My Thousand Word Picture

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Sometimes, those words can be very unkind.

On my 31st birthday (back on July 12th of this year), my good friend Coraleah offered to babysit and Brian and I went out for dinner to celebrate. I got her to take a few pictures of us, as pictures of just the two of us are so rare. The next day, I uploaded the pictures to our computer, as my intention was to upload them to this very blog on my next post. The picture never appeared on the blog.

I had known for some time that I needed to lose some weight. Most women struggle with their weight to at least a small degree after having a child or two, and I was no exception. Except, I knew this was much more than so-called "baby weight". God has blessed me with a body that is made to carry babies. The baby weight excuse didn't fly, and I knew it. My weight struggles started years before I even got married, much less had children! This was not baby weight, and I knew it. But I accepted it. I didn't like it, but I accepted it. I was in denial, thinking that it wasn't that bad, that you couldn't really tell that I was carrying an extra 15-20 pounds. I squeezed into my pre-Lynsey clothes and decided that no, it couldn't be that bad.

Enter my Thousand Word Picture.



I tried to crop this thing so that it looked nice. First I tried to cut out my tummy, but that wasn't enough. I had it cropped all the way to just our faces, and it STILL wasn't enough, because I had weight in my face, too! It was like a wake-up call - "Sarah, it's time to get moving and get back to where YOU KNOW you should be!".

And so I did.

I had been jogging about once a week in a semi-serious attempt to try and lose the weight, and I actually had at this point already lost about 5 pounds. However, this weight loss was totally stalled and I knew I needed to step it up, and I did. The biggest thing I did was start eating less. I re-trained myself on how to eat, and this was the single most important step I took. I read the book "Women Food and God" by Janine Roth, but to be honest, I wouldn't recommend it. It's kind of a weird book - she has some odd ideas. I'm still glad I read it, though, because what the book did was bring me back to the principles that I learned years ago when I read "The Weigh Down Solution" (I can't remember the author's name). It reminded me that food is just that - FOOD. It is not there to solve all my problems, to take away pain, to comfort me and be my companion. And so I started seeing food for what it was, and the weight loss began.

It's been three months months since that first picture was taken, and I'm down 13 pounds. The weight loss has been a bit stalled for the last three or four weeks (my goal is actually to go down another 3 pounds), but I have never felt better! We bought an elliptical machine, since the weather is turning and I don't jog in the cold (definitely not that hardcore!). Right now, I am working out 5 times a week and I feel fantastic. My muscles are getting stronger, my cardio improves daily, and I feel really good about myself. I don't know if I'll lose the last 3 pounds or not, but I am at the point now where I am not too worried about it.

I know weight is a superficial thing, and you should never place your self worth on how you look. This was something I had to do for ME, and becoming more active and eating better is an improvement that has helped me in all areas of my life. Really, the weight loss was just a side benefit:).

Brian took this picture of me yesterday. Like I said before, I'm still not at my ideal weight, but I can say for the first time in a long time that I'm happy with where I'm at. And like I also said before, that statement does not just refer to my weight:).