Week 17 Reflections: 60 Pounds Gone!

I was just remembering the hopelessness.  All the tears that I shed in the trying, the failing, the wanting, the praying, the...hopelessness.

I still shed tears.

My eyes welled up when I went down the slide with my kids this week at the park.  When I ran my Couch to 5K training with my son and we high fived each other at the end of the training.  When I stepped on the scale and took a deep breath--"I've lost 60 pounds.  60 pounds!"**  (So incomprehensible!) 

I cry when I share my journey, like yesterday when Dan and I had the opportunity to share with one of our pastors at Crossway Church about all the unbelievable blessings God is pouring out on our lives right now.  (The pastor cried too!)

I cry when others share their hopeless with me.  And then again when they realize there is hope for them too!

There was a time when I despised my sensitivity and emotions.  Not anymore.  I celebrate the fact that I can feel things deeply.  My own things and the experiences of others.  THAT is a gift!

I'm not without hope.  I never really was. Jesus was always my only hope.  My life and experiences have been a perfect plan that God has written for my life.  It has included suffering.  "How long, oh Lord!  How long must I endure this hopelessness and suffer under my own weaknesses?!"  And He has said, "Soon, Julie.  Soon...I will set you free."  But it wasn't soon enough for me.  See, He is patient--and I am impatient.  He always knew what was best for me and how He would rescue me.  And LOOK at what He has done.  Only HE could do this in my life.  Only He could set me free.

Take Shape for Life is a wonderful tool.  It was part of God's way for me and I see how He uses it in other people's lives as well.  It is a program that has helped me not only be free from my weight, but also from what had bound my mind and heart to food in the first place.  It has been very revealing for me.  And it has taken me to a place where I can see why I ended up in that hopeless place.  It has been a tool for building my faith.  But it has been that for me--because I was READY to go there.  Because every day I would fall on my face before God and say, "This is YOUR day and I will choose to be thankful today for the manna in the desert.  And I will trust you to bring the change in me."

It is a joy to help others along that journey.  Not everyone has started in the complete hopeless place that I was--but they still find great hope!  Not everyone has the same results that I have had, but they are seeing results!  Not everyone knows what it means to trust in God for this journey, but they are still so encouraged and inspired.  Not everyone has 160 pounds to lose when they start, but they know they want to choose health and not keep living their lives enslaved to food--no matter what their current size.

60 pounds represents God's promises to me being fulfilled.  And that makes me cry for a whole new reason!  THERE IS HOPE!!!!

**Results will vary. Typical results on the Medifast 5&1 program are up to 2 – 5 lbs per week.