A Few Steps Over the Treshold

Four months. Forty pounds. 400 lessons learned.

A year ago I would have never thought I would be developing a blog about, of all things, successful weight loss. But here we are forty pounds later and I am on the laptop while the kids are napping (sort of) clicking away. I may not be Valerie Bertinelli or Marie Osmond and have the benefit of being a household name (to at least those of us raised in the late 70's and early 80's) but I do have a heart to cheer others on to victory.

All cliches aside - If I can do it - you can do it...with Jesus!

I started my journey out of pure conviction. My sweet friend Lysa TerKeurst asked me and 600 other Jesus loving gals, "What do you crave more than Jesus?" during her key note at She Speaks on July 31, 2009. I will never forget her words. They haunted me for two months until I fell on the floor and asked for the strength and grace to do the thing I needed to do.

I guess you could say I put the grace of Jesus to a test. Didn't really mean to - not really a lay your fleece out to God kind of gal - but looking back I have to admit that's kind of what I did. Salt and crunch are were my biggest temptation and I knew if I was going to experience freedom from this stronghold then that temptation had to be overcome. So I asked God to remove the temptation from my life. I was tired of trying and tired of failing so I asked Someone to remove it who I have read has the ability to do so.

"The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure."  I Corinthians 10:13 NIV

And on Sunday Jesus proved Himself strong!

My beloved Colts may have lost Sunday's Superbowl in the second half but Jesus and I had a winning touchdown moment in my girlfriend's kitchen during the third quarter. Smack dab in the middle of her kitchen island was a BIG bowl of Lay's potato chips and a BIG bowl of french onion dip. Four months ago I would have stood in front of that island and watched the entire game while eating the entire bowl.

I am not kidding. I am the gal they were thinking of when Lay's proclaimed "No One Can Eat Just One."

Sunday I ate TWO. Chips not bowls. Two chips with the ends just barely dipped in french onion dip. Those two chips were absolutely delicious. Then I was done. I didn't have to tell myself to stop eating them. I didn't even give myself a lecture on how hard I had worked and it wasn't worth gaining all 40 pounds back in one evening with one bag of chips. I ate two and was satisfied. No temptation. In fact, when I went back for a couple more Hungry Girl H-O-T Hot Boneless Buffalo Wings, I didn't think twice about the potato chips. Victory!

The Saints may have been marching on in Miami but I had my own saints cheering for me on streets paved with gold.

So welcome to Shaped to Serve. It is my hope that this blog becomes a place of encouragement, motivation and most of all fun. I know what it is like to struggle. I know what it is like to be so stinking mad at yourself you could scream. I know what it is like to feel like you can't serve our Lord to your fullest because you are bound to the lie of defeat and failure.

I also know what it is like to experience answered prayer, victory and being living proof of God's faithfulness!

I am not following a diet plan. The only thing I am doing is counting calories. I eat real food and cook normal meals. Along the way I have found some great, inexpensive products that even my husband and two toddlers will eat. I will share what I have discovered and look forward to hearing what you love. I also cook differently than before. You could say I am Paula Deen turned Cook Yourself Thin. I have made some great healthy substitutions, have tweaked and retweaked recipes and am now doing my part to manage my husband's Type II Diabetes through what he eats (when I am in control have influence of the food he eats). Anything I find, create, tweak or steal I will share with you.

In fact, today I will tell you about one of my favorite late night, I-need-chocolate-or-I-am-going-to-hurt-someone treats. This has replaced ice cream in our house. And we love us some ice cream.

Jello has created decadent, rich Mousse Temptations that come in three oh so good flavors - Dark Chocolate Decadence (my favorite), Chocolate Indulgence and Caramel Creme. We have had all three and love them all. Here's the best part - each serving is only 60 calories! Add a little squirt of Fat Free Reddi-Whip and you've got yourself a late night affair for only 65 calories! And for those of you wondering - the serving size is enough to make my husband smile :)

And as an extra special treat to welcome you to our little corner of the blogging world I have three coupons to try Mousse Temptations for FREE! Leave a comment and I will randomly pick 3 winner on Thursday. The coupons are from Jello and expire on February 28th. You will receive them in the mail with time to spare.

Now doesn't that sound like fun? Tell your girlfriends and blogging buddies to grab a cup of coffee and join our little group of ordinary women struggling with ordinary challenges who long to serve our Extraordinary God! Some days the posts will be recipes, some days it will be a new or newly discovered product and some days it will be something Jesus is teaching me that is just too good to keep to myself! Heck, some days it may be to just a mix of all three!  Be sure to subscribe so you will know when we have a new post and let's do this thing!

I am so glad you stopped by and I can't wait to see what our great God is going to do through this little blog.

Sweet, dark chocolate blessings!

~ O'Nealya