Operation Get Cheaper Insurance

This month, my husband and I had to switch to different health insurance because we no longer qualified for the plan we were on. Unfortunately, the switch also was not so kind to our pre-existing conditions. His sore knee was exempted from coverage, and I, well I hate to even admit it, but I was given a 25% upcharge for my weight. 

Ugh. 

So, we're tolerating the coverage we have (what there is of it) but in the meantime, I'm launching Operation Get Cheaper Insurance for myself. I know, there's a period of time for which one must maintain a weight loss before an insurance company will lower the rates. I'll wait. In the meantime, I'm going to work on whittling my BMI from 35 to something like 28. 

Yes, I'm aware that 28 is still overweight, but it's a sustainable weight for me. And it gets me out of the "obese" category. This year, I've lost 9 pounds. Not a great average, but better than nothing. This week, I'm kickin' in up a notch and recording my food, exercise and weigh-ins on Spark People.

It's been a long while since I stopped by my blog and left a message. I hope to journal my progress in Operation Get Cheaper Insurance here on the blog.

One Year Later...

It's been nearly a year since I last posted something on the blog. I'm starting fresh with a new Spark People group. It's a free internet resource for tracking calories, nutrition, fitness and much more. Plus it's a whole community of people who are working on their health. 

I started a private team on Spark People named One Weigh for anyone who wants to join the challenge to lose 40 pounds or more. I'll be checking in weekly and we'll be holding one another accountable to the goals we set up. The neat thing is that each of us can have our own unique plan on Spark People, track our own weigh-ins and set up a profile where we track progress. Yet we can come together in encouraging each other.

Interested in Spark People? Here's a link:

If you search, you'll find me at user ID MichelleRayburn. And if you send me an e-mail with your Spark People user ID, I'll gladly send you an invite to the team.

Michelle

One Weigh Update

I've been doing most discussing over at One Weigh on Facebook, so I'm sorry for letting this blog get out of date. Time to get it updated. In all honesty, I've been lax on the updates on facebook too.

My First Place group had a little pow-wow recently to talk about how to energize our group and get the motivation to get back on track. Seems like we've all been a little, or a lot, blue this winter. The good news--we've come up with a plan and we're excited to try something new. We've decided to call our group "One Weigh" and deviate from the First Place material we've been using. We'll be choosing our own Bible study to work on together while still keeping up with the weigh-ins and accountability. However, we're allowing members to choose their own weight loss program. Some will follow the First Place meal plan, based on the food pyramid, while others will follow a clinic program monitored by their physician. Still others could choose Weight Watchers or another national program.

Our goal with One Weigh is to provide accountability and structure, yet keeping it flexible enough that members who follow other programs will be able to attend. I'm excited about the change. I'll share more as we get closer to launching the new group.

Spring is coming. Isn't that a breath of hope? I've been so bummed by winter this year and I can't wait to see green grass and feel warm air on my face. I get a lot more excited about exercise when it's beautiful outside!

I'm planning to work on some content to inspire thought and discussion in the next few weeks. And I'll be sure to post it both here and on facebook. In the meantime, here's something to think about. Today, I watched a few minutes of the Dr. Oz show where he was talking about some problems with diet pills. Unfortunately, there were many health risks with even the herbal remedies, yet people take them all the time because they are desperate to find an easier way to lose weight. One guest had manic episodes after using a Fen-Phen product and now she's forever medicated with psych meds. Correlation? She thinks so.

As much as I'd like an easy way out of diet and exercise, that terrifies me!

What have you heard about nutrition and weight loss in the news recently that made you sit up and listen?

Nothing to Lose and Everything to Gain

If it is a bad thing to lose a game or lose my keys, why is it a good thing to lose weight? As if we are just misplacing it and will find it again someday and put it back in its rightful place. Ok. Maybe some of us will do just that. I propose that we find a different word to signify pounds dropping off of us. A friend once referred to it as “releasing” weight. I like that one better. That implies that I’m letting it go and I never want to see it again. Even better, I would like to think of it as banishing pounds from my body—they aren’t allowed to come back!

When we shed pounds, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We gain self-respect, discipline, a sense of accomplishment, and most important, an attitude of obedience. When we have an attitude of obedience, we desire to please God in all that we do, including what we do to our bodies.

Philippians 2:13 says, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.” (New Living Translation) Do you have the desire to obey him? God is all about enjoying food—there are many places in the Bible that refer to it, and he gave it to us to enjoy. But there are also places that refer to the sins of gluttony and worrying about food.

I need to make a fresh start and get things in perspective. It’s not that I need to be some super model size or a certain number on a chart. But I do need to find God’s best for me.

What do you have to gain by releasing some pounds?

Copyright © Michelle Rayburn 2005 (updated 2010)

Inspiration for 2010

Years ago, I wrote a series of articles for my One Weigh group. I’ll be posting them on the blog and on the One Weigh facebook group for inspiration and motivation.

The first in that series is “Nothing to Lose and Everything to Gain.”

Michelle

Not giving up yet

I’m not ready to give up, but I’m not exactly achieving my goals either. I guess the holidays are not a time to be dedicating extra time to thinking straight about eating and exercise. It’s more of a time to get by. I’d hoped having a goal would motivate me, but instead, it overwhelmed me with a sense of failure. I’m officially releasing myself from the goal for the next 2 weeks (the goal of dropping pounds before Christmas, that is). And I’m establishing a new goal. Stay the same or better over Christmas.

There. Less pressure. :-)

Plugging along through the holidays

I've asked myself a few times why I started to blog about my journey when I'm not moving forward. It isn't really a journey if you don't move, right? I'm plugging along through the holidays and even thought I've made better choices than in some years past, I'm not losing weight, and I don't expect to when I don't work at it. If I'm going to drop any pounds before Christmas, I'm going to have to get myself off this plateau of complacency! Sigh.

Tomorrow is weigh-in night so I'll see how I've done at keeping the goodies off my hips. :-)