I got home last night and after chatting with a dear friend, thought I needed to post today and do a bit of confession. I need to confess that I indulged a bit too much in one particular toxin this weekend...and his name is pinot grigio...I didn't include that in my blog yesterday because I don't think it's a bad thing to let loose and enjoy life. But, when I am trying to watch my calories, my indulgences need to be few and far between. Which leads me to this question....
Why am I so bad at celebrating without completely indulging myself?
I mean if I only "celebrated" at Christmas and my birthday, I would be money. But literally, there is some sort of celebration every week of my life! Either someone's birthday, an out of town friend who is visiting, a big game, a random holiday....whatever. And for some reason, I can't keep myself from just throwing everything out the window for the sake of celebration. I wanted to share this because I want to as honest on this as I can. I want everyone that reads this (all 5 of you-one of which being my mom:)- to know I am walking in this journey honestly. And I also want to know if any of you struggle with this mindset as well. I don't think I used to struggle this bad with celebrating (I want to clarify that by celebration, I am not only talking about alcohol- I mean food! queso, chips, burgers...all of it!). I guess this is just one of those cases where we ask the Lord for grace and for discipline. And create good habits. I guess it's at least good that I recognize this. Ha. I should rename my blog "grace" because that is pretty much the main ingredient to this journey.
Thanks for walking with me. I really am learning so much!
Here is my meal plan for today:
Breakfast:
Banana (I have not been starving in the mornings lately)
Snack:
Honey crisp apple and almonds
Lunch:(same as yesterday and so yummy)
3 oz of grilled chicken
1/2 baked acorn squash
1 cup steamed broccoli ( i like ketchup on my broccoli. i know, don't judge me. It is SO good.)
Snack: Veggies and 1/4 cup of hummus
Dinner: grilled portobello mushroom
baked sweet potato
spinach salad with bell peppers, mushrooms and kalamata olives
Dessert:
grapefruit
Love you guys! Happy and healthy love!
I feel ya, sister. I struggle with the same things. Everything is a celebration and a cause for dessert or "bad" food. No food is really bad, it's the quantity etc. But still. I need to find a way to celebrate that doesn't involve food. And I've found that I live better when I cut certain foods out all together. Sugar is my nemesis. I have cut it out, but thought: "Oh I'll have 1 day a week where I can have it." That day was Sunday, and I went absolutely bonkers. So now I'm going to try "one day a week I can have one sugar thing" because it seems to trigger and collapse into unhealthy eating. argh. Why is it so hard. It should be so simple. I tend to think that some people struggle with drugs or alcohal, and I struggle with food. Sigh. Thanks for being honest. You're not alone. :)
ReplyDeleteWhit,
ReplyDeleteI too struggle with celebration. Celebration is an excuse for me to be a glutton - plain & simple. I am a glutton. What's hard about celebration is that we have so much to celebrate as Xians. We should be a joy filled, celebrating people. We are accepted as gluttons, so shouldn't we celebrate. The question becomes for us, how do we celebrate and not be gluttonous in our celebrating. And I'm not quite sure. We do walk in grace, praising God that He loves us as gluttons. We should pray for the Spirit to produce in us self-control. And I think we should think of the good life. What is the good life? Is it us stuffing our faces with rich, pleasing food? Or is it be satisfied with good things and giving good things to others. We must think on what version of the good life we are buying when we over-celebrate. We also need to practice things that help ingrain in us this vision of the good life. Practicing embodied things, physical things. So, shredding it with Jillian, is one practice that produces in us that vision of the good like we seek. What are other practices that form Christ in us that are real tangible things, not things out there in idea land. Maybe working regularly with those who over-celebrate, the addict among us and working with those who have no resources to celebrate, the broken among us. These practices may help us bring celebration into it's right standing. Also I think we must live in the Gospel and allow it to be our security and motivation. The Gospel gives us a good conscience. Sin can no longer condemn. It's power is cut off. We are still gluttons, but we can't be condemned as gluttons. This allows us to confess that we are what we are, which is what you are doing here, and in this confession there is freedom to be real with others and be real with God! So, to all us over-celebrators, rest in the Gospel, which gives us something to really celebrate.
Not that I talked long enough already or anything, but here's quote Keller uses in one of his books, it's from de Tocqueville:
ReplyDelete"a strange melancholy that haunts the inhabitants in the midst of abundance, because the incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy the human heart."
Keller adds we take some incomplete joy of this world and build our entire lives around it. Food and over-celebrating is an incomplete joy, and we feel this strange melancholy in the aftermath of over-celebration, because we have failed to find what we sought in food.
I know this gets to the heart of my problem, I hope it encourages you and all 5 readers. :)
I struggle with this a lot too. I do great at being healthy during the week, but when the weekend rolls around and I'm surrounded by my friends I just can't help myself. I say "It's just one day, I'll make up for it". I am trying to start thinking of it in worse terms (i.e. I wouldn't smoke 20 cigarettes in a day, so why am I allowing myself to have days where I consume 4,000 calories in various foods in beverages?)
ReplyDeleteI am working on inviting God back in to my life as more than just an after though so it was really nice reading this blog and these comments :)