THANKFUL THURSDAY

Affirmation: Thank you for the journey and the lessons learned along the way

Thankful Thursday. For years I have kept a thankful journal. Yes long before Oprah made them popular I have kept this journal. For me it was a secret place where I told God all the things I was grateful for in my life. Some days it was only one, some days it was a longer list. But it always helped me to focus the gratefulness to God, who after all is the source of everything good in my life.

So I was thinking, instead of concentrating on all the changes I need to make in this journey to health, I was wondering if there were things I could refocus and see as a positive, something to be thankful about. I truly believe that everything we go through in our lives is a chance to learn and allow God to change us. It occurred to me that most of the time in this journey to health I have focused on the negative….the things that need changing, the difficulties, the things I miss, the frustrations. But one thing I have learned with the challenges of the back illness is that especially in the tough times God can change you and that in the end the kind of good that can come from it will change you in ways that good times never can. So today is Thursday and this is what I am grateful for today.

Thank you God for

• Having enough food to eat.
• Having enough money to buy groceries.
• How I am learning that I am more than a number on a scale.
• How little you are concerned with outward appearances.
• How much you care about refining my character.

Another aspect of this Thankful Thursdays is to be thankful for what I have learned so far in this journey.

What I have learned so far

• That diets don’t work.
• That I have to deal with the root causes of why I eat.
• That I have to give myself grace and not judgment.

Today I am also starting a challenge for myself. This summer I have fallen into the habit of choosing easy rather than always healthful in creating meals. Since it is summer, this has not all been bad, many of the easy have also been healthful. But one of the changes I want to make a part of my life is to make conscious healthy choices a habit. So to that end I am going to use my food journal for 28 days to help keep me honest and see where I need some “tuning up” in the menu and food selection department.

Anyone else want to join me in this? If you don’t have a food journal of your own check mine out. There is a link on the journal image that will take you to my Etsy shop where you can purchase it.

Happy Thursday…What are you thankful for?

Jackie