Today would have been my brother's 40th birthday, he died in a car accident when he was 13. It's hard to imagine him at 40 and what he might have been like. Using food to cope with grief/emotions/stress has always been been a huge part of my life. Previously days of grief or sad days for me used to literally mean staying in bed all day, watching TV, and eating junk food.
Learning to not turn to food on days like today has been one of the most challenging parts of staying on track long term. It still takes a lot of effort to remind myself that food isn't actually going to make me feel better or take away any of the pain. Instead of turning to food I try to focus on the memories, rest, spend time with my family. I focus on my one non-negotiable thing and get through the day however I can.
Not every day is going to be perfect...we live in the real world and unfortunately that means we sometimes have to deal with some pretty painful stuff. Make a plan for how you will avoid giving into temptations when life gets hard.
Yesterday we surprised the kids and brought home a puppy!! They have been begging for one for years and we felt like the time was right to bring one home.
Meet Angus 🐕 He's a Golden Retriever/King Charles Cavalier Spaniel mix. He's 11 weeks old and currently weighs about 8 pounds, he should be around 35 pounds fully grown. I know it will be an adjustment for a while as he gets potty trained etc but we are so excited. 😂 Wish us luck! 🤪
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
Happy Friday!! I am going to get a 90 min massage today for my birthday (my first one this long). Very exciting for the relaxation and to have all the knots worked out of my sore muscles. The rest of the weekend we don't have many plans other than church and just hanging out at home with Angus.
How is your week going? Are you anticipating any temptations this weekend? Think through all your encounters this weekend and create a plan (and a back up plan) for how you are going to handle them to stick to your health goals!
What are your plans for the weekend?
I've been dealing with a cold the past few days. It was pretty bad for a day or two, stuffy nose, cough and feeling drained. Two rough days and I'm almost back to 100 percent already. I can't remember the last time I was sick. Covid for sure in late 2020. Maybe a short sniffle cold every couple years since. Of course it's N=1 but I feel like the diet helps a lot. It doesn't mean we'll never get sick, but hopefully rare and quick when we do.
Do you find you're sick less often? Anyone get sick as soon as they stray?