Eating is the main issue in my life that I have to be very heavily reliant on God with because of the struggle I have had with food. I have to rely on God for strength to overcome these issues. The key is surrender and to keep renewing my mind.
I have to be honest and say that when I “want” to and when I “choose” to be out of control with my eating, I back off from my relationship with God. YIKES! That is scary. That causes serious issues with complacency in my walk with God.
Food is the issue that I need His help the most with, but when I am not willing to change, I try to keep it hidden from God which is completely crazy! My track record shows that to be the case though. It reminds me of Adam and Eve covering their nakedness from God when they had eaten the forbidden fruit.
Genesis 3: 10 (NIV) He answered,
“I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
YEP that’s me to a tee…hiding from God when I choose to be out of boundaries with my food. (Out of boundaries for me is out of control, eating what I want when I want it and you can’t tell me NO or I might just throw a grown up temper tantrum! And of course binge eating…yuck..sad but true).
Have you seen this paragraph from Thin Within Rebuilding God’s Temple Workbook Series, page B-4?
“Our God is unchanging. He has always dealt with His people with mercy and grace. Even in the garden when Adam and Eve were given only one directive, which they broke, God Himself provided the first ‘sacrifice’ by slaying the animals for the skins which their clothing would be made.”
So basically this tells me that I need to STOP! Go to God! He is not mean!!! (Note: Making a God List will really help you see God the way He should be seen.)
I am ready for a LIFELONG CHANGE!
This is what I want:
INTIMACY WITH GOD & Peace with Food and my body (His temple), and to be at my natural God-given intended size;
To see God for who He is (absolutely awesome!) and to see myself how He sees me.
When I stay in 0 to 5, hunger to satisfaction, eating and spend/invest time in prayer and renewing my mind with the Word and various, reputable resources (i.e. Soundcloud, here at the blog, Thin Within materials, Barb Raveling’s “I Deserve a Donut” and “Taste for Truth”), I feel like a person who has been set free from prison or captivity.
I knew how to do this 0 to 5 thing. I knew exactly how to do it and had fantastic intentions for this past year, BUT I just couldn’t bring myself to follow through, to renew my mind or to stay between hunger and satisfaction. I even knew, based on my past experiences, that I had the key to remove the shackles, but I just could not/would not do it! Why? It reminds me of Romans 7:15 that states:
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
I really wanted change, but not badly enough to put any REAL, LASTING effort into it. I wasn’t ready to lay my lover of food down. Boy does that sound bad! It reminds me of Hosea.
When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him,
“Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her,
for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”
Hosea 1:2
I was promiscuous with my idol of food and I didn’t really want to let it go even though I knew that I would feel better, look better, and ultimately have the peace and joy that comes from eating that way and drawing close to God. But look at this. God is my Redeemer!
The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels[a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” Hosea 3:1-3
Thank God for being my Redeemer. I didn’t feel worth redeeming, but do you think Hosea’s wife was “worthy” of being redeemed or that she felt worthy? Maybe it is hard for us to understand, but God sees us so differently than we see ourselves.
Hosea 14: 4 says “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.”
In the Thin Within Rebuilding God’s Temple Workbook Series, page B-5, it says:
“As we cease from running and respond to God’s outstretched arms, we experience the joy of His presence as we choose to say yes to His will for us. He brings the captive out of captivity and restores us to a “land” of hope and promise. We are transformed from within by the renewing of our mind according to the Word of God.”
DO YOU WANT THE MAJOR KEY TO LASTING CHANGE?
Here it is.
RENEW YOUR MIND!
It is so vital to renew your mind. Not only should 0 to 5 eating be our weight release/maintenance tool, but renewing of the mind should be our maintenance tool too.
Hosea 13:6 says “When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”
God is satisfying me with 0 to 5, but I don’t want to get prideful or cocky about that. I have before! I stopped renewing my mind before and the end result was not a good one. BUT THERE IS HOPE! God is doing a new thing. I have laid the shackles down. I feel so free! I have over 100 lbs to get rid of, but I am not focused on that. I long for intimacy with God and to be restored to a healthy relationship with food and my body.
SURRENDER – that was my 1st step. Will you surrender today? Trust me…it’s worth it!
What About You?
Do you ever struggle with being willing to change? Are you ready to make a lifelong commitment to not only 0 to 5 eating, but also to renewing your mind? If not, what is stopping you? Have you surrendered to God instead of using your own strength? Let’s start today walking out a life of surrender to God, committing to eating 0 to 5, and renewing your mind. We can do this!
Adriane lives in NC with her husband, Shawn, and 3 kids, Marissa (10), Allie (8) and Judah (2). Adriane is involved in children’s ministry and also loves to co-lead worship with her husband.
Last week’s study of our Identity in Christ provided so much great material for our deck of truth cards. I hope you added some new cards to your deck and are reveling in the wonder of who GOD says you are! If you haven’t yet seen it, this Who I Am in Christ document is filled with wonderfully rich truth gleaned from the Scriptures!
The recording of our webinar where we wrapped up Lesson 3, Identity in Christ, can be found here. I will share the discussion questions for the webinar as soon as they are available. You will probably want Tina’s Power Point Slides in pdf format to have in front of you while you listen. 🙂
Now, we CELEBRATE that wonderful NEW thing that God is clearly doing! His grace is an ocean and we are ALL sinking! We are covered, saturated, and floating in an ocean of grace. So far removed from our sin, condemnation is something so foreign to our God’s way of relating to us, “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense” is free though it cost Jesus everything.
Here is this week’s video:
Video Questions:
1. How is Thin Within different from dieting relative to this subject of “Grace?”
2. God’s intent is that I would _p___________ the __g_________ to myself every day. What are ways you can do that?
3. How can you identity with 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10?
4. Some people are delivered and never experience a struggle with food and eating again. (I don’t know that I have ever met someone like this, but I am sure they exist.) What is the more likely type of healing that most of us will experience?
5. God’s grace is a pardon, provision, a constant _p_________, and the p____________ to say no to sin. (03:25)
6. Where does the sense of failure come from that I bring into Thin Within? (03:35)
7. God takes __f__________ and __r______________s it. (04:29)
8. What does grace give us? (04:55)
9. How is Observation and Correction a tool of grace?
10. (06:32-07:19) What are some strategies mentioned that you can employ when you struggle with obeying the Lord?
11. (07:50) What are two tools that I challenge you to dive into this week? How can you try to carve time out for this?
Renewing the Mind – Pressing On
Select one new way of renewing your mind this week. Will it be to journal through some of the questions in I Deserve a Donut? I have been at this imperfectly since 1999 and I still feel like I need to renew my mind at least once each day. Barb’s book is one of my favorite ways of doing this!
At our class’ private Facebook group page, some of the members have been posting pictures of their truth cards. They are absolutely wonderful! You could use some of the ideas there (or come up with your own) and add to your spiral bound deck of index cards. What do you do with the cards? Read through at least 5 of them each day…out loud.We can act differently, but we won’t sustain the behavior changes until we learn to think differently! Renewing our minds (Romans 12:2) is a great way of doing that.
If you need more ideas for renewing your mind, click on this search here at the Thin Within blog.
Trade Book Assignment – To Be Completed by February 3rd.
Here is Study Guide Week 4. I hope you are encouraged as you make your way through the material.
Workbook Assignment – To Be Completed by February 3rd.
1. Read, highlight, mark Lesson 4, Celebration of God’s Grace, Part One, on pages B48-B53 or listen to the audio file of Lesson 4 at Sound Cloud. Discuss it here in the comments section below this post or at our Class Facebook Group.
2. Complete the exercises for Lesson 4 on pages B54-B60. Next Monday before the webinar, respond to the Review questions on page B-61.
3. Continue to add to your “God List.” Can you add 10 things this week? What is your favorite attribute of God that you have added to your list so far?
4. Have a Praise Fest this week when you are tempted to break your boundaries. Share with us how doing so affected you.
5. Use the entries for Day 16 through Day 28 in the Temple Toolkit. Continue to ask the Lord if you should use the Thin Within Food Log, remaining sensitive to HIS leading about this. You can also consider a modified use of it by just recording your hunger numbers. Again, this is optional.
6. Memorize Jeremiah 29:11 this week. Personalize it and add it to your truth cards. “God has plans for me. God plans to prosper me and not to harm me. He plans to give me a hope and a good future.”
7. If you haven’t already, you probably soon will experience a shift in how emotionally sensitive you are. If so, know that this is perfectly normal. We aren’t numbing ourselves with food any more. Emotions we didn’t even know we felt will surface. Ask the Lord to help you process them in a manner that honors him and demonstrates respect for your body, His temple!
How About You?
How is the journey going? What questions do you have? Is there any way that you can offer just a bit more of your heart to the Lord in this?
I replaced the light bulbs in my bathroom this week. Two bulbs over my mirror had burned out long ago, and because of their height above the mirror, I postponed the replacement for months.
And then my husband informed me that a repairman was coming to replace our water heater. He would need access to our master bath to check his work. I immediately went to work cleaning up the bath, including replacing the lights with new, extra bright bulbs. When I hit the light switch, I saw my face in a new light, literally.
You know, the right light can change everything. It can change our priorities and choices. It can change our perceptions and immediate plans.
Let’s just say my tweezers saw some heavy action that afternoon.
This has been very similar to my experience with the boundary of 0-5 eating. It has been a bright light in my life, and what it is revealing has surprised me. Perhaps I am not who I thought I was.
Because weight loss wasn’t a major concern for me, I thought the 0-5 boundaries were a wonderful tool. Notice I said, “tool,” and not “boundary.” You use a tool when you need it. Tools are morally and spiritually neutral. They’re useful and wonderful but only occasionally necessary.
A boundary is a commitment that reflects a moral or spiritual truth. Boundaries also hint at which identity I have embraced, and what I have given authority in my life. To recognize 0-5 eating as a boundary moves its priority up in my life because it reflects what I believe to be true. 0-5 eating is not an occasional tool anymore; it’s part of my daily walk with God.
That means that my commitment to this boundary is a lifelong commitment. With diets, there is a goal and an end date. “I’m only going to lose a few pounds,” I might have said long ago. “Then this diet will be done.”
When we choose to recognize 0-5 eating as a God-honoring boundary, we’re committing for life. Weight loss is not the goal; submission is.
As I make daily eating choices based on the truth that God is my ultimate authority, I find His light growing stronger and brighter. I have found, much to my surprise, that not everything is really what I once thought. When faced with conflict in the past, I fought for what I wanted, and what I thought was right. Today, however, I recognize that submission to God’s leading is the quickest route to inner peace, and inner peace is more valuable to me than winning a fight. I can trust God to work things out in His own time, and my “assistance” is often not required.
Choosing 0-5 eating as a boundary has changed a lot of things for me and I have begun to realize I am capable of big changes. I can do new things, and in new ways. Submission and obedience are tough but tender teachers. I have found a peace I didn’t know was available. I’ve learned that my real strength comes from surrender. And that God can surprise us all at any moment in our journey, leading us somewhere bright and new.
What About You?
Do you think of 0-5 eating as a tool, or a boundary? Do you think there is a difference for you?
When you consider the words “surrender” and “submission,” what is your first reaction? Is it pleasant or negative?
If you lost all the weight today that you wanted to lose, would you still continue with the 0-5 eating guidelines? Why or why not?
Many people have shared in our class Facebook group that they are seeing evidence that God is doing a new thing. One way is through the Body Awareness (Mirror Mirror) Activity that we did last week on Day Three. Class participants shared that they had breakthroughs in how they feel about their bodies. If you haven’t yet done this activity, please don’t put it off. It IS hard, yes, but prayerfully invite God to help you through it. In fact, Lesson 2’s webinar, includes my walking us through it. I hope you find it helpful! The Hallidays have included it in nearly every book and workbook that Thin Within has created, so it is clear that they feel, after helping people since 1975…this is important!
This week we turn our attention to a very vital area for renewing our minds with truth. I hope you have your spiral deck of index cards and pen ready. (Some of our class members are using colored pens and artwork to create compelling — and fun! — cards.) We are going to look at our Identity in Christ. So often we get our sense of value, purpose, and identity from our performance at the various roles we have in life. We will see what God’s thoughts are on this subject this week. When we begin to think God’s thoughts after him about who we are most fundamentally, all kinds of things are possible!
Video Questions:
1. What will happen as we begin to think God’s thoughts after him (renew our minds with truth) about our identity?
2. From 02:29 to 03:28 I share a list of who you are in Christ. Which of these are most meaningful to you personally? Why? Do you believe that this is who you are? Why or why not? Make a truth card that tells you that you *are* that! This week, read your cards out loud. Here is the Who I Am in Christ list that I read from on the video.
3. Failure is something that you ______. It is not something that you ______.
4. Failure does not need to be an __________________. Failure can be the best _____________ that we’ve got going.
5. How can the tool of Observation and Correction help you turn failure into victory?
6. I speak about “falling off the horse” and “getting back on again.” What does that look like, practically speaking, on this Thin Within journey?
7. What makes you “worthy” of Heaven? How does this apply to our Thin Within journeys?
8. If you believed you were more than a conqueror, how might that affect how you live and the choices you would make?
9. What are you telling yourself about who you are? Are you telling yourself the truth?
10. Of the lies I mention at the end, which can you identify with the most?
Renewing the Mind – Pressing On
NOTE: Don’t be overwhelmed by the material in this part of the “assignment” each week. This section is here to give you ideas for renewing your mind. Maybe just pick ONE thing and try it out each week. Thinking differently about food, our bodies, our God, life is vital if we want changes that will last!
What are strategies you are currently using to renew your mind so that you believe the things we are studying? We don’t typically lack knowledge. We lack BELIEF! So speaking the truths from our lessons into our souls again and again will serve us well if we want to see our beliefs change. Remember, this progression?:
Beliefs –> Actions –> Patterns –> Fruit
If we don’t feel like there is fruit in our lives that concurs with our godly goals, then we want to back up. What patterns are in our lives? Back up a bit further to see what actions or choices are we making in the moment. Remembering that moment upon moment is what our lives (patterns) are based on, we see that choices are fueled by our beliefs. So, if we don’t like the fruit in our lives or are convicted that this isn’t honoring to God, we must go back to our beliefs and begin to work with our own minds, hearts, and souls to change what we believe. We can do this by telling ourselves the truth repeatedly. Here is a short list of ways to do that:
1. Music – Christian music does a great job of this. Secular music, not necessarily so much. “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” is not going to help you to live like “More than a Conqueror!” For ideas for a Renew Your Mind Play list visit this post or this set of posts.
2. Truth Cards – Make ’em, Read ’em, Recite ’em, Record ’em, LISTEN to ’em! Yes! You can use your computer (most laptops are equipped to make audio recordings) or your device to record yourself reading your truth cards. Then, you can listen to them with your earphones or your blue tooth. Even if you “aren’t in the mood” to read them, you can passively have them playing through your head throughout the day or while you vacuum, prepare a meal, go grocery shopping. It is a great way of having the truth saturate your thinking.
3. JOURNAL through a set of questions in Barb Raveling’s I Deserve a Donut and Other Lies that Make You Eat or the I Deserve a Donut app. I do believe journaling these questions at least once makes all the difference in getting the material into your heart. After journaling a set, you can pull truths from them in statements to add to your truth cards. Then, in the future, when you know you are struggling with worry, insecurity, or annoyance (for instance) you will be more able to benefit from using the questions by thinking through them. Journaling won’t always be necessary, but I do suggest it at first. (I journal a set of her questions at least once a day even though I have been doing this a long time!)
4. Set your timer to check in with God and recite a truth that is meaningful to you from memory. Visit this page to see what I mean.
Trade Book Assignment – To Be Completed by January 27th
Here is Study Guide Week 3 of the yet-unpublished Thin Within Book Study Guide. I would love to get your feedback if you are using this material. Is it worth publishing? 🙂
Workbook Assignment – To Be Completed by January 27th
2. Complete the exercises for Lesson 3 on pages B40-B44. Use your discretion about the optional exercises on pages B45-B46. Next Monday before the webinar, respond to the Review questions on page B47.
**Note** Did you know that I post a question each day at our Workbook Study Facebook Group? Come on over and discuss what you are discovering there. Feel free to post what God is doing in your life, physically, spiritually, and emotionally, too. Our class is releasing weight and strongholds!
3. Continue to add to your “God List.” Can you add 10 things this week? Or more? I would love to hear what you are adding!
4. Have one Praise Fest this week (or more!) and share about it with us here.
5. Use the entries for Day 15 through Day 21 in the Temple Toolkit. This week, the Thin Within Food Log is added to the choices of tools for you to use if you like. This is optional. Many of us do not have the freedom to use the Thin Within food log at this time. That is perfectly ok. Ask the Lord if he would have you use it or not. Do what He says. If you do choose to use it, remember that it isn’t a weigh and measure sort of log. It is just for added accountability for your hunger numbers primarily. It can also be very helpful to write down how you felt while eating. I write really small when I use this tool since I generally eat more than four times each day. Don’t be limited by the lines! If you want a larger place to write, download this copy of the Thin Within Food_Log. Again, please do not feel like you have to use this tool. Some of us are so fresh out of dieting that to do this might throw us back into our old dieting ways. That is NOT what we want! If you have the Thin Within app, you can use the Food Log tool included in it, if you like. You can send it to your accountability partner, straight from the app!
6. Evaluate how it is going with eating at 0. Are you eating at 0 more often than not? Have you found 5? Many find it helpful at first to use the boundaries of “Hungry? or Not Hungry?” instead of 0 to 5 and all the in-between numbers. Do what works for you. Are you experiencing freedom with your selection of food choices or are you still categorizing foods into categories from your dieting days? (“Junk food,” “healthy food,”, etc.) Ask the Lord to help you experience freedom from your dieting past, if so–Renew Your Mind! 🙂 If you need convincing, list to 7 Reasons To Ditch Dieting Forever.
7. Interact here in the comments or at the Facebook group.
How About You?
How did the second week of our journey go for you? What is God impressing upon your heart? What questions do you have at this point? How can we best serve and encourage you?
What are you anticipating as you go forward into this week? God IS DOING a new thing!
I have worked through all four of the Thin Within workbooks.
I have worked through the Thin Within book.
I have led Thin Within groups three times in the last ten years.
I am a certified Wellness Coach and Pilates instructor.
I teach.
I KNOW this stuff!
And yes, here I am, still yearning for freedom, still waiting on God. Still wondering when I will be set free from struggling with excess eating and excess body weight.
Perhaps it’s precisely because I am immersed in the world of fitness that I am easily distracted and find it hard to keep my eyes fixed on the path that I know is the only way to freedom in this.
A few months ago I invested in a season of private coaching with Heidi Bylsma; a very wise decision! I remember sending her my daily logs with my “hunger numbers”—almost always reporting 0 to 5 eating. And yet I saw no weight loss and felt no progress happening. Heidi pointed out the discrepancy. ☺ As is the way of a good coach, Heidi put the observation out there and left it to me to wrestle with: “Brenda, you report eating within your chosen boundary of 0 to 5 on a consistent basis, yet you say you are not seeing the results you’d hoped for.”
In my wrestling, I decided I needed to more clearly define a “5.” Obviously I was eating past 5, so in my mind the solution was to get better at stopping at a 5.
One morning God turned the light on for me; all I had worked on with Heidi became clear as I read through the book of Joshua.
I came to the part where the land is being divided up between the tribes of Israel. I noticed how clear and precise the boundaries were and I started thinking how boundaries are important to God—God gives us boundaries for our safety, health and because He knows what is truly good for us.
In Joshua 18 the Scripture tells us that there were still seven Israelite tribes who had not received their inheritance. And Joshua says to them, ” How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord the God of your ancestors has given you?”
God spoke to me through that—How long am I going to wait until I do MY part to take possession of the freedom that God has given me?
It’s my inheritance!
God has given it to me, but it is up to me to do my due diligence and receive what God has for me.
For me, at this point in my journey, trying to more precisely define a “5” on the hunger scale is not where God wants my focus.
I believe He is showing me that my part is to do what it takes to place myself before Him every single day for the renewing of my mind; soaking in the truth of His Word, writing Truth Cards as a daily practice, being honest about where I am spiritually and what I am doing, as well as what I am eating.
Sunday morning at church God again spoke to me—this time through a guest speaker. She was teaching from Genesis chapters 2 and 3, and she came to Chapter 3 verses 8 and 9, where Adam and Eve have disobeyed God and eaten from the one tree in the garden that He had forbidden. In verse 9 God calls out to Adam, saying, “Where are you?
I believe that God is asking that of me as well. “Where are you with ME, Brenda?” Are you living in all the abundance I have given you, or are you in a place of rebellion? What tree are you choosing?”
To me it’s a really big deal is that I finally have taken my eyes off of seeking weight loss above everything– although I haven’t given up and I do still want it. It’s that now I am seeking FIRST the kingdom of God; seeking GOD through specific, daily practices so that my focus turns away from food and body obsession.
I have learned that the daily practices of prayer, Bible reading, writing and reading Truth Cards, praising God in song, lifting my face to Him will bring about the renewing of my mind and the transforming of my heart, my body, and my life. And then eating within the boundaries of 0 to 5 will be a natural result of my decision to claim my inheritance and choose the abundant life He alone offers.
~ Brenda Ameli. Brenda lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, teaching mind body movement and leading the women’s ministry at her church.
How About You?
Is it possible that “thin” or “0” or “5” has actually become a distraction from what God wants for you? Does God want you to focus elsewhere? What might responding to His invitation in this look like for you?
Adriane lives in NC with her husband, Shawn, and 3 kids, Marissa (10), Allie (8) and Judah (2). Adriane is involved in children’s ministry and also loves to co-lead worship with her husband.
