Hi, everyone! Today is the day I promised to post information that I was going to offer you for your own study of the Rebuilding God’s Temple Workbook Kit #1 and/or for leading your group.
Some of you are having your informational meetings this coming week or in a week yet ahead. If that is the case, I have some things that may be of value to you:
- An informational handout that you can use to get ideas for your own. I distributed this at my informational meetings. The informational meeting is designed to give information about Thin Within and your upcoming study. No one is obligated to continue. So this handout is for you to use as you see fit. Use the contact link in the sidebar if you want me to send you the Microsoft Word file to edit.
- My informational meeting notes –These notes may not make a bit of sense to you, but you can use them to get an idea of the types of things you might include in your informational/orientation meeting!
- Our schedule for the class for the next three months. I suggest handing something like this out to your Thin Within workbook study group members so that everyone knows when you will be meeting, what lesson you will be going over on which day, and what lesson will be assigned following your class.
If you are NOT meeting with a group of people to go through this study together, THAT IS PERFECTLY OK!!! I just wanted to be sure to offer some support to folks who are. So there you have it! Maybe you will, in the future, decide that you want to lead a group. These and the other resources will remain available for you at that time. 🙂
If you are NEW to Thin Within, as many are you attend an informational meeting, I want to share with you a little bit about this workbook study!
Thin Within began in 1975 when two ladies, Joy Imboden Overstreet and Judy Wardell Halliday, began to share with others what they had learned studying naturally thin eaters. Joy and Judy shared in “workshop style” the behaviors and practices of people who didn’t diet or exercise specifically to keep weight off of their bodies. These are people who just naturally seemed to be a “normal” weight.
Christian principles were incorporated in the mid to late 1980s after Judy gave her life to the Lord.
There are a bunch of resources available for you if you embrace this approach–no shortage, in fact:
- The Thin Within book, released in 2002 and 2005 by Thomas Nelson publishers by Judy and Arthur Halliday
- Silent Hunger/Thin Again/Get Thin Stay Thin – this is a trade paperback published by Baker/Revell with three different titles over the years (don’t blame the Hallidays for the confusion!). Dr. Arthur Halliday and Judy Halliday are the authors.
- HEAL – Healthy Eating Abundant Living by Allie Marie Smith and Judy Halliday – this is a book with principles compatible to Thin Within but designated for college-age women. It is suitable for high school girls and older women, too!
- Raising Fit Kids in a Fat World by Judy Halliday and Joani Jack, MD. This is for parents who want to know how to raise their kids to live according to this approach. My own kids are now 16 and 18 and are naturally thin. It works! 🙂
- The Rebuilding God’s Temple Workbook Series – there are four workbooks, each 12 weeks in length, so a full year’s worth of material!!!
Right now, we are launching into a study of the first workbook in the series of four–it is the most comprehensive of the four–the other three in the series are ideal to follow workbook one.
So what does Thin Within teach?
In a nutshell, Thin Within teaches that our bodies, designed and created by an awesome, magnificent, creative God, are reliable. If we eat according to physical hunger and physical satisfaction we will release excess weight and maintain our naturally trim God-given size. NO foods are off limits.
You will never have to weigh and measure food EVER again. No counting! You don’t even need to weigh yourself. In fact, I personally encourage you to get rid of your scale.
Isaiah 43:18, 19 encourages us to forget the past! God is doing a NEW THING! So, let’s be radical! Throw out old dieting paraphernalia, books, magazines, scales, counters, trackers, and embrace this new thing!
During the next three months you will learn how to discern physical hunger and physical satisfaction. You will become more conscious of the many things that draw you to food when you aren’t physically hungry. You will learn to feed physical hunger with physical food–any physical food you choose–and to “feed” other hungers with what they need. Physical food can’t satisfy a hungry heart. We will investigate some of the things that draw us to food when we aren’t hungry and learn to go to the source of the abundant supply of what we need for what truly ails us.
In the next three months you will lean on God in a way you never have before. You will develop an awareness of his amazing character. You will develop a heart of praise and gratitude and be less focused on your body, your food, your weight, your clothes as you seek first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness! All the rest will fall into place as he is praised, worshiped and adored.
Will you lose weight? Sure. But we have found that God often works from within–from the inside out. Nowhere in his Word does he call us to be thin, but throughout the Word of God we are called to be HIS! When we seek to allow him access to this area of our lives, we discover that he cares very much about our physical, emotional, *and* spiritual health. He longs to infuse us with hope!
If you haven’t yet ordered your workbook, now is the time to do it. Next Saturday, I will be posting some introductory thoughts and making the first assignment. You have plenty of time to get involved! In two weeks, we will discuss Lesson 1.
Who is with me! 🙂
How about you? Are you new to Thin Within? I would love to know you! Please introduce yourself in the comments here. If you are already familiar with Thin Within, I would love to know you are joining us as well. Feel free to say Hi!
