I am so grateful to be a member of TW/HW. I know without a doubt that my Loving Father led me to this community of healing and change. God led me to the place I needed to be when I fully cried out to Him in despair. It isn’t that what I have read and studied since arriving here is something completely new or different from what I have read or studied through other Biblical weight loss programs. I wasn’t new to setting boundaries around my eating (although those boundaries were never clear and were apt to change with the wind), or going to God through His Word and in prayer in times of stress and temptation (although I didn’t have a firm foundation in this practice). What God did introduce me to when landing in TW/HW is women and men who have changed lives. Women and men who have accepted the pleasant boundary of eating within the hunger scale of 0 to 5, and who through letting go of all the legalism of trying to control their weight on their own have met the only true Healer. I saw something that I wanted. I wanted their freedom from the compulsion. That was my cry to God, that I couldn’t do this weight and eating thing on my own anymore. I was beaten and He heard my cry and brought me here.

It is in the groups of TW/HW that I found the truth of Hebrews 12:1 as it pertains to my sin of obsession with diets, body image and weight control. It says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” That great cloud of witnesses is the gals and guys that have used TW/HW in their lives and have been set free. Some have lost a lot of weight, some a little. Some still struggle with the pull back into what the world tells us we need to do. But the tools are there and through using them they have found freedom from the obsession; the freedom from striving and working and striving some more. What a beautiful thing that freedom is when it invades your life!!  It has invaded mine!!

I have to admit that I was afraid at first. After all, if I could eat only when I am really hungry and stop when comfortably satisfied, I wouldn’t need this plan at all!! In fact, when I started in my first HW study, I didn’t “get real” till half way through. I was still trying to control things and it wasn’t till I realized that my body wasn’t reflecting what was coming out of my mouth, that I came to the place of surrender. I had to come face to face with the fact that God’s way of changing me wasn’t my way of speedy weight loss and the kudos of my friends and family on how great I looked. Jesus was asking me the same question that He asked the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-9), “Do you want to get well?” That’s a tough question because I had run to food for all kinds of emotions for so many long years that I was afraid of letting that comfort go. The food was always there in good times and bad. But, it wasn’t my friend. It was just a thing I ran to instead of God. So I let go. I quit eating all day long. I imperfectly started eating 0 to 5. My mind cleared from the food fog. God took me deeper into His Word because I wanted more of Him in my life. I no longer weigh myself to see how “good” or “bad” I am. I am releasing weight at a slow pace that I am content with (God is breaking my pride through this). My clothes are loose and I am fitting into a smaller size. Some days I think I want to know what the scale would say about my progress, but only for a moment. Then I remember the sweet feeling of peace that comes from placing all that old thinking into my past. It is no longer a part of my current life and with God’s strength and help will not be a part of my future. In letting go of my legalistic past Psalm 63:1-8 has become the prayer and praise of my heart.

Psalm 63:1-8 ¹ You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.² I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
³ Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you. ⁶ On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
⁷ Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Are you crying out to God right now for relief from the compulsions that rise up around your own body image and weight loss/gain history? If you are reading this, then I am sure you are searching. You have come to the right place, because TW/HW works. It works when you can say with all your heart and mind, “Yes, Jesus!! I want to get well!!” You don’t have to work and strive. You don’t have to create a plan or “decide” what you want your boundaries to be. They are there already, tried and true, in 0 to 5 eating. Back in January, 2015, I wrote on the first page of a new journal, Jesus says in John 8:31-32 that I am His disciple IF I abide in His Word. THEN I will know the truth and that truth shall make me free. My job: Abide in His Word. HIS job: Teach me His truth and He will set me free. In order to really abide in His Word, I had to surrender: My plan, what I thought I wanted, what I knew was blocking me from Him. Are you ready to surrender?