Welcome to our final week of studying through Barb Raveling’s Weight Loss Bible Study. We have plans to revisit this material in the future–for sure!
This week, we will look at the pressure we feel in social settings. (If you subscribe via email, you may need to come to the blog site to view the video)
This week, please complete Barb’s Day 15 of her study, “Social Eating.” You can find those questions at this link here.
Additionally, I will be adding another study/question set for you to do on “Preventative Eating.” So you will still have two days worth of material to get through. I love that we have been taking our time with this material, wading through it slowly. Before we begin our next study, there is time to complete any of that material you may not have had time for or to review the material that God brought home to your heart. We will do that next week, in fact.
Please keep renewing your mind about your renewing of the mind goal or the adjusted renewing of the mind goal that you have established. How has that gone for you? I found that I “forgot” to include that in my routine and so what a surprise! I ended up with my resolve diminishing and then it was easier for me to justify eating outside of my boundaries!
Today, I am recommitting to renewing my mind! Will you join me?
Do you have any potential social situations this week that you may need to make a plan for? What plan might work for you to emerge victorious?
In a little over two weeks, we will begin our new study using a book called HEAL – Healthy Eating & Abundant Living by Allie Marie Smith and Judy Wardell Halliday. Whether you are new to Thin Within or a veteran, this material will meet you where you are. Allie and Judy have provided a fresh approach for a younger generation and even though many of us are not in that “younger generation” necessarily (I know that I’m not!), I have found that most of us face similar challenges. In fact, often the challenges we faced when we were in college are the same or similar to the ones we face now!
My initial announcement about this study may be found at this link. Feel free to have a look. To purchase the book so you are ready to go, you can visit Amazon and that link is here.
For the study, we will continue to make use of the principles we have been using during Barb Raveling’s Weight Loss Bible Study. I will encourage you to renew your mind and to truth journal.
Here is how it will work…(I think! LOL!)
Each Monday, I will post a video that gives a preview of the week’s material. In this video, I will mention the assignment–highlighted also in the day’s post. There are six chapters in the book, so one chapter a week will be what we go through. When you get your book, get familiar with it.
Then, through the week, I will post content here at the blog that you can use whether your in the study or not. Even if you aren’t in the study, the material here will be intended to support and encourage you. If you are going through the study, it is my intention that the material I post at the blog will supplement and complement the study of the HEAL book. This has been my intention with the Weight Loss Bible Study, too. That way, whether you are plunging in with the study or not, you will find content here that supports you!
The section in the chapters marked “For Group Study” will be woven throughout the blog during the week–but, again, even if you aren’t doing the study, you can participate in that and be encouraged by it!
On Fridays or Saturdays, I hope to wrap up the week’s study with a summary.
Our study will conclude about the second week in June (if I have it calculated correctly). I hope you will join us!
What questions do you have about the study? Feel free to ask here–chances are if you have a question someone else does too!
Day 3 of our Ditch Your Scale Challenge: What promises of God are you “standing on” instead of standing on the bathroom scale? 🙂
“Yummy Food” or “Good Food” eating is what we do when the food happens to be available and we just happen to decide to eat it. Can you relate? It is typically, a grab-and-go sort of experience…not at all a thoughtful one!
For instance, you are making dinner and simply must taste the goods as you do so. A taste here, a taste there and you discover when all is ready that you are not hungry for dinner when it is time to sit down with the family! BOO!
One solution to this sort of “Yummy Food Eating” is to chew gum while you are cooking/preparing food. It is typically a bit off-putting to taste something else while the gum is in your mouth! At the very least, it can help you to realize that you are being more intentional about the tasting than you thought. When I discover that my “accidental” bites aren’t quite so “accidental,” I know it is time to pray for a willing heart and renew my mind about my boundaries!
Another example of a “Yummy Food Eating” temptation is Costco and Sam’s club (or other membership club). Food samples that are out everywhere no matter which time of the day you choose to shop there. This may sound silly, but if you know you love the samples, you can actually plan to be hungry during your shopping trip at Sam’s or Costco. That way, you can enjoy the samples (though you might be “breaking” your secondary boundaries, so I recommend being intentional about focusing on the food since you will likely NOT be sitting down!) and it won’t break your boundaries. It can actually be your meal! If you end up not hungry and find yourself at one of those stores, then I recommend chewing gum as you shop, too. Again, it isn’t likely you will “accidentally” eat the samples if you are chewing gum.
A third place we may give in to “Yummy Food Eating” is at bible studies or fellowship groups. Again, you can plan your hunger (remember, this takes practice, so extend grace to yourself as you work on this!) or establish a secondary boundary, such as staying out of the kitchen. Again, if those options don’t work for you, chewing sugarless gum can.
It may sound like I chew a lot of gum! To be honest, I hate chewing gum, and you may as well. It is worth it while we are training ourselves to be more aware, though. It IS temporary! You won’t feel like you always have to do this. But for now, as you are realizing the moments of your life when you unconsciously may have had tastes of food that resulted in a “mess up,” it may do the trick.
Some of you work in an office where snacks and temptations abound literally all day long. You can “strike early” by taking samples of the foods in the office staff room and putting them in your own container in the fridge. Then you can have them when you are hungry! You can enjoy the items that other people brought without breaking your boundaries.
Plan ahead. Think through the day. Are there any potential opportunities for “Yummy Food Eating” to come calling? What will you do to prepare for it?
———-
CONTEST WINNER: I will make that announcement later tonight. I hope you will check back!
Day 2 of the “Ditch Your Scale” Challenge: How is it going? Did you stay off the scale today? Did you need to renew your mind about it at all? Are you off to a good start today? What thoughts have you had about this as you have given this to the Lord? 🙂
How about a “Bathroom Scale Challenge?” Will you take the challenge? 🙂 More importantly, do you sense that God may be inviting you to do so?
For two weeks, will you have a friend or family member take your scale and hide it (when I did this, my husband took it to his office)?
But first…evaluate how you feel about the thought of being without the scale for two weeks. Ask God to show you if these feelings need dealing with! If you want to scream “NOOOOoooo!!!” and grab your scale to your chest, for instance, perhaps there is something that needs dealing with! LOL! I know how you feel! I have been there!
I hope that my friend, Kim, will weigh in (pun intended) on this subject and share with you all what was going on with me in 2008 that made her feel she needed to FLAT OUT TAKE IT FROM ME! She did, too! I begrudgingly gave it to her but was SO glad that I did! It wasn’t until about a year ago that my husband brought a scale back into the house. Even so, I have to be ever vigilant not to look to the scale for approval. With our weight loss bible study under way and my renewing my mind daily (or almost) about 0 to 5 eating being a good, godly, delightful boundary that can thrill my heart :-), I have released some weight and would like a bit more gone. I have to be really cautious that I don’t revert back to the way of thinking that got me into as much trouble as overeating.
So, what say you? Can you release your hold on the bathroom scale and focus, instead, on the hunger scale (which is what Thin Within refers to the hunger numbers as)? Stand on the promises of God in scripture instead of that hunk of plastic, springs, whateverelsewithanarbitrarynumber? 🙂
Will you take the challenge? What do you need to renew your mind about as you do?
Let us hold you accountable here if you don’t have an accountability partner yet!
What power will we give the bathroom scale? This is something we each get to decide in the stillness of our hearts with the Lord. I urge you to consider, if you haven’t already done so, renewing your mind about the power you give the scale and what it “says.”
We also touched on this a bit in Week 3 when we looked at “Appearance Eating.”
Here at the blog since 2006, I have experienced quite the journey about whether or not I would have a bathroom scale in my home. I went about 4 years without a scale and it was wonderful! Before that, I was chained to it, looking to it for its approval. You can do a search here at the blog or use this link to have a look at my journey with the bathroom scale, if you like. Whatever your feelings about the bathroom scale, I am sure I have been there, too!
I am at a point now where I am able to have a bathroom scale (my husband wanted one) in the house and it doesn’t own me like it did before, but I am convinced that I needed it out of my life in order for me to have this freedom now.
How do you feel about the bathroom scale? Is it a tool for your use? Or is it a Master that you struggle with giving too much power over you? What can you do to have a “healthy” relationship with the bathroom scale? How can we help and support you?
