Finally Loving Me!

[gentleshepherd]

This where I want to share my journey to loving myself. I hope to frequently write, "Letters to My Heart" in which I encourage myself now and to read later, perhaps when I am struggling.

I am a happily married 46 year old woman, married to the man of my dreams, really. We have nine children, which we have an continue to home school. I am a passionate believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, and I recently 'fell into' a thriving furniture refinishing home business in which our family all helps out.

So yes, life is pretty full!

I have had various health issues, namely adrenal issues. Hello, nine children, homeschooling, years of being pregnant or breastfeeding and sleepless nights. I was dramatically healed of many of the symptoms in May of 2010. (long glorious story for another time)

Even though I saw dramatic healing, I still have lingering symptoms and am still at least 50 lbs. overweight. Weight has been an issue for as far back as i can remember. It didn't help going up and down with each pregancy. I never was one to follow fad diets, which was probably to my benefit. Though, i foolishly did the HCG diet in 2009, which i think contributed significantly to my severe crash, but again, another story.

For the first time in life i am actually beginning to discover who I am, why I was created and I am surprisingly LOVING what I discover.

I started my first 'W30' in August of 2012. I put it in quotes because i didn't really realize i was doing the W30, i had never heard of it. My doctor recommended i cut out all the things W30 recommends, so i actually 'fell' into W30. I did learn of it in September and have not turned back!

We have always eaten pretty clean and followed WAP principles. Raw dairy, soaked and fermented just about everything else. ;-)

That is the shortened version of my 'history'. Glad you asked? LOL

So begins my journal of my journey to loving me! Welcome, if you are reading along.

Amazed by Grace,

Michelle

[gentleshepherd]

Letter To My Heart:

Dearest Michelle,

I just wanted to pop in here to tell you that some time in the future you are going to think that just eating like you used to is not going to be that big of a deal short term. You will forget how you felt over Christmas/New Year's and just want to give in.

I am encouraging you to NOT! sure you had the freedom to eat what you wanted, and I am proud of you for not obsessing and choosing to eat what you wanted and not being a victim. But here's the rub, you felt awful at the end of those couple of weeks. You couldn't wait to get back on W30.

The 'bloat' was back. Your stomach was almost distended and very uncomfortable. You had gas problems and you were pretty tired. You pretty much began to just feel yucky.

It is not worth it. If you recall, you commented that nothing you were allowing yourself to eat really even tasted that good anyway. Except for those Nut Goodies, they were good. ;-) But nothing else was worth it.

Remember you felt so much better after a few days back at eating clean. It did take several days for the 'bloat' to go away. If nothing else, remember how awful the bloat feels!