I grew up eating beans. Nearly every day. Yeah, we were poor and rice n beans are cheap eatings, but it's also about culture. Cubans love their legumes.
I keep legumes to a minimum these days, be they black, kidney, garbanzos, etc. But I still have them. I crave them hard some days. So, I have them, starch and anti-nutrients and all. :)
Last night, I had a cup of lentil soup (thick batch "homemade" at a local eatery) with 1/2 cup rice with supper. Plus a Concorde pear. And an apple with some raw organic pecan butter smeared...and some cottage cheese. It was a sort of mini-smorgasbord supper. I was really hungry, and I did not want to cook. Much higher in carbs than usual for my evening meal, but it satisfied a host of cravings--the apple crunch, the comfort food quality of the rice n lentils, the vanilla notes of desserty-goodness of the pear. That baby is fast moving up to being my fave fruit. It's still lagging behind mango, but not far.
I have been feeling heated for a couple days. Less "chilled". So, maybe it's fat burn. One can hope. :)
I did do my session with the Pilates trainer and my 33 minute walk yesterday. So, I've officially met my challenge exercise goals for the week. That pleases me. I've been telling myself, when I wanted to skip, "Your identity is a person who walks. That is who you are. you walk. So go be who you are."
I say this about food and other things. Changing lifestyle = changing identity. I figure that's why it's a hard process. You start becoming a different person in assorted ways. I am not a person who eats gluten. I am a person who walks. I am a person who drinks plenty of fluids.
I was not that person before. I am this person NOW. My identity is a person who controls food intake and makes an effort to move and stay flexible and strong.
Becoming a Christian was the taking on of a new identity, a new self, so it's not like many of us used to sermons and church talk and spirit walk don't know what this is.
"The old man is dead.
Long live the new creature..."
That's from a "classic" Christian pop song by Honeytree. Coincidentally, it's a flock of joggers on the cover of that LP (MARANATHA MARATHON), with "Honeytree" herself in a sweat suit. (Anyone remember Honeytree from the Jesus People movement? I used to sing her stuff all the time. I wish that lp was available on cd. I check online all the time. No luck. It had an amazing version of Psalm 57. Very intimate feeling, beautiful arrangement, with Honeytree's vocals earnest and vulnerable. I still sing that song acapella sometimes in my devotions.)
If you're having a hard time, maybe read Psalm 57. The praise section in it is powerful. And if your heart is not steadfast, all your endeavors will fail. I know I need, need, need steadfastness. In all areas, not just this one. Life is better when we are steadfast to what and whom is good. The new self should be good.
Losing weight, becoming fitter, keeping it off. That's good.
The old me had to die. Has to die and continue to stay dead. Long live the new me!
We all, all of us fighting fat, have to kill off the old us, the previous identity that comforts with food, gives in to binges, chooses poorly, sits all day and never bothers with exercise, skimps on sleep, dives into sugar in stressful times. That person has to die. A new person has to be born and nurtured...one that takes self-care and self-love into the arena of food and movement.
What identity have you selected? What are you working to BE?
What is your identity today?
I like reading books by folks who were obese and lost it. I just bought THINK AND GROW THIN by Charles D' Angelo, and he has pics of himself morbidly obese. You see him now, all muscley and fit, it's amazing. Like him, I believe in not ignoring the strength one can get turning to one's "Higher power"...in my case, the Judeo-Christian God. I was also interested in how he early on also looks at this whole identity thing.
We have to change who we are and we have to hold on to that new identity.
Kill the you that's killing you with overeating and sedentary ways. Just kill that identity. Bury it. And build a new one...
It worked for the Phoenix. :D
9 comments:
I also grew up eating beans, taters and cornbread. It wasn't fancy but it was good. When we were first married, and poor as church mice, our evening meal was a lot of times a can of barbequed beans and fried potatoes. We still eat beans two or three times a month.
I really loved this post on many levels. I agree with you 100 percent.
So true and I love the likening to the pheonix:-)
I don't care what the bean or how it is fixed, I like it. Soup beans, cornbread, and fried potatoes is hard to beat. First you crumble up the cornbread on your plate, then you put the fried potatoes over that, then the beans. Chop up some onions and put ketchup all over that and WOW. My grandpa didn't add the ketchup but put a big dollop of peanut butter on top. Peanuts are legumes too!
Another thought-provoking post. I have been spending a LOT of time thinking about how I've already changed. I have lost 60 pounds, but really it's not THAT much compared to what I still have to lose (another 100+). I have lost SO much emotional baggage though, probably at least a ton. We evolve every day, hopefully it is into a more positive, confident and awakened self.
"The old me had to die. Has to die and continue to stay dead. Long live the new me!"
Just like that grain of wheat - it must die in order for new life to begin!
New you, new me, new us....it's work and oh so worth the challenge. Take care of yourself Mir, you're doing an excellent job.
Blessings!!
I love me some beans but I am trying to stick to protein. Every now and then I will have some beans but until I get down a few pounds I'm going to have to avoid them.
You are doing well, Mir. Give yourself a pat on the back.:)
Believe it or not...you must be sending vibes my way. I was thinking of you as I could not eat the beans tonight and how I like beans that are cooked well and as a meal. We were just given a big supply of the stuff the sister in law does not eat that included a box full of navy beans. I like white beans. And like Hanibal Lector (lol), I like Fava beans as well . Oh lentils...splendid. Especially during Winter.
As I thought of you and beans, then I also get this memory good feel recall you get after reading a good book... "Voices From The Void" and "Waiting for Appa" is definitely good stuff! Short stories always leave me hungry for more, though. LOL better than hungry for a cookie.
I also was planning on blogging about my persona and the emotions involved in changes going on. Not necessarily dieting, yet I have thought about how holding on to the fat me is like how I hold on to that '80's hairstyle. LOL Hair was great back then..come on! I just did not hold on to that bod that was somewhere in the high side of onederland and that I always thought was large...hah if only I had a crystal ball to the future larger me?
Needless to say, I smiled when your topic dealt with stuff going on in my head. Your blog is better than tylenol for a headache. LOL
Great post.
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