Week 5: A Better Way to Celebrate Myself

One year ago this past Monday, I decided I wanted to celebrate my birthday in style.  As is our family tradition, I could choose the birthday dinner, and I came up with the brilliant theme of finger foods-- you know, crackers & cheese, veggies & dip, and especially all those delicious, bite-size, deep-fried, pre-packaged delicacies your mother never lets you buy.  I figured if I was going off my diet {for just one day} in celebration-- and I deserve it, right?-- I might as well go all out.  And go all out we did.  There were egg rolls and cordon bleu balls and popcorn chicken and jalapeno poppers, just for starters.  For dessert, we had ice cream with, appropriately, 22 different toppings.  See those three bowls of ice cream on the bottom left?  All mine. 

Everything tasted delicious, of course, and I appreciated my parents providing the party.  But it was hard and took a very long time to get back on track.

When I started planning my birthday this year (notice that planning has to come first in matters of healthy living) I was sort of freaking out about it, and I wasn't sure why.  I resolved NOT to make food be the focus of my celebrations, so in my head that meant I had to plan something unprecedented and grandiose and preferrably free and non-media related.  Ugh.  My best option was to rent out the Hogle Zoo.  Yes, one can rent out the Hogle Zoo.  But unfortunately, the "free" category doesn't apply.  And by Thursday when I called my mom, I still had no plan.  

As I told her my dilemma about how to celebrate, I finally vocalized my fear: "I don't want this birthday to be the same as last year- where it's the turning point for the worse.  I don't want to plan a big dinner or a fancy treat."  As I spoke, ideas finally clicked.  I could celebrate by doing something simple that I loved as much as desserts and fatty foods.  "In fact, I'll eat dinner before I come over, and let's have a dance party and make healthy smoothies."  Even though this was breaking our family traditions my mom agreed without hesitation.  She is so supportive, and I'm grateful.  

So instead of celebrating by letting myself go, I celebrated by keeping myself committed.  And it's not like I was eating wheat germ and brussel sprouts, either.  For breakfast and lunch, I split a Subway foot-long, had a handful of yummy almonds for snack, and threw together a southwest salad for dinner.  Satisfying, tasty, and healthy! Yay, me! :)

And, boy, did we rock that birthday dance party with Zumba lessons from Anna, basic ballroom dance steps from me, and a rousing rendition of the chicken dance!  

And Dad pulled through with some pretty fabulous smoothies.  We did have a bit of trouble trying to get my candles to stay standing on the top of my Triple Berry Smoothie. 

Notice how I blew over the candle in addition to blowing out the flame.

I left the party feeling energized, recommitted, and pleased with how it had turned out.  I feel like this is just the beginning, and Heavenly Father is strengthening me every step of the way.  

The words of Dr. Suess seem particularly appropriate :)

"Today you are you.  That is truer than true.

There is no one alive that is you-er than you!

Shout aloud, 'I am glad to be who I am!

'Thank goodness I'm not a clam

'Or a ham

'Or a dusty old jar of gooseberry jam.

'I am what I am- what a great thing to be!

'If I say so myself, Happy Every Day to Me!'"

P.S. and Happy Every Day to YOU! Thanks to all of you who read and all of you who sent birthday wishes my way!

Week 1: A Spiritual Solution to a Physical Problem

I wasn't going to do it again.  Not again.  Not another year when my ambitious hopes for weight loss turn heavy {no pun intended} and get tossed aside.  But as I made my goals for 2013, I couldn't seem to leave goals for weight loss out of my head.  If it didn't matter so much to me, why would I come back to it year after year?  So I consulted my mother.

 "Meilina," she said.  "What in your life have you ever given up on something once you put your mind to it?"

"That's the point! Losing weight-- every year!"

"Besides that." 

Silence. 

I really couldn't think of anything. 

"See?" said Mom.  "That's why you have to do it!  You don't give up!"

That thought empowered me.

 "Heavenly Father will help you," she said. "You can turn to Him for strength." 

And that thought humbled me. 

I think I will never be as good as my mother until I can see, like she does, that every problem has a Gospel solution. 

Perhaps my self-righteous pride is one reason that I quit so easily-- I think I can do this on my own.  Instead, I'm starting here this time: "Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions and that your life has become unmanageable.Come to believe that the power of God can restore you to complete spiritual health."

"The Lord is in the details of our lives," President Thomas S. Monson said.  So I'm going to pray for strength to resist the deserts at ward activities.  I'm going to study the scriptures for insights about overcoming cravings.  I'm going to search the words of the prophets for how to deal constructively with emotions (instead of self-medicating with food).  I'm going to weary the Lord with my pleadings.  Also, I will seek help and support from other sources as needed (family, roommates, friends, nutritionists, counselors).  I must expect resistance, challenges, outright opposition, but I must trust that He will help me through it.  

I have adopted as my motto the quote at the end of the video I've inserted above: "Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying.  There is help and happiness ahead.  Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come 'til heaven, but for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end.  Trust God and believe in good things to come."