Roasted Tomatoes and Onions: Ingredients: onions, tomatoes, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper, lemon juice

I needed to do SOMETHING! I needed to get healthy. I needed balance in my life. I needed to replace unwise choices with wise choices. I needed to be more active physically. I needed to be around for my children and grandchildren. I needed to repent of the sin of idolatry. I needed to get my body in shape. I needed to lose weight. With so much to do, I figured I would start with the weight thing.

Last July, my house flooded from the second floor to the basement. My family moved in with my parents and we spent the next 5 months renovating our whole house. It was a hard thing but it was in the long hard hours of physical labor on our house that I had time to think about my life, priorities and what I wanted for my future. Working through that prepared me for the next hard thing --- losing the extra weight I had been carrying around for the last 13 years.

My story isn't different than any other women who has found herself at her wits end, desperate to get the weight off and after trying every fad diet known to man only to find herself right back at square one: frustrated, depressed and, yes, overweight once again. I knew I had to do something, I had to make some drastic changes, but I struggled with what the implications would be and how I would manage to stick with it this time.

My obsession with food has been with me since I was a little girl. I can't tell you how many pounds I have gained and lost, how many diets I have tried, and how many resolutions I have made to lose weight. Despite success in losing large amounts of weight twice in my life, I continued to struggle with binging on food, and the dishonesty to cover up this behavior.