It was a bit of a slow fade for me over the holidays. So, today, I am declaring war on apathy! Will you join me? Right now, there are no foods in the house that I am likely to give in to eating outside of 0 and 5. This is a temporary “THIS MEANS WAR” stance….I mean for a week or so. Also, I am journaling my way through two sets of questions in Barb’s I Deserve a Donut and Other Lies That Make You Eat book…one set in the morning and one set at 5pm (or so) each evening. I am renewing my commitment to check in DAILY with my accountability partner. THIS WEEK I MEAN BUSINESS. Not only am I getting back in the saddle, but I am GOING SOMEWHERE!
How about you?
What is your plan to take back the Land the Lord wants as YOURS? Why rest in apathy until January 6th when you can get a running start? (Ugh…mixing my metaphors! LOL!)
Christina posted yesterday about the spiritual warfare she is experiencing lately.
I am in the trenches, too. Even though I may be a “veteran” and have been at this a loooooong time, I nevertheless go through seasons of difficulty. To be honest, this is the most challenging I have ever experienced.
As a result, I have been struggling with an ungodly behavior pattern in the evenings. It is a pattern of not caring nearly so much about obedience as I do to use food to deal with life…to cope!
My accountability partner challenged me to truth journal even several times each week, knowing that God has used it in such an amazing way with me in the past. I am so grateful for this challenge and have since decided that I need to do it every day.
To coddle myself into being willing to do this, though, I told myself when the urge to eat outside of my boundaries hit in the evening, “I can eat after I truth journal…” This is a strategy I learned from Barb Raveling in her Taste for Truth Bible Study material (have I ever confessed to you all that I wish I had written that study? LOL!). After I have truth journaled or used another method to renew my mind, I often don’t want to eat outside of my godly boundaries after all–which is, of course, the point. As warped as this sounds, this causes me to be more willing to truth journal. It is almost like in my old-way-of-thinking-now-resurfacing, I tell myself I get a food reward for truth journaling! Crazy, right? Especially given all the things I share here at the blog. By telling myself I can ignore :-/ my boundaries if I want to after I have done some of the nitty gritty renewing of the mind work, I end up being more willing to live within the boundaries God has established for me. After I truth journal, my heart has a different focus and I feel as though I have feasted. My hungry heart has been fed a rich, nutritious “meal” of what it really longed for.
In this pretty intimate video (that I have designated as “unlisted” at YouTube), I share with you as the struggle unfolds. I give you a glimpse into the battle that is raging for me (even by the light of the Christmas tree) and what I am doing about it in real time. I also tell what happened after I renewed my mind.
I hope it is encouraging to you. There is really no way around the hard work of training our minds to think differently. THIS will cause lasting change.
If you get blog notifications in email, you will have to visit the blog for the video to display correctly.
How About You?
What work are you willing to go to in order to REALLY beat the tendency to eat outside of 0 and 5?
I have struggled with my weight for as long as I can recall. I remember thinking I was bigger than all the kids in my elementary classes and equating that to being fat, although I was just taller than everyone else. My unhealthy self-image escalated and I began dieting the summer before 9th grade. I lost 10 pounds that summer and the exhilaration of dieting became a crutch that would follow me into adulthood.
By the time I found intuitive eating I had been on countless diets that always produced short-term results and lots of excessive baggage afterwards.
I had ballooned back up to 220 pounds and had finally decided to cry out to God for help with this stronghold.
Before
I found another Christian weight loss program that is based on intuitive eating in May of 2010, but the condemnation that they promoted caused me to seek another option. I had lost a bit of weight, but knew in my heart that their program wasn’t what the Holy Spirit wanted to show me. I found Thin Within just one month later.
I continued to embrace waiting for true hunger, but this time I allowed grace to cover me instead of guilt. I lost 18 more pounds—a total of 34 pounds—before I found myself pregnant with our 3rd child. This was a new challenge that I honestly wasn’t willing to face so I threw out the principles of intuitive eating and gained all my weight back, plus a few pounds during that pregnancy.
I reached my highest weight ever during that time and after having my beautiful daughter I delayed doing what I knew God wanted me to do to achieve my God-given size. When I finally got over myself and started eating intuitively again, God was able to really start the lasting changes on my heart.
Rachel with two of her precious little ones!
I was 228 pounds and a size 18 when I recommitted to eating God’s way.
I began to get active in the Thin Within ministry and lead a few groups. This is when the shift in my thinking really started to take place. This wasn’t just another diet for me. I wasn’t always perfect, though (not that God expects us to be) and I still had a lot to learn about how to become a naturally thin eater.
I did manage to lose 42 pounds and get into size 10 jeans, but that is when I discovered I was pregnant again with our 4th child. Knowing that I didn’t adhere to any Thin Within principles during my last pregnancy I was afraid of just how much time would be wasted. That is when I took my fear and apprehension to the Lord. He assured me that even during this season He could work on my heart and that’s just what He did. I gained weight, but He really chiseled the stoney places of my heart that have held me back for so many years.
I had my son on August 21st weighing in at 226 pounds and only 7 weeks later I am already down to 198 pounds. I have never lost 28 pounds this quickly after any of my pregnancies and I know that this coming year will be my best yet.
Rachel Now — In Process! Looking Good, Rachel!
God has healed so many of my heart issues and I am beginning to reap the benefits of having a healthy relationship with food. I’m still a work in progress, but I know that God will indeed complete what He’s doing in my life. I’m only about 12 pounds from my lowest weight with Thin Within, but I know I’ll be breezing past that with God’s help. He’s going to do the work in me that produces long-lasting permanent results. I will be at my God-given weight and size sooner than I could have ever imagined. I’ve definitely learned more than I can express, but the biggest thing has been that no season in our life is wasted when we honestly turn it over to our Lord! We can do this because He is the victor and He’s alive in us!
Rachel L. Taylor
Way to Go, Rachel!
It is so exciting to see Rachel making such wonderful headway. Watch this space for a follow up to share with you Rachel’s continued experience using Thin Within. If you are interested in the Facebook accountability group that Rachel administrates, please visit this page and request to be added. Let Rachel’s enthusiasm and success ignite hope for you! 🙂
Let your eyes look directly forward,and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponderthe path of your feet;then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. Proverbs 4:26
Night time eating is the most recent stronghold that I am seeking to overcome, with God’s help. The Lord has delivered me from the diet mentality, afternoon snacking, over-exercising and several other habits and obsessions. However, I was still holding onto eating after leaving the dinner table. Not eating several hours later when I was hungry, but almost immediately after leaving the dinner table with a satisfied belly.
The habit was created during my years on weight watchers – I would save “points” for the end of the day. While my husband put our son to bed, I could finally rest and relax – I had earned a treat and I was going to enjoy it! Fast forward many years and it was a daily habit, largely associated with emotion, that I was just not willing to surrender. I realized recently that I had to give it up, to surrender it. So, I thought I’d share some of my strategies that have helped me continue moving forward in this journey. (These strategies are in addition to the reading of Truth cards, reading scripture, prayer, praise music, etc).
Please understand that I had to draw a line in the sand to not eat after leaving the dinner table. Some of you may need a meal closer to bedtime, but I sleep better and feel better if my stomach is empty or close to empty at bedtime. So, I choose to close the kitchen after dinner!
1) I start every day with a commitment, a promise, to God that I will not eat after dinner. When I am tempted, I remember my promise and then my mind and heart turns toward my Lord. I know, too, that He provides a way out for me in temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
2) I report to my accountability partner nightly on my success or failure on this point.
3) I track on my phone with a checkmark if I have stayed in this particular boundary. It gives me an easy way to see if I am stumbling or succeeding.
4) I review “my reasons to stay in my boundaries even when it is tough” daily. The reason that speaks to me the strongest currently is that I don’t want to be in this same place in 6 months. I want to be experiencing more and more freedom. I know that surrendering the nighttime eating is crucial to this growth. So, when I am tempted, I often ask myself “where do I want to be in 6 months?”.
5) I have started planning for a little sweet at the end of dinner. I will join my family in a small bowl of ice cream. And sometimes I don’t eat the ice cream. I am free to do either one!
6) I change the direction of my feet. TV watching is strongly related to the urge to eat after dinner. I am now watching a lot less TV at night. Now, especially when I am strongly tempted, I will take a bath. Or I might read a book or work on my Bible studies or call a friend. Or I just wait for my husband to come back downstairs. I just do not go near the TV and I try to stay out of the kitchen.
7) I memorize scripture so that in a tough moment, I can immediately go to the Truth. It helps me to pray my way through the tough moments.
8) When I do slip up, I observe and correct. I make a plan for next so that I will have a better outcome. I also may truth journal about my thoughts that I had before I broke my boundary.
I underlined the two strategies that have made the biggest difference for me. As of today, I surrendered this habit to the Lord 40 days ago. Quite biblical, isn’t it 🙂? I have had 4 nights where I slipped up and 36 nights when I was surrendered. I consider that a huge success when I look back and know that I was eating after dinner almost every night.
What About You?
What behavior of yours may be holding you back from total freedom? Pray about what steps you might take to help you overcome. Please share that that others may learn from you!
Are you sick and tired of the embarrassment and shame that you feel for your size or your eating behavior?
Are you willing to get a little crazy to do something about this? Proactive?
Are you desperate?
How about taking the “Set the Timer Challenge?”
It’s a three day challenge, but you can take it as long as you want…half a day, one day…a week! Whatever!
Here is how it works.
Select 5 truths that, if you really believed them, would turn your life around. Truths that have to do with eating, with people, with God, with yourself—anything is fair game. For the purposes of the focus of this blog, I recommend that it has to do with eating in some way, but pray and see how God would lead you.
Here are some to choose from:
1. No food tastes as good as obedience feels.
2. Starting NOW with following my boundaries will bring a quicker victory!
3. God walks with me through my challenges!
4. I am more than a conqueror through Christ!
5. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, including eat only a fist-sized portion.
6. I feel best when I eat when I am hungry and stop after a small amount of food—when I am physically satisfied.
7. I refuse to bow to food any longer. Christ is my King!
8. I don’t need to diet to release extra weight—I can eat the amount of food that my body calls for and land on my natural, healthy size and maintain it!
9. Evening eating (outside of 0 and 5) is NOT worth the price I pay.
10. The sooner I live by my boundaries, the sooner I will experience the freedom Christ died to give me!
Set your timer on your watch or your computer or you cell phone (or whatever). You can set it for any increment you want to. I have mine set for 30 minutes, but that is a bit much for most people.
When the timer goes off, commit yourself to the Lord afresh, “Lord, I offer my eating, my choices, my heart and mind to you again.” Then, choose one of your truths to say out loud (or, if you aren’t in a place you can do that, to just go over again in your mind.)
If you do this for three days, I am CONVINCED you will experience some radical transformations beginning to take place from the inside out. This is where LASTING CHANGE has to occur! INSIDE! Romans 12:2 tells us not to conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Let’s do it!
How about You?
What is your plan? Will you take the “Set the Timer Challenge?” What will that look like for you? Do you have an accountability partner? If so, ask her to hold you accountable. If not, feel free to report here! We can DO THIS!
