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On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I posted parts 1 and 2 of “Will We Fight the Rescue?” In Tuesday’s post we evaluated if we fight the Lord’s rescue. Yesterday, we plunged head-long into a bible study about it.

Now, let’s get practical. For those of you who are Thin Within veterans, this will sound familiar. I hope you will experience a new wind in your sails—fresh motivation.

For others of you who are new to this approach, will you let go of what you think you know—things you have read or learned from science or your own experiences with dieting and weight loss? Will you, for now, just give this a try…where you toss aside fixating on calories, fat grams, or points—just for now for say…two weeks?

Sound radical? It is! Just like God asking Lot and his family (see yesterday’s study) to flee Sodom! Leave it, go, and set your eyes forward. God is going to provide an amazing way of escape.

Instead of counting, weighing and measuring, agonizing, or forcing yourself to eat things that are tasteless, you will trust the Lord that he has made your body reliably. He holds out his hand to lead the way. It can take 40 years like it did for Israel or it can take eleven days (figuratively speaking, of course!). Believe him, trust Him and you will see his rescue!

Bathe this process in prayer—ask the Lord to search your heart, body, mind and then listen to the voice of your Shepherd as He leads you to a place of getting to know the body He created for you.

Your body was designed with a fail-proof system for consuming the right amount of food for the needs it has.  This fail-proof system that you will use is, simply, the concept of eating when you are truly physiologically hungry and stopping when you are no longer hungry. It really is that simple.

When you are more active or the demands of your body, for whatever reason, are greater, you will find that your body signals hunger more frequently. When you are sick or less active, you will find your body requires nourishment and fuel less frequently.

You see, in our attempts to control and manipulate, we make things so much more complicated than God ever intended.  For now, learning what true, physiological hunger feels like is the task at hand.

So, let’s get this established at the get-go: Hunger is not a sound in your belly, sometimes referred to as a “growl” or “gurgle.” It is true that physiological hunger may be accompanied by a growl or gurgle. However, in the thousands of people Thin Within has helped over the years, we have discovered that hunger is more reliably an empty gnawing feeling in the stomach which is actually located much higher in your body cavity than you may think! Take a moment right now to find your rib cage on both sides of your body. Follow the lowest ribs on both sides to the place where they meet, just below your breast bone.  This is the location where your stomach begins, “flaring” a bit to the left side beneath your rib cage. It is an “elastic-type” pouch located just below your sternum. It is actually much higher in your body cavity than many think.

When the stomach pouch is empty, it is somewhat like a deflated balloon and you can often sense a “pit-like”  emptiness in that location. It may take some time to get acquainted with the sensation. We have found when many people wait for their stomachs to growl, however, often, they have waited too long and can get light-headed. Try to develop your sense of how empty your stomach is at any given point in time—when you are hungry, part-way through a meal, an hour after a meal and so on. The more you do this, the better acquainted you will become with true physiological hunger and satisfaction.

That place where it is empty and you know you are physically hungry, we call “O” or zero on the hunger scale.

How About You?

Today, be willing to wait for physical hunger before you eat whatever food you choose. Then, seeking the Lord, select a food that you enjoy and have a modest portion of it. Then, wait until you are hungry for the next time you put anything in your mouth other than water. Try this for a week and see what happens! We would love to hear from you

This is a radical rescue that is at hand. Your Prince has asked you to take nothing with you, but to fly freely as you flee the captivity of the past into the unknown. He carries you as you go. With Him ever present, you can’t go wrong! Don’t fight him! Go with him!