COUNTING THE COSTS

This is today's WORD.

"It really makes me think more about what I choose, "  my husband remarked from the counter as he sliced a banana for breakfast.



I have never counted calories before as a conscious way of losing weight.  Oh, I have looked at the number on soda bottles and glanced at random calories on containers through the years.  But I mean, I have never chosen this method of trying to lose weight.

My husband and I are seven days into this counting calories exercise.  I know it sounds remarkably like a new year resolution or scheme.

We are literally writing down in a journal, which we leave on the kitchen counter, a record of what we eat and the estimated calories the serving size is worth.    We've written the maximum calorie markers inside the front cover of the journal.  We have the calorie count consumption  markers to maintain our current weight, or lose weight slowly over time without exercise, or lose one pound a week without exercise. We tally them up at the end of the day.  I circle mine and compare it to the markers.

My husband says that I have always eaten well.  Hmmm...maybe I like those things that are good for me. I relax with hot green tea (but I am learning to like it without the cream which negates its benefits). I do love steamed broccoli and have no problems eating it without butter as long as it has sea salt, but I could tell you the calories in 1 oz if you need it.  I do love yogurt (I eat it plain with blueberries, flax seed, and walnuts---careful they are full of calories).   I prefer spinach salads and orange and red peppers cut up for snacks (no dip needed).

But, I also like those foods that are not so good for me. Conjure up cheesecake, milkshakes, and spinach artichoke dip, and a chai tea latte or mocha cappuccino.  Okay, some of the contents are healthy, but the calorie contents are huge.

We have looked up numerous food items on the internet and in our little red book.  Life is so much more convenient when an item's container provides that information.  We know the difference between a small banana size and a large one.

We are measuring the contents of the snacks and dinners we make. I am not a cooking perfectionist as far as measuring goes. Homemade thin pizza dough with vegetable toppings offers a much lower calorie the boxed at the store.  We all knew that though, right?

This calorie counting might not last.  But for now we are COUNTING THE COSTS of what we eat.  We are creating an awareness of what we choose to feed us.

At first, we were consumed with the effort of it, but we are beginning to get the hang of it and our decision making is being altered because of our awareness.

Go ahead and laugh at this seemingly futile exercise, but isn't life just like this?

I would venture that if I asked people what they want from life that they would respond that they want their life to count for something.

I want to be more aware to count. To count what I spend my energy on because what I do counts. It is  not the same as counting calories, but it is a similar exercise.  It is a life-long exercise in awareness, of looking, of seeking, of choosing, of decision making.  It is a looking at life and seeing that every decision creates new roads and ripples.

I WANT TO COUNT THE COSTS FOR THIS LIFE. Be conscious of simple everyday choices that are cost effective.

daveramsey.com

Jon Acuff, author of Quitter,  in trying to figure out how to count his life's success boils it down to this:
"I think measuring the effort you're putting in is a much more honest gauge of your progress. It's also the only part of this process you can really control"(168).






And so I am continuing to count the nutritional value of what I consume each day.

• three hours on the phone with social media moguls to lower my bills
• visiting family for an hour just to catch up on life
• chatting online with a lady friend for an hour
• attending an Illini volleyball game with my husband
• playing Things with my kids
• quitting my teaching job 
• folding three loads of laundry
• three hours on the phone with my best friend (Stop judging: she lives in San Diego people)
• reading three books over Christmas break: Quitter,  Return to Me, The Greatest Gift
• writing this blog
• watching the Bourne Identity trilogy again over Christmas break
• hanging at the counter with kids
• hours on end filling out scholarship applications
• hours of Downton Abbey watching
• two hours of volleyball with junior high or high school girls

I AM COUNTING THE COSTS

My many choices made within one day or even one week, like everyone's, become a choice of time consumption.  What will I consume with my life? How well will these choices feed me?  Will they leave my energy spent or renewed?  What are my purposes? I want to be cognizant of the contents of my life and the choices I negate. I want to be cognizant of the value of the ingredients in my life. 

If we are what we eat, then what I choose in life paints a picture of what I value.  Steve Jobs,  entrepreneur, computer engineer, industrialist, Magic Kingdom maker, decision warrior in many a mind field, COUNTED THE COSTS of his choices:   "I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do."

And since none of us is guaranteed the calorie content markers for the number of days we have to maintain, we must make our present choices count. It is for me a  striving to eat the power foods of life, to inhale and yet savor those moments for maximum benefit. And my metabolism of these moments is unique.  The amount and frequency of what I need to maintain nutritional life balance is dependent upon my make-up.  

But I would agree with blogger Jeff Goins advice in "Why We Must Savor Every Moment" when he offered that "It's not easy to slow down and enjoy every breath, every meal, every inconvenient interaction. But that is what we must do.  Why? 

• Because we don't know what tomorrow will bring. Today may be all we have.
• Because life moves fast.  We don't want to get to the end of it and wonder where it all went.
• Because sometimes our biggest frustrations turn into our most beautiful moments."(jeff@goinswriter.com  8/13/2013)

alzacareblog.com

This is not a perfect tabulation of calories, and its intention isn't to eliminate all high calorie foods. I love dark chocolate.  I take one square and hold it long in my mouth.  This counting is to draw long the sweetness from the moments. It's intention is to become more aware of the choices we are making even if we only get a small portion of those really great sweet moments. Twenty minutes of contemplation might just be the digestion time for our soul to realize it is more full than we realized, that the everyday moments might just be sacred.

lynnaustin.org

We know that some high caloric foods are nutritionally worth the consumption just as we know that a life consumed by Christ is one that COUNTS THE COST because He COUNTED THE COST  for us and found us as priceless gifts.

And so we take His message into our days, in a million simple ways offering ourselves to others and serving the needs of those nearby. We heed the warning from a character in Lynn Austin's new novel Return to Me: "Each day in a hundred different ways you must choose all over again whether you still want to follow Him or not." (198)

COUNTING THE COSTS

I pray I am always consumed with the effort of it.