Dear Olgy,

I'm going to try something new this week...I gained 1.5 lbs from last week. I marked it as a gain of one pound for moral support reasons because it was really between 1.5 and 2 but so be it.

The new thing I'm going to try this week is: Let my mind/self rule rather than keep it on a leash. I know what are empty calories and what are not, what's good for me and what is not, what would make me live longer and what will not, what my body needs and what it does not.

Rather than treat my body/mind/self as a toddler that when a mother goes out into the world she has to keep him/her on a leash I'm going to give my body/mind/self freedom to choose and keep its own internal track of what it's choosing to eat. I am not going to censor what I want to eat and will only ask that I continue to keep a food journal. I will weight myself come next Monday and I'll see how this experiment turns out.

I'm thinking that what I want to do is learn to "eat to live." I'm thinking the diet mentality is entrenching me in the "live to eat" mentality, which is just not a good or high enough goal for me to stay motivated to keep on track.

I want to live to:

• Write great children books.
• Write awesome curriculum on future studies for graduate level courses.
• Enjoy relating to my precious children.
• Encourage children all over to embrace life, reading, family.
• Climb one of Colorado's fourteeners in the next 10 years.
• Go on a 30th year wedding anniversary trip looking at least in the neighborhood of what I looked like when I married.
• Get a Ph.D. in education.
• Spend more time with my mother.
• Learn zillions more about nutrition and the role it plays in our lives.
• Sing around the house.
• Own an authentic Rock-Ola Bubbler jukebox.
• See my children mature and grow intellectually, emotionally, spiritually.
• Rejoice in my children's accomplishments.
• Grieve with them in their failures.
• Fall more deeply in love with the man God gave me 28 years ago as a soul partner.
• Reconnect with my Lord and Savior in a deeper, more meaningful way.
• And more!

I do NOT want to live to eat.

• Living to eat is not a good enough goal for me.
• It's not motivating enough.
• It's not interesting enough.
• It's not worthy enough.
• It's a dead-end goal for it'll never be satisfied and...
• The less satisfied it is the more it'll want to eat but...
• It's just not ever going to be satisfied.

So I choose today to start this experiment. I choose to eat to live.

• I will follow the true and tried advice of the thousands of books/articles/speeches that have been published/ chronicled/ verified.
• I will eat less and move more.
• I will relax throughout the day so anxiety won't drive me to eat unnecessarily.

But, most importantly, I will let my own self/mind/body drive the car this week. I'm rooting for you, Olgy. You can do this! You are smart enough to do this. You have what it takes to do this. You can do this!

We'll check results from time to time and see how well you do.

Much love,

Olgy
________________________________________________
Olgy Gary, M.A., CCF's General Manager
Children Come First...because they're our greatest treasure!
http://www.childrencomefirst.com