I have been asked a lot about how to stop at 5. So, here are some tips about doing that. Part 1 gives the tips and Part 2 raises a few more questions that we might want to consider.
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpuW_c_3O2Y?rel=0
Summary includes:
- Serve yourself a small portion. You can always eat more when you are hungry next.
- Slow down – the video provides suggestions for how to do that.
- Keep open containers off the table, counters, and out of sight so that you don’t keep putting more food on your plate
- etc! (See the video to get more ideas)
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK_GzLNoJtQ?rel=0
So, what do you think? Am I right about what I say in part 2?
You are right! Instead of looking at my smaller portions with gratitude I usually feel deprived. Thanks for reminding me to be thankful no matter what!
Thanks for your honesty, Lee. 🙂
This post is great for the newbies. I love to see the joy radiating through you; it makes me smile (and I’m sure it makes God smile too). Thank you very much. There’s a lot of very practical tools as well as deep spiritual plans too. I need to work on a lot of these. I find zero pretty easily, but I struggle with 5 sometimes, and these are great ideas because so often I know I should slow down. I pray, I start eating, and 2 bits from the end I tell myself to slow down. Thanks again; very on point for me today.
Hi, N. Thanks again for your kind words. I know that putting my face in front of video so often seems so self-promoting, but I honestly don’t mean it that way at all. I am just lazy about writing. I can speak it in 10 or 15 minutes, but it takes me 4x longer than that to write it and then I constantly feel I should edit whatever I wrote. This way, I just do it, forget it, and let God do with it whatever he will. He is great that way!
I need to start using videos! I din’t think of the “you won’t feel like you have to edit” advantage. That’s brilliant! I love your enthusiastic and encouraging nature, Heidi.
Oh, Barb. You are THE best! Without YOUR obedience to writing your bible study, we wouldn’t have a study! SO THANK YOU!!!!! Yes, you SHOULD start using video! 🙂
Haha, you’re so funny, Heidi – I would probably never work up the courage to try a video if I hadn’t seen you doing it first. Now I just have to truth journal a few dozen times to work up the oomph to do it!!
LOVE the videos, Heidi!! It’s so obvious when the Holy Spirit gets going in you and you get on a roll! Love the humor and the honesty. Yes… I use that justification technique of “Am I REALLY at a 5 yet?” (wink, wink) more often than I want to admit. Good call…
Thanks, Mary. I am so glad that they are encouraging. Can you tell that I am spending time each day on the tennis court? Sooner or later, I will do a video when I haven’t just come off the tennis court, or am not getting ready to go on the court! LOL! I quit my tennis teaching job today, so it is possible! LOL! Anyhow, thanks for the feedback.
It’s true – I don’t usually want to stop at 5 so I often tell myself that I have a hard time finding it….These are great ideas and I’ll be using them today. I will also spend some time asking the Lord the reasons for having a tough time with 5 – I suspect rebellion and the old diet mentality (you know, make sure you get your veggies/fruit/protein/healthy fats, etc). Thanks, Heidi!
Sure thing, CMK! 🙂
I love your idea of making provision for godliness. I believe this is key and I must practice it more often. When I restarted this journey I asked God to create in me a new heart and a big part of this is a willing heart. I pray that we all learn to have a willing heart as we listen and obey in following 0 to 5. Thanks so much for all the great tips and words of wisdom. God bless!
As we have been working together, Lisa, I have seen an amazingly tender heart. That prayer is definitely being answered YES!
I am really struggling mentally right now. Like a lot. Yesterday I sat down with another book, trying to find that one last time answer of why I think I need to restrict myself so heavily. My husband reminded me that it’s not good for me to read those books. He’s right! For several months I have REALLY been obsessing over food. I have gone from thinking I need to eat wheat-free for absolutely no reason (I don’t have a wheat intolerance), to low-carb, to drinking protein shakes, and around all of that again. And I find my biggest hurdle right now is knowing I was successful with WW. I knew so much about hunger/fullness that I really made a point in listening to my body. Sometimes I think I should just go back to that because I didn’t think about food hardly at all. I liked the visible boundaries with points. So I would track and then move on. I’m so scared that I won’t be able to maintain my size with 0-5 eating. It’s “the unknown” for me. Is anyone else struggling with this sort of thing? I could really use prayer.
Praying for you right now, CHristina. I am so sorry to hear that you have been feeling such turmoil. 🙁 Hugs.
Christina
I have been where you are, in fact I used to call myself a “diet junkie”. I tried them all. I jumped from one diet to the next, driving myself and my family crazy. I was successful, short term, on many of them, even made lifetime in WW. However, I found that I could not find a balance between a diet and God. Diets ruled my life. I had time to read every new diet book out there, track points, look up recipes, ect.. but I had no time for God. In fact, I don’t even think I opened the bible during that time- which lasted over 35 years. I started this way of eating 4 years ago. And sometimes I do get tempted to go back to WW or look at a new diet. But then I start to think,
” Who/What do I want to be able to give credit to when someone ask me how I lost and/or maintained my weight?” That’s what did it for me. That’s what makes me stick with this and not run off and buy the newest, latest diet book. I want to be able to tell people it’s GOD, not a diet. I do this for HIS Glory. And in that, he rewards me by allowing me to eat what I want
(between hunger/ fullness, or 0 to 5) and keep my weight down. And the best part is, I now have the time to develop a wonderful relationship with God!
Bottom line – PRAY!!! Ask God what your boundaries should be. Has he led you to hunger/fullness? Is he telling you to go back to WW? Just keep one thing in mind. Your boundaries should draw you closer to HIM.
Linda, your response is most encouraging! I am really enjoying the freedom of simply just eating when hungry. No counting. No tracking. Just listening to my belly and to what I believe is the Holy Spirit. Are you going through this bible study losing or maintaining?
Hi Christina- I am doing this study maintaining. How bout you?
Last year I had to have thyroid surgery and I was panicking about gaining weight doing hunger/fullness ( 0 to 5 eating here!). So, I figured I go back to WW” just for a few months while my thyroid meds were being adjusted. When I went to WW to weigh in, I was shocked to see I actually weighed less doing hunger/fullness than I did from my last WW weight, which was 2 years prior!! I tossed that idea of doing WW right out the window! Leaning on God, doing HIS way of hunger/fullness is the way to go! Linda
Linda, that is awesome! I’m also wanting to maintain!
Heidi – I am LOVING these video’s. I so need a visual image and suggestions on stopping at a five. Thanks!! Linda
Thanks, Linda!
PS. Christina, I will be praying for you too! Linda
I love your ideas here, Heidi – plus you are so funny. I love watching your videos! I really like the way you’re bringing out all the spiritual aspects of this journey.
Thanks, Barb. I appreciate the feedback!
I agree. The videos are very personal, funny, friendly and kind. Together with questions in the bible study, they help me in very sincere and honest way to look at my everyday choices, and approach daily situations not with fear, but with joy and hope. Really, it is so freeing to look at weight loss jorney not as torture, but adventure. Thank you. I am looking forward to your posts and espesially videos every day.
Thank you, Natalia, for your kind comments. It never stops surprising me that God does what he does! Isn’t he awesome! Thanks so much for posting and for your encouragement.
I REALLY enjoy the videos, too. I feel like I am listening to a friend talk and give me advice about something which she has experienced. And you have a lot of credibility because you have released the weight and yet are honest enough to admit that you work on these things daily. Either that, or you have a very good memory. I always think you should be ‘over’ being tempted to eat when you are not hungry (like the milkshake situation the other day), but I see this is an ongoing battle. I don’t know whether to be happy or cry about this….My mind lies to me and tells me” I will be okay and have it together once I lose the weight. When I am thinner, I will have conquered 0-5 eating. When I am thinner, I won’t struggle with overeating.” But the truth is, I will struggle with it and that’s a good thing because it will keep me dependent on Him, as I see you practice daily.
And you are right, we don’t want to stop at 5. It’s too fun or the food tastes too good or someone else might eat it if I don’t (that one is from when I was a child and my dad and brother would eat my food). Or maybe it won’t taste good later or I won’t have time to eat what I really want to eat because I will be dealing with my two toddlers and I won’t be able to heat my food up or enjoy it in peace.
How does a homeschooling mom of 4 slow down with eating? Now that I ask that, it sounds silly. It is actually more feasible than if I were still teaching in a classroom setting where eating a snack when I was hungry was a 28-person affair (they miss nothing!). I went on a date with my hubby tonight and I had a Del Taco fish taco and really tasted it. [I didn’t cut it up but next time I will]. We started talking about emotional things, though,like him going to meet with the neurosurgeon about the cyst in his brain, and I mindlessly finished the taco and then wondered where had it gone?!? I bet I could do really well with this 0-5 eating if I were on a deserted island without stress or distractions. But that isn’t real life. And I would miss my toddlers, grabbing my food and hanging onto my legs. “I can do all things through Christ….”
Sue, thank you for this. That is my hope that it will *feel* like we are sitting down together and just visiting. That is one reason why I haven’t made them more polished (well, that is one reason and the other is that I am so lazy!…not sure I would know HOW to make them more “polished!”). Yes, it can be frustrating to imagine that we may never get this thing licked. I am sure some people do (Barb is one of those!), but my issues seem to have been so deep and God uses this issue to keep me clinging to him in desperation. Thanks so much for posting and YES, God will teach us what he has for us in our lives as they are…even if we *aren’t* on a deserted island! LOL!
Love, love, love your videos! They’re so real & helpful!! I’m excited to utilize your technique suggestions to slow down! I like the idea of using our less dominant hand! God is so great to give us these hints to help us on our journey! Thanks again 🙂
My pleasure, Michelle. And I have you as the first entrant in NEXT week’s drawing! 🙂
So, I wrote this long message and somehow it didn’t work when I posted it. So, I’m going with the short version. I’m praying for you ladies, especially Christina and Susan (you have a lot going on..). I am inspired by and admire your open, honest approach, and all the loving encouragement and testimony you are offering. Thank you! I also wanted to share that the tips from yesterday are really helping me today. God is doing a new thing, a radical and freeing thing.
Thank you for praying for one another, N! That means so much!
This post was very helpful to me. Thanks so much! I enjoy the videos. It helps us to see your heart. Also, I can listen while I am doing something else. Thanks so much for your ministry to us. I know how time consuming it can be.
So very glad, Senkyoushi. It is my pleasure to get to share with you all. 🙂
Barb, great video tips and thanks for the tips…I need to remember smaller portions.
Hi, Lori. If you want Barb to see your comment, you may have to post at her website at http://www.barbraveling.com . She sometimes visits here, but not always. I made the videos that I am posting here. I don’t think Barb has done videos (yet). Her daughters have for her (I think Barb may have been behind the camera) and they are a crack up! LOL! So glad to have you here for our study!
HEIDI,
THANK YOU FOR THE CUP TIP, it is so practical eating your cereal from a cup! I used to eat ice cream from a fancy tea cup to help also. it works. When my kids asked if I wanted ice cream I would say yes a little bit in my favorite cup!…now I will do that and wait for hunger …
Or better yet..instead of waiting for hunger enjoy doing something else and let hunger take you by surprise! 🙂 So glad the cup tip is helpful, Jen. 🙂
Jen, I liked the cup as well! I’ve been doing something like this for awhile and I really like having a boundary on servings like that!
Oh, and I love how Heidi used Lucky Charms as the choice cereal. Yum! I LOVE Lucky Charms, but they don’t like me. ):
Yes Heidi, I want hunger to take me by surprise. That is so appealing to me! Thank you.