by Deanna Burris | Feb 22, 2016 | Accountability, Blog
I’ve been thinking about the excuses I use to keep from doing what God is calling me to do. I know that I will make the time needed to do the things I want to do, but those things that He asks me to do that feel like stepping off a cliff, and I know I will have absolutely no control over the matter or the outcome, I tend to hold back and tell God that surely tomorrow will be early enough to take that jump. Our loving Father is good at asking us to step out of our comfort zones! I know that is where I experience the most growth, but it is still uncomfortable and too easy to put off. I can’t help but remember all the times I have said that I will start my diet tomorrow, or I’ll eat healthier tomorrow, or I’ll start going to the gym or working out or give up this favorite food because it is so bad for me or start eating that non-favorite food just because EVERYONE is saying it is a “super food” and so good for me that I just have to add it to my daily eating plan. Do you get the gist? Do you identify? There is an old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Thank the Lord that I am not on that road, but my good intentions have never gotten me to where I want to be. And if I’m honest with myself, those good intentions are nothing more than excuses. Did you know that in Ecclesiastes 11:4 it tells us that if we wait for the perfect time, we will never get anything done? And, do you know that God’s boundaries of eating within hunger and satisfaction don’t come with all the rules I listed above? Those good intentions leave me in bondage while God’s boundaries lead me into freedom.
So what happens in my life when I constantly say, “I’ll start tomorrow” or “next week” or “after this event or that celebration” (because we cannot possibly start eating “right” when we know we have a huge party or get-together on the horizon!)? When I say these things I am looking forward. The first problem with this is that I am not living in today. I have this terrible habit of playing out scenarios in my mind of “what if…” I can have a whole movie going on in my mind. You may be thinking, what’s wrong with that? Let me tell you. When I do this with planning way ahead, my focus isn’t on today and what needs to be done today. What is playing out in my head may not even happen. I look ahead for roadblocks that will make it impossible to move forward with God’s eating plan. The biggest problem is that there will always be roadblocks. I will always find an excuse to not start today. How sad that I forget God and His promise that He will always give a way out of temptation.
What happens when I say, “I’ll start later”? I never start. Is this your story too? Saying this sets me up for failure no matter what, and what I am really saying is, “If I can’t do it, then I am also not going to allow God to do it.” Ouch!! It hurts to even remember the times I’ve said such things.
Do we think that God would give us permission and grace by telling us, “Yes, eat as much as possible tonight, and tomorrow you can start being good at following the boundaries I have set for you? No, He wouldn’t for He tells us to be holy as He is holy. (All over Leviticus, and my favorite in Hebrews 12:14) Why do we give ourselves permission to do this same thing?
What does God’s Word say to me about putting off doing what His plan is for me? In Romans 13:14 I read that I need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy fleshly desires. So when I keep putting off what I need to do and what God wants me to do, I am doing nothing more or less than planning to satisfy my greedy flesh that in its natural state wants more than its fair share. In 1 Peter 2:11, I am urged to live in this world as an alien and a temporary resident and to abstain from fleshly desires that war against me. Yes, it is a war, and so much of my time has been spent trying to fight it. And I hate to say this, but I wasn’t fighting very hard. My flesh wouldn’t let me.
I want to live the rest of my life with the phrase “I’ll start tomorrow” removed from my vocabulary. I want to live the rest of my life committed to God’s lifelong boundaries. It won’t be easy, but I want to see what my life will look like. I want to see what plans God has in store for me and the only way I will see is with a clear head that is no longer living in a food fog. I know that God wants me to make this commitment because in doing so, I am letting go of the reins and handing them over to the only ONE that can do more than I could ever hope or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)
Dear God, my Creator and the Lover of my soul, create in me a pure heart that seeks to honor You above all, with my mind, my heart, my soul, my words and my food. Lord God, break the strongholds of overeating and putting off till later what needs to be done now. Break the idols of food focus and procrastination in my heart. Remove from my lips the words, “I’ll start tomorrow.” I want to live in the now in total surrender to You. I want nothing in my life that is held above You or that I run to instead of You. You are my Strong Tower. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
How about you? Are you ready to remove “I’ll start tomorrow” from your vocabulary? Are you willing to pray with me for God’s plan to be worked out in your life? I’ve jumped off that cliff. Will you join me? Our loving Father is there with His arms opened wide to catch us.
by Deanna Lewis | Feb 19, 2016 | Blog, Inspiration, Renew Mind
Do you ever find yourself feeling like this woman in the picture?
Most of the time I think I am doing ok with this 0-5 eating, yet sometimes….well….I fall back into old ways that feel so comfortable and familiar.
I had a few days like that not too long ago. I didn’t mean to eat too much, yet once again, I felt too full and gross. There are times when I feel as if I go into a fog and so I guess it is not the best time to eat. I want to eat. My mouth wants to eat. But my stomach isn’t hungry for it.
Sometimes I stop and think, “Why am I eating this?”
I really want to know the WHY behind my behavior but sometimes I can’t find a reason other than
I JUST WANT TO EAT!
****Sigh****
Once again, I was just slipping back into mindless eating patterns.
So what do I do now?
I can ask myself why I am eating this in a condemning and defeated way, or I can observe and correct.
I decide to flip through my truth cards and I see Romans 8:1 among them.
I realize I need to pray for help.
Lord, how I need You. I can’t do this without Your Spirit, Oh Jesus. I need You to pull me up and away from these desires within me that pull me back into mindless eating again.”
“I need more than a whisper of Your still small voice but a SHOUT to wake me up. To help me know this desire to eat when I am not hungry is TEMPTATION. I need a shout to wake me out of the fog of mindless eating.”
“Lord, my heart aches to do what You want. I want to turn from the food and to eat mindfully. Help me, Oh Lord to think about what I am doing when I am in the midst of it. Help me to make the right choices so that the next time I say “Why am I eating this?” The answer will be “because the Lord has provided it and it is the right time to enjoy it.” Yes, within Your boundaries, Oh Lord.”
“Lord, thank You that this moment is a new moment. Your grace is new each moment and I am a new creation in You each time I turn to Your open arms.
“My child, I love you. Remember that nothing can take away my love. I forgive you and you are set free! I am with You and I will help You. You have to be still and listen for my voice, child. It is hard to be still when you have so much going on, I know, but that is when you have to make a special effort to pause and breathe and listen. You have to take a moment to center yourself on Me. Yes, breathe a prayer and ask for my help. I will give you power over the enemy and the sin and the desires. I will give you power over old habit and old ways.”
“Oh child of mine, you may not know why you did what you did but you can still learn from it. It all comes down to taking the moment to turn to Me. In Me, you ARE a new creation who is free from sin. But you have to remain in ME, child. I am here for you and I love you. Always.”
What about you? What do you do if you find yourself slipping into mindless eating? Do you mentally beat yourself up or do you “Observe and Correct”? Have you been pausing at the table and listening for God’s voice? Remember that God’s power over our old ways of eating is there for us to use. Remember that you ARE a new creation in Him and that no matter what, He loves you.
by Heidi Bylsma | Feb 10, 2016 | Accountability, Blog, Classes
I hope that you woke up this morning with this thought on your heart…
I am fearfully and wonderfully made!
We can believe it!
You know what? Here’s the thing… If our God is awesome (and I bet not one of you reading this would say you don’t agree with that), if He is so creative and powerful and clever (and I bet you all agree with that), then He has made our bodies reliably, too!
Like a Thin Within class participant said
He has created our marvelous, fearfully and wonderfully-made bodies to give us signals about when we need sleep, rest, when we are in pain, when we need to expel something from our bodies, and when we need to drink or eat, as well as when we need to STOP eating or drinking.
The trick is that often, over the years, either through carelessness or dieting, we have “shut down” those hunger and satisfied signals.
We want to get in touch with those signals again because they are a reliable means for eating the right amount of food: Eating to live, rather than living to eat.
When I get back in touch with those signals (this may take work, so please be patient and extend grace to yourself!), I find that I will release extra weight to my natural God-given size and then maintain it. No hocus pocus. No counting. No weighing and measuring. Just a naturally, calm, worry-free, way of living for the rest of my days.
Sound good?
I knew it would. I know it does to those of you who already subscribe to this approach.
In Thin Within and Hunger Within, we use the Keys to Conscious Eating to help us get back in touch with the signals of hunger and satisfaction.
These are not “rules” but rather are intended to provide boundaries:
Keys to Conscious Eating:
1. Eat when your body is hungry.
2. Eat in a calm environment by reducing distractions or calming your mind.
3. Eat when you are sitting.
4. Eat when your body and mind are relaxed.
5. Eat and drink the things your body enjoys.
6. Pay attention to your food while eating.
7. Eat slowly, savoring each bite.
8. Stop eating before your body is full.
Each time we eat – as in each and every time we eat – we try to use each of these keys as boundaries.
• Numbers 1 and 8 are the primary boundaries of eating between physical hunger (called a “0”) and physical satisfaction (called a “5”).
• If we use numbers 2 through 7 as secondary boundaries for ourselves, it helps us to succeed at #1 and #8.
• The goal is to be intentional each time food crosses our lips.
If we set a place for Jesus at our tables and imagine His presence there, if we foster a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving for the abundance that He supplies and that He has made our bodies fearfully and wonderfully, we can do this.
We can get back in touch with our body’s signals and discover a stress-free way to release the burdens of our hearts and the burdens of our life. They are so often connected!
Let’s eat when we are hungry.
Let’s stop when we are no longer hungry.
And let’s run to God for all the other things that ordinarily draw and lure us to food.
Ya with me? 😃
How are you doing with eating between 0 and 5 being your primary boundary? Which of the secondary boundaries do you think could help you more effectively abide by your primary boundaries? Which is hardest for you? Select one of these today to ask for God’s special help with. How can you plan for success?
by Deanna Burris | Jan 25, 2016 | Blog
Today, I am going to share about something that has been weighing on my heart and is something difficult to admit. Because of recent reactions of mine to things going on in my life, I had to ask myself this painful question: “Why do I still get upset when things in my life don’t go my way, even though in my heart I know that I trust God to take care of me?” Where is the disconnect? God has proven Himself faithful, time and time again, yet I go into a tailspin when something goes wrong. I am afraid that even though I trust Him, there are still many areas in my life where I am trying to control things by my own power. I have proven time and time again that doing life by my own power never works.
I have always heard it said that the distance between the head and the heart is one of the longest. Sometimes the distance seems insurmountable when it comes from taking head knowledge and making it heart knowledge. When I think about my anxious feelings over the last few weeks, I realize in my heart, I totally trust God, but it is my head that is getting me into trouble. I am too strong minded. I think too long and too deeply about issues that I can’t control. Wow, I didn’t think it was possible, but my heart is good and it’s my head that needs help. This is why it is so important for me to find the time in my schedule for renewing my mind daily. Oh, how life gets in the way…or should I say I allow life to get in the way. I make excuses…I have a new job, I didn’t sleep well last night so I have to press the doze button, I have a family commitment…I need to…whatever. Whatever I allow to be in the way of my growth is an excuse, and those excuses cause my daily life to suffer.
I am a firm believer that we always have time for what is important to us. I have to ask myself if my boundaries are important to me or if I am going allow the “stuff” going on in my life to “give” me permission to break them. Are the changes that God has done in my heart and life worth the extra time it takes each day to renew my mind so that those changes stay and grow to even more miracles? It is very easy to fall back into previous reactions to life. It is easy to run back to food. It is easy to run back to losing myself in TV or books or quilting or anything else that takes me away. It’s easy, but praise God, it is no longer comfortable. I want to guard the growth I have experienced this past year. I don’t want to lose the gracious gifts I have received from my Loving Father. I want to praise Him for even the “stuff” that could drive me back to the way I was before. I want to praise Him for the good, the bad and the ugly. I am grateful that God wants to grow my faith by letting me struggle. He loves and cares for me that much.
I have a favorite section of Scripture that has helped me in the past during times of frustration and fear. It is Habakkuk 3:17-19. It says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Yahweh my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!” What this says to me is that even when things look and seem impossible to get through, even then, He is with me. No matter what I feel, see, perceive or experience that makes me believe that there is no way to move forward, the way is there and it is the road the Lord has laid out for me. I don’t have to figure it out and I don’t need to know what will happen tomorrow. I just have to put one foot in front of the other and follow Him.
It’s too late to make a resolution, and those are only made to break. What I will commit to is making a daily effort to renewing my mind. I will not do this perfectly, but no more excuses. Will you join me? I believe God has great spiritual growth in store for those in Thin Within/Hunger Within this year. Let’s commit together to use the tools we have at hand to grow closer to our Lord who is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. No matter what happens, let’s draw close to our Source of all that we need.
by Heidi Bylsma | Jan 19, 2016 | Blog
by Allison Mitchell
I became acquainted with Thin Within in 2009. I had just stopped participating in the Weigh Down Workshop and had experienced weight loss. The Thin Within principles did not disappoint because I continued releasing weight once I began participating in the Workbook 1 study.
As it turns out, I returned to college in the Fall of 2010 and gradually began slipping back into old habits, and I regained much of the weight. How disheartening! I would return to Thin Within classes and begin seeing weight fall off only to get off track and re-gain it. I continued this pendulum swing until November 2014.
During the Summer of 2014, I led a Thin Within class through the book, Taste for Truth. Although I saw five pounds disappear, the Lord spoke to me that He was working on my spiritual person, the inside person, before working on the outside. I realized that I had still not dealt with some emotional issues that led to eating outside of the boundaries of 0-5. I began praying about asking Heidi to coach me. The Lord answered this prayer because Heidi began coaching me in November of 2014.
Issues from my past began surfacing. Are we not supposed to forget the past? Was this a trick of the enemy? Little did I know that God had a plan to help me deal with issues I had buried before they were truly dead. Painful as it was, I allowed the Holy Spirit to guide me through the process.
Heidi suggested that I use “Accountability Points.” Of course, one of those points was 0-5 eating. I chose other points that might work for me. One of the points I chose was to agree to renew my mind on a daily basis, and this, my friends, is when I began to see a breakthrough. When faced with thoughts contrary to God and His Word, I had to choose to rid myself of the lies and deception being presented to me and replace the lies with the truth.
When faced with thoughts contrary to God and His Word, I had to choose to rid myself of the lies and deception being presented to me and replace the lies with the truth.
I have released around 28 pounds which is about the amount of weight I re-gained while in college. Although I have not arrived at some super-spiritual place, I am thankful for Jesus. If not for Him, I would not be giving you my testimony. I would still be in bondage to my past and my overeating to cover up the past. If not for the healing balm of the Lord, I would still be miserable. God knew what was best for me, and returning to Thin Within was what was best. Eating according to true physical hunger signals works! God’s ways work!
Allison Mitchell
Allison lives in Hanover, WV with her husband and two children. She teaches Kindergarten at the local school and is the co-pastor with her husband of Haven of Rest Church of the Living God. In her spare time, Allison loves spending time with her family and reading.
I’ve been thinking about the excuses I use to keep from doing what God is calling me to do. I know that I will make the time needed to do the things I want to do, but those things that He asks me to do that feel like stepping off a cliff, and I know I will have absolutely no control over the matter or the outcome, I tend to hold back and tell God that surely tomorrow will be early enough to take that jump. Our loving Father is good at asking us to step out of our comfort zones! I know that is where I experience the most growth, but it is still uncomfortable and too easy to put off. I can’t help but remember all the times I have said that I will start my diet tomorrow, or I’ll eat healthier tomorrow, or I’ll start going to the gym or working out or give up this favorite food because it is so bad for me or start eating that non-favorite food just because EVERYONE is saying it is a “super food” and so good for me that I just have to add it to my daily eating plan. Do you get the gist? Do you identify? There is an old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Thank the Lord that I am not on that road, but my good intentions have never gotten me to where I want to be. And if I’m honest with myself, those good intentions are nothing more than excuses. Did you know that in Ecclesiastes 11:4 it tells us that if we wait for the perfect time, we will never get anything done? And, do you know that God’s boundaries of eating within hunger and satisfaction don’t come with all the rules I listed above? Those good intentions leave me in bondage while God’s boundaries lead me into freedom.
So what happens in my life when I constantly say, “I’ll start tomorrow” or “next week” or “after this event or that celebration” (because we cannot possibly start eating “right” when we know we have a huge party or get-together on the horizon!)? When I say these things I am looking forward. The first problem with this is that I am not living in today. I have this terrible habit of playing out scenarios in my mind of “what if…” I can have a whole movie going on in my mind. You may be thinking, what’s wrong with that? Let me tell you. When I do this with planning way ahead, my focus isn’t on today and what needs to be done today. What is playing out in my head may not even happen. I look ahead for roadblocks that will make it impossible to move forward with God’s eating plan. The biggest problem is that there will always be roadblocks. I will always find an excuse to not start today. How sad that I forget God and His promise that He will always give a way out of temptation.
What does God’s Word say to me about putting off doing what His plan is for me? In Romans 13:14 I read that I need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy fleshly desires. So when I keep putting off what I need to do and what God wants me to do, I am doing nothing more or less than planning to satisfy my greedy flesh that in its natural state wants more than its fair share. In 1 Peter 2:11, I am urged to live in this world as an alien and a temporary resident and to abstain from fleshly desires that war against me. Yes, it is a war, and so much of my time has been spent trying to fight it. And I hate to say this, but I wasn’t fighting very hard. My flesh wouldn’t let me.
