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Day 7: Starting Over With a New Diet

31 Days of Starting OverGood Morning!  It’s Monday, again.  How many times have we started a new diet or even the same one again on Monday?  For me, it’s approximately 1,642 times.  It was in April of 1982 when I started my first diet. From that time until now there have been about 1,642 Monday’s.  I can choose to look at this one of two ways.

  1. That’s a whole lot of failure, or
  2. At least I’ve eaten right and exercised for 2-3 days per week for 1,642 weeks in my life.
I thought I was fat in this picture.
I thought I was fat in this picture.

A New Diet every Monday

I wish I could say with confidence that those numbers are enough to be healthy. Unfortunately, I cannot.  If I multiply 5 days per week times 1,642 weeks of poor choices, I get 8,210 days of my life spent building bad habits. Bad habits such as:

  • No exercise, because I’m too busy with other things that have nothing to do with my health.
  • Not drinking water, because I don’t like it.
  • Drinking sugary drinks, instead.
  • Eating fast food.
  • Snacking on sugary foods.
  • Snacking on salty foods.
  • Making food the focus at most special occasions. We southerners are good at that.
  • Not listening to doctors who advise me to make changes.
  • Ignoring the fact that clothes are continuing to go up in size. It’s an excuse to shop – surely that counts as exercise.
  • Watching the numbers on the scales escalate with the excuse that I’ll start my diet on Monday.
  • Not working discipline into my daily checklist.
  • Loving food more than I love my body – that’s pretty easy when you’ve allowed your body to morph into applesauce.
Me, Kristie & Kellie. This was not a Monday.
Me, Kristie & Kellie. This was not a Monday.

So, there must be a third way to look at this without getting depressed. What is it?

3. At least I’ve never given completely up and I’m still here.

What if every single day were like this writing goal?  I’ve committed to write every day in October about starting something over.  What if every day of the week was my Monday?  I’ll start my “better health focus” every day of the week.  This brings a verse to mind:

22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3)

It makes me so thankful that HE is so merciful.  I have not been merciful to my body, and I’ve had no compassion for its state of health.  My bad habits should have consumed me and made my days on this earth shorter.  But HIS compassions fail not and HIS faithfulness is great.  So, with HIS strength, I will commit for the rest of the month of October that every day will be a “new morning” and a new Monday for my health.

Today, I am 5 pounds lighter than I was last Monday.  I have only one recipe to review this week.

New Diet
Shrimp Scampi

This was a good dish, but not as good as the “real” scampi with lots of butter.  The whole dish only had 3 tablespoons of butter.  But, with a loss of 5 pounds, I’ll deal with less butter.

It’s been suggested that I include recipes in these posts.  Let me know your thoughts.

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