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What does success at Thin Within look like to you?
Like many, when I first stumbled upon Thin Within, I was looking for a way to lose weight. Sure, I wanted to do it in a way that honored God, but really… I just wanted to drop some excess weight and fit into a smaller pants size. And God was faithful, He drew me closer to Himself and He also allowed me to release 40 pounds.
If you read my post on Failure, you’ll know that in the years since first coming to Thin Within, I have regained 30 of those pounds back. And during that time, God has really been challenging me on how I define Success and Failure with Thin Within. In the last 4 months through my coaching with Heidi, I have been able to take a hard look at how I’ve set my standards for what success really is.
In these past fruitful months, God has revealed to me over and over that success with Thin Within is about so much more than just releasing excess weight. It started slowly, but I could hear Him whisper to me each week that went by, “What if my definition of success is more than just losing weight? What if that is just a small piece of the pie?”
He began to show me that success really meant having daily quiet times with Him. Success was about surrendering my selfish ambition, my pride over appearance and my self-centered efforts to release weight. Victory took the form of me depending on him in humble submission on a daily (and often minute by minute) basis. Success was committing to praying against the enemy’s attempts to throw me off track with Thin Within. Victory was inward change in my heart that was reflected in my outward actions.
And as the weeks have turned into months He has shown me more and more about what true victory in Thin Within really looks like. There are so many wonderful ways we can experience success with Thin Within. And I just can’t keep all of these things to myself! Consider the many ways we can experience victory in Thin Within through Christ.
- Success is saying no to a second helping when you’ve reached a 5
- Success is getting back on the horse if you’ve fallen off
- Success is dying to yourself
- Success is seeing your faith deepen and your walk with God strengthen
- Success is listening to your body and obeying its hunger signals
- Success is asking God to help you get through that all-you-can-eat buffet
- Success is defeating Satan’s attempts to steer you in the wrong direction
- Success is seeking the Lord’s face each and every day in prayer and through His word
- Success is rejecting preventative eating
- Success is not allowing a “slip up” or failure to hold you down
- Success is seeing that your body actually thrives within 0-5 boundaries
- Success is being set free from food’s power over you
- Success is overcoming a stronghold for the very first time (hallelujah!)
- Success is delighting in obedience to God
- Success is weeding out all those little foxes
- Success is not letting yourself fall into shame if you ate from 6-9
- Success is seeing changes in your heart, not just your appearance
- Success is running to Him in prayer when you feel tempted to start eating and you’re at a 3
- Success is spending just one day where every meal was eaten between 0-5
- Success is setting aside attempts to lose weight through your own power
- Success is honoring our bodies with foods that make us feel energized and satisfied
- Success is giving all the glory to God when you release even a tenth of a pound
- Success is allowing His power to work through your weakness
- Success is walking in humble dependence on God in this journey
- Success is overcoming a challenging situation for the first time (0-5 on Thanksgiving Day anyone?!)
- Success is breaking a bad habit
- Success is seeing the fruit of Observation and Correction
- Success is realizing you are being set free from bondage, one chain link at a time
- Success is when Thin Within becomes more about growing closer to our Savior than dropping a pants size
I believe that God absolutely positively allows success to also include the release of excess weight. I’m living proof of that. (Editors Note: Becky has released ten pounds in the past four months!) But that is just one small piece of the victory pie! There are so many other pieces of the pie that He cares more about…like how our hearts are being transformed and how our minds are being renewed and how we are being drawn closer to our Creator.
How about you?
Have you experienced success with Thin Within other than releasing weight? Has God shown you any other pieces of the victory pie in addition to weight loss? Have you experienced freedom from strongholds or broken a bad habit? Did you see anything on the list of successes that you didn’t even realize were successes? Let’s celebrate those together!
Written by Becky Young
Thank you for this post, Becky! I am going to copy your list in my journal right now.
Good stuff! One thing God showed me over Thanksgiving was eating within His boundaries is the better way………..did not gain one ounce……..got off the path and was gearing up to do “The 17 Day Diet” and bondage and disaster hit, ate tasteless egg whites with an orange on Monday, but by lunch I was back into submitting to His will. When I got back into the diet trap, the weight started coming back. Now down 3 I had gained and 3 more lost! Yes, I am a slow learner. Hopefully I am “ALL IN” this time
Wow, Debbie. Great realization. And YAY for you for managing during Thanksgiving! WOOT! 🙂
I really appreciate this post. Since I am a “list” person, I love the list. I especially like the last item — Thin Within is more about getting closer to the Savior rather than losing another pants size. I have lost the weight I need to lose, but I just feel like my heart and mind are not in the right place and my intimacy with the Savior is not where it needs to be. This sets me up for falling into sin at all levels — including weight-gain. Success for me will be to live a day more connected to God in every moment and not “leaning on my own understanding.”
One question — What is “preventative eating?” KK
Karen- I view preventative eating as those moments when you’re not at a 0 and you say to yourself “I better eat now because….” For me, this happens when I know I’m going to be busy doing something in the immediate future. I’ll say to myself “I better eat now because I won’t have a chance to eat again for 4 more hours.”
Becky, you said this so much better than I did! LOL!
“Preventative Eating” is when we think we are going to be hungry before we get to eat…like if I know I will be in a class or on an airplane and not have access to food when my “0” hits, I eat even if I am not at a 0 now so I push my 0 out…that is preventative eating. Hope this makes sense! 🙂
In other words — it’s a way to make up excuses for yourself to be able to eat early — before your hungry — rationalizing your decision and feeling o.k. about it. I see this as a sly trick of Satan that could lead to gradually slipping into a real mess — so subtle — so true to Satan’s form and schemes. He’s such a devil! — and we are so naïve to fall for his traps!! I’ll make sure to watch for this one. I’m determined NOT to let him fool me! Thanks — 🙂
I really like the list as well! Thank you for sharing this!
I like your list! I will copy paste to my list. Thank you for sharing with us Becky. 🙂 God bless you.
Thanks for the encouraging post!
I really liked this post!
I’ve been really feeling like there’s something I haven’t surrendered to The Lord and I’ve been asking Him to reveal it to me. What stood out to me like a neon light was how you mentioned the selfish aspect of losing the weight and that being the focus. I can see in my own walk that I say I want to be close to God (which I truly do) and I’m doing this for Him, but my thoughts are actually focused on my weight and body and how I’d look and feel at the weight I’d like to be at. I believe God will help me get to that weight, but I also want to arrive there with my heart in the right place.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Joy
Joy-I struggle SO much with trying to make Thin Within just about losing weight….God showed me about 4 months ago that this issue stems out of pride, so I’ve been doing a lot of praying about humility and shedding my pride and selfish desires about losing weight. God has been doing some major renovation in my heart lately to help get the focus off of me and losing weight and onto deepening my relationship with Him! For me, that was also the “trick” to releasing some of this excess weight. It’s a win-win!
Becky has done a GREAT job sharing a broad view of “success” and some of her thoughts shared sure do put “weight loss” in it’s proper place! 🙂 So glad this has been helpful to you and others!