24 Day Challenge Operation Success!

Now that my bad mood has passed, my house and I are on speaking terms again. My 24 day challenge technically ended on March 23rd. In my mind, we were going to throw a foodie party and eat like it was, well... 2011! I am one who criticizes myself to no end, but rarely complements myself. With this challenge, I truly believe G-d's hand was in all of this. His timing was just perfect. I had no idea how hard this was going to be. It CHALLENGED me in a way I was unprepared for. Most of the time when you hear of someone facing an addiction, they find it seems to reveal and magnify other issues to a huge degree. Boy, it did that and then some! Before doing this, I would have to say I was feeling the closest to the Lord than I have in years. Seth was just blown away by my calm demeanor. I felt I was finally becoming the person that I have longed to be, full patience, self control, well you get the picture. I prayed for a challenge to see if I could continue to follow Him without freaking out, and then this came about. I figured, piece of cake (or in my case piece of cheese!) no problem, got this in the bag. I was figuring this would be like a total body and soul makeover and it would be no problem. Well.... it didn't quite go like that. I felt like a caged lion that hadn't eaten in years, my anger, depression, self loathing, etc (yes, sadly there is more, I am a work in progress) began to surface by 100%. I had people praying for me and even some excellent cheer leaders encouraging me every day. Yet I felt I had been dragged down to the miry clay and was completely stuck. I began to hate eating and you'd think I'd be happy about that, but that wasn't the case. I just love food. It makes life fun! When you eat good food, you are normally surrounded by the ones you love and it's like a mini party! I prayed and prayed. I still stuck with it, even though I was beyond miserable. I am sure I made my poor family miserable. I even thought of ways of sneaking a little bit of this or that, but quickly realized, no one would care, except for me. So after several mini break downs and even a couple times where Seth said I should just let it go, I continued. Then when Grandma passed away, my Mom asked me to set it aside. I needed to not be focused on anything but family, and I agreed. We had to go to Wisconsin to go to the funeral and so the meant a lot of picking things up to eat. My anxiety started to get the best of me. That is where G-d showed me that I had taken one obsession and turned it into another. I went from eating to make myself feel better, to watching everything I ate to make myself feel better. I was so afraid that I would be failure that I didn't know what to do. I wasn't fully surrendering to G-d. I was feeling the need to control instead of releasing control. I finally came to the conclusion that this would be the ultimate test, could I fall off the horse and get back on. So we went, and I ate. Do you know what happened? In less than 24 hours, I blew up like a puffer fish. Seth and I were stunned at how quickly it happened. I wasn't eating a ton, apparently when your body goes with sodium and than you add it (especially by food cooked in restaurants) look out Good Year!! Not only that, but I started to not feel very good. I ended up getting a stomach bug, which for all I know could have been because of the food? It was awful. As soon as I came home, I dusted myself off and got back on the horse, gladly. After all my moaning and groaning would I still recommend doing something like this, Yes. I didn't do well with the supplements because of a couple of ingredients that literally had me running up and down the block at 3 in the morning. Everything else, it did what they said it would do. It cut my cravings. Instead of pigging out, I drink water or tea and then decided if I am still hungry. I plan on sticking to it for the most part, except adding in my dairy and complex carbs. Goodbye enriched flour, my thighs will not miss you. I have now become a label reader (sigh) as I thought I would never do it. I am also allowing myself the grace of having treats every now and again, as I do not want to create a new bondage. I still have to be careful what I eat though, as I seem to easily get sick if it's not good for me. G-d saw me through this. I reached my 1st goal of 10 pounds! Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day. I find myself trying to create new and exciting healthy menus, and that actually has been pretty fun. My kids are eating fruits and veges in a larger abundance, and we have even gotten them to eat less carbs (kids still need to be kids). We exercise and even Isaiah, who we couldn't get him to run for his own life, is now bounding around with energy. My pants no longer yell at me. I don't have to worry about them exploding in the store with one wrong move. In fact, I now find myself hiking them up because they are loose. I haven't bought any new clothes, since I want to see if I really can stick with this and a new season is upon us anyway. Looking better is a plus, but the biggest thing I am looking forward to, is getting my labs drawn. My Triglyceride levels were, I kid you not, in the 300's. My cholesterol was terrible, and so I am hoping that there will be a positive change. With all the blood pressure and heart disease issues in our family, I don't want to take that chance. I saw my Grandma struggling to breathe and I don't want that happen to me. I want to be around to see my great grand children. This is still a challenge for me, each day I have to assess my emotions and really examine what and why I am eating. Last night I had one slice of cheese pizza and that was enough. Then I went on to finish my meal with healthy alternatives to fill me up. It was exciting! Seth and I have really realized how much our kids watch us and we are their examples. I hate fruit and Seth hates vegetables. We both had to begin to eat both to show them that they should too. It worked. So now the latest thing we are giving up is pork. We decided that bacon and sometimes ham are a big temptation. Besides, Jesus didn't eat pork, so why not give it a whirl?! I forgot how many things are made with pork, such as pepperoni, meatballs, etc.. But the bacon, oh how the smell wafts through and smells so yummyliscious. Plus it is so salty and I love salt!! Sometimes I think, what have I gotten myself into? So that is being tacked on to our latest challenge, no pork. As annoying as they are, the little challenges are just that, a challenge. There is nothing more exciting than accomplishing something you never thought you could do. We are trying to teach Isaiah that not everything is going to be easy. When you accomplish something that is difficult the more joy that comes from it. I guess I needed to learn that lesson again, for myself. I also feel by facing this trial has made me even closer to G-d. I substituted food to help me through the hard times, instead of going to Him. He is my comfort and that's how it should be. So that's where I am at. There are worse problems in this world that are going on, so this may seem ridiculous. But it was something I needed to deal with and I am glad I have. I have set another goal of losing a few more pounds. I have no desire to be super skinny, just healthy. I am hoping with more exercise, I'll be able to have more energy. I still haven't had much progress in that department. With G-d's grace I will get there, one day at a time. What about you? Do you have any hidden addictions? Food? Shopping? TV? Sports? I challenge you to take whatever it is, and see if you can taper it back for 24 days, I know you can do it!