I have lived a long while fearing that the old dieting mentality will again take over my thinking. So, to safe-guard myself from this, I live relatively unstructured when it comes to exercise, eating, and so forth. I fear returning to obsession, so I tend to err on the side of “free-spiritedness.”
The thing is, I think a lack of commitment may be beneath this fear and even any good intentions.
I think God is calling me to try to take babysteps in structuring my life. So I am going to start small. I am going to take a “weekly challenge” for myself. I will see how it goes this first week before stating that I will do it again :-), but my intention is to string together a series of Babystep Weekly Challenges. These things can be relative to physical, emotional, or spiritual aspects to this journey (or any combination), but I want to dare to make physical goals, too…babysteps in overcoming my emotional avoidance–fear–of doing so. I believe that God wants me to experience freedom from this fear.
Ok…so that said…I want this week’s “Babystep Challenge” to be for me to leave *something* on my plate after every meal. I don’t do this to impress God or people. I do it to learn that boundaries can be helpful, to try to be sure to check my heart for greed, and to also help me to be sure to eat just a bit less. I tend to take smaller portions than I used to years ago before I began this leg of my journey, but my portions have grown some over the past 18 months. So this can help me get back to what I *need.*
I must admit…I am afraid I will take this simple goal and twist it into some sort of legalistic rule that I use to gauge my worth as a person. Silly! So I guess that the real Babystep Challenge for me would be “Not to turn this little babystep into a rule!” 🙂
I sure do tend to over-think things!
Anyone else need to take a little “Babystep Challenge?” 🙂
I'm in.
I'm in.
Hi Heidi. I could have written what you wrote. I have lived the last year in that free spirit you are talking about. I just prayed to God a few days ago, maybe it was yesterday, God I keep reading all these strong followers of You, one being Charles Stanley, talking about goals and how am I supposed to set goals you want me to have without being in some sort of bondage? I told Him I was very confused about it. Then I read this. Yes I need baby steps. Yes I feel I am not going to make progress if I don't have some sort of goal. I feel the Lord impressed upon my heart to just do it, to jump in and make a goal and He would correct me if I was off, but to just stand still and not make a goal due to the fear I will become in bondage again would be silly. So my goal, well I am going to pray about that. I did get the book and workbook for The Eden Diet and she has things in there for 30 day blocks of making some sort of goal. I have not read too deep into it just the surface, but maybe that would help me too.My mom got us a wii fit plus on Friday and this seems to be something I could use for exercise, fun with the kids and to maybe use it to set some little goals. I also have a fear now of stopping at full, I tend to eat past it each time, no matter if I wait until I am hungry to eat or not. So this is something else. I will have to think and pray, what will be my goal and ask the Lord to stop me and redirect me if I head in a wrong direction. Otherwise I feel I will stay "stuck".Praying we will just trust the Lord to help us not go into bondage again but to step out and see what goal He has us set and achieve with joy!Kim
Hi Heidi. I could have written what you wrote. I have lived the last year in that free spirit you are talking about. I just prayed to God a few days ago, maybe it was yesterday, God I keep reading all these strong followers of You, one being Charles Stanley, talking about goals and how am I supposed to set goals you want me to have without being in some sort of bondage? I told Him I was very confused about it. Then I read this. Yes I need baby steps. Yes I feel I am not going to make progress if I don't have some sort of goal. I feel the Lord impressed upon my heart to just do it, to jump in and make a goal and He would correct me if I was off, but to just stand still and not make a goal due to the fear I will become in bondage again would be silly. So my goal, well I am going to pray about that. I did get the book and workbook for The Eden Diet and she has things in there for 30 day blocks of making some sort of goal. I have not read too deep into it just the surface, but maybe that would help me too.My mom got us a wii fit plus on Friday and this seems to be something I could use for exercise, fun with the kids and to maybe use it to set some little goals. I also have a fear now of stopping at full, I tend to eat past it each time, no matter if I wait until I am hungry to eat or not. So this is something else. I will have to think and pray, what will be my goal and ask the Lord to stop me and redirect me if I head in a wrong direction. Otherwise I feel I will stay "stuck".Praying we will just trust the Lord to help us not go into bondage again but to step out and see what goal He has us set and achieve with joy!Kim
I'm in as well…I think I will take the same baby step you are working on this week…it sounds reasonable and doable with much prayer.
I'm in as well…I think I will take the same baby step you are working on this week…it sounds reasonable and doable with much prayer.