Basics of H.E.A.L. and of LIFE! Part 1

Since this isn’t a diet, I don’t want to call this “Basics of H.E.A.L.” and leave it there! Really, this isn’t temporary like a “diet;” this is to be a permanent change. In my eating and in my thinking.

On page 35, the authors state: …healthy eating has less to do with the type of food you eat and more to do with the relationship you have with food and God. Healthy eating in the HEAL sense is having an emotionally healthy approach to food. It means bringing God into the center of your relationship with food and learning to trust and obey the way he made you.

Truthfully, today something went awry. My heart and brain checked out and I didn’t eat what I had planned to eat at 0. I was hungry for breakfast and for my lunch and did ok there…but after that, I didn’t wait for 0. I grabbed greedily at this or that. It wasn’t bingeing…far from that, but it was also far from the positive behavior that I thought had become habitual.

Sometimes I wonder if the Lord allows me to see a day like this so I realize just how dependent I am on him. If he isn’t the center of my relationship with food, I am a mess. Left to my own devices…well, it is pretty pathetic.

Right now is a new moment. I choose to capture this moment for the Lord. I will not wait for tomorrow. To wait is to give in to the old dieting mentality. Instead, I will declare THIS my new moment, my new “day,” my “Monday,” my “fresh start!” Thank you, Lord, that I can do that.

Further down the page, the authors state that diets “…overlook the underlying reasons why we may have an unhealthy relationship with food, our body, exercise, or other aspects of our lives. Diets give food the upper hand and attempt to fix our appearance, but not our heart.”

Colossians 2:20-23 is a powerful scripture for this very thing. I don’t know how I could ever go on another diet…even if I could toss out my experience (which has taught me that I become more obsessed by dieting), I couldn’t toss this scripture aside. I would have to “re-interpret” it. Don’t think that will happen.

I know that this battle has kept me fiddling with trinkets, distracted by the lesser things, with an illusive vapor of some sort…when the Lord has so much more in mind for me. I think there is definitely a new greater thing emerging here. I keep saying this, I realize, but then I catch wind afresh of just how true this is. I am praying that I will hate sin, love obedience to anything the Lord calls me to do or be, and desire to be appropriately active for the sheer joy of moving the body he has given me. I am eager to see how he will answer these prayers in the day ahead!

HEAL Week Two Assignment

NOTE: I posted three different things yesterday. Sorry to bog down the blog, but each seemed of value: 1.) Part 2 of the Group Study from HEAL Lesson 1. Feel free to respond here at the blog even if you don’t have the book! 2.) A post on dieting 3.) a video–If you have a young girl in your life, please share it with her.

On to today’s post (Don’t worry! I won’t be posting more today!…or I guess I should say, I don’t plan to!):

Hi, girls! Even if you are joining us late, feel free to use the blog here to record your responses. Many of us will receive email notifications that someone has posted to the blog and your comment will be read, prayed over, and possibly responded to.

  • Continue to memorize Psalm 139, if you have chosen to do so.
  • Read and pray over/journal through, respond to ๐Ÿ™‚ Lesson 2: The HEAL Basics, on pages 35-48.
  • This material describes the “nuts and bolts” of how we are challenged to eat. Begin to apply the principles presented here. Consider, journal, pray over how it feels to let go of dieting rules. Are you willing to truly trust your body and the God who designed your body? ๐Ÿ™‚
  • As you begin to do this, consider what are ways that you discover a “dieting mentality” rearing its ugly head through the week. For instance, you may try to diligently eat according to your body’s hunger and satisfied signals and feel like you are “failing” and are tempted to “Start over” or to “Quit.” These are thoughts that come from dieting. In the Lord’s economy, every single solitary moment given to him, every tiny little choice and babystep taken in a Godward direction, delights His heart! Continue to ask the Lord to show you when you are giving in to a dieting mentality, even in subtle ways.

I want to encourage us, as I did with the last study I did here, to try to focus on the Lord through this. The more we focus on our bodies, eating and food, the more it can actually drive us nuts and become a wall between us and the Lord! If we take captive constant thoughts about food, eating, and our bodies, and, instead, become intentional about praising God for his character or thanking him for things, we will find our journey transformed–WE will be transformed!

If you have a bathroom scale, I suggest getting rid of it or, at the very least, giving it to a friend to keep for you so you won’t hop on it over and over again “just to check.” I know from experience that jumping on a bathroom scale can actually DEFEAT all that you hope to accomplish. It is a tool that very often harms us, rather than helps. Pray about it, ok?

Have a blessed Lord’s day!

This Video is Valuable…

Visit this website to know more about this video.

I don’t have a clue about what they promote, but this video is fabulous. I can’t say whether I endorse anything else about them or not, but if you have any young women in your life, this short video is a powerful encouragement.

Diet Thoughts

Hi, everyone. On a private forum, I have been in a discussion with some friends. I found myself posting something that I hope might encourage visitors to this blog. I thought I would share it. Names have been removed and some text edited.
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…As someone who has been an “expert” on dieting for years and years, I would caution always to evaluate it if is worth the cost…to the heart and mind…and to look at the ultimate goal…that of keeping the weight off, being able to “be normal,” *and* not to hinder my walk with Christ in *any* way. That is my hope, anyhow. I don’t want anything I choose to do that deals with my physical body to hinder my walk with Christ. And for me, dieting definitely has hindered my walk with the Lord over the years. Dieting isn’t the “evil,” however…it is what I allow it to do to my heart.

For me…dieting has done a lot to get rid of physical weight in the past, but has done a whole lot more to add emotional and spiritual weight–burden–in my life. These things have added to the reasons behind my weight issues rather than alleviate them. Dieting treated my symptoms rather than the cause…for ME. Like I mentioned in my initial comments about this, maybe that isn’t a problem for anyone else, but my obsession took me down a path I don’t ever care to return to. In fact, if I had to choose, I would rather be overweight and not have the heavy heart than be thin and obsessed living in fear of gaining it back. These seem to be the two extremes I lived between for so long. I am trying to stay in that “happy medium” place now.

As it says in Romans 13 (I think it is), the Kingdom of Heaven is not about eating and drinking but about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen to that!

God has been taking me on a path of dealing with the heart issue. It sure isn’t a quick fix…I will grant you that. And one of the things he is bringing home to me is that my body is SO not the issue–again, for me. Yes, he wants me to do what I can to be healthy, but physical health is not to be at the expense of spiritual and emotional health.

Frankly, God has laid on my heart that His goal for me is not that I be THIN. His goal for me isn’t even that I be HEALTHY. His goal for me is that I am HIS. I am sure he celebrates good health and celebrates when I am at a healthy weight, but what he really desires more than anything is that my heart is sold out to him and I chase after him more than thinness. Sure, a person can do both, but *I* can’t. I don’t know how else I can say this. For me, if I could hate sin as much as I hate being fat, I might make some headway.

So often I have sold my birthright for a bowl of stew…or a promise of being thin.

He is my sufficiency and strength if I allow him to be…sometimes I replace one sort of food and body obsession with another. For me, that is what dieting has been…it was the trade off from obsessing with how fat I am and eating more food, to obsessing about controlling the food and hopping on and off the scale to see how I am doing. All the while, my heart remained in chains or even more chains were added to what held me.

Dieting isn’t the problem. Just like food isn’t the problem. What is the problem is my heart.
God is dealing with that in me now, thankfully. It is taking a LOT of work, but it is happening!

HEAL Lesson 1 Group Study Part 2

Hi, Girls! ๐Ÿ™‚ (Using Allie’s name for her group participants! :-))

Imagine that we are continuing our study in our “virtual living room,” enjoying getting to know one another a bit better. Freshen your coffee or tea and get cozy for part 2 of our HEAL study! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • What does being “wonderfully made” mean to you?
  • In what areas of your life have you been living in the dark?
  • What scares you about living in the light?
  • How have you hidden your struggles with food and your body from God and others?
  • Reflect on the miracle of being knit together in your mother’s womb.

I spoke with Judy Halliday a few months ago about Psalm 139 and she stated a concern that many women have a tendency to think that because of things done to them in their lives or because of poor choices they have made, they have somehow negated the truth of Psalm 139. Some people, Judy shared, are convinced that, while the Lord may have made them “fearfully and wonderfully,” that now, after the way they have chosen to live, they are no longer that wonderful, amazing work of art that God intended. What would YOU say to someone who says she believes this? Is this truth? Or a lie? What IS the truth? If someone believes this, what can she do to practically change her thinking? Why is this important to experiencing transformation in the area of food, eating and our view of our bodies?

As you reflect back on the week and lesson one, your journaling, the things the Lord may have shown you in His Word or in the stillness of your time with Him, what does He impress upon you now? What words might HE want you to share here at this blog? Other participants will read your comments and others who are only “lurking” might be encouraged or challenged by anything that you have to say as well. What is in you to minister to others that God may want to have you “put out there?” Prayerfully consider this!

Lord, thank you for this material. May we allow you to use it to truly do a “new thing.” I pray, too, that others would join in. Even though we have gotten started, may other women who might be encouraged through this material join in…whether they have the book or not, Lord. I pray that we might all draw a bit closer to your heart and that you might join us in the bond of Christ, even in the many locations we find ourselves. I pray that we will find a way, choose a person or a method, that we might BE accountable to take babysteps forward. Where we have tossed food down our throats in an emotional outburst in the past, I pray we might even catch ourselves and stop and pray instead and leave the house, if need be. If we have engaged in any eating disorder behavior such as throwing up after a meal, I pray we might stop in our tracks as we head to the bathroom and surrender our next moments, thoughts, and steps to you. Help us to celebrate our babysteps forward, Lord, knowing that these delight your Father’s heart. Thank you that, through Jesus, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive the mercy and help we need in our times of trial. In His Name we pray, Amen.

HEAL Lesson 1 Group Study Part 1

This week definitely got away from me, and I didn’t post to the blog as much as I had hoped. But I did complete my study! So, as promised, let’s do the “Group Study” here. Feel free to imagine us sitting in a living room together, your favorite beverage at hand…let’s go ahead and share as the Lord leads!

Dear Heavenly Father, please be with us in this “virtual living room” as we study from the HEAL book and your Word. Please show us what we should share–to know what is from you and that you want us to post and what might need to be pondered privately in our hearts and offered to you. May you be King over this technology in our lives. We proclaim you LORD over this blog and over this study. Thank you, Jesus, for providing the way that this can happen. Be exalted. Amen.

What are some thoughts or questions that you have as you read over Psalm 139? If we were in a group together face-to-face, we would read it out loud together and chat about each verse as we go. What might you feel led to share about? How did this psalm strike you? (Refer to page 31 of the HEAL book.) If you don’t have the HEAL book, please feel free to share anyhow!

The authors state on page 32 that there are important lessons from Psalm 139:
1.) God is familiar with all our ways.
2.) We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
3.) We were made in absolute intimacy with our Maker. Our heart hungers to return to this place if intimacy, peace, and solitude before God.
4.) God’s eyes saw our unformed body.

Can you respond to these? Do they “strike” you in any way in particular? How do these lessons affect (or how *can* they affect) the way you view yourself or your body?

Share your personal experiences regarding your weight, eating habits, and body image. Specifically discuss what you wrote in response to the three reflection from your personal study this week that began on page 22 and 23 under “My HEAL Journey.”

For those who don’t have the book, but who want to join in, we were asked in the HEAL book to consider our relationships with food and our body and to answer:

Where I have been…

Where I am now…

Where I want to be

I want to hear from you! Let’s share here. ๐Ÿ™‚
Part 2 coming tomorrow.