Guest Post: Another Night With Frogs…

Image Courtesy of Image Stock Exchange

Image Courtesy of Image Stock Exchange

“Yesterday is history”… “Put your best foot forward”… “Leave the past behind”… “Today is the day”…

Well, tomorrow, that is…

“I’ll start tomorrow…” How many times have we said this for different situations in our lives? It’s not necessarily intentional because, of course, we ALWAYS have the very best intentions, right? But intentions don’t change anything. Action is where change begins! Why then is it so hard for us to exact change in our lives? What is it that makes it so hard to take that first simple step in the right direction?

It could be something as simple as a bad habit that we would like to break or maybe a positive change we would like to bring about in our lives. One of the most common examples of this is that common phrase that we use to excuse bad eating choices before beginning to eat healthy again…”Oh, I’m going to start TOMORROW.”  Maybe you can relate to this, I definitely can! Why is it that we always want to start “tomorrow”? Why not NOW?

Apparently we want one more night with the frogs. In Exodus 8:8-10 there is a very interesting story about Moses and Pharaoh and the plague of frogs:

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.” Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”

10 Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.

Tomorrow?! I know that if I was faced with a plague of frogs, and was asked when I would like for someone to pray that they would leave, my answer would be NOW! However, this story shows our own mindset as we face moving forward in our lives. Just give me one more night with my bad habit, one more night with my addiction, one more night with mysin, etc., etc.

We don’t have to wait another minute; there is no need to wait until tomorrow. Change begins now. Take that step in the right direction now. We can leave behind the junk in our lives, whatever it may be, and not have to spend one more night with the frogs.

Don’t wait until tomorrow. Don’t even wait another minute. This is the moment…today. The time is now. Take hold of God’s promises for you and His very best for your life and move forward NOW!

What About You?

What is it that’s holding you back from making a commitment to eat 0-5 daily and experience freedom from the bondage of gluttony or dieting? For me, it was a little of both. I would just overeat because the food was so good, but also I would overeat because of the diet mentality. I was trying to eat the “good foods,” but wasn’t satisfied and would still go back and eat the “bad foods.” What I have learned though, is that it’s not right foods vs. wrong foods or good foods vs. bad foods. Instead, it is a heart issue. I was continually running to the kitchen instead of running to God. And I had to spend another night with the frogs over and over because of it.

It’s time to break the diet chains off of our minds by giving ourselves completely to God, completely committing every aspect of our lives to Him, including our eating. Food and the scale had both become idols for me, and I have lain both of them down at the feet of Jesus. I made the 90-day commitment, and I will not look at the scale until the end of those 90 days. Yes, I’m excited about how my body will change through this, but the most exciting part is what God is doing in my heart and mind during this time! And while I have made the 90-day commitment, I’m not stopping there, that’s just a milestone for me. I’m moving forward! Will you say, “I’m NOT spending one more night with the frogs!” and move forward into freedom as well?

Just me

~ Aprille Roberts is the women’s minister and worship leader at her church. Find her blog, “Chasing After the Heart of My Father” at praisemom13.blogspot.com.

Loved, Redeemed, & Transformed — Inside and Out!

I started this journey 178 days ago, when I picked up Judy Halliday’s Thin Within book.  Little did I know that it would change my life.

I began my walk with Christ at age 13, but until now I never understood Grace.  You see, even though I trusted Christ by faith, I’ve been living under the law for the last 44 years—a hard life, full of rules and self-judgment.  I struggled to please God, serve people and live the life of a good Christian.  Others looked up to me, but I always felt like the biggest fraud in the universe, because what I knew in my head didn’t always make it to my heart.  I listened to the sermons, tried all the formulas and attended all the retreats, but nothing worked.  The harder I tried, the more I failed.  I was dry like the desert, and the spiritual highs I experienced never really lasted very long.

BeckiPedrebefore

LBG – April 2013

So I stuffed the emptiness with food, and food, and more food.  The bigger I got, the emptier I felt.  I was at an all-time high in weight and an all-time low in spirit.  My health was shaky and my fattest clothes no longer fit.  For a person driven to succeed, I was totally disgusted with my failure.  The last time I had lost weight, it was with Weight Watchers.  I knew I had to do something, but every time the taskmaster inside me told me to go back there, every fiber of my being rebelled against the very thought.

God had other plans for me.  My “why, oh why, God?” cries were answered when I picked up the Thin Within book.  A new diet, I thought.  And if I put all my effort into it, in my typical type-A-over-achiever, I-can-do-anything-I-set-my-mind-to way, I would lose the weight again.  I’d done it before…never mind that I always gained it all back, and then some more.

I realized very quickly that God was going to do a new thing.  Reading the book turned into a very meaningful quiet time.  I looked up every verse and highlighted it in my Bible, even if it was quoted in the text.  I journaled my thoughts (more like rants, at times), and my prayers, and whatever I heard God say to me in return.  His Words started saturating my conscious being until they would totally overtake me.  Invariably, each day, a word or a thought would come through loud and clear.  Then I would search You Tube for a song related to the daily teaching, and finish my time with God in worship.

It took me 69 days to get through the book.  Along the way, God started stripping away my crutches and I started to rely on Him.  He shone His light into my darkness and filled me with His joy.  He told me that this journey was not a diet; in fact, it had nothing to do with weight.  It was a full-fledged restoration project, from the inside out!  I surrendered completely to this new thing.  I gave Him permission to go into the deep wounds, the ugly places, and do whatever He had to do to make me a suitable place for His Spirit to dwell.  The closer I drew to Him the easier it became to tell the difference between physical and spiritual hunger.  I was learning to satisfy both!

after1

LBG October 25, 2013

Verses like Ephesians 1:7-NLT came alive for me:  He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased my freedom with the blood of His Son.  He drilled into me that I am not my own, that I’ve been bought with a price, and that I must honor Him with my body (I Corinthians 6:19-20).  That I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. That the life I now live in my body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).  That His strength is made perfect in my weakness (II Corinthians 12:9).  And most importantly, that I must make sure that I stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery (Galatians 5:1-NLT).  I learned that all this can be accomplished by His power, on the Path of His Provision. Most importantly, I learned that my weight problem did not stem from what I was eating, but from what was eating me.  I must say that by God’s Grace, this has been the easiest most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life!

I have a ways to go yet, but He is taking me there step by step.  He is helping me to set aside every weight which so easily snares me (Hebrews 12:1).  I must have released about 500 pounds so far…35 of which have been body fat.  The rest are burdens that I’ve carried most of my life—emotional wounds, misconceptions, condemnation, legalism, false teachings, lies of the enemy, unforgiveness, and plenty of unhealthy belief systems.  And God is replacing all that with freedom, joy, hope, confidence, and a glimpse into His plan for me.  He showed me that I am His miraculous creation, and that He loves me, truly loves me, just the way I am…and I believe Him.

In the last six months, I’ve walked an incredible journey of self-discovery and God discovery.  I met my God, the real God…the Lover of my soul.  And He performed open heart surgery on me.  When I surrendered to Him, helpless to help myself, He replaced my heart of stone with a heart of flesh, and proceeded to fill my empty places with His Spirit (Ezekiel 11:19).  He has given me hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).  For me, these are no longer concepts; they are the truths that I cling to as I learn to walk in this new-found Grace.

after2a

Hang on for a beautiful ride!

This is the real thing!!!

LBG

—Loved by God and Living by Grace

What if the Healing Doesn’t Come?

Is This What Depression Feels Like?

Challenging question isn’t it?

Often, in our earliest experiences of dissatisfaction with our bodies, we pursue thinness or “normalcy” for all we are worth. We diet and exercise—and even, restrict or purge—on our way to losing some weight, often, only to end up on the dieting pendulum for years! Back and forth, up and down, our weight goes…and with it so often, our self-esteem! “When will it stop!?,” we lament! We feel imprisoned by our compulsions, yet the continued praise by others for a “job well done” urges us onward–sometimes, even if we are already a healthy size.

Then, we begin to “get” that there is more to it than just food and eating. We realize that we struggle with food, our bodies and images of ourselves for reasons other than just “We just do.” So we begin to investigate our “issues,” inviting God to have his way as we begin to become aware. We may look at our past, at abuse, at the need to forgive for wounds that seemed to have nothing to do with food. We may remember how food was used in our homes when we were kids and teenagers and see a connection to how we relate today. We may make some insightful connections that propel us further toward our goal to be healed once and for all.

Hopefully, for those who discover Thin Within, there is a point in time when we string together enough days of depending on the Lord that we release extra weight and come to peace with food. Food no longer holds the great sway over us that it did previously.  We are no longer compelled to respond to the ice cream calling our name from the freezer. We answer God’s voice  more and more. It feels so sweet. It feels like victory!

Then, the bottom falls out. Something unexpected happens and we find ourselves emotionally strapped as never before. We find ourselves reverting to old habits that we thought were ancient history!

It may take some time, but we grapple to get our bearings and, with time, are optimistic once again that freedom is ours after all. We realize that we are, in fact, fallible and still in process.  Like layers of an onion, our God goes deeper and deeper and deeper with us. A layer or 10 may be removed (and it STINGS!) and we may have a season (even a long one) of peace in that place where we think “I can’t imagine I ever struggled with food and eating!” Then, BOOM! There we are again…another layer or 12 is peeled away and we flounder around yet again.

We long to be free—forever!—of the tendency to turn to food.

But what if our healing doesn’t come? What if the freedom we long for comes this way–in stages and seasons. What if the ultimate healing we believe is our birthright as children of the King…eludes us?

Can we choose to thank our God that he has given us this struggle since it has caused us to cling to him like nothing else? Will we declare the glory and goodness of our God? No matter my size or struggle, nothing changes this fact:

GOD IS GREAT. He is MIGHTY. He is FOREVER FAITHFUL.

Nothing that happens to us (or doesn’t happen to us) changes who HE is.

This is one reason why I suggest allowing the focus of our lives to come off of our food, our bodies, our size, our restricting, our exercising, our struggles and, instead, turn to him in praise and gratitude. No matter what happens to me, GOD remains sovereign, loving, and good. He remains who HE is. He is a firm foundation. He is a reliable and safe harbor.

Even if my healing doesn’t come and life falls apart and dreams are left undone, He is God, He is good, forever Faithful One. I will praise him. I will thank him for this struggle.

Here is a song that encourages me to keep my focus fixed firmly on the only One worthy of that focus:

“Even If” Sung by Kutless

Sometimes all we have to hold on to
Is what we know is true of who You are
So when the heartache hits like a hurricane
That could never change who You are
And we trust in who You are

Even if the healing doesn’t come
And life falls apart
And dreams are still undone
You are God You are good
Forever faithful One
Even if the healing
Even if the healing doesn’t come

Lord we know Your ways are not our ways
So we set our faith in who You are
Even though You reign high above us
You tenderly love us
We know Your heart
And we rest in who You are

Even if the healing doesn’t come
And life falls apart
And dreams are still undone
You are God You are good
Forever faithful One
Even if the healing
Even if the healing doesn’t come

You’re still the Great and Mighty One
We trust You always
You’re working all things for our good
We’ll sing your praise

Even if the healing doesn’t come
And life falls apart
And dreams are still undone
You are God You are good
Forever faithful One
Even if the healing
Even if the healing doesn’t come

You are God and we will bless You
As the Good and Faithful One
You are God and we will bless You
Even if the healing doesn’t come
Even if the healing doesn’t come

If you like the song, you can purchase the mp3 at Amazon using this link or at iTunes using this link.

How About You?

Will you choose to thank him and praise him no matter whether your freedom is something you daily praise God for or if it seems ever-elusive? Will you declare that he is good, even if the healing you long for doesn’t come? This life is so short compared to the eternity we have to enjoy ultimate freedom in the presence of our God.

What My Horse Teaches Me About Boundaries (Repost)

As my kids and I pulled  into the driveway after a long day away from home, the last thing we expected was to see a horse by the hay shed.  That wasn’t where he belonged. Even worse, his neck and head were jammed down into a large barrel…the barrel of 250 pounds of feed that was horribly moldy, awaiting the feed store truck to pick it up. “Oh no! Breezy has gotten out!”

Sure enough, our appaloosa horse, Breezy, had popped the screw top off of not just one barrel of moldy stable mix, but TWO. He had carefully munched all the molded feed off the top of the stash before going on to what was next on his buffet list! By the time we arrived, he had packed away a considerable amount of moldy feed!

A quick call to the equine vet and, within the hour, I had the trailer attached, and Breezy loaded up. I raced Old Reliable–our tried and true trail horse who had taught my family members to ride and “respect” horses–to the vet about 45 minutes away. Experience had taught me that a pricey treatment was in store.  Without it, Breezy might be in danger of colicking. With horses, this is a serious thing–horses can die when they colic!

Some $400 later (we got off easy this time!), I meandered my way back home through the canyon. Breezy was a bit woozy from the “mickey” he had been slipped enabling them to “tube and oil” him.

Over the next few days, we discovered that Breezy had a regular escape route (he repeated his offense!). He nonchalantly blew right through the electric fence in one particular location. In that spot the charge was diminished enough that the shock didn’t bother him nearly as much as getting access to (molded?) feed rewarded him!

Breezy during one of his “jail breaks”– heading in to the hay shed!

We have since amped up the fence (literally) and added a fence post or two, making escape less appealing.

During these misadventures, however, the Lord has again used my animals to shine His mirror of truth into my life.

I have come to realize that I am often like Breezy, blowing through boundaries that God has established in my life because of His love for me.

Far from being perfect, sovereign, and all-wise like my Heavenly Master, I am an imperfect “Master” for Breezy. Even so,  boundaries that I establish for him are there for his good. Without those boundaries, he will eat all kinds of things that might kill him. Rather than respond to the “zap” of the fence, though, he pursued the instant gratification that he experienced on the other side of the fence.

How often do I do the same?

In fact, I know I often resent the boundaries that the Lord has established for me. And, if I am honest, I even resent Him at times. I wonder how often I plunge myself into “moldy stable mix” when God intends to set a bounteous table before me at the right time? How much damage do I  do to myself because of my pursuit of instant gratification?

How about you?

Can you relate to Breezy? Will you put up with a little discomfort for the sake of instant gratification? Are you like me at all, resenting boundaries that are there for your own good? Do you struggle with submitting to the hand of a perfectly good Master?

I think today I will rethink things a bit. When I know I have had enough or when I sense the Spirit of God leading me to eat something different than what my taste buds prefer, I think I will remember the image of Breezy that is indelibly marked in my mind–head and neck down inside the barrel, sucking up moldy stable mix. I don’t want to be like that. God has something so much better in mind.

Follow Up – “Set the Timer!” Challenge

watchtimer

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? 🙂

Can 0 to 5 LEAD to Bingeing?!?

Image Source: Stock Exchange

Image Source: Stock Exchange

A note from a blog reader (and friend):

On one of your videos I heard you say, “following a 0-5 food plan,” which really got me thinking, because I have thought of a food plan as an “eat this, in that amount, at such and such a time” sort of thing, as opposed to an approach to how we are planning to eat when we get hungry. I had thought of 0-5 eating as “beyond food planning” or “letting go of food planning,” but, in the grand sense, of course it is a food plan. It’s a plan to wait for hunger and to eat to satisfaction. It’s a different type of food plan, but it is a food plan nonetheless.

I’d like to offer some more thoughts, based on my experiences as a person with a history of lots of very restrictive eating, including following restrictive food plans for much longer than was good for me, on the whole idea of food plans and how I’ve made food planning work for me within a 0-5 framework.

When I first learned about the whole concept of 0-5 (hunger/satisfaction) eating, I felt released from food jail and liberated into the loving arms of God. I was elated. I employed the suggestions and floated my way right into a headlong binge. What happened? It took me totally by surprise. Well, after repeating the same mistake about 25 times or more (I am not a fast learner in this department), I finally realized that I was eating -5 to +10 instead of 0-5. I was getting too hungry and then overeating. But I didn’t overeat each time I ate. Because I was so used to restricting, I was basically getting too hungry and eating too little for as long as I could take it, and then I would compensate by bingeing every few days. The old binge-starve cycle, except that it started with starving until I worked up to a compensatory binge. Aha. A clear problem presents a clear answer: stop starving yourself! My eyes were open to one answer for me: eat to satisfaction each time, and you won’t need to binge. Halleluiah!

As I continue to re-calibrate and re-fine my eating, I have become aware that although hunger and satisfaction are very important and help me to be and feel most connected to God through my body, life is much easier for me if I find my own eating rhythm and plan accordingly.

Here’s my rhythm: I am very likely to get hungry every few hours. I am hungrier in the morning than in the evening, but that doesn’t always fit well with family and social meals. I need to eat breakfast for myself, but I can’t usually gracefully skip dinner. I am hardly ever hungry for an evening snack, so I don’t plan on one.

If I plan to eat three meals and two snacks per day, separated by approximately three hours each, then I find that my brain is not constantly cluttered by calculating and re-calculating what I can or should eat next time I get hungry or how long it will take me to get hungry, etc. I do best when I expect to eat regularly. I eat meals and snacks in accordance with my signals of hunger and satisfaction, but I also plan to eat normal, social meals and snacks. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say that three meals and two snacks is my primary boundary and hunger and satisfaction is my secondary boundary, but they both compete for primary (is co-primary a word? twin primary?).

The reason it’s important for me to elevate the regular meal/snack eating is that when I tell myself I’m just eating for hunger/satisfaction, I tend to default to under-eating and then become tempted to over-eat. I guess that’s because of my history of restricting, I’m not sure. But I do know what’s true for me, and what’s true for me is that although I am on the 0-5 food plan, I’m also on the three meals and two snacks food plan, and it is a manageable challenge to integrate the two. In fact, I think integrating the two is what normal eaters do. Normal eaters almost never say, “no thanks, I’m not eating dinner tonight – I’m not hungry yet.” They try to eat when they are hungry, but if they aren’t hungry, they’ll order something, eat a bit of it, and share the rest or bring home the leftovers or whatever seems like a good idea at the time to them.

I don’t always wait for hunger or eat to satisfaction. Similarly, I don’t always eat three meals and two snacks. Sometimes I get hungry for an extra snack. Sometimes I skip a snack. But I really never skip meals. I might delay meals because of life circumstances even though I’m hungry, or I might put a meal off because I’m not hungry yet, but I’m not going without lunch.

The big “never” for me is that I never binge any more (praise God!!) at least so far, since I started to get serious about this approach. The other “never” is that I never starve myself. If I’m hungry, I eat. If I’m not satisfied, I eat more. But I do it in the context of  “I’m going to eat again in another few hours so I don’t have to stuff myself and in fact I don’t even want to because why would a person do that to herself?”

Maybe the main benefit of planning on eating three meals and two snacks is that it decreases my anxiety about starving. A person who eats that often is not going to starve. I am not going to starve myself and therefore I don’t need to overeat to prevent future starvation or to make up for past starvation. I am taking care of myself – I can relax around food : )

I hope this imperfect approach is useful to someone else. I so want to be linear and rigid, but I know that doesn’t work for me any more. It never worked for me, even though it’s how I attempted to live for years. I have to be integrated, complex, and flexible. Darn it.

~ Anonymous 🙂

What About You?

Have you modified your 0 to 5 eating in a way that frees you? Can you relate to this writer’s technique? How about sharing with us how you manage? It might encourage someone else!