Just Because....

 Breakfast is included in the price of rooms at Heritage Inn

this weekend.

 Just look at all the things we don't have to eat just because they're available!

 (I STILL have a hard time remembering it's not necessary to eat things

 just because they're offered, are part of the package price, 

 or even because they are healthier than other choices!

Plain and simply, my "window" for eating is not open.

Seeds of discipline produce a harvest of strength. Keep planting them daily.

(from Motivation to Live Well in my sidebar).

Hope & Help for the Holidays

The "title" of my blog REALLY comes into play during the Holiday Season, I'm noticing!

Each of the three words/concepts seems to take on a WHOLE 'nother dimension when sharing the house and mealtimes with additional people - of all ages, sizes, needs and preferences.  For today, I'm working on LOVE while giving up some POWER
 and maintaining SELF-CONTROL. 
(Can anyone relate????)

This is challenging,

but I can and WILL do it

with the help of God.

Holiday Appetites

In anonymous: Jesus' hidden years and yours, by Alicia Britt Chole, these words grabbed me last night as I read them.  How I needed them!  Particularly in this holiday season with its appeal to my appetite!

The second thieving rationalization that causes us to underestimate temptation in the area of appetite...says, It is better than...

In this lie, we abdicate our responsibility to discipline our appetite by convincing ourselves that what we are doing is the "lesser of two evils."  So we listen in silence to a slanderous rumor, but at least we did not start it.  We punish someone repeatedly in our thoughts, but at least we are not doing it with our fists.  We fantasize about impurity privately, but at least we are not engaging in it physically.

This kind of reasoning almost makes it seem as though we are doing God a favor by sinning, as though he should be satisfied or even proud that we are not doing something worse.  But when tempted in the layer of appetite, the question we need to ask ourselves is not, What is this better then?  but "What is this feeding?"  Whatever we feed will live to tempt us another day.

How ABOUT that last line?  

Whatever we feed will live to tempt us another day.

By the way, the FIRST "thieving rationalization" is 

"it is just until....."

as if today doesn't really count or that we will deal with the issue later.

"Today always counts," she writes.

"If we fail to deal with issues today, they will deal with us tomorrow."

Scaling Back

 Yesterday I wore the SAME skirt I was wearing in the sidebar picture a few years ago.

That was one of my goals, and I've achieved it.

Today (and the past week or so) the challenge to live 

with intention and will to eat well and wisely looms large!

VERY large.

I am leaning heavily on my bathroom scale

to keep me on track while everything around me says,

"Take!  Eat!"

(Weren't those the words of the serpent to Eve in the garden????)

So for awhile, I will weigh daily while rejoicing in the freedom and success that

Fast-5 eating has brought to me in 2012.

How are YOU doing?

A recent splurge - and dream come true!

Let the Good Times Roll!

The first of several Christmas parties and events happened last week.  We enjoyed a buffet meal and Christmas show at Bear Creek Farms (outside of Geneva, IN).   The weather was beautiful; we strolled outside and around gift shops, etc. between meal and show.

Once again, the Fast-5 eating plan was PERFECT for the day.  I simply switched snack and meal, enjoying a couple slices of a pear earlier in the afternoon and eating small portions of most anything I wanted at buffet-time!  I chose an apple/walnut dessert with a scoop of vanilla icecream on top to finish the meal.

I LOVE this season and, thanks to a decision last February, I can fit into several outfits hanging in my closet waiting for festive occasions such as these!

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