Week Three.  NO weight lost.  Initially I felt saddened by this.  But as someone accurately told me once, "Your results are based on your effort.  If you kinda track what you eat, you'll kinda lose!"  Ain't that the truth?  I've kinda tried this week.  Kinda.  Yeah, not really ... :)

The truth?  I've been lazy.  I've been focusing on the end result: 30 pounds.  The immediate goal seems just as far away: 10 pounds (at which point I allow myself some quality walking shoes).  In reality, I'd be wiser to make daily goals.  Walk 20 minutes.  Do yoga.  Track what I eat.  Go to bed without heartburn! (Haha! Now there's a challenge!) ... All of this brings to mind spiritual habits.  What are my spiritual "goals" and how are those goals exhibited by the habits I cultivate?  They seem like the same old ones, the ones I always feel spark into a small fire, but then let fall by the wayside soon after:
* Memorize Scripture
* Spend time in prayer (not just over a meal, but on-my-face-PRAY!)
* Relinquish some gnarly scars inflicted by others to the healing of Christ's forgiveness
* Seek to relinquish my desires for anything but Christ TO Christ
Every goal, "spiritual" or "weight-ly", should go back to the qualifying question for all motives:
* Does this glorify Christ?
* Is it FOR Christ?
* Is it ABOUT Christ?  
If the answer is no, how can I allow the Holy Spirit to bring it back around to the glory of the Lord and His name?

This week's goal? Memorize/meditate on a verse for the week.  Walk for 20 minutes each day (or some continuous effort).  Track each day. And, HOPEFULLY, lose ONE POUND!  The end result?  To cultivate the discipline Christ wants me to have in order to uphold the spiritual habits that will glorify Him!

There are weeks that make you ecstatic.  There are weeks that exhaust you.  There are weeks when we feel stretched and rather Gumby-like.  With God in our lives, we don't stretch to the point where the rope breaks, but we stretch enough that it can feel as if it frays at the edges.  We stretch and fray enough that a loving God can mend and weave it all back together.

At the end of this second week of habit changes, I realized that dieting had quickly taken the back burner.  My initial quick desire to overcome has faded to the plodding routine of the unexcited dieter.  Many things took the back burner this week as once again Mom and I were thrown into a holding pattern over a medical airfield, the runway just foggy enough to make the destination murky ...

Let's clarify.  I didn't realize how far from my mind making good food choices had been until I stepped on the scale this morning.  By God's grace alone, I didn't gain!  But I didn't lose, either.  Here's to a renewed energy for losing 30 before 30!

But the whole standing-in-front-of-the-mirror-in-the-underoos thing hit me full force when I took a good look at the body staring back at me.  Last year, no stretch marks.  This year, more stretch marks that I care to admit.  BUT - a mere 6 pound weight loss has brought about the retreat of one of those nasty blemishes!

And the thought of a stretch mark vanishing brought this verse to mind, bringing this week full circle: "Behold, I (God) have engraved you (Jerusalem) on the palms of my hands" (Is. 49:16).  If God feels this way about Israel (and Jerusalem specifically), a nation that has loved-and-run so often (as we all do!), how much more will God engrave ME upon the palms of His hands?  He DIED for me and loves me!  These marks on His hands (the scars of the nails AND the engraving of names) - are INDELIBLE.  Those are marks that WILL NEVER FADE!  This reminder - brought about by rude stretch marks - will stick with me as we venture forth into another week of unsure medical diagnoses and tedious tests.  No matter the outcome, I and Mom are written on God's palms!

Each morning I start a new food journal entry on my phone.  The button is labeled "new day".  Isn't that beautiful?  It's an occasion of serendipity by the app's publishers, I'm sure.  However, it's meaningful to me that each day I can awake and hit "new day" and be reminded that - it's REALLY a NEW day!  (Occasionally I break into song, like Jennifer Hudson in the Weight Watchers' commercial.  Be very glad you can't hear me!) ... It makes me think of sunburns.  The last time I had a sunburn, I was miserable and nauseated and regretting my time in the sun.  If a sunburn lasted forever, how awful would that be?  God, in His mercy, made skin to regenerate.  God, also in His mercy, made the sun to set and rise again.  Earth dynamics play a role; sure.  But truly - I think it has more to do with hope.  Awakening to a rising sun so that we realize: today is a new day and there is fresh hope!  There are different decisions to be made and grace to be grasped.  The same is true with weight loss!  There are different (eating/exercising) decisions to be made and grace (when I fail OR when I succeed) to be grasped.

So ... drumroll please ... WEEK ONE IS COMPLETE!  I considered obedience and discipline this week more than I have in quite a while.  And the Lord allowed me to identify emotional eating triggers.  That alone makes it successful week! Now add to that the drop of 6 pounds and I'm feeling mighty fine!  But again - tomorrow's a new day.  Let's be sure to rejoice in the LORD and allow HIM to direct this path!

P.S.  Ever try to find a 6 pound weight to photograph?  Yeah.  Not so easy.