by Christina Smith | Mar 5, 2014 | Blog
Image courtesy of Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18
I LOVE when I’m reading a verse I’ve read thousands of times jumps out at me and the Holy Spirit reveals this super amazing and awesome powerful truth to me as if I’ve read it for the first time!! It’s always so exciting! That’s what happened one day when I read this verse.
When I am following after the Spirit’s guidance with my eating, I am not giving into my flesh or the enemy’s temptations. That is pure and simple truth. And if I’m being led of the Spirit, it is not necessary to be under a law. For me, being under a law when it comes to food is following a diet (man-made set of rules in regards to what, when, and how much I should eat). I have noticed that when I’m following after my flesh and giving into temptation, I immediately think I need to jump back on the diet bandwagon. So when I read this verse, it finally made sense to me why my thoughts would go to dieting after eating outside of my boundaries. Knowing this brought me a sense of freedom because IF I follow the Spirit, I am set free from dieting or any kind of eating “law”. Praise God!
So how does one follow after the Spirit when it comes to eating? And eating within the principles of Thin Within? Well, first of all, I think you have to know without a doubt that eating 0-5 (between hunger and fullness) is what God has called you to do. Heidi has talked about this many times. And then if you are convinced that 0-5 is what the Lord wants for you, then you know that the Holy Spirit is going to guide you to stay within those boundaries of hunger and fullness and whatever secondary boundaries He asks for you to follow (which could be boundaries such as eating without distraction, eating slowly, eating while sitting, etc.). The Holy Spirit will gently lead you. And if you are listening, you will hear His gentle voice, like a shepherd with his sheep, guiding you. He will prompt you. He will ask you questions. He will help you in time of need.
And as long as you are listening to Him, you won’t need ANY other voices telling you what you should eat, how you should eat, etc.
I truly believe and am convinced that God has created us all to eat within hunger and fullness. I guess you could say it’s like a divine plan for our life in taking care of our bodies. It’s obvious that it was never His will that we become gluttonous and overweight, because look at all of the problems we can have with our health when we are. I am also convinced that He doesn’t want us following some regimented and strict diet plan because that wreaks havoc upon our physical body and our mind. Something is unbalanced when we are eating in a way that numbs the natural hunger and fullness signals, whether it’s from a strict diet plan, overeating on purpose, or any type of eating disorder. God is a God of order, not disorder. And I think that eating within hunger and fullness (0-5) is a very peaceful, pleasant, and orderly way of eating. Praise God! His ways are perfect!
A friend of mine shared one of her truth cards with me. It’s a quote by Jack Hayford from the New Spirit Filled Bible:
“We are called to war against the flesh. Our flesh urges indulgence and the Holy Spirit constrains us to righteousness. Victory in this war is found in: abiding in right relationship with Jesus, understanding that true strength is found in our weakness, and continually submitting to the unction and urging of the Spirit. Victory comes as we take these practical steps, avoiding or overcoming the pull of our flesh.”
I’ve heard it said from Heidi and others that there are times when we can make 0-5 a “law”. Of course, this isn’t what God intends for us. I believe this is where we need to be graceful with ourselves and ask the Lord how we can go about eating within hunger and fullness without turning it into another diet plan. It takes time to get back to God’s natural order with our eating, especially if we’ve dieted for many years. It takes time to get back in tune with those intuitive signals. And for some of us, the diet mentality may be so engrained in our brains that it may take time to completely let go of all of those rules we were so used to being under before. The Holy Spirit can help us with that as well.
There have been times the Holy Spirit has asked me to stop eating, prompted me about when to stop, and has asked me not to eat because I wasn’t hungry. He’s also asked me at times to leave a bite on my plate. Sometimes I really don’t want to, but I know He knows what He’s talking about, so I choose to obey.
I’m so excited to know that if I’m following after the Spirit, I don’t even have to concern myself with thinking I need to go on another diet plan. This brings me so much relief and joy! There have been times during this journey where I have felt like I need to go back to measuring, weighing, and tracking my food during the times when I felt like I have failed. But now I realize that I don’t need a diet. I need the Holy Spirit. He will show me truth and lead me into all truth.
How about you?
Are you convinced that the Lord wants you to eat 0-5? If so, do you trust the Holy Spirit to lead you in your eating? When you feel like you’ve failed, do you automatically think you need to go on a diet? I’ve been there myself, but now I see that if I keep on renewing my mind and continue on this journey with the Lord, that I won’t need to diet. Praise God!
by Becky Young | Feb 28, 2014 | Blog
For seven years, I struggled to maintain consistent progress in my Thin Within journey. I would start and stop, start and stop. Close to 2 dozen times I repeated this pattern. Often, I would experience 4-6 weeks of success, only to fall off the horse and gain the weight back and then some. It took me about 4 years to finally recognize a pattern in my journey and learn why I was not experiencing sustained success. And it all had to do with the prideful refusal to surrender my will.
I would start Thin Within like most people do. Paying attention to my hunger signals, praying, renewing my mind, focusing on 0-5 eating and staying within my godly boundaries. As I did those things, I would begin to experience success. The weight would begin to come off and I could feel the obsessive thoughts about food and weight lessen. Along with the victory, came pride. “Look at me go! I’ve totally got this. I can do this all by myself.” And before I knew it, I was relying on my own power and not the power of my God. Proverbs 16:18 became the theme verse of my life: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Needless to say, that mentality didn’t get me very far. I would always regain the weight I had released (plus an extra 5 pounds). I would run back to God crying “why can’t I do this?!” To which the Lord eventually replied, “Exactly. You can’t do this because this journey isn’t about your effort. This journey is about surrendering your will to me and allowing my power to work through you.“
My experience felt very similar to when Paul is pleading with God to take away the thorn in his flesh in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
God’s power is most beautifully displayed when we are humbled, surrendered and at the end of ourselves. It is when we come to the end of our will, our pride, our desires, our frustrations, our efforts and our entitlement, that God can come through and allow His power to work through us. And the power that is available to us is extraordinary power! It is the same power that was used to raise Christ from the dead (Eph 1:19-20)! All we need to do to gain access to this power is humble ourselves before Him, surrender our pride and declare “thy will Lord, not my will.” And as we yield our will to His power, we will begin to see amazing results, not only in our bodies but in our hearts and minds as well.
For me, this is not just a simple prayer I prayed one time. This is something I pray about every single day. Every day I ask the Lord to create in me a humble heart and to help me surrender my prideful will and entitled desires to His perfect will. Every day I take my entitled thoughts captive. Every day I ask for more of Him and less of me. And God has been so faithful! As I write this, I am about to enter my 8th month of sustained success in my Thin Within journey (quite a bit longer than my typical 6 weeks!).
How about you? Have you ever tried to do Thin Within in your own power? Have you felt God calling you to let go of your own efforts and allow Him to take the reigns? Have you found the power available to you in surrendering your will to His will?
by Christina Smith | Feb 27, 2014 | Blog, Renew Mind
Image courtesy of Suvro Datta / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Recently, I was sharing with a friend about where I’ve been on my journey about food and eating. I was sharing with her that it didn’t work when I tried to be a “normal eater” years ago. I’m not sure why, but I remember really struggling and feeling like I was never going to overcome. I had a few successes, but something would come up, and then I would go back to overeating or obsessing about food.
Almost a year ago, I came back to Heidi’s blog after really having a hard time with food thoughts and fears. Immediately, the Lord gave me this incredible peace and then He showed me that He wanted me to let go of all of the food thoughts and fears and to eat within hunger and fullness (0-5). It was a rough start of one step forward, two steps back, but after a couple of months, the Lord showed me that in order to be completely set free from the fears and thoughts, that I needed to renew my mind. And so began my “truth cards”.
And that, my friends, has been the difference. Ever since May of 2013, I have met with the Lord every day to renew my mind. It started with renewing my mind about learning that I can enjoy ALL foods with no fear attached, to currently, where I am learning to delight in my God-given boundaries. And there have been things in between that I have renewed my mind about. I am currently reading through my second set of truth cards. I felt that I “graduated” from my first set of truth cards, so I was ready to move on with the Lord in this journey to becoming free in this area of my life.
In May of 2013, I was already at a healthy weight. I wanted to maintain that weight. The “weight” I needed to release were the lies and obsession. It was more of a mental weight. That’s where I needed to be set free. And He has been doing just that, setting me free with His truth! Every day I choose to renew my mind with His truth, and every day I’m set free more and more! Praise God!
I truly believe I wasn’t able to press in and persevere with eating between hunger and fullness years ago because I wasn’t getting to the inner parts of me that were causing overeating in the first place. I wasn’t renewing my mind. I was looking to myself for strength instead of falling at the feet of Jesus each time I messed up or needed Him. I remember one of the things I really struggled with years ago was thinking that Thin Within was too spiritual. I didn’t want to dig into the reasons I ate emotionally. I felt like that was for wimps. But oh, I was so wrong! I am stronger today because of falling at the feet of Jesus and humbling myself before Him and crying, “HELP!”
Facing the “spiritual” side of hunger and fullness is uncomfortable for some. I know I was uncomfortable. And even last year when I was just starting out, I really fought the spiritual side of this journey. I didn’t want to admit that I was indulging my flesh every time I overate or even obsessed over food. It was like I wanted to walk in unrest instead of the peace God was offering me. I kept thinking, “I can do this without being so spiritual about it.” Oh, how I have been humbled with His truth!
It DOES take time to renew your mind. Honestly, I wouldn’t have experienced any of the victory in Christ that I have if it wasn’t for renewing my mind. Let me say it plainly: If I didn’t take time to renew my mind, I would overeat, I would obsess about food, and I would be freaking out! Just ask my husband.
I remember when Heidi would post about how HARD this journey can be. I did NOT NOT NOT want to hear that. I remember thinking, “Then I’ll just keep tracking [Weight Watchers] points!” I wanted and want this to be easy, but at times, it’s not. Why? Because sometimes I want to eat what I want to eat, when I want to eat it. Sometimes I don’t want to read my truth cards or stop my mind in it’s tracks and renew my mind about WHY I want to overeat. But guess what?…the harder times make me stronger. Just think about it, when you renew your mind, it’s like you are retraining it. You are suddenly STOPPING it and steering it in another direction. And each time you do that, you are training it to turn the other way! This is totally unrelated, but when I was potty training my daughter, each time she started going, I picked her up and put her on the potty. And after a short time, she recognized that when she needed to go that she needed to sit on the potty. It’s sort of the same thing when we renew our mind. After awhile, we no longer have “accidents”, but we direct ourselves in the right direction. Isn’t that awesome!?
Let’s look at this with an example. Let’s say I’m feeling emotional. Something just happened and I am sad. I want to numb myself with food. Well, I know that I’m not hungry, so eating right now would not be within my boundaries (0-5). I have 2 choices, I can eat, or I can STOP and renew my mind. One way that I can renew my mind is getting out my journal and getting out the ‘I Deserve a Donut’ app (if I ever meet Barb Raveling she’s going to get the biggest hug ever–I hope she likes hugs!) and I am going to go to the section under Attitudes called Emotional Eating. And I would answer the questions in my journal and read through the scriptures. If needed, I would take a time-out and write out to the Lord what I’m dealing with and really just let the emotions pour out to Him. As I do this, the Lord meets with me and speaks to me from His Word. The questions from the Emotional Eating app make me think about why I want to eat and how it’s not a good idea to eat outside of my boundaries. And pretty soon I’m feeling better because I’ve gone to the LORD instead of food. I may still want to eat, but I realize that it’s not even worth it because food isn’t going to fix the problem. Most likely, I won’t want to eat outside of my boundaries because the Lord has met my need. And so the next time I’m feeling emotional, it will be easier to turn away from the thoughts about eating and turn instead to the Lord and His truth. Each time I renew my mind, I will be transformed!
So there you have it, the difference in seeing victories in Christ as I have applied the Thin Within principles has been that I have renewed my mind. That was the missing key before, but it’s no longer missing now!
How about you?
Have you been diligent in renewing your mind? Are you seeing a difference as well because you are renewing your mind? I would love to see some comments about how renewing your mind has made a difference!
by Carrie | Feb 26, 2014 | Blog, Inspiration
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
~ Jeremiah 29:11
I have an eleven year old son, a “tween.” He is stuck between wanting to act like a little kid (playing with his little sister and such) and feeling like a teenager, with all of the emotion and angst that comes with that stage of development. While the “tween” years begin somewhere around 9 or 10 years of age, I feel like my boy has been a tween for a much longer time! He has pushed for independence and freedom from us since he was a little guy. When all of his Kindergarten friends found joy in their moms helping in the classroom, he cried and begged me to not volunteer. He went on his first church retreat at 9 years of age without looking back. The following summer he went to sleep away camp without a tear or a letter home. And I have to prepare myself for lots of drama when I need to help him with schoolwork or study skills – he just doesn’t want my help. He is just a strong-minded and opinionated individual and wants to do things his way.
Last week, on the heels of schoolwork drama, I took him to a new class. My husband and I did not ask him if he wanted to participate, we just registered him. As his parents, we made the decision that he would participate in this cotillion (manners and such) class because we know that it will serve him well in his future. He was not happy about it at all! Without going into details, just know that he ended up enjoying it and having a great time with friends. But, in the heat of frustration at his resistant and rebellious attitude (with accepting help and with following our guidance), I found myself thinking the following:
“Why doesn’t he trust us? We are his parents and everything we do is for his good, even if he can’t see it from his short perspective. We have years of wisdom and experience behind our decisions. I wish that he would just relax and not worry about so many things and just enjoy what we provide for him.”
The next day, God revealed a big truth to me. I am often that resistant and rebellious child to God, my heavenly Father. The big difference is that while I am a loving parent, I am quite imperfect. God, however, is perfect and omniscient. He extends steadfast love to His children. He knit each of us together and He knows us. He is for us and holds our hands even as we stumble. If we trust Him and obey Him, we can avoid so much discomfort and confusion. What a gift! We can lay our worries burdens at the foot of the cross – even the seemingly simple decisions of what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat – and He will give us rest.
I knew that my son would enjoy his class because I had spoken to other parents whose children had enjoyed it in past years. And I know that the lessons that he learns will help him in his future days. I want to approach God as I wish my son would approach us (if only!) – eager for His guidance, willingness to stay in His boundaries, learning from the lessons He teaches, and trusting Him with all of my heart so that I obey Him without resistance and rebellion. I desire to absolutely surrender to Him.
Lord, help us to trust in You with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. Help us to submit to You in all ways, knowing that You will make our paths straight.
by Heidi Bylsma | Feb 24, 2014 | Blog, Inspiration
It seems like I spend a lot of my life waiting on things to fall into place; waiting on that magic moment where I find perfection. Whether it’s in my job, my relationships, or in my actions, I feel like there should be a moment where things just “click” and start running smoothly. Or I used to think that way, anyway.
When I first started my Thin Within journey I fully expected to “someday” find that magic moment in eating 0-5. I hoped it would happen quickly, but figured it might take a while. I was ok with that, knowing it gave me something to work towards and look forward to.
I assumed as the weeks went on I would get better and better at eating within my boundaries, until eventually it would all fall into place and become natural. I would stop “messing up” and would get to my natural weight. I would no longer have a problem with food. Eating 0-5 would become second nature.
After weeks of two steps forward, one step back and experiencing victory only to turn around and find failure staring me in the face, I see things a little differently. I realize that it does get easier in some ways; I get better at it with practice, but it will always be a battle. Why? Because Satan hates me honoring God in my eating, he hates me finding victory, and he will never give up on the battle to win me over to fleshly living. If anything the battle will intensify.
It’s not really fun to think about those things. Nobody wants to suffer. But we have to count the cost. I have counted the cost and I realized that the suffering is worth it. It’s only my flesh suffering anyway, and when my flesh suffers my spirit soars! I’m finding that I’m actually thankful for the battle. I’m drawing near to God, and if this battle is what keeps me trusting in Him, it’s worth it. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10b
I no longer desire that magic moment. In fact I hope it doesn’t come! That magic moment parades itself as victory, but is really pride. It’s the moment you think: “I’ve got this” and whether you realize it or not, at the same time your heart is saying “Thanks God, Your work here is done.” It’s the moment you stop clinging to God because you just can’t do it without Him.
On the one hand, it would be nice to not feel helpless. But at what cost? At the cost of abiding in Him? No thanks. This is just another of Satan’s tactics to win the battle. If He can get us to think we don’t need God, if he can fill our hearts with that lie, then we never find abundant living.
True victory is in the moments when I see God’s grace working in my life, the moments where I stay within 0-5, the moments where I choose God over food. Those moments don’t come because I’m strong enough or because I’ve got a handle on things. They come because of the strength God provides, because my eyes are fixed on Him. When we have those moments, recognize that they are because of Him, and praise Him for them, those are magic moments much better than moments with a false sense of security.
There are other magic moments too. When I have moments of failure I have to renew my mind with scriptures like Romans 8:1, remembering that there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Also Titus 2:11-14, remembering God sees me as perfect and gives me His grace to live the Spirit-filled life. When those moments of failure become moments of observation and correction, when they become learning and growing experiences, those are also magic moments.
To live in faith (Hebrews 11:6) run the race (Hebrews 12:1-3) find transformation through the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2) and press on to the end (Philippians 3:10-12) are more moments that are truly magical. All those things can only be done by the grace of God. His grace is truly miraculous, much more so than a wee little human thinking they can do things on their own. How thankful I am that God has taught me this BIG lesson (among many others) through Thin Within!
What about you?
Do you find yourself wishing for the magic moment where you no longer feel helpless, but feel like you’ve got your eating under control?
Why might that moment have a negative impact on your life?
What are some God-honoring magic moments you’ve experienced?
Would you rather suffer so your relationship with God can be protected? Is it worth it to you?
Kelsa Turner lives in the Great Smoky Mountains with her husband Luke and her black lab Roscoe. She enjoys the freedom of being self-employed to be able to work, serve, and spend time studying Thin Within and growing in her relationship with God. [Editor Note: Kelsa has agreed to teach an online Thin Within class for us! Be sure to visit this page to see what classes we are offering.]
