Week 1 Complete,,, find comfort without comfort foods...

Week 1 complete!  After realizing my scale was not settling back at 0 when I stepped off of it, I adjusted it and ended up losing 4 pounds.  Not sure when it got off balance, but I will take it.  I feel my legs growing in definition and I just plain feel better eating clean.  I took a break yesterday for lunch, my "cheat meal", that I am allowing us to have on Sunday, and honestly, it tasted good but I felt like a slug afterward.  I love Mexican food, but even with not ordering a bunch of food, taking out the queso, and only half a basket of chips, I felt so tired and "food coma-ed" afterward that it motivated me to stay eating clean just for energy alone.
My buns and legs are feeling tighter, my eyes feel more awake in the morning, and I just feel like "go, go, go" when I am eating these fresh foods.  I hate to admit that, but it does have a remarkable difference.  I notice my patience is better, too.  I still sleep deeply, crave carbs, and miss my diet soda, but I am coming along.  

I think the biggest thing is letting go of the idea that I can "blast it off".  It's one week and I feel like I've been doing this for so long already.  While I do enjoy the benefits, I am coming to recognize my addiction with food is purely out of comfort.  Carbs comfort me in a weird way.  Like Baby K and her bottle, I relax with my cheese and crackers.  I melt with hot bread sticks.  They just fill me, soothe me, and comfort me in a way that broccoli never can.  I guess that's why they call them "Comfort Foods" for a reason.  While I think we were created to have comfort, I've got to get to a point when I can "self soothe" without my comfort foods.  I used to have a bad day at work and roll through McDonald's for a double cheeseburger and a diet coke.  I'd feel sad from the weather and make mac-n-cheese.  We could get cabin fever and get a sweet froyo with candy on top.  I can think of a 1,000 carbs and a hundred million times I made the choice to feel better with food.  It was done in my family growing up, and I have carried it on into my own home.  

Now... I'm Linus without a blanket.  Carrots and hummus are like rubbing my face against sand paper.  I miss those warm, soft tender puffs of flour and wheat.  What can I use instead?  Can something else fill the void?  

I have started trying to use my thoughts instead of my food to get me through.  Granted, my stress is about a 1 on a scale of 1-10 being home with KK, but I want to at least try.  Scripture, positive phrases, stupid lines that my mom says like "nothing feels right when your pants are too tight" or "a moment on the lips are forever on the hips".  But I think maybe comfort in the scriptures like, 

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." -1 Corinthians 6:19-20.  

If that doesn't keep me accountable... maybe I will try....  

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  -Mathew 6:25


So two cards with these verses are going on my refrigerator.  I have to keep trying other things besides returning to old habits and old loves.  I have to keep trying to be my BEST me!