DA gave those to us, but they are sooo good and sooo fattening!). I don't know if I have gotten rid of the little layer of fat that gave me.
I almost always save half my meal when we go out. Then I get to enjoy it again the next day!
Let us know what you do for exercise. I am much the same way in my focus (health over weight, etc) so I have never been really skinny or really fat. It has been nice. Now, when I'm pregnant it is another story. I am very looking forward to returning to a normal appetite and the ability to exercise.
Amen! Brandon and I share our meals at restaurants all the time now.
Our neighbors are Samoan and the phrase goes like this: "You don't eat until you are full, you eat until you are tired!" It's so hard to refuse food that's been prepared for you, so I can see how hard it would have been on your mission.
Health is so much more than just losing weight, for sure! In fact, I'm getting myself geared up to start an exercise routine I can work with soon. Muscle is important --especially for women over 30 --and I need to get me some more of it.
I'm glad my post inspired this post! Thank you!
Inspiring post. I need to figure out something that works for me too.
I was always incredibly grateful that we weren't allowed to eat with the members in my mission! Didn't keep me from gaining and losing weight on my mission, though. I'm just glad I was on the low end when going home time rolled around.
I've been working on losing weight recently--definitely have needed to since my oldest was born 3 years ago. I found a DVD that I LOVE called "Cardio Toning" by Gaiam. It was filmed at Sundance, UT, so you feel like you're working out in nature. It's 15-20 min. of straight low-impact cardio, with 15-20 min. of toning for the second half. Very few workout videos make me sweat that much! And, it's one that I love doing over and over again.
I hope you find something that works for you--especially for that darn hot summer down there.
I just had to laugh. . .I totally gained weight on my mission. I finally learned to say, "No, pero gracias" my last 4 months. . . No if I could just say that to chocolate now! :)
Ok, I just had to come back to tell you this. We had the missionaries over for dinner and I made a big pot of taco soup. One missionary was eating bowl after bowl and I could tell that the other missionary was full but didn't want to be rude. I told him it was perfectly fine for him to be full and he looked so relieved. So of course I had to tell them about this story. It led to a fun discussion about missions and food.
Post a Comment