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.
During this season of thanksgiving and holy celebration I find myself overwhelmed with the kindness of the Lord in bringing me back to the Thin Within community. Do you realize what a blessed group of people we are to have comrades (companions) in arms, who will help us fight the battle for freedom!
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, 9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. 11 Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? 12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
Every day as I read the testimonies of others on this journey I am imparted with hope. I see many on this battlefield relentlessly getting up after each setback and pressing on. I see fellow comrades rally around and offer words of encouragement and prayers to help steady the person back on the path toward freedom. And it makes me smile and builds my faith. It also gives me the courage to keep on keepin’ on.
So many of us have no idea the value of accountability and exposing our weakness to another. But as Ecclesiastes says, we are “better off”, we “conquer” when we are walking in community with others. We find Christ-like acceptance in the Thin Within community, acceptance void of all judgment and condemnation. It just doesn’t get much better than that!
If you’re facing discouragement today here’s an exercise that will encourage you. Stand up and take two steps forward, now take one step back. Now do it again, and again and again. See what’s happening? You’re still moving in the right direction, only at a slightly slower pace. Now picture this exercise with one or two others on each side of you … taking those same two steps forward and one step back. For me, this is what comradery is all about. It’s about walking forward, falling at times, getting up and walking forward again, but with others who want to fight the same battle with me. What a precious gift this is.
I’ll admit that this year’s Thanksgiving holidays with relatives was not one of my stellar events with regard to my eating. Added to this was the disappointment I felt after Heidi and Cathy had so selflessly provided victory-tools for us to use. I even armed myself with those tools. But still, I fell on the battlefield. And yet as much as the enemy was hounding me to throw in the towel and just give up, on Monday morning I grabbed my bible, my journal, my truth cards, and a cup of coffee and I returned to that spot in the house reserved for me and Jesus. And there I cried and repented and began to process what happened (how I lost this holiday fight).
How about you? Are you one whose Thanksgiving wasn’t as successful as you’d planned? Have you taken some time to get with Jesus to dialogue about what happened? Have you started working on your battle plan for all the Christmas goodies and the big holiday dinner? Are you thankful for the Thin Within comrades that are standing ready to walk the journey toward freedom with you? Are you taking advantage of the blogs, online bible studies, coaching opportunities, etc.? Or are you discouraged and fearful of being authentic with your Thin Within community? Let me encourage you to not give another inch of ground to our enemy. Instead, turn to Jesus and to your Thin Within community to gain strength for the journey ahead. Afterall, we’re all in this together.
“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” Galatians 5:7-9
Do you ever feel like you are going along on this Thin Within journey at a good pace, and then all of a sudden you get stuck or something gets in your way? I know this has happened to me plenty of times. Sometimes we have to stop and allow God to dig up what needs to be dug up so we can continue on once again, or He needs to remove the roadblock.
There have been a lot of things that have stalled me on this journey. Mostly, it’s been lies I have believed or habits that I’ve had for numerous years. For me, it’s been the lies that I shouldn’t be eating a certain food group, or that a well-known diet is the only thing that will help me so I better go back to dieting, being fixated on food research, etc.
Currently, we are turning our carport into a garage. My husband and a friend have been working hard this week getting the prep-work done for the foundation before the concrete is poured. They were working along at a good pace and they had one last corner to finish, when they realized there was some roots underneath the ground. After several hours of digging around, what they found ended up being a tree trunk and it’s roots! They had dug about 4 feet down, and then our neighbor came over with a chain saw and finished the job. We had no idea there was a tree trunk under the ground!
What if they would have started at that corner first? Would they have felt defeated? I know I may have felt that way. I would have been imagining roots everywhere!
We can go along at a steady pace in our Thin Within journey, and then BAM, we hit something hard. And then we have to focus on digging around and working on hacking at something until that thing is removed. We cannot just leave it there because it will make for a faulty foundation later on. We can no longer pretend it’s not there. We have to deal with it. And we may have to ask a friend for some help.
Just like my husband and his friend, I have had to hack away at things that were giving me a faulty foundation–or that could perhaps do foundational damage later on. It’s a lot of work to dig and dig, but our muscles get strengthened and we come away a bit stronger than before. And for days after my muscles will remind me that I worked them out, but later on I won’t even remember. And the best thing is that later on my foundation won’t sink because I took care of what needed to be taken care of.
When they first found the roots and realized it was a tree trunk, I remembered thinking, “So what! Just work around it!” But when my husband explained that it wouldn’t be good to have that tree trunk rot someday and then have the corner of our foundation cracking or sinking because of it. Oh! And that’s when the Lord began to pour into me what I am sharing with you today: we don’t want a sinking foundation!
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. Matthew 7:24-27
I am guessing that you, like me, don’t want your foundation crumbling. The best foundation to build on (and really the only foundation) should be the Rock of Christ Jesus! Christ is our Corner Stone! Everything should be built off of that corner. If there’s anything else in place of the Rock, then everything is going to come sliding off and crumbling down just like the man who built his house on the sand. Sand shifts. The Rock stands forever. The Rock is Truth! In relating to Thin Within, “sand” could be the lies we have believed, diet mentalities, placing our security in false securities, etc. That tree trunk represented those things to me. It’s all the lies that will rot in my mind over time. So I have had to dig around the root system (the lies) and had to have some friends (accountability) help me as well. As we dug, we exposed more rotten lies!
We can look at these “tree trunks” and give up, or we can put on our gloves and pick up our shovels and dig! We can take the time to renew our mind and allow the Lord to dissolve every lie (sand) and replace with truth (the Rock), or we can leave the trunk there to rot and cause future problems. And if it’s too much for you to handle on your own, ask a friend (accountability partner) for help. Sometimes we need twice the strength to help us overcome.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
How about you?
Are you stuck? Do you need some help digging out the lies? Do you have an accountability partner? If not, Heidi has some great information about it here. Are you willing to renew your mind so God can replace those lies with truth? Would you like some help in starting? I would love to hear from you!
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My daughter enjoys watching the movie The Jungle Book. Every once in awhile she will ask me to play the Bare Necessities song that Baloo sings after meeting Moglie. One day we were listening to the song, when suddenly it hit me, it’s really true! We only need the bare necessities of life!
What are the bare necessities? Food, shelter, clothing? Maybe there are additional things like companionship. Water? I’m sure we can all think of what those bare necessities are in our life.
So how does this pertain to our Thin Within journey?
I can tell you what it means for me. I learned this the hard way this past week.
The last year has been incredible. The Lord has helped me overcome so much. Through Christ, I have seen victory after victory. There have been bumps along the way, but all of a sudden, this past week, I stumbled and fell on my face. And I ate dirt. And as Heidi just talked about, I got back on the horse, and then fell off again and ate more dirt. And then I felt like the last time I fell off the horse that the horse dragged me through a manure pit. Ever been there? Yeah…so instead of just brushing the dirt off myself, this time I had to get a hose and spray off the grime.
But I’m back on the horse again. 🙂
So what happened? I started to get panicky and tried to create ways to be more in control. Instead of just eating 0-5 and staying within my boundaries (my bare necessities of my Thin Within journey), I decided to keep a food journal of what I was eating and give myself a check-mark if I ate 0-5 (which, is totally ok if you are led to do this–I was not). AND then I thought that I should limit certain kinds of foods. I really thought this was the Lord’s idea, but looking back, it was NOT. And maybe He allowed it to prove to me that my ideas are not the greatest ideas. Ha! Instead of being helpful, it brought me back to my dieting and restrictive days. The first couple of days were fine, but then I slowly started to see myself deteriorate into this rut of restriction. This is not a good place for me. I started to obsess. And that’s when I really began to eat some dirt. I wasn’t staying within the basics.
The Lord has shown me that I need to keep things simple. It’s those bare necessities of my Thin Within journey that are what He wants for me. If I go outside of that I find myself trying to control and be obsessed. And then the mental weight becomes heavy and suddenly I’m burdened down like I was back in my dieting days. There’s only a few things that the Lord would like me to focus on in this journey. Those are my bare necessities.
Christ has come to give us life, and life in abundance. The enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy–his focus is death. (John 10:10) Christ wants us to live simply. The enemy wants to complicate things, burden us down, and confuse us. Christ wants us to walk by faith. The enemy wants us to walk by sight.
Walking by faith is not always easy. When I follow the Holy Spirit’s leading with my eating, I’m trusting in Him and putting my faith in Him. I think what happened is that I was starting to doubt, so I wanted to help things a bit by gathering some control. Well, I gathered “control” all right and licked up some dirt! If anything, I was out of control.
Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
I will choose to trust Him. I am choosing to acknowledge Him before each meal and I’m inviting the Holy Spirit to guide me in my eating. And He certainly meets with me when I do so.
So today I’m letting go of those extra, non-essential things. They aren’t necessary. They complicate things. They make me greedy and discontent. I’m going back to the simplicity I found in the beginning–through Christ–not my own strength or works. Christ’s burden is light , but I started carrying a heavy burden that I brought upon myself. And apparently the horse I’m riding didn’t care for that extra weight. And the last time I got bucked off, I left that extra weight on the ground. Praise God!
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
I really want to encourage you in your own Thin Within journey. Maybe this has been part of the struggle for you. Maybe you’ve been focused on too many things. Is God calling you to simplicity–to get back to the basics of eating between hunger and satisfaction? Your bare necessities could be a combination or just a couple of these things:
Spending time in the Word
Truth Journaling
Creating and reading truth cards
Adding to your God List
Praise and worship
Journaling
Bible study
Renewing your mind
Inviting the Holy Spirit into each eating experience
Being accountable to your accountability partner
Maybe there’s something that is essential for you that I haven’t listed, but you KNOW that it’s something the Lord has asked you to do. Those are all great things, but sometimes God only calls us to focus on a couple of things.
Something the Lord has been showing me is that He will provide my needs. Christ says in Matthew 6:25, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” He doesn’t want us focused on food or what we are going to eat. He’s going to take care of those basic needs, but our part is trusting Him and following His leading.
He’s also been showing me that if I am doing more than He is calling me to do, that I will start to lean on my own abilities and strengths–and I will become greedy. Ouch! If you are taking “too much thought” about what you will eat, how you will lose the weight, etc., then maybe it’s time to step back and re-assess your focus. It could be time to simplify. And really, this journey is about growing closer to the Lord and keeping food in it’s proper place, so it could be simply that He just wants you to read the pure Word of God.
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
How about you?
Are you carrying burdens that you were never meant to carry? Are you living by faith and not by sight in your Thin Within journey? Are you trying to control things instead of just trusting in the Lord? What are your bare necessities for this journey? For me, it’s been reading my truth cards, reading the Word, truth journaling, renewing my mind, and going through a Bible study. It may look different for you. The Lord will show you. And if you are carrying too heavy of a load, you will know.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14
This Week’s Video:
Video Questions:
1. How is Thin Within different from the dieting approaches you have tried.
2. I describe in the video two times I have lost 100 pounds. What are the differences between the two? (One of the differences is that after losing with Weight Watchers, I gained my weight back! Not this time, with Thin Within, though!)
3. What will happen if you look at Thin Within as a diet? What might be the benefits of looking at Thin Within differently than just as a means to losing weight?
4. How has this journey been like riding a horse down the trail? Where are you in the journey? Are you on the ground? Is it time to get back in the saddle? Do you feel tempted to “send the horse packing” and to forget about ever trying this again? How can you strengthen your resolve to stay on the path?
5. What is the difference between celebrating your failures and celebrating what you can learn in your failures? List three things you can learn from your most recent “failures.”
6. In what ways have you seen God’s grace in this journey?
Renewing the Mind
Truth Journal at least once this week. Truth Journaling is a technique I learned from Barb Raveling. It isn’t typical journaling. Watch this video that explains how it works.
Pick One (book or workbook):
Trade Book
We have completed the assignments for the Thin Within trade book. It was a ten-week study for those using the book. However, now would be a great time to go back through the study guide pages and the book itself and complete any exercises or questions you haven’t yet completed. Use this week and next as a chance to catch up. 🙂
Workbook Assignment
1. Read, highlight, mark 🙂 Lesson 12, Celebration of God’s Grace, on pages D48 – D52 or listen to the “audio book” version of it 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 12 on pages D54-D60. Respond to the Review questions on page D61 and share your thoughts at our Facebook discussion group!
3. Use the entries for Day 78 through Day 84 in the Temple Tool Kit. Could any of the tools help you in having greater accountability for your eating? Is it time to set aside the fear of using the tools that might have been wise weeks ago? What is God leading you to do this week?
5. Memorize Philippians 3:13-14. Personalize it and add it to your truth cards.
6. Join us on March 31st for our live webinar at 4:30 Pacific Time. We will be wrapping up lesson 12 on Celebration of God’s Grace and our entire time of study together.
