Bathroom Scale Challenge!

Photo Courtesy of iStockPhoto

Photo Courtesy of iStockPhoto

Going for Broke!

How about a “Bathroom Scale Challenge?” Will you take the challenge? 🙂 More importantly, do you sense that God may be inviting you to do so?

For two weeks, will you have a friend or family member take your scale and hide it (when I did this, my husband took it to his office)?

But first…evaluate how you feel about the thought of being without the scale for two weeks. Ask God to show you if these feelings need dealing with! If you want to scream “NOOOOoooo!!!” and grab your scale to your chest, for instance, perhaps there is something that needs dealing with! LOL! I know how you feel! I have been there!

I hope that my friend, Kim, will weigh in (pun intended) on this subject and share with you all what was going on with me in 2008 that made her feel she needed to FLAT OUT TAKE IT FROM ME! She did, too! I begrudgingly gave it to her but was SO glad that I did! It wasn’t until about a year ago that my husband brought a scale back into the house. Even so, I have to be ever vigilant not to look to the scale for approval. With our weight loss bible study under way and my renewing my mind daily (or almost) about 0 to 5 eating being a good, godly, delightful boundary that can thrill my heart :-), I have released some weight and would like a bit more gone. I have to be really cautious that I don’t revert back to the way of thinking that got me into as much trouble as overeating.

So, what say you? Can you release your hold on the bathroom scale and focus, instead, on the hunger scale (which is what Thin Within refers to the hunger numbers as)? Stand on the promises of God in scripture instead of that hunk of plastic, springs, whateverelsewithanarbitrarynumber? 🙂

Will you take the challenge? What do you need to renew your mind about as you do?

Let us hold you accountable here if you don’t have an accountability partner yet!

Bathroom Scale Stuff

scale3

What power will we give the bathroom scale? This is something we each get to decide in the stillness of our hearts with the Lord. I urge you to consider, if you haven’t already done so, renewing your mind about the power you give the scale and what it “says.”

Barb’s study in Day 14 is helpful on this subject.

Here are some thoughts about it (if you subscribe via email, please visit the blog to see the video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1xJmrqnkGo?rel=0&w=640&h=480

We also touched on this a bit in Week 3 when we looked at “Appearance Eating.”

Here at the blog since 2006, I have experienced quite the journey about whether or not I would have a bathroom scale in my home. I went about 4 years without a scale and it was wonderful! Before that, I was chained to it, looking to it for its approval. You can do a search here at the blog or use this link to have a look at my journey with the bathroom scale, if you like. Whatever your feelings about the bathroom scale, I am sure I have been there, too!

I am at a point now where I am able to have a bathroom scale (my husband wanted one) in the house and it doesn’t own me like it did before, but I am convinced that I needed it out of my life in order for me to have this freedom now.

How do you feel about the bathroom scale? Is it a tool for your use? Or is it a Master that you struggle with giving too much power over you? What can you do to have a “healthy” relationship with the bathroom scale? How can we help and support you?

Goodbye Scale!

Goodbye Scale!

Photo courtesy to www.freedigitalphotos.net

Photo courtesy to www.freedigitalphotos.net

Dear Scale, I’m done with you!  I’m finished!  You no longer get to tell me who you think I am or how well I am doing.  You do NOT define me!  You are not my friend anymore. Goodbye!  Sincerely, Christina

This is overdue.  I meant to write this weeks ago.

It’s Sunday night, July 13, 2014.  We had a glorious weekend with BEAUTIFUL weather!  We live in Southeast Alaska.  It rains a lot here.  We get 14-feet of precipitation a year.  Yes, you read that right, 14 FEET!  Our temperatures this weekend were in the upper 70’s.  That is warm for us.  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Last night, I had this idea that I would weigh myself this morning.  About a month ago, I removed the scale from my bathroom and put it in this storage space we have below our house, which is in a room above our cistern.  (Because of all the rain we get, we collect the rain water into our cistern tanks, which is then filtered, and that’s the water we use for drinking and bathing).  The room above the cistern is like an above ground crawl space.  That’s where the scale lived for a few weeks…until last night when I got that [evil] thing out.  Some of you may be wondering if I prayed about this: NOPE!  I was full-throttle on-a-mission and I think the Lord was like, “Okay, have your way.  You shall see…”

Mirror, mirror…who is the most beautiful of all?  Well, let’s just say it’s, “Scale, scale, tell me, am I beautiful?  Have I been good?  Am I too much?  Or not enough?”

I thought, “I’ve been doing really well (I’ve been good).  I’m following my boundaries pretty consistently.  God is changing me and transforming me.  Let’s see the proof in the puddin’!”

I woke up.  I got out of bed.  I went (yeah, you know what I mean, let’s empty everything so no ounce counts against us).  I put my 8-pound weight on the scale just to be sure it’s accurate (oh boy!).  I stepped on the scale.

I gained 2 pounds!  TWO pounds!  GAINED!

Wait!  This can’t be right.

Step off the scale.

Let’s try that 8-pound weight again.

Ready.  Let’s try this again.

Step up.

Still a 2-pound gain.  Sigh.

Now remember, it’s a beautiful day.  But the majority of my day was spent in with this cloud hanging over me, all because of a number.  A number.  Two measly pounds.  I let it define me.  I let it steal my joy.  I let it steal my whole day.  I was grumpy.  I set the mood for my home and my husband was affected, and so was my daughter.  I was in a stinkin’, rotten mood all because of a contraption that spits out a number.

Really?  I’m going to let it have that much leverage?

I’m DONE with it!

I am NOT what I weigh.  I am defined by Jesus Christ.

So hours later, which really should have been right away, I sat down and renewed my mind using the Dumb Scale Eating questions from I Deserve a Donut app (there’s also the book) by Barb Raveling.  That helped, but I still had a bad attitude.  So then a little while later, I renewed my mind with the Discontentment questions from the same app.  One of the questions asks what God wants me to do, and right away He showed me that I needed to apologize to my family for having such a bad attitude.  And so I did, and they forgave me (along with hugs and kisses).

I’ve never walked away from the scale feeling better.  Even if I had a weight loss, I still felt discontentment rising up in me.  It will never be enough.  It’s a tool the enemy has used in my life to make me feel like the scum of the earth.  Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but really, I have allowed it to define me.  I am not my weight.  I am more than a number!

So this is what I’m going to do.  I’m going to ask my husband to hide the scale and I’m going to ask him to not let me have it back–ever!  (Unless the Lord clearly gives me the “ok” to weigh).  Really, I’m so done with it!  We actually have a use for the scale for weighing our luggage when leaving town since Alaska Airlines doesn’t really like a bag to be over 50-pounds (sometimes we are just tired of the rain and we would rather see snow or sun, you know?).  We aren’t light packers, what can I say?  So…he’s going to hide it and I’m going to be done with it.

Will you join me in this?  Will you get rid of or ask a family member to hide the scale?  Or wean yourself off the number-spitting contraption?  Maybe instead of every day, how about once a week?  And then once a month, and then every 3 months?  And then never?  The number isn’t important.  You are important!

This is a scripture that was included with the Discontentment questions from I Deserve a Donut.  It really spoke to me:

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being RENEWED day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:16-18

I don’t want to look at what is seen (the scale).  I want to believe by faith that God is doing a work in me.  Because He is transforming me, from the inside out.  One of the questions asked in the Dumb Scale Eating questions is: Is it more important to lose weight, or to consistently renew your mind so you change the way you think about food?

Well, obviously it’s more important to consistently renew my mind.  Because I have chosen to renew my mind and because God has transformed me (and continues to do so), I have seen some amazing changes take place.  I no longer think about food like I used to.  I used to lust after hunger (being at 0), but now sometimes when I’m hungry, I feel like it’s an inconvenience because I’m working on a project or spending time with my family.  I’m no longer fearful about food (I used to think that sugar and carbs were doing deathly damage to my body).  I eat smaller portions at restaurants (this is a new change).  I don’t like feeling full, which for me is a “6”, where before, I used to numb myself with food.  I no longer immediately think about eating after my kids are in bed (that is a HUGE transformation change–praise God!).  And by following my boundaries, I was able to stay at a very healthy weight during my pregnancy.  So WHY would I let a number make me feel like a failure?  No way!  I’m not doing that anymore!

I don’t know why I gained 2 pounds.  But I’m not going to spend my time focusing on why.  I’m just going to continue doing what I am doing: following my boundaries and most importantly renewing my mind.  Taking the time to renew my mind about this got my attention today.  God exposed the lies and revealed truth.  The lie: you are what you weigh.  The truth: the scale doesn’t define me; Christ defines me.

So would you join me on this quest to say goodbye to the scale?  Let’s do it!

P.S. About 1-1/2 weeks after I weighed myself, I was able to tighten my belt one more notch.  Praise God!  So obviously something is happening.  A new thing is happening!  God is doing work from the inside out!

Week 8 – That Darn Scale (Again) and Food Just TASTES Good!

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

This week we are investigating two things that spur us to eat outside of our primary boundary of physical hunger and satisfaction. One is our response to our weight on the bathroom scale…(I really hope you aren’t still hopping on your scale, though!) As we begin this week, I urge you to remember that your ideal size is whatever you land on when you faithfully eat according to the God given parameter of physical hunger and satisfaction. You don’t ever need to step on a scale again! So, if you haven’t yet, why not give your scale to someone else to keep for you? 🙂

Additionally, we will look at how often we can wait for physical hunger before eating. We may even be growing in our willingness and ability to process our emotions with the Lord instead of running to food instantly each time. But when we DO sit down to feed our “0” , we may zip on past our comfortable “5” or place of physical satisfaction. Let’s see what we can learn to help us stop it!

If we can take care of these two things, practically speaking, we will eliminate a bunch of our overeating!

I have broken this week’s assignments down again in the hopes that it will be helpful for you.

Monday
Visit Barb’s page: Bad Scale Eating at this link. She points out that we typically want to lose weight in a way that is fast, easy and fun and that when we have been dying to self for 8 weeks, it really is hard to get on the scale and see that we haven’t lost weight…but maybe we have even gained!

To be honest, with the Thin Within approach to landing on your God-given size, it often happens that way (sorry to break it to you now…). People may gain weight when they start off! Sometimes this happens at the beginning before the weight starts coming off.

That isn’t to say you should ignore that fact, shrug your shoulders, and just accept it. NOPE! Instead, re-evaluate and see what it is that needs to be tweaked. Instead of focusing on the man-made bathroom scale, how about focusing on the God-given HUNGER scale–that true physical “empty” or what we call “0” and that true physical SATISFIED or what Thin Within calls a “5?”

Chances are, if you aren’t feeling your clothes loosening up, you may be either deceiving yourself about eating between 0 and 5 or you may be drinking a lot of sweetened beverages throughout the day (stop it!–said with love!), or is it possible you are already at the size God intends for you?

Which do you think it is?

Barb has a section in her post about the scale called unrealistic expectations. She hits the nail on the head! We often have unrealistic expectations, but, again, I want to urge you to THROW OUT YOUR BATHROOM SCALE or, at the very least, have a friend take it and hide it. We can get so focused on it that we miss the thing that God IS doing and he promises that HE IS DOING A NEW THING!

Wouldn’t it be a “new thing” if we stopped weighing ourselves? At least it would be for many of us. Give it a try and after the typical week or so of panic, you will likely settle in to experiencing the peace and freedom that comes from refusing to let a man-made hunk of metal, plastic, springs, etc., arbitrarily assign a number to your size.

In Barb’s section called Unrealistic Expectations, can you identify with either option #1 or option #2? Which?

So how about doing what she suggests! In order to keep following your boundaries with a good attitude, take some time to renew your mind about the scale.

What other unrealistic expectations do you have? Can you find any truths in God’s Word that speak to this? Jot them down or share them with us here.

NOTE: Tomorrow, I will be posting about a “Fire the Desire: 3 Day Challenge.” We can do just about anything for three days. You may want to plan now for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — for joining the Fire the Desire 3 Day Challenge!

Tuesday

Barb includes an “Exercise for Journal” section at her Bad Scale Eating page (this is the same page as the one I had you visit yesterday). This is an OUTSTANDING exercise for us to do. Note her examples. (Again, please note that Barb uses dieting “lingo,” but you can trade the words and phrases out for ones that fit Thin Within and 0 to 5 eating.)

If you do this exercise, share with us here what the truths are that replaced any of the lies that you struggle(d) with!

Read today’s blog post about the “Fire the Desire 3 Day Challenge.” Are you going to give it a try? Do you have an accountability partner?  If you haven’t connected with your accountability partner in a while, you may want to! Will you check in here? Tell us your intention if you plan to do the Challenge!

Wednesday

Turn to Barb Raveling’s Good Food Eating study at this link.

If you are like most of us, you can wait for 0 most of the time before eating, but stopping at 5 (or before) is another story altogether! What do you think? Do you find yourself continuing to eat past that place of pleasant satisfaction just because the food available is so YUMMY?   Sometimes the food just is there and tastes so good that we want to keep on eating it.

Do Barb’s More is Better bible study. Summarize what God shows you.

Are there any truths you can add to your truth cards as a result of going through these two studies of Barb’s?

Barb asks “Do you need to set any secondary boundaries to protect yourself from good food eating? If so, what boundaries could you make?” As you consider this question, we rejoice hat we don’t need to have ANY food be off limits completely, but what about staying within the boundaries of 0 and 5? How can you set yourself up for success with your eating when Good Food abounds and you waited until 0? How can you plan ahead to help you succeed?

Are you joining in the Fire the Desire 3 – Day Challenge? If not, why not? 🙂 Today is Day 1! (You can start it any time, actually, but why not today?)

Thursday

Complete the Good Food Eating section included in Barb’s blog post (again, this is the same post as yesterday’s).

What insights come to you as a result of going through this material?

How are you doing on the Fire the Desire 3 – Day Challenge?

Friday

This is the last day of the Fire the Desire 3 – Day Challenge. How is it going? Stay off the scale in keeping with this week’s study. Truth journal about the scale if it will help. What about stopping at 5? Are you recognizing a 5 as it approaches? Are you eating slowly enough so that you can stop after a reasonable amount of food? What plan can you have to be proactive?

Extra Credit: 🙂 Weekends are tough for many of us. Sometimes it is because weekends signal us to let up our boundaries. Our routines are typically set aside. Can you create a plan for this weekend–a routine for yourself, some way to be proactive about experiencing success? Even if you aren’t doing the 3-day challenge, I hope you will include adding to your God List, having a Praise Fest, and adding to your Gratitudes Journal this weekend! I really believe that we will not stay in rebellion when we exalt God.

Share here with us how it is going!

“Weighing In” – How A Naturally Thin Eater Thinks About the Scale & Eating

My Sister, Andrea, Breezy (notice his tongue), and me!

My Sister, Andrea, Breezy (notice his tongue), and me!

Another post about the scale? 🙂 Yes. It seems to be something we need encouragement about!

In 2001, I had the joy of getting to be the collaborator with the Hallidays on the writing of the Thin Within book. Something that not many people know is that, in writing the book, I got to share stories from my own life throughout. (Don’t tell anyone!)

So the part about the Naturally Thin Eater at the top of page 136 was about my sister, Andrea. We changed the names of those whose testimonies we included, so I am “Teri.” 🙂

A Thin Within participant, Teri, tells of her sister’s eating habits: “She always eats small amounts, making a huge deal out of each bite, moving the food around in her mouth. I never could understand it before. Also, she is quite happy taking a single bite of someone else’s chocolate mousse pie instead of ordering her own. She eats strange things at odd hours. She always leaves food on her plate. It seems like she never eats much of anything at a sitting, but you can tell she really enjoys whatever she eats. When I asked her about when she likes to eat, she looked at me like I had a third eyeball and stated, ‘When I’m hungry.’ She’s been living and using the Keys to Conscious Eating all her life. I wish she had clued me in.” Thin Within, p. 136

That section of the book was written 13 years ago. Andrea visited last week and I had the chance to learn a bit more about her eating habits. We went out to a wonderful dinner and she ate what seemed to me like an enormous quantity of food given my prior claims. 🙂 I never noticed her do that before. I didn’t say anything of course. 🙂 The next day, we were talking about a dinner out with her friends one night. They expressed incredulity that she could eat such a big meal and not be larger than she is. She pointed out that she doesn’t eat that way all the time. An “occasional” meal where she eats that much is followed by eating the modest portions she almost always does. It doesn’t lead to another meal large meal, and another and another. And it also doesn’t lead to condemnation. She has found a rhythm in her life that works well for her to be a healthy size.

I shared with Andrea that the most popular post *ever* on my blog was last week’s post: Your Body – What is Your Natural God-Given Size?  I told her that I think people are eager to be convinced that getting rid of the scale is a good idea and that life won’t fall apart if we do it. She shared with me that now, at age 62, she has never had a bathroom scale her entire adult life.  Whenever she has had an occasion to see her weight (annual physical exams), she has been the same weight since she was sixteen years old. She gets on the scale and, PRESTO! there it is again…the same number that the scale has told her for 46 years! Without doing anything differently. (She sheepishly mentioned that, even with a regular Yoga session, she finds the weight has “redistributed,” but she is still the same number on the doctor’s scale.)

She eats when she is hungry. She typically doesn’t eat when she isn’t hungry–or, if she does, it is a bite (literally…one tiny taste) of this or that. Occasionally, she enjoys a large meal and then gets back to eating modest portions again after that. That’s it. No strangle-hold on her scale or on calorie counting or some other approach. She is free.

Note: She doesn’t know Jesus. I would love for her to know that freedom. Could you  pray for her real quick just now?

Have you experienced freedom from the bathroom scale and discovered that you are approaching or found your natural God-given size and maintained it? How did you deal with the doubts and questions of “Shouldn’t I be weighing?”