following through

A few things happened in 2012 that have affected my life forever. One was giving birth to my sweet Frederick - an event I feel so grateful to have been blessed to experience again. Another event that taught me so much was struggling with postpartum depression. Probably the most life changing event, though, was forever getting rid of my addiction and dependency on food. No doubt all of you are sick and tired of hearing about this but my experience has altered my life in so many ways - I can't help but share!

One thing I've learned as I've journeyed through the deep recesses of my emotional eating issues (sounds serious right?) was that I have failed many times in the past as I've tried to "diet and lose weight". Nothing ever seemed to stick. I had good intentions to eat healthy, to exercise more, to cut out sugar, to count calories, to change . . . but at the end of the day, my good intentions weren't good enough. I had to do more. I had to follow through and commit. I was handed a wonderful gift (via my sister who lost 60 pounds last year) when she introduced me to the program that changed my life. I was finally able to make something work because I was READY to change and I had the tools to do it!

Everyone sets goals at the start of the year. It's a clean slate and a wonderful time to recommit to being better. In 2012, I changed my eating habits and also my eating behavior. I freed myself from self-medication with using food as my drug. It feels great but I have a long way to go in many other areas of my life (and I'll always have to work towards staying on the healthy eating path that I'm on now). My #1 goal for 2013 is to follow through with my good intentions. I can be so much better at serving others, better at studying my scriptures, better at spending more quality time with my family. I almost daily "recommit" to being better at those things and always seem to fail.

My consolation too many times has been that "God knows my heart" - and that's true, thankfully - but I also believe that God wants me to follow through with my good intentions. He doesn't just need me to want to help my neighbor - He needs me to actually DO it! He doesn't just need me to want to be a better wife and mother - He wants me to DO it! I don't want to have regrets as I go through my years that I didn't do more with my days - so here's to recommitting to being stronger, kinder, more patient and better than I was yesterday . . . and following through with my resolution for the new year. May yours be blessed and wonderful too!

P.S. I was so inspired by this talk. Read it and you'll see what I mean!