Welcome to our final week of studying through Barb Raveling’s Weight Loss Bible Study. We have plans to revisit this material in the future–for sure!
This week, we will look at the pressure we feel in social settings. (If you subscribe via email, you may need to come to the blog site to view the video)
This week, please complete Barb’s Day 15 of her study, “Social Eating.” You can find those questions at this link here.
Additionally, I will be adding another study/question set for you to do on “Preventative Eating.” So you will still have two days worth of material to get through. I love that we have been taking our time with this material, wading through it slowly. Before we begin our next study, there is time to complete any of that material you may not have had time for or to review the material that God brought home to your heart. We will do that next week, in fact.
Please keep renewing your mind about your renewing of the mind goal or the adjusted renewing of the mind goal that you have established. How has that gone for you? I found that I “forgot” to include that in my routine and so what a surprise! I ended up with my resolve diminishing and then it was easier for me to justify eating outside of my boundaries!
Today, I am recommitting to renewing my mind! Will you join me?
Do you have any potential social situations this week that you may need to make a plan for? What plan might work for you to emerge victorious?
In a little over two weeks, we will begin our new study using a book called HEAL – Healthy Eating & Abundant Living by Allie Marie Smith and Judy Wardell Halliday. Whether you are new to Thin Within or a veteran, this material will meet you where you are. Allie and Judy have provided a fresh approach for a younger generation and even though many of us are not in that “younger generation” necessarily (I know that I’m not!), I have found that most of us face similar challenges. In fact, often the challenges we faced when we were in college are the same or similar to the ones we face now!
My initial announcement about this study may be found at this link. Feel free to have a look. To purchase the book so you are ready to go, you can visit Amazon and that link is here.
For the study, we will continue to make use of the principles we have been using during Barb Raveling’s Weight Loss Bible Study. I will encourage you to renew your mind and to truth journal.
Here is how it will work…(I think! LOL!)
Each Monday, I will post a video that gives a preview of the week’s material. In this video, I will mention the assignment–highlighted also in the day’s post. There are six chapters in the book, so one chapter a week will be what we go through. When you get your book, get familiar with it.
Then, through the week, I will post content here at the blog that you can use whether your in the study or not. Even if you aren’t in the study, the material here will be intended to support and encourage you. If you are going through the study, it is my intention that the material I post at the blog will supplement and complement the study of the HEAL book. This has been my intention with the Weight Loss Bible Study, too. That way, whether you are plunging in with the study or not, you will find content here that supports you!
The section in the chapters marked “For Group Study” will be woven throughout the blog during the week–but, again, even if you aren’t doing the study, you can participate in that and be encouraged by it!
On Fridays or Saturdays, I hope to wrap up the week’s study with a summary.
Our study will conclude about the second week in June (if I have it calculated correctly). I hope you will join us!
What questions do you have about the study? Feel free to ask here–chances are if you have a question someone else does too!
Day 3 of our Ditch Your Scale Challenge: What promises of God are you “standing on” instead of standing on the bathroom scale? 🙂
“Yummy Food” or “Good Food” eating is what we do when the food happens to be available and we just happen to decide to eat it. Can you relate? It is typically, a grab-and-go sort of experience…not at all a thoughtful one!
For instance, you are making dinner and simply must taste the goods as you do so. A taste here, a taste there and you discover when all is ready that you are not hungry for dinner when it is time to sit down with the family! BOO!
One solution to this sort of “Yummy Food Eating” is to chew gum while you are cooking/preparing food. It is typically a bit off-putting to taste something else while the gum is in your mouth! At the very least, it can help you to realize that you are being more intentional about the tasting than you thought. When I discover that my “accidental” bites aren’t quite so “accidental,” I know it is time to pray for a willing heart and renew my mind about my boundaries!
Another example of a “Yummy Food Eating” temptation is Costco and Sam’s club (or other membership club). Food samples that are out everywhere no matter which time of the day you choose to shop there. This may sound silly, but if you know you love the samples, you can actually plan to be hungry during your shopping trip at Sam’s or Costco. That way, you can enjoy the samples (though you might be “breaking” your secondary boundaries, so I recommend being intentional about focusing on the food since you will likely NOT be sitting down!) and it won’t break your boundaries. It can actually be your meal! If you end up not hungry and find yourself at one of those stores, then I recommend chewing gum as you shop, too. Again, it isn’t likely you will “accidentally” eat the samples if you are chewing gum.
A third place we may give in to “Yummy Food Eating” is at bible studies or fellowship groups. Again, you can plan your hunger (remember, this takes practice, so extend grace to yourself as you work on this!) or establish a secondary boundary, such as staying out of the kitchen. Again, if those options don’t work for you, chewing sugarless gum can.
It may sound like I chew a lot of gum! To be honest, I hate chewing gum, and you may as well. It is worth it while we are training ourselves to be more aware, though. It IS temporary! You won’t feel like you always have to do this. But for now, as you are realizing the moments of your life when you unconsciously may have had tastes of food that resulted in a “mess up,” it may do the trick.
Some of you work in an office where snacks and temptations abound literally all day long. You can “strike early” by taking samples of the foods in the office staff room and putting them in your own container in the fridge. Then you can have them when you are hungry! You can enjoy the items that other people brought without breaking your boundaries.
Plan ahead. Think through the day. Are there any potential opportunities for “Yummy Food Eating” to come calling? What will you do to prepare for it?
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CONTEST WINNER: I will make that announcement later tonight. I hope you will check back!
Day 2 of the “Ditch Your Scale” Challenge: How is it going? Did you stay off the scale today? Did you need to renew your mind about it at all? Are you off to a good start today? What thoughts have you had about this as you have given this to the Lord? 🙂
Today, let’s consider the scale that we want to give our attention since we aren’t giving the bathroom scale our attention.
The scale we WILL give our attention to is the hunger scale!
Let’s hone in on those hunger numbers or, if you would rather, what “0,” or physical hunger, feels like. At the other side, we will try to refine our “5” or physical satisfaction, too.
Bringing it home:
What can you do to evaluate more precisely what physical hunger is like for you? What about physical satisfaction? Is there room for improvement? Will you commit to nailing down your “hunger scale?”
I just did a search on Bible Gateway for “scale” and it is interesting the passages that came up. Other than referring to “scales” on fish, scale armor, or “scaling” a wall, the first reference is this one in Job 6:1-3:
Then Job replied:
“If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas— no wonder my words have been impetuous.
I thought that was intriguing given that so very often when we get on the bathroom scale, it is as if our misery and anguish is there on that scale. Don’t you think?
Another verse found in Job 31:5,6:
“If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit— let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless—
These are about the only references in Scripture (that I could tell) to weighing people. The rest of the references seem to indicate that weighing is typically in reference to value for commerce or some other context. Never for the purpose of weighing our own bodies or looking for approval from God or anyone else based on that weight!
In fact, most of the references to scales used for weighing anything at all were with regard to “dishonest” scales!
When I consider these facts, I really have to praise my God. This is definitely one of those worldly things that I am tempted to give far too much “weight” to.
By contrast, here is a passage that speaks of what God DOES invite me to “stand on:”
Then the Lord said,
“There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.
When my glory passes by,
I will put you in a cleft in the rock
and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
Exodus 33:21, 22
I love this image of our God! He invites us to stand on a rock up near him. Isn’t that precious? Each time we are tempted today to stand on the bathroom scale, let’s instead, stand on the rock that is near our God. His glory will pass us by and we will experience his closeness! Let’s further invite him to weigh our hearts and help us to value his approval more than anything!
Are you with me? 🙂
Bringing it home:
If we are going to succeed in our desire to be free from the tyranny of the bathroom scale for two weeks, we will have to make provision for obedience. What will you DO to plan for your obedience? Will you give your scale to a friend or family member to hide? Who? Will you cover the scale with a sign that reminds you not to step on it? Will you put it in the garage? What is your plan? 🙂
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!