Wibbly Wobbly Weightloss
I was so hoping this would be the week I could post my third picture showing the loss of the next ten pounds of fat. (I am posting a picture every ten pounds I lose, so I can look back). I was convinced it would be this week, but alas I’m not quite there yet. I am still not doing anything bar cutting out sugar, and just really trying to listen to what my body needs and very, very gradually the weight has been coming off. It is a much slower weight loss than when I would try to ‘diet’. I am trying really hard to keep my mindset out of the whole ‘lose ten pounds in ten days’ type mentality that one sees plastered over magazines. Instead I am telling myself that it took a few decades to put on all this weight and it is very likely to take a good few years to reduce it enough to finally be a healthy weight.
I am surprised by the natural fluctuations in weight I have seen even though I have not fluctuated at all in my new and improved gastronomical habits. When I look back over my dieting lifetime I can see I told myself so many untruths; I remember thinking of myself as either being ‘good’ or ‘bad’. What an enormous amount of negative pressure I put on myself! Well no more. I have actual conversations with myself (yes, I too am not sure I should admit to that!), especially on those days I feel like I look rubbish. I tell myself it is only a matter of time. Little by little, I shall become the woman I was always meant to be. I do not allow myself any negativity at all about how I look or my worth as a person.
It is incredible to me that something I have battled with my entire life, God is sorting out right now with such ease. I know a lot of my readers are Christian. Please, if there is anything you struggle with, hand it over to God and stand back and wait. He will sort it. And you will have victory.
Loving on my children
I was sat on my chair watching my children the other day playing on the floor. They weren’t doing anything special but a wave of deep love came over me. I told the children in that moment just how much I loved them, how much I enjoyed them and how proud I was of them. I was surprised by how much it obviously meant to them. Now I tell them all I love them multiple times daily, yet in that moment I could tell they were still chuffed. These teens of ours need to be told how special they are. They need to know we are proud parents. They need to know that to us, their parents, there is nothing more special or important as they are.
I love being the mother of teens. I have loved every age, but this is definitely my favourite. We have an awful lot of fun together, teasing each other, joking, conversing, discussing….It is a privilege to be part of their world. These incredible human beings, standing at the beginning of their adult life, are impassioned about the smallest thing. There is no such thing as a vague thought or opinion about anything. Everything matters. Their energy is like nothing else. Their hearts are so untroubled and still completely in tact. Life is such a joy for them, even though they are still navigating the often tumultuous waters of adolescent; it is all one big adventure.
My son has been reading ‘Do Hard Things’ by Brett and Alex Harris. This is an excellent book about choosing to go against the norm of teenagerdom – to instead make a decision to do hard things, to not go with peer pressure but to focus on where you are, where you want to go and how to get there. It is about putting God first, and being willing to be used by God in amazing ways by being available. T13 has been appalled by what the authors present as society’s view of teenagers and made a very valid point that if little is expected of them, society should not be surprised when teens deliver just that.
I am pleased that as parents we have high expectations of our teens, and whilst they may not always meet those high expectations ( 🙂 ), they do always try. They know they have an important role to play in God’s world. It is not that one day they will be important, it is that they are important right now. I remember the surgeon asking me, as he removed the melanoma from my leg, why on earth we would want to bring five children into a world as evil as this one. My answer was the same back then as it is now. We bring them into the world to make a positive difference. Every child in this world is an enormous ball of potential, who can make a difference in the world for good or for bad. I am excited about the future. It is such an honour to be (even a small) part of the process which grows boys into men and girls into women.