Learning to Cope on the Race!

What an Amazing day! That's right...it was Amazing! On this 5th leg of the Amazing Race our teams lost a total of 264 pounds! We have got a group of people who are "not caving" into the pressures of what November can bring. It's NO CAVE NOVEMBER, and it shows!

Our top teams were excited to be the first to arrive on this 5th pit stop. At Noon our brother and sister team, 'Do It or Die' took the win with a 2.08 % of weight loss! Congratulations Darrel and Jackie! And hey...have fun decorating those trophy boards!

Our Six pm group celebrated with team 'Trophy Wife Wannabes' with a weight loss % of 2.43! Marna and Marianne, what a journey you've been on, you are looking great!



We have fun each Tuesday, that's for sure, but we also come away each week focused and thinking for a change! Yesterday I spent time encouraging our teams to look a little closer at their coping skills. In my opinion, learning to cope in healthy ways, is truly one of the greatest tools that we need to not only reach our goal weight, but more importantly keep it off for life.



To cope, is to take what’s inside of you, fear, anxiousness, stress, insecurities, overwhelm…wrestle with it, and then get it out! Coping; wrestling or grappling with difficulties and then acting to overcome them.
So, when we say that we use food to cope, drugs to cope, and alcohol to cope…we’re not coping. We're avoiding, stuffing, numbing, and disengaging from what’s inside of us. We’re just postponing the work that needs to be done to promote real healthy living. I've seen people who postpone the work that needs to be done, for a life time.



We all have stress, sorrow, anxiety, fear. We’ve had hard times this week in this very group. Losses, bad news, surgeries…hard life stuff. It’s what we do with all of that that makes the difference. It’s learning to process the issues instead of numbing or avoiding them.



I’ve seen comments on face book like…"I coped with food this week.” The correct statement would have been, “I used food this week to avoid coping.” Remember coping is wrestling or grappling with difficulties and acting to over come them.

My great desire is to help people learn the skills to help them live abundant, healthy lives. Learning to cope is one of those skills. This weeks task, along with Tuesdays lesson will help towards that for sure.

YOUR TASKS FOR THE WEEK:
Listen to week #4 of the CD series, "Coping Skills~Feeling Your Way Through Life" and do the homework provided.
Keep your NO CAVE NOVEMBER weight loss graph going! (Make sure you are in that drawing at the end of the month for an 8 pound loss!)

We've got a ROAD BLOCK this week too:
One member of each team must make the chow time recipe this week! Butternut Squash Fries!

Here's to a week of coping, eating healthy and making good choices for an abundant life!

Always encouraging you,

Letha