After yesterday’s post about the utter dismay thrill that is found in going to the gym, I figured we should talk about something happier today. That will, unfortunately, be impossible as I already promised to tell you today about the changes I’ve made to my eating habits. That is, unless you’re the kind of person that loves discussing trading in your favorite foods for much healthier options.

If you happen to be that person, I commend you. Also: I cannot relate to you.

So, to review from yesterday, the first change I’ve made towards becoming healthier is to actually get my ba-donk-a-donk to the gym. Your comments were so sweet, but I want to make sure you realize that, like I said yesterday, that workout schedule is my goal not always my reality.  There are many nights (like one night even this week) where I’m literally up most of the night due to a Starlite-related emergency and end up not meeting my goals the next day.  But the whole point is having those 17 hours scheduled in and doing my best to meet each of those hours.  Some weeks it happens; some weeks it doesn’t.

The second adjustment is that I’ve changed the way I eat. I’m not sure which is harder: changing what you eat or making yourself work out seeing as I find both to be on the list of Things I’d Rather Not Have To Do. Ever since coming to college / beginning Starlite (both events happened within about 10 months of each other, so I’m not sure which — or maybe if even both — prompted the bad tendencies), I’ve chosen to have poor eating habits.

Part of it has been based on inconvenience: between working both a full-time job (Starlite) and a part-time job (that I don’t blog about) as well as virtually being on-call 24 / 7 for Starlite, it’s just easier for me to go through a drive-thru than fix something healthy at home, especially since I spend so little time at home. Another aspect is based out of laziness: it’s easier, especially when I’m exhausted, to choose whatever is quickest, most filling, etc. over what is better for me. And, finally, part of my bad eating habits have been born out of addiction: it’s easier to eat whatever food you’ve become addicted to over several years of bad choices. Hopefully you noticed that, out of all three of those aspects, some version of the word “easy” showed up each time. Maybe that explains why we often describe changing out eating habits as something hard because it’s just that — the opposite of easy.

What’s worked for me so far is attempting to make good decisions at each individual meal. That means that, three times a day, I literally ask myself “What would be the best decision here?” Sometimes I make the correct decision; other times I don’t — but I always know what is the right decision. That clues me into the fact that, if I’m consistently making the incorrect decision, it’s an issue of obedience not lack of knowledge.

I really hope someone out there is yelling “THAT’LL PREACH!” at their screen right about now so I won’t be the only one. Listen, this junk is hard to write but you better believe it is the honest truth, y’all. And I don’t know about you, but I’m betting on the truth setting me free.

Another thing that’s helped in this area is to plan ahead. We always hear that but I think we rarely find ourselves doing it because we either don’t recognize the value in it or we’re simply too lazy / busy / etc. to actually do it (for the record, I’ve fallen into both of those categories in the past). In my life, I think of my week as running from Sunday – Saturday so planning ahead means that I need to go to the grocery store on Saturday and buy whatever food I need for the upcoming week. It also means that, when I get home from the grocery store, I need to go ahead and do whatever prep work the food needs to make it easier for me to stick with my eating plan for the week. I’ll do a post soon with more information about how I actually do this, including how and what I choose to eat, how I deal with eating out, etc.

The other big thing I’ve chosen to do in the eating arena is to, while praying over my food at each meal, actually ask God to help me obey Him in that area of my life. I know this might sound simplistic, but you’d be surprised at how hard it is to eat a cheeseburger when you’ve just prayed that God would help you make healthy eating decisions. Somehow I don’t think praying “God, please allow this cheeseburger to be calorie-free” is what He meant when He encouraged us to ask anything in His name.

But hey, if He’s up for it, I’m all about Him decreeing that Oreos are thus forth calorie-free, CAN I GET AN AMEN FROM THE CONGREGATION?

‘Cause you better believe that would most definitely preach to every woman pushing a shopping cart in just about every cookie aisle in grocery stores across this nation.