victory tastes so much sweeter

well, it's true, victory tastes so much sweeter than you could ever have imagined.

what am i referring to?

well, first off, i am attempting to be more healthy, so i want to eat healthy, and exercise more, which brings about weight loss... but the "eating healthy" part...food is my weakness by far. especially sweet foods... if my mind would wander to "candy bar" it wouldn't take me but a second to find one and start eating...i love sweets. i don't know how else to put it. do i eat junk all day? no, i attempt to balance everything, but i have had no problem rewarding myself for finishing lunch, with ice cream. lol.

so as i was reading in the New Testament, where Jesus went into the desert to fast for 40 days and nights, and after fasting, Satan comes to him and tempts him 3 times, and each time Jesus snapped a nice fitting answer to shut him up (so to speak) and finally the last time, Jesus is sick of him, so he says "get the hence Satan" anyway, as i was "pondering" these things, in the study manual, i found a quote from Elder Neal A Maxwell that talks about how Jesus "gave no heed" to Satan's temptations...meaning, as soon as he was tempted, he dismissed it with his reply, he did not stop to ponder it... Elder Maxwell says "we may not always be able to keep an evil thought from entering our minds, but we don't have to offer it a chair and invite it to sit down." bingo!

i must have just really not been with it, but i read this and went "ah ha!" and i thought back on the many temptations and the ones i gave into, and 9 times out of 10 it was becuase i thought about it instead of dismissing it imediately... point is...on some aspects of life, i guess i don't think of the "thoughts popping into my head" as temptations...like what food to put in my mouth! i have gotten so used to acting on the thought of food, i don't even give myself a chance to say no! and that is where my downfall was...WAS...

becuase i am going to change that! Satan wants me to be miserable, but i have power over him, if i let the spirit be my guide and choose the right...i can succeed.

so i decided, i was going to seriously focus on telling those thoughts no today...i prayed about it last night, and when i woke up in the morning to pack kathryn's lunch and walked in the pantry to the open pack of cookies waiting for me to eat them...i said NO! even though it felt like spam in my email...the thought came over and over and over, but finally i dismissed it and it felt great! i decided i was going to count my calorie intake and intake of other nutrients for the rest of the week... and see how much water i am drinking...

i am happy to report that i have had NOTHING ZERO ZITCH NADDA sweet to eat today. that is HUGE for me. and i after every meal i felt very full! i had no snacks (partly b/c i wasn't home to get some or wasn't hungry). i ate pancakes with syrup for breakfast 313 calories, chicken pot pie leftovers for lunch 346 calories, and tilapia fillet with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli and carrots for dinner 295 calories...for a total of 954 calories!!!!!
are you suprised? i am!!! and i drank 72 oz of water (9 cups)...so i am very proud of myself!!! i was oooo sooo tempted today several times, i had to wait 20 mins in the carpool line before i could get kathryn...and all i had sitting around in the van was candy! it would have all been gone normally, but i didn't even touch it! YAY!!!! i even went grocery shopping while i was hungry and came out with bare minimum... oooo, it feels so good! i will try to keep this up for a week and see how i do...my goal is to stay under 1300 calories a day...

so that is my first victory....my second victory...John got his bonus check in....and our bank actually cashed it instead of putting a hold on it like they normally do for checks this size....sooo..WE PAID OFF THE CAR!!!! WOOOOO HOOOO!!! ok, so we only owed $1950, but to have a $300 a month note gone....oooo, soooo sweet!!!! i made john watch as we transfered the money online, and waited to show balance of $0...then we both laughed. ahhh, we can't wait to get out of debt!