Stop the Insanity!

re·lapse

• (of someone suffering from a disease) Suffer deterioration after a period of improvement
• A deterioration in someone's state of health after a temporary improvement
  Return to (a less active or a worse state)
• go back to bad behavior
• backsliding: a failure to maintain a higher state

I think we would be hard pressed to find someone who has attempted to lose weight and not, at some point, experienced relapse. It is a HUGE deal and it must be addressed. Because if we can beat relapse, we can win at losing!

There are clear-cut steps that can be taken to prevent a relapse. Here they are:

1. Recognize
2. Accept
3. Avoid

Learn to Recognize Our Vulnerability
This is the "work" part of it. We have to be on the constant lookout for traps and temptations. At first this will be tough because it might take a relapse actually happening in order to recognize it. But when it does, write it down. The most effective way I have found to identify the root of temptation is to find patterns. Is the stumble always happening at the same place? With the same people? At the same time? Under the same circumstances? It's probably not about the food at all, but rather a situational trigger.

One pattern that I recognized early on is that every time I go to my parents' house (where I grew up) I am tempted. It is a conditioned response for me--every time I walk in the door I go straight to the pantry and then to the fridge. Rinse and repeat until I leave...And when I finally leave I am a mess because of everything I ate.

Accept Our Vulnerability
Was it easy to accept that going to my childhood home was going to be a problem for me? No. Was is easy to accept that restaurants cause me major problems? No. Was it easy to accept that one of my all time favorite things to do, Christmastime baking, leads me down a very dark path? No. Was it easy to accept that watching TV breeds inactivity and hinders my ability to care for the people I love? No. This is the hardest part. I love going to my parents' house and I thoroughly enjoy eating out. Baking brings joy to my soul and watching TV is relaxing. I could easily say that these things are part of "who I am" and I'm not willing to give them up or compromise where they are concerned. Indeed, I did just that for many years. But look where that got me. It wasn't until I chose to ACCEPT my vulnerabilities that I could deal with them.

Avoid Our Vulnerability
This is the part that is hard to swallow. This may mean completely avoiding certain acquaintances, places, and events because of the overwhelming temptation that accompanies them. Being alone at my parents' house is one thing I never do anymore. There was a period of time that I never went to a restaurant. Family's going? Not me. (I have developed some more self-control in this area now, so I do eat out more, but I still struggle) Eliminating something that has been a huge part of our life is difficult.

However, it doesn't always have to be an elimination. Perhaps rehearsing the way you'd like to see things play out would help. Or choosing a place to eat that has a healthy option you like. Maybe you could find a new route home that doesn't go past the Taco Bell. It takes some thought, some time and some determination, but we can save ourselves from falling back into the pit. We have to take responsibility and ownership of this process and make it work for us!

This little saying has meant so much to me: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got!" In other words, you can't keep living life the exact same way and expect to see different results. This is INSANITY!

Stop it.

Some ideas expressed in this post are adapted from the First Place 4 Health book, Simple Ideas for Healthy Living, article entitled "Relapse Prevention."

The Burn

They say that during exercise, when it burns is when your body is changing the most. I try to think of that in the midst of my pain and wind sucking and many times I am able to push even harder. Yea me!

But let me tell you about the "burn" that is even harder for me to push through. The burn of temptation.

It's the burn of wanting a piece of fudge so bad I could bite my thumb off. It's the burn of seeing a Taco Bueno and literally feeling the force of gravity pulling my car into the drive thru. It's the burn of wanting to eat the 3 nuggets my kid left on his plate. It's the burn of wanting to eat a piece of enriched flour, chewy white bread (you know the kind that sticks to the roof of your mouth) with a monstrous slather of peanut butter at 11:30 at night.

You want to talk about burn? THAT'S what I call burn.

But it just dawned on me that I could apply the same principle regarding "exercise burn" to "temptation burn." Pushing through the burn of temptation and allowing the the moment to pass by...that is when my MIND changes the most.

When I am able to step outside of myself and see the burn for what it really is--an opportunity for personal growth--then I can push through. By doing this I prove to myself that even though it hurts like heck, I CAN do it.

Each time I do it, it makes the next temptation burn a little less. And a little less. And I suspect that pretty soon I may not even notice the burn.

Just as a trainer encourages the athlete to push through the burn, so shall He encourage me:

1 Corinthians 10:13 (New International Version)
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (The Message)
No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

I have yet to resist a food temptation and regret it. TRUST that you will be okay. Next time you are feeling the temptation burn, remember that your mind is being transformed and that is awesome.

I'm Giving You Permission

After recently experiencing a death in our family, I have been thinking a lot about eternity. On the day I accepted Christ as my Savior, my eternal life began. If you are not a Christian, keep reading because this post applies to everyone. Promise...

I am living out my eternity RIGHT NOW. In the moment that I die, I am still going to be alive. More alive than ever before, actually. So what the Bible tells us is that we don't have to wait to get to heaven to start living out our eternity. We are living it right now.

I was thinking about how closely this concept can be related to those who have committed to a new way of living. A healthy lifestyle, if you will.

Once the decision is made, and continues to be made on a daily basis, you have changed the person that you are. Even though the physical body is not a perfect reflection of that, it really doesn't matter. What is in your head and flows out through your actions--that is what matters.

I feel like I want to give permission to all of you people out there (I've already given it to myself) who are trying so hard to achieve a healthy weight to consider yourself the "new you" RIGHT NOW. We don't have to wait until the scale is flashing our goal weight to proclaim that we are a different person. A changed person. A better person than we were before.

We don't have to wait until we are that perfect size [fill in the blank] to purchase new clothing or invent a new look for ourselves. We don't have to wait until we can run a 5K at lightening speed to enter a race. We don't have to wait until we meet the worldly standard of looking good to accept WHO WE ARE and who we are becoming...

Accept yourself--today.

Love yourself--today.

Pamper yourself--today.

Be proud of yourself--today.

Once you have made the change on the inside--truly have--that is when the rest of your life begins. Today really can be the first day of the rest of your life! You don't have to wait to celebrate that.

Down But Not Out

What is up with all the "down" attitudes around the blogosphere this week? I thought it was just me, but I have read blog after blog of peeps who are super frustrated and having a hard time. I haven't posted about it much, but I have felt myself slipping a time or two in the past few days. I am starting to lose the fire I began with. Why is this happening to us? WHY?!!

I had time to think while I was perusing aisles at the supermarket tonight and it hit me. Biggest Loser fans--you will get this. We are at the point in the show where one of the super heavy-weights is holding onto the rails of the treadmill. Pretty soon Bob comes up to tell them to get their blankety-blank hands off the blankety-blank treadmill. Then the person says they can't. They start to cry. Bob laughs in their face and hurls a few more obscenities their way...

But underneath it all--the spitting, the cursing, the rage--what Bob is really trying to say is: DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP.

This is when they... I... YOU have always given up before. Am I right? This is when it isn't new anymore. Going to workout doesn't have quite the same appeal it did. It is getting harder. The pounds aren't melting off and it's just not as rewarding as it used to be. This is the crossroads we all come to and we have to make a choice.

This time I say we make a different choice. We have to. Do whatever you need to do. Cry, scream, eat a gallon of ice cream (okay, maybe don't do that) but whatever you do, when you are done doing it--choose to press on. There is a prize to be had and I, for one, have never gone far enough to reach it. This time I am. I SO am.

Are you?