30 Days of Praise … Day 21 – Moderation

Welcome to “30 Days of Praise!” Every once in a while I go into a month long journey of fasting, praying and praising. It helps me re-commit my life to Christ, keep my priorities in order, slow down from the craziness of everyday life and take time to really listen to what God wants to tell me. I am always amazed and excited where my journey takes me, and this time I will be journaling everyday and sharing my experiences with you.

Day 21~
I posted on Monday that I wasn’t feeling great and didn’t get a lot done. It seems I have a summer cold, ugh. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great either. I just feel run down and am coughing up crud and sneezing a lot. Apparently my body doesn’t care for the weather to be 100 degrees one day and 60 the next.

On a more upbeat note, last Christmas I got on the scale and was almost 150 lbs. I know many of you are rolling your eyes at that, but for me that is the most I have ever weighed and I knew if I kept up with my bad habits that number would keep going up. Dustin and I both started watching what we eat. I did great for the first 3-4 months, but my stomach was too sensitive to all those veggies and I was sick all the time. I decided that I had to work harder to choose foods that were not only healthy, but digestible. This was no easy task, believe me. But I also gave up some of my bad habits like eating late at night. I still snack, but not everyday and not all day. Instead I try to make meals. I usually only cook for myself during the day so it’s easy to just grab a sandwich or a bowl of cereal (sound familiar mom?) I also used the web-site Spark People to aid me. It is a FREE program that helps you track your progress, has some great tools to use, tons of tips and articles, and you can even talk to friends on there and encourage each other! If you want to be my friend on Spark People my user name is SJJELLYBEAN. You can view my page HERE.

So I said all that to say this, I was able to wear a size 6 yesterday for the first time in 3 years. I am so excited that I am not only healthier but I am also eating foods that my body is happy to process, which means I am not sick to my stomach all the time. I still would like to lose about 5 more lbs to get down to 132, which is a good weight for me. But I am happy where I am at and it’s so rewarding to see all my hard work pay off.

I actually let myself have the junk food that it desires, but only on a limited basis. This seems to keep my “cheating” to a minimum and I do better. Moderation in all things is the key.

Philippians 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

Moderation – MODERA’TION, n. [L. moderatio.] The state of being moderate, or of keeping a due mean between extremes or excess of violence.

1. Restraint of violent passions or indulgence of appetite. Eat and drink with moderation; indulge with moderation in pleasures and exercise.

What area’s do you struggle with Moderation? Are you able to show self control?