Today’s question: Are you serious …?

The question I have today is this: “how serious are you about taking back your life and health?”

I have embarked on a six-week journey with a functional health coach, and this is part of Week One’s self-reflection.

My objective is to discover how to reduce my dependency on refined sugars and hopefully lose some weight in the process. I have a mental block about my weight. It stems from this: I lost 27 pounds and was at a point in my life where I really liked my body and was comfortable in my skin for probably the first time in my life. And then my world fell apart. I was left to continue my life’s journey without the love of my life. I felt crushed, abandoned. And somewhere in the depth of my soul, my brain made the connection between feeling great about myself and losing someone that was very important to me. Now when I try to get healthy and go back to that happy body state, my brain reminds me that I don’t really want to go there. Bad things happen there. But they don’t. The two events have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Logically I know that. Emotionally I don’t.

Which brings me to the question of the day: “how serious are you about taking back your life and health?” The superficial answer is obvious – of course I’m serious about taking back my life and my health. Aren’t you? But … there’s always a but! At what cost?

The Bible teaches us that when making decisions, we need to “count the cost” before starting.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish all who see it begin to mock him.

Luke 14:28-29

How do we “count the cost”? It’s all part of the decision-making process. Considering the pros and the cons and the risks attached to embarking on such a project.

I have six questions to consider when making a decision like this:

1. Am I prepared to give up the things that I habitually go to when I’m stressed (like chocolate)?
2. Am I prepared to develop new habits to replace the old ones? What will the new habits look like?
3. How much effort will it take to develop the new habits?
4. How long do I think those new habits will take to stick? (add time – we always underestimate the time required to develop new habits, and how stubborn the old habits can be!)
5. What will be the reward if I am successful? What will the result be if I am unsuccessful?
6. How will my life change? How badly do I want that change?

These questions will help to solidify the WHY, so that when things are hard, and they will get hard, because as we all know anything worth achieving is challenging, we can go back to our WHY to regroup and for encouragement to push through the hard.

I know what my WHY is. I want to be comfortable in my own skin. I want to be strong and healthy to complete the assignment that God has for me. I want Him to say to me “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21 NIV) when I meet Him face to face.

I’m going to work on these six questions to determine how serious I am about this six-week program to ensure that I complete the program successfully and find myself on the way to achieving the vision I have.

One thing I know for sure: if Jesus is by my side on this journey (and I know He is), He’ll hold me up when I stumble, He’ll celebrate my victories, He’ll comfort me when I struggle. He’ll be encouraging me the whole way. I do not have to do this alone. He is always here. Hallelujah!