Become an Encourager

At the start of this here blog, I weighed myself... (eek!)... and I was a little disappointed.  I had gained some of the weight back that I had lost.  My husband came to the rescue and said, "That's not too bad," and he pointed out that I hadn't gained ALL of it back.  :)  Maybe you can't tell from the typing, but it really was encouraging.  It had felt like an accomplishment to have kept off those other pounds even while some of them had slipped back on.


We feel good after accomplishment, right?  I weighed myself this morning. I had lost 2.5 lbs.  Yay!  That's right on target with a healthy weight loss.  What did I do this week?  Ate healthy and small portions, walked a bit more when grocery shopping, got a 24 hour virus that had me in the bathroom all day.  I don't recommend the last for weight loss.  It sucks.

A hastily cropped image to show Pat & I
at what I think is at or near our heaviest weights ever.
2007

 I do recommend easy things like parking farther away (but NOT in this heat!).  My husband already shared with you the fact that the air in our car is not working currently.  And we are in our second or third heat wave of the summer.  100+ temperatures for days straight.  When I get to Wal-Mart, I'm parking in the first available spot and hurrying inside.  Once I've cooled off in there, I walk around and look at stuff, shop, and walk a bit more.  Just a few extra calories burned, but that's more than yesterday, right?

So, back to the discussion.  Become an Encourager.  Especially to yourself.  We humans tend to work harder when we feel good about ourselves.  Working out helps fight off depression, but it's so much harder to start that beneficial workout at that point, isn't it?  So, find something, anything, to 'hooray!' yourself about and use it as fuel to keep it up.  Did you lose any weight this week?  Did you keep extra pounds off?  Did you finally clean out your car?  Did you finally get a long overdue chore done?  Did you finish a great book series?  Did you reach a max level in a game?  Did you make a new friend?  Did you just give your life to the Lord?  Did you tell a friend about Jesus?  Did you help raise money for a good cause?  Find something to congratulate yourself for and kick it into high gear.

So, I encourage you to become an Encourager.  Be a source of encouragement to yourself and to others.

At a costume party.  Let's be glad the black
cape hides my thighs.... what was I
thinking??  2010

A word about the pictures:
These are pictures from years ago.  I tried to mention the years they were taken in.  These are some of the biggest pictures I had on FB for easy upload.  There are worse pictures, and I just may upload them sometime.  I don't feel that brave yet. Maybe after a few pounds down, I'll do just that.  I encourage myself right now by saying:  "I weigh less now than I did then."


What is your encouraging word for yourself today?  Share it in the comment below.