I guess every 1st blog post needs to have some explanation of why I felt the need to start a blog. I thought that most everything I could think to post about could fit under 1 of the 4 categories of Faith, facts, food or feelings. I would like to help people, the bored readers that decide to stop by and read this blog, find some hope in their weight loss journey, faith journey, journey to discover facts (of which I know little) or get in touch with their feelings. Or maybe it will just be my journey to all of the above, either way, I thought this might be fun.
For my 1st post, I thought I would compare my 2 jobs, (a pastor and a weight watchers leader) I have thought a lot lately about how they have so much in common. A weight loss journey and a spiritual journey have many similarities. To list a few:
· Takes DAILY discipline of following specific rules and guidelines
· Changes come slower than you want
· You don’t have to be perfect to see results
· Sometimes you do the work but you don’t see the results you think you should
· Some people come to the meetings, invest their money, but don’t do the work during the week and are upset with me because things aren’t going like they think it should
· Some people start off with a great passion and then fall off the wagon, and then have to come back, because they know sticking with the program is the only thing that REALLY works
· People that come to the meetings, do the work during the week, stay accountable, keep themselves motivated, and want to be different see the most change
· When people begin to change, the others around them want to know what they have been doing to get such great results and they want to be changed too.
· A couple that comes together can change the destiny of their entire family and many generations to come
· If you get out of the habits you will slip back into old and bad behaviors quickly
· Instant gratification of momentary temptation can set you back and undo weeks of hard work and it takes weeks more to get back what that moment took from you
· Every group has at least 1 person per 10 you can’t make happy no matter what you do and they ain't gonna quit coming
I seriously could go on and on. Before I lost weight with Weight watchers I had never really tried to lose weight. I don’t have a story like MOST everyone that comes in the door. Many of the leaders and members weight loss story begins with “I have joined weight watchers _____ times” that blank ranges from 2-52. I, on the other hand joined WW in 2006, having never joined before and made my goal weight 2 yrs later. I had looked into a few other programs and WW was the only one that I thought I could live with, because you could eat whatever you wanted, to someone with serious control issues, this is great news. As sat in my meetings, listening to person after person say how they had gained their weight back after they got to their goal because they thought they could do it on their own I thought “I don’t want to be like that”. So I made the decision then that I was going to do whatever it took to not go back to where I started. I listened to my leader who said “if you want to stay at goal weight you have to weigh in EVERY MONTH without fail, and stay for the meeting” and I did just that. I also got a job with WW because they make you weigh in once a month to keep your job, you have to stay at your goal weight.
I say all of that not to brag on my weight loss journey, but to say that your spiritual journey has the SAME concepts!! You have to come to the meetings, you can’t go at it alone, you have to be accountable to someone or you are gonna slip back into old patterns and be back where you were 5 years ago or worse. I know by experience in my spiritual journey that there have been times, that I have chosen not to follow “the program” and instead think “ I can do my own thing” or “I got this, I know how this works, I don’t need the book” and fell flat on my face, more times than I can count. So I am determined this time to stick to the program, attend the meetings, invest my money, stay accountable (to the point of embarrassment) because I want the end results more than I want the temporary gratification of the temptation set before me. No matter how many times we have walked into the door of the church to say “I’m here to join, I’ve join _______ times before”, God is always there to welcome you back with open arms, and say, “I’m so glad you have decided to come back and join us!! We will get you to goal this time, and you will stick to it this time I just know it”.
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