Holidays: Planning Ahead

Holidays: Planning Ahead

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Image courtesy of nuttakit at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Christmas is upon us, followed by New Years, which brings parties, potlucks, family dinners, buffets of sweets, candy, etc.  In my Gearing Up for the Holidays post I shared about ways to be proactive before the holiday celebrations begin.  This time, I would like to share what took place before Thanksgiving in order for me to prepare for the big feast.

For several months now, since participating in the Renewing of the Mind study, I have been reading through my truth cards each day.  I’ve stated before how important it has been to be in the Word and reading those truths each day: it’s literally CHANGED my life!  The Lord has done an amazing work.  He gets all of the praise, honor, and glory!  So knowing how powerful His word is in renewing my mind and transforming my life, I knew how important it was to have those truths before my eyes before Thanksgiving.

This is what I did to plan ahead:

1. I wrote in my journal, which is ultimately a prayer journal.  I asked the Lord to help me in the days ahead to stay within my boundaries.

2. I looked at Barb Raveling’s app ‘I Deserve a Donut’ about social eating, which suggested I read the parts about Justification Eating and Entitlement Eating.

3.  In my journal, I wrote out the Justification Eating questions and answered them.  I mentally saw myself on Thanksgiving day and the days surrounding Thanksgiving, knowing that I may be tempted to be a social eater or to make excuses to eat beyond what my body needs.

4. I wrote down notes from the app that really spoke to me so I could look back at them if needed.

5.  I wrote out a plan of what I wanted Thanksgiving day to look like.  I knew that we would be eating with dinner-size plates (I usually use a small plate), so I visually planned to load up my plate as if it was a small plate.  I decided that I would eat slowly, savoring each bite, leaving one bite of food on my plate.  I decided I would not take seconds.  And then later I would enjoy a small serving of dessert, even if I wasn’t fully at a “0” (I felt that this was pleasing to the Lord and acceptable in His sight).

6.  I wrote out a plan for when we would be going to a restaurant one of the days surrounding Thanksgiving.  Since we were out of town, we wanted to visit our favorite restaurant in the area.  I knew what I wanted for an appetizer and the entrée, so I planned ahead for what I felt would help me stay within my 0-5 boundary.

7.  I wrote the victories I had already experienced that week, praising God for what He has done.  I needed to remember those victories and remember that God is my strength!

How did it all turn out?  The Lord gets all of the glory!  I was amazed at how smooth Thanksgiving went.  I ate according to the plan and I felt completely satisfied.  While there were others who said they were stuffed and needed to nap, I felt energized.  And a few hours after our meal, I was hungry and ate again.  I am so thankful for what the Lord did that day and the days surrounding Thanksgiving.  I was faithful to keep my eyes on Him and His truth and He was faithful to watch over His word to perform it.  Praise God!

And He wants to do the same for you!

How about you?

Do you have a journal you can write out a plan in?  How do you want to visualize yourself  for the upcoming holiday celebrations?  What can you do to prepare?

Written by: Christina

Battle Update

Battle Update

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Screen shot of the notes on my phone

Last week I posted about the battle I was going through.  I wanted to give an update.

As I said in the post, my battle plan was:  to be in the Word, to pray, to thank the Lord, to read my truth cards, to renew my mind, to keep pressing on!

And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing!  And God has been faithful to help me this week!  Praise God!

Each morning, before I even get out of bed, I read the Bible, followed by reading my truth cards, my notes on my phone, journaling, and sometimes Thin Within (which I started reading again this past week).  This starts my day on the right foot and gets my mind in the right place.

Another thing I have been making more of an effort in doing is journaling.  When I have overeaten, I will write about it in my journal afterwards.  Usually, the overeating takes place at night, so I will write about it in the morning.  There have also been times when the enemy has attacked my mind with thoughts about going back to dieting, so I have been truth journaling about why that’s not something I or God wants me to do.  I will write every truth I can think of to dissolve the lie the enemy is throwing at me.  It’s been SO good to journal more!

I’ve also been setting a timer on my phone which prompts me to open my notes on my phone displaying three scriptures (which I share a screen shot of above).  It’s amazing how having those reminders during the day really makes a difference.

Can I encourage you to start your truth cards if you haven’t already?  There is power in the Word of God!  It becomes clear to me more and more about how important it is for me to read those cards each day.  I have literally watched the Lord transform my life in the area of eating and all it’s taken is me taking the time to read those truth-packed cards.  Renewing our mind is so important: change begins WITHIN!

The evening has been the hardest for me lately.  Because of where I am at in my pregnancy (baby is bulking up), I’m starting to get a little hungrier.  For awhile there I wasn’t hungry enough to eat in the evening, but now I am finding that I am hungry and need to eat.  The interesting thing is that even if I’m at a “0” and I eat, the enemy tries to condemn me for eating.  It’s probably because I was making such an effort to not eat if I wasn’t at a “0” before.  The condemnation was the driving force behind me thinking that I can’t trust myself, that I need to go on a diet after pregnancy, and blah, blah, blah.  That’s where the battle would begin in my mind.  So I continue to press on with the Lord by doing my part in renewing my mind and He does the rest.  Praise God!

Friends, let’s continue to press on with the Lord in this journey toward becoming thin within.  It starts with our mind.  As God continues to do His mighty work within us, it will become evident outside of us!

How about you? 

Do you feel like you are still in the heavy part of the battle?  Are you putting on the full armor of God each day?  Will you join me in spending time in the Word and renewing your mind with your truth cards?  The enemy is the Father of lies, but God will dissolve every lie the enemy throws at us.  God is so good–all the time!

Written by: Christina

Getting Back on the Horse, Again–AGAIN! :)

Getting Back on the Horse, Again–AGAIN! :)

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I used to write about my challenges with my horse, Harley, on a Yahoo group I was a part of. Readers of the posts said they thought that he breathed fire based on my description of him. I had turned him into a 5-headed monster! The truth was, he was spunky and needed reassurance from his human. If he didn’t get that…well, he might…um…buck. 🙂 Yes…BUCK.

Unfortunately for both of us, I wasn’t really situated very well to give him those reassurances. So…well…buck he did. Land on the ground…yes…I did that…frequently. I couldn’t stand the thought of coming off…again and again and again. I just quit riding him in 2005. The fact that I was 100 pounds overweight at the time, certainly contributed to my decision. I was somewhat convinced that my large size *hurt* him to carry! It broke my heart, but I was so tired of failure.

Finally, with the help of a couple of very gifted trainers…who trained me…I dusted myself off and got back on the horse. The above picture was taken, the second time I rode him after a two year lay off. I decided that I was done “giving up.”

You can tell by the smile on my face how I felt about the experience. The thing that strikes me about this picture is I finally overcame my fear and, other than the “death grip” of my right hand on the rein, I am riding with merely a halter! (No saddle!) It is one of my favorite pictures of Harlinator and me because in it, I had come such a far distance from where I had been.

[Note: Here is a video of the first time I got back on Harley after those two years of staying off. This was shot about a week before the photo above was taken. See if there are any similarities to how you feel when you consider “getting back on the Thin Within horse!” Note Melissa telling me to remember to “Breathe!”]

I haven’t come off of Harley in a long while, but when I did the last time, I dusted myself off immediately. I observed where I went wonky. I made note of a needed correction so that whatever-it-was wasn’t likely to happen again. Then I put my foot in the stirrup and lifted myself back in the saddle.

I approach my “eating life” the same way. When I fall off the horse, I don’t wait around until I feel like getting back on. I observe and correct and hop back on up in the saddle. There is fun to be had. Places to go! Adventures to enjoy! I don’t want to indulge myself in self-pity and woe-is-me self deprecation.

So, did you stay on the horse yesterday? Did all your good intentions win out? Did you keep your rear firmly in the saddle and are you smiling big, knowing that you DID it?

Or…Or did you get thrown off? Are you licking your wounds, mercilessly inflicted by the “Ultimate Caramel Apple Pie?” Or just a few too many bites (past 5) of turkey and gravy?

Well, I want to encourage you…you CAN get off the ground and back on that horse right now! 🙂 It is WORTH IT!

I was asked recently by one of my coaching clients…”What do you do when you overeat…when you overeat by a LOT?”

The answer…simply…is you just wait for hunger again. Presto! No big heavy emotional guilt tripping allowed! Instead, just get back on that horse and start riding again. Wait for 0 and serve yourself a modest portion, stopping when you are no longer hungry. It really IS that simple!

I do find it VERY helpful to build a foundation for lasting change if I deal with the beliefs that fuel my actions. Really, I can’t say this enough. We can keep restraining ourselves with “will power,” but unless we change the way we think and what we believe (beliefs fuel actions which fuel a lifestyle), we will find ourselves back where we were before or—worse. At the very least, change won’t be sustained.

God wants my heart more than he wants me to be thin. So it stands to reason he won’t let me be content to just lose weight. I got to the place where I carried 100 extra pounds on my frame because I believed food was a better comforter than God. I got to the place where I sustained such a large size because I turned to food to be my savior instead of to the Lord.

So, it stands to reason that the real work will have to be in my mind.

No, you really probably don’t need to read another book.

… and you probably don’t need to read the Thin Within book again.

Those things may be helpful, sure. But what you may need, if you are anything like me, is to work on what you believe more than what you know. You probably know plenty! But what do you believe?

If you watch even the first moments of the video I referenced above, you will see that I believed  that I was going to get hurt. The ride didn’t flow. It was hindered by my beliefs. By the time I was on Harley a week or two later bareback and with the halter, though, I believed that things were going to work between us! What I believe makes a HUGE difference in my actions! Watch the video to see what I mean!

So, what lies were motivating you yesterday if you overate? What truth can counter the lies?

EVERYTHING is redeemable by our wonderful Lord! In fact, no matter what you may have done eating-wise yesterday, God intends that “failure” be redeemed. “Failure” can be a great teacher. Observe what you did by looking back over yesterday. Look at where you went astray. And now, correct. What could you do differently in the future? What could you believe differently in the future that would help you to choose to do that behavior?

Getting back on the horse again after a mess-up is all about observing, correcting, choosing.

It is about extending grace.

It is about learning from your mis-steps and struggles.

It is about trading lies that have moved you with truth…doing it even before the lies have a chance to work again. Right now.

What About You?

What lies were at work yesterday that kept you from acting in a way that supported your godly goals of 0 to 5 eating?

What truths can you use to refute the lies?

How might your actions change the next time you are faced with a similar situation?

And if you negotiated through Thanksgiving Day with NO regrets, I would love to hear about it. It is encouraging. Tell us what challenge you faced and how you were able to emerge victorious. You may have experienced the bucking of that horse beneath you, but if you managed to stay on anyhow, we want to celebrate that with you!

Filtering Your Mind

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Would it be weird to tell you that this post was inspired by the movie Finding Nemo?  When you have a two year old, inspiration comes from all sorts of random places.

In the movie, Nemo and his aquarium friends are trying to find ways to get Nemo out of the aquarium and into the ocean to find his father.  One plan they come up with is throwing a rock into the filter to make it stop working.  Their plan worked (the second time of trying) and the aquarium was soon filled with slimy, green goo.  When I saw this part in the movie, I started thinking about the importance of having a filter in our mind, keeping out the junk and keeping in the pure.

Heidi has talked so much about the importance of renewing our minds in order to change the way we look at food, our bodies, dieting, etc.  When we renew our minds, we are recognizing the lies and replacing those lies with truth.  There’s another important part to this: filtering out the junk.

How is your filter functioning?  Is there a rock stuck in it?  Do you let nasty, disgusting things pass through?

What do you allow into your mind?  What are you focusing on?  What do you see with your eyes?

Are you standing guard over your mind?

Can you handle watching shows that encourage dieting and excessive exercise like The Biggest Loser?  Can you flip through a copy of a fitness or dieting magazine at the doctor’s office waiting room?  Or do those types of things stir up anxiety inside of your mind?  Are you tempted to buy that new, bestselling dieting book, thinking, “This could be the one!”?

What are you reading?  What are you watching?  What are you listening to?

Is it time to get the rock out of the filter?

 

Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
And put perverse lips far from you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
And your eyelids look right before you.
Ponder the path of your feet,
And let all your ways be established.
 Do not turn to the right or the left;
Remove your foot from evil.  Proverbs 4:23-27

 

I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.  Psalm 101:3a

 

I’ve been watching The Biggest Loser for years.  Since the Lord has been doing so much in my life this year, I didn’t want to hinder progress by watching a show that might tempt me to even think about dieting.  So I prayed and asked Him if it would be alright if I watched it.  He gave me peace to watch it.  I won’t go into the reasons of why I like to watch the show (that’s for another post), but this is just an example of something that could trip us up if we aren’t carefully watching over our mind and heart.

The same sort of thing happened with a Prevention magazine in the waiting room at my chiropractor’s office.  I used to find the articles interesting, but the last time I opened the pages I found myself appalled by the magazine.  I had no peace reading it so I put it down immediately.

What about those innocent conversations with friends about the latest dieting fad?  I used to be sucked into those conversations.  I would ask questions.  I would even buy the book.  My curiosity was spiked.  But now I do all I can to exit out of those conversations or avoid them altogether.  God has brought me so far; I’m not interested in allowing any of that back into my mind.  It wasn’t easy at first, but the more time I spent pouring God’s truth into my mind, the more junk was cleaned out.  I want my mind’s filter to dissolve every lie.

It’s been really important for me to filter out anything that could trip me up because in the past I would take those kinds of things mentioned above and obsess.  And when I say obsess, I mean OBSESS!  I would buy the diet book and read (consume) it back to front, looking and searching for that final answer to help me lose weight, feel better, be healthy, etc.  And then I would talk about it and think about it and talk about it and think about it…  And I would talk with my husband about it and he would get so tired of hearing me talk about food.  Good thing he is a very patient man!  It was like reading, watching, and talking about dieting was my ‘fix’.  In fact, the Lord clearly told me that one time.  That was one of those “ouch” moments of truth.  It was my drug.  But praise God because He freed me from all of that!  I chose to stop looking at those things and instead I looked to Him.  He became my focus.  I looked to His word for truth.  He has been so faithful!  He brought me out of that miry, gooey pit!  Praise God!

 

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.  Psalm 40:2

How about you?

How is your filter functioning?  Does it need some maintenance?  I want to encourage you to pour God’s truth into your mind.  Watch over the doors of your mind.  Stand guard over every single thing you hear, see, and think about.  If you are not sure about something, ask the Lord.  He will clearly show you.

Written by: Christina

Follow Up – “Set the Timer!” Challenge

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Image Source: Stock Exchange

Last week I posted a “Set the Timer Challenge.” If you missed it or need to review what that was about, have a look at this post.

How did it go for you?

  • I know some of you joined us late…no problem there. I would still love to follow up with you.

  • Some of you may not have tried it yet. You can today, if you like.  🙂

  • Some of you extended the challenge and may still be enjoying it.

So please use this space to tell us how it has gone for you! What truths did you use to renew your mind? What did you do when your timer went off? What about when you were with people and your timer sounded? Did that happen to you? What did you do about it? How has this challenge affected your intimacy with God? How has it affected your eating? Has it changed you in some way? How? Would you recommend it for others? Are you going to do it again?

What else can you tell us to share the encouragement!

If you have questions that you would like help with in order to do the challenge, feel free to post that, too.

What About You?

This entire post is all about you today! Share, won’t you? 🙂