Sitting at my desk this morning, I got an occassion to think and reflect a bit. Since about mid-December I've been using SparkPeople.com to log my food on an on-again, off-again basis. I also take a moment when I can to read an article or two that they present me, to read and reflect. The one today was about consistency. There was a line in it about not wanting to cook dinner, because of the effort put into it. I know this feeling, it's a feeling that we've struggled with as a family for years. By years I mean over a decade. I get home from work, my wife is frustrated and dinner isn't started (let alone ready), and we're off to some place with a drive thru (they don't even take the time to spell "through" properly they are so fast!) where we can get a slab of grease on a bun slathered in butter and a bunch of starch sticks. We knew we needed to eat, and we wanted to provide a level of consistency for the kids with bedtime and structure, so we gave on nutrition.
Fast forward to 2012. We're in a new home, in a new state, and building a new state of mind. I'm coming home later than I used to because of work as well as my new biking habit. Even through the first 3 weeks, I can remember a couple of times that we resulted in a quick trip to Belly King or something. Even the first week of Rob's Big Losers we ended up taking the kids to Chick-Fil-A because of time constraints. Now, what we did was not order off the "number plan" that all of these places have set up, but we created our own meals from their healthier options, and just had water to drink. It's been almost 5 weeks since that trip, and our time eating out has drastically changed. We go out to eat as a family about once a week, and what I find absolutely amazing is that we do not react to a bad situation with another bad situation. My wife has taken on the challenge of creating a new meal plan and cooking new recipes every night, and working out how to incorporate better decisions even in our breakfast choices each morning.
Last night is a perfect example of the changes that have happened for us. I went out riding last night, and it was a longish ride. I didn't get home until after 6:30pm. The plan was for us to make up a healthy meal using spaghetti squash with some sauce and some left over veggies from a meal over the weekend. When I got home instead of being in the old routine of her being exhausted and upset and trying wildly to figure out what to do, concerned with the clock, she told me that dinner wasn't ready yet because she couldn't get the squash opened up. I changed clothes (since cycling clothes really aren't comfortable to cook in), and went downstairs to help before I iced my knee. I got the squash cut and arranged on in the pan, and got it into microwave to help speed along the cooking. We worked out the final details of the meal, and kept moving towards getting dinner on the table. We ended up eating very late, which in turn really impacted the girl's ability to get to bed "on time", but everything worked out.
In reviewing the past 2 months, I'm so excited to see that we are seriously building a new normal around the house. Even when things aren't ideal we are able to keep with important details (like making sure everyone has a healthy meal) and we're slowly rebuilding how we do things. I'm so proud of my wife and how she manages to keep things together right now, and how she's really putting forth the effort on the home front to make things not be what they were before. When I think to what our life was like just 6 months ago versus what it is now I feel completely blessed, and I can see the changes that God has walked us through. My RBL journey may have started in January, but without the faithfulness and obidience that we had in August of last year, I do not believe any of this would be possible.
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