My Light Weigh One King Story

My Light Weigh One King (LWOK) journey began when an announcement appeared in our church parish (St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, bulletin in August of 2016. Without hesitation or any second thoughts, I immediately called the LWOK Session coordinator and enrolled in the first session offered to our parishioners. I am very grateful to our parish pastor for allowing us to bring this life changing program to our church parish.

I am happy to say that this program has changed my life, allowed me to lose 16 unwanted pounds (to date), to grow tremendously in my faith and gain increased knowledge about my faith. Sometimes those of us who are "cradle" Catholics tend to take our faith / religion for granted and don't realize the important role that our faith should play in our everyday lives.

At the time I joined the first session I was steadily gaining my weight back that I had lost a few years prior. That seemed to be the story of my life. Follow the newest diet trend and lose weight only to have the pounds return after I stopped following the diet. I cannot begin to count how many diet trends I have tried all with the same result….the weight I lost would eventually return. After being a participant in the first session, the coordinator asked me if I would become the coordinator for the upcoming evening sessions since she was going to serve as coordinator for the daytime sessions going forward. Again, without hesitation, I said YES because I had already experienced positive changes in my life. I have been the coordinator for the LWOK Session since January 2017. As of this writing (January 2018) I am in my sixth session of LWOK, my fifth session as coordinator of the program.

Thus far, I have had eight or more members in each of my sessions. Many participants have gone through all four sessions. I had both female and male participants in my sessions. Participants have commented on the high quality of the program materials, the growth that they have experienced in their faith and their overall satisfaction with the program.

In addition to my own church parish, I am now reaching out to the other eight Catholic Churches in our parish prior to the beginning of each new session. I now have participants from some of these other churches.

On the first night of each new session, the participants are provided with three prayer cards. The Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, which is prayed at the beginning of each meeting to help us in our battles here on earth. The Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great, which is prayed at the end of each session so that thousands of souls in purgatory can be released to spend eternity in heaven. Plus, my mother’s name was Gertrude so this prayer has a special place in my heart. The third prayer is the Gluttony Prayer, which the participants can pray as often as they like to help them through their journey to better health and a better life.

The journal provided for each session is awesome and contains a wealth of information, which helped me tremendously in my journey.

This life changing program has allowed me to:

1. Learn of saints and martyrs whom I knew nothing about

2. Experience the power of offering up small sacrifices to God for other people or for specific situations and the power of prayer & obedience to God

3. Become much more familiar with and understand the Catholic bible

4. Be able to eat all of the foods I enjoy without the worry of weight gain

5. Lower my LDL cholesterol by 15 points and increase my HDL cholesterol by 31 points in one year (2016 to 2017) – both very positive changes

6. Understand and listen to my body signs when eating my meals (the real meaning of the sigh when my stomach is approaching full - rather than thinking that my body is making room for even more food)

7. Learn the proper eating techniques (i.e., portion control, eat slowly and eat only when at the correct hunger level)

8. Change my thought process about food and the manner in which I approach my meals (ordering a kid's meal, ordering an appetizer as a meal, sharing one meal with my spouse, requesting a "To Go" box either when my meal is delivered to the table or once I have eaten a portion of my meal, ordering menu items with smaller rather than larger portions)

9. Get through the holidays without over indulging in food or the worry of weight gain

10. Finally find peace with food (after struggling with my weight and over eating for more than 50 years)

Probably the hardest thing for me was to learn to eat slowly and put my fork or sandwich down after each bite of food. When my husband and I would sit for a meal he would frequently ask me if I had somewhere to go because I was already finished with my meal (which consisted of much more food than I consume now at a meal) and he had only eaten maybe half of his meal. Now, most times we finish our meal at the same time and sometimes he now finishes his meal before me. I had been a “quick” eater for more years than I can remember. I was the last one at the table and the first one to finish my meal most of the time.

Thank you for allowing me to share my Light Weigh One King (LWOK) story with you.

Julie