~ Accountability ~

I started another blog. It is about my weight-loss journey. It is private because I'm not too sure that I want to be that vulnerable, yet. I use it to get my ideas down and as a resource to look back upon.

I have struggled in my mind about my weight and body image ever since I delivered Shiloh. It's not so much that I think that I am fat. I just compare myself to what I used to be and to what I know that I can be. I have tried and failed MANY times. Thus making me feel more defeated. Then I would turn to food to comfort me. And the cycle continued.

I've also made many excuses. My favorite excuse is that I'm nursing. Which is true and I have to take in a certain amount of calories to maintain a healthy supply of milk. But I was taking in way too many.

My help and my key to success is Kim...my accountability partner. Kim and I have been friends for a long time. Her family used to attend our church. She and her mother teach at my kids' school (which reminds me of a funny story that I will tell at the end). She is a wife and mom. She is a strong, Christian woman and I am forever blessed to be her friend.

When I joined to gym I knew that she still had a membership. So we made a deal to workout together when our schedules allowed, which was once or twice a week. About a month ago I approached her about holding me accountable in diet and exercise. She agreed and we decided to wait until after the holidays. Yes it fell around New Years and resolution time, but that was just a coincidence.

We have begun. We are counting calories and doing a food journal. We are exercising 2 times a week together, and then the rest of the time on our own. We are setting goals like doing a 5K, treating ourselves to a night at the Fox, or a shopping trip.

Now that I have an accountability partner I wonder how anybody could lose weight, or accomplish any major feat, without it. I know that we have to have accountability in our relationship with Jesus. It can be a scary thing to be vulnerable and open to criticism in any area of our lives. But it also brings SUPPORT, ENCOURAGEMENT, and SUCCESS.

I'm not sure if I have lost any weight. Like I said, I'm nursing and my body tends to hold on to the weight until I stop nursing. None the less, I'm way ahead of the game for when I do wean Noah. I'm eating healthfully and I'm exercising.

Funny story about Kim. She's a teacher at Heirway. She knows who my kids are but only Shiloh has her as a teacher for P.E. One day Abi was running across the gym. She said, "Abi, are you supposed to be running"? Instead of Abi answering, "no ma'am", she replied, "how do you know my name"? Kim said that she chuckled to herself, told her that she knows her Mommy, and reminded her not to run. That is typical Abi...she processes information at a different angle than the rest of us.

OK...I'm done typing now.