UPDATE: I’ve had a crazy few days. I’m heading out to speak this morning to a MOPS group at Williamston Free Methodist Church to some new and Facebook friends. Yesterday, I spoke to some new and face-to-face dear friends at my kids’ homeschool academy. I’ll be back tomorrow to announce the winner of the cookbook from this post and the Bible study package from Monday’s post and give some holiday recipes and tips in conjunction with a blog post I’ll have running over at Hearts at Home. There is still time to leave comments on both posts here in order to be entered into the drawings. Have a fantabulous day!!!!!!  

Okay…let me be right up front and say I really have no strong opinion on the teen sensation that is Miley Cyrus. I know preteen girls who love her and other people who loathe all the hype and hoopla surrounding this famous singer/actress/daughter-of-achy-breaky-Billy Ray. I have never met Miss Miley. While I do have a few friends who know her personally, I really don’t posses enough facts to form an opinion about her as a role model for girls.

But yesterday while I was on the treadmill, one of her songs came on the sound system at the gym.

I actually paid attention to the lyrics. (It helped take my mind off the agony of walking briskly at a stupid incline in an attempt to shed some more of this stinkin’ weight.)

As I did, I wanted to shout, “That’s it!!! That is what I need to tell myself DAILY in this weight loss journey to health! Way to go Miles!! (All of a sudden, she and I are real tight like that–me calling her “Miles” and all )

Here are the lyrics to her song The Climb:

I can almost see it
That dream I’m dreaming but
There’s a voice inside my head sayin,
You’ll never reach it,
Every step I’m taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I’m gonna to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

(To see the official “The Climb” video starting Miss Miley herself and hear the entire song, click here.)

And so, there on the treadmill, I aplauded Miley (even though everything in this college-English-minor-now- homeschooling- mom fights against the use of such words as ‘ain’t!)

Oh ladies, we need to remember, it is the climb!!!

It isn’t about how fast we see the scale finally flash the magic number we are shooting for; it isn’t about what we think is waiting on the other side (smaller size clothes? happiness from being thin?)  

It is all about the journey and what God is trying to teach us through it; perseverance, faithfulness, to remain true and obedient even when the scale doesn’t seem to be moving fast enough for us or when we mess up and it heads in the opposite direction.

Yep, Miley is right. It’s the climb.

So, my guess (since 61 of you cyber sisters joined the Weight Loss Wednesday journey and, three weeks into it, only one third checked in last week) is that the climb is frustrating some of you.

Maybe you had a bad week, eating wise.

Maybe you had a good week and thought the scale would head south and it barely budged. That ticked you off.

Maybe you saw others leave a comment that they lost a pound or two or three, while you gained….a pound or two or three. So you left the computer screen blank and ran to your old familiar friend food.

Maybe you thought, I am NOT leaving a comment this week. In fact, count me out all together. I started three weeks ago and today I weigh more than when I started!

Can I beg you, fellow climber, still check in. 

One thing I learned over the last four years since I joined Weight Watchers and then helped start a Weigh and Pray group at my church is this: the weeks you LEAST feel like checking in with your support group are the very ones when you most desperately need to.

It helps slap you into reality.

It enables you to hit the “restart” button.

And, because we are all in this together  and have the same struggles with our weight….you will find the “you can do it”s and “don’t give up!”s you need to keep going. There are some sweet cyber sisters out there prayin’ and pullin’ for ya.

So, please….check in. I……..I mean we care about you. Let us know how your week was. How we can be praying. 

Share your successes.

Vent about your failures.

Let us know about your climb.

Even if all you say in your comment this week is: “Restart.”

We’ll know what you mean.

My climb this week–after daily dreaded appointments with that stupid treadmill– saw the scale head a little more south. Down 3.4 lbs. 

But even if it had stayed stuck….it would have still been okay. After all, it’s all about the climb!!!

Now, leave your comment and one random gal will be chosen to receive a copy of The Busy Mom’s Slow Cooker Cookbook: More than 320 Low-Calorie, Low-Fat Dishes by Jyl Steinback. It will help you make healthy, plan-ahead meals on your busiest or “I’m-out-running-around-all-day” days.

Praying for you!

Mountain Climbing Blessings,