Keys to Conscious Eating

Keys to Conscious Eating

 


 

I hope that you woke up this morning with this thought on your heart…

 

I am fearfully and wonderfully made!

 

We can believe it!

You know what? Here’s the thing… If our God is awesome (and I bet not one of you reading this would say you don’t agree with that), if He is so creative and powerful and clever (and I bet you all agree with that), then He has made our bodies reliably, too!

Like a Thin Within class participant said

He has created our marvelous, fearfully and wonderfully-made bodies to give us signals about when we need sleep, rest, when we are in pain, when we need to expel something from our bodies, and when we need to drink or eat, as well as when we need to STOP eating or drinking.

 

The trick is that often, over the years, either through carelessness or dieting, we have “shut down” those hunger and satisfied signals.

We want to get in touch with those signals again because they are a reliable means for eating the right amount of food: Eating to live, rather than living to eat.

When I get back in touch with those signals (this may take work, so please be patient and extend grace to yourself!), I find that I will release extra weight to my natural God-given size and then maintain it. No hocus pocus. No counting. No weighing and measuring. Just a naturally, calm, worry-free, way of living for the rest of my days.

Sound good?

knew it would. I know it does to those of you who already subscribe to this approach.

In Thin Within and Hunger Within, we use the Keys to Conscious Eating to help us get back in touch with the signals of hunger and satisfaction.

These are not “rules” but rather are intended to provide boundaries:

 

Keys to Conscious Eating:

1. Eat when your body is hungry.
2. Eat in a calm environment by reducing distractions or calming your mind.
3. Eat when you are sitting.
4. Eat when your body and mind are relaxed.
5. Eat and drink the things your body enjoys.
6. Pay attention to your food while eating.
7. Eat slowly, savoring each bite.
8. Stop eating before your body is full.

Grace Response: Observation and Correction

 

Each time we eat – as in each and every time we eat – we try to use each of these keys as boundaries.

• Numbers 1 and 8 are the primary boundaries of eating between physical hunger (called a “0”) and physical satisfaction (called a “5”).

• If we use numbers 2 through 7 as secondary boundaries for ourselves, it helps us to succeed at #1 and #8.

• The goal is to be intentional each time food crosses our lips.

If we set a place for Jesus at our tables and imagine His presence there, if we foster a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving for the abundance that He supplies and that He has made our bodies fearfully and wonderfully, we can do this.

We can get back in touch with our body’s signals and discover a stress-free way to release the burdens of our hearts and the burdens of our life. They are so often connected!

Let’s eat when we are hungry.

Let’s stop when we are no longer hungry.

And let’s run to God for all the other things that ordinarily draw and lure us to food.

Ya with me? 😃

 

 


 

How are you doing with eating between 0 and 5 being your primary boundary? Which of the secondary boundaries do you think could help you more effectively abide by your primary boundaries? Which is hardest for you? Select one of these today to ask for God’s special help with. How can you plan for success?

A Lost Cigar Lighter and Finding 5

A Lost Cigar Lighter and Finding 5

Image courtesy of Gualberto107 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of Gualberto107 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In Thin Within we get to enjoy whatever food we want when we are hungry–“0.” We stop eating when we reach a “5”–when the body has had “just enough” food…it isn’t full, but is satisfied. Usually, it will take about the same volume of food as the size of a loosely held fist (depending on the type of food eaten).

Sometimes, participants lament “I can’t find 5!” This typically refers to having eaten more than they needed and realizing it only too late. With Thin Within, this need not spell disaster. Simply wait for hunger before eating the next time. No more waiting for another Monday. 🙂

There is one primary reason why “Finding 5” may be difficult.

A distant relative lands on your doorstep, beaming with delight that he has decided to stay with you for a few nights. Oh, joy! We always liked Uncle Joe. Until…shucks…he has, unfortunately, taken up the habit of smoking a cigar–one in the morning and one in the evening–each day. Content to do so out on your wonderful deck beneath the trees, the distinct odor of cigars is, nevertheless, carried upon his person when he re-enters the house. The scent hangs in each room–the living room, bathroom, guest bedroom. And now, Uncle Joe has lost his special butane torch lighter (the kind that any good self-respecting stogie soldier uses) and solicits the help of the family to find it. Hmm….how eager are we to join the search when doing so means something we aren’t particularly eager to experience–in this case, more pungent aroma wafting through the house?

The desire to find what is lost will determine the zeal of the search! How easy is it to find something that you aren’t really that interested in finding? If finding something means an end to what you find pleasant, why would you *want* to find it?

Cathy Maher, who is teaching one of our Thin Within Workbook Classes, pointed this out in her video recently. It is a REALLY good point!

We are SO eager to “find 0″…that point where we get to eat. YIPPEE!!!! We have little difficulty finding “0”–in fact, many of us “find” it before it really appears, if we are honest…calling every gurgle of digestion a hunger pang!

But if we don’t really want to “find” 5–that place of physical satisfaction where we have eaten enough food and it is time to stop eating–then we will have difficulty! It is because we don’t really want to find it…we aren’t looking that hard, just as with Uncle Joe’s lighter.

It will serve us well if we evaluate if what we REALLY want is to “find” 5 or if we would much prefer to continue eating instead.  Are we really looking?

If this rings true for you, I want to encourage you to renew your mind with some of these truths:

  • My body is remarkably efficient. It doesn’t take much food to satisfy and as I stop at “just enough,” my body will become leaner and healthier.
  • God’s 0 to 5 boundaries provide a pleasant place for me to enjoy freedom in my eating.
  • It is best to live by design rather than by desire.
  • The portion allotted for me will be completely satisfying, physically. I may need to lean extra hard on the Lord to experience soul-satisfaction, though.
  • I can call on the Lord to give me the “want to” to find 5.
  • The Lord will grant me a willing spirit to sustain me (Psalm 51:12b)

How About You?

Do you look for 5 like you might look for Uncle Joe’s lost cigar lighter? Will you begin to pray today and renew your mind about the joy of eating within the godly boundaries of 0 and 5?

Surrender Your 5

Surrender Your 5

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

“Surrender your 5.”

I heard it loud and clear one afternoon.

I had just launched into an hour long temper tantrum as I wrestled with God over the fact that I had gained two pounds that week. I simply couldn’t believe it! So I stood my ground with Him, listing all the things I had worked so hard at that week. I was diligent in waiting for my 0 each day. I made food choices that were in line with my Whole Body Pleasers. I took great care to plan my hunger around the Christmas parties I had attended that week, ensuring that I arrived at a 0. I renewed my mind to avoid temptation lurking in my kitchen (homemade sugar cookies, yummm!) when I wasn’t at a 0. I had done all these things, so how could I possibly have gained two pounds that week?!

“Surrender your 5, Becky.”

I heard it again. And it was in that moment that things became very clear to me.

In my Thin Within journey, I have gotten to a point where waiting for my 0 has become like second nature. I can wait for it and recognize it pretty easily before I begin eating (Praise God! What an awesome victory!). My 0 is glaringly obvious. I can’t ignore it, I can’t pretend it’s not there, I can’t quiet it. A 0 is a 0 for me, no doubt about it!

But the 5…..ohhhh that 5 is much more of an elusive target fore me to hit! 5 has always been a bit difficult for me to define and find. The margin for a 5 is rather wide. On one end of the spectrum, a 5 can be “just enough,” where you stop eating at the first moment you begin to feel satisfied. On the other end of the spectrum, a 5 can be “one bite shy of a 6”. And in between those two marks is a vast area that can contain ten more potato chips or five more bites of a sandwich or another spoonful of yogurt. When you add in the fact that it often takes my brain twenty minutes to register just how satisfied I truly am, the 5 is pretty easy for me to misjudge and blaze right by!

And that afternoon the Lord revealed to me through the Holy Spirit’s conviction in my heart that I had been selfishly camping on the far end of the spectrum, trying to see just how many extra bites I could take and still stay under a 6. I justified it because I had been so patient to wait for that 0 to come around, I “deserved” to eat those extra five bites of my sandwich. Oooof, that’s not fun to admit!

With this realization, He also gave me a technique to use to ensure I have the opportunity to recognize my 5 and gravitate towards the other end of the 5 spectrum, where I first begin to feel satisfied. He showed me that I can 1) ensure my meal is truly a fist-sized meal 2) I can stop eating 2/3 of the way through my meal, put my fork down and prayerfully ask Him if the remaining food on my plate is something my body truly needs or just something I selfishly want.

If it’s not something my body needs, am I willing to surrender my 5 and the rest of the food on my plate in obedience to the Lord? I can’t say that surrendering my 5 has been an easy exercise! In fact, it is the single most difficult thing for me to do in my Thin Within journey right now. But I do know that those two steps above can help me ensure that I get closer to hitting the mark with my 5. I am also armed with the knowledge that this is indeed possible since I can do all things through Christ (Phil 4:13)! Not only is it possible, but this is a step I can take towards lasting freedom!

How about you?

Is it difficult for you to define your 5? How do you know when you’ve reached it? Are you ever tempted to eat a few more bites once you have first realized you’re satisfied? Do you sometimes just get so excited to finally eat that you blaze right past your 5? Do you have any effective strategies for knowing when you’ve reached a 5 and surrendering the rest of the food on your plate? Are you willing to surrender your 5?

Written by: Becky Y.

[Editor Note: Hey, ya’all! Feel free to respond to the “How About You?” questions right here in the comment section of the blog. We would LOVE to see you share your thoughts and insights–or even your questions! 🙂 Thanks! ~ Heidi]

Another Editor Note: If you have chosen to “Follow” this blog, you will not receive any more notifications as of tomorrow (I think). We are integrating with the Thin Within website and you will want to “Follow” the new blog once it is alive and active. It will be all of the same content moved from God Is Doing a New Thing over to Thin Within. So sorry for the inconvenience.

Eating – Practical Application After “Will We Fight the Rescue?”

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I posted parts 1 and 2 of “Will We Fight the Rescue?” In Tuesday’s post we evaluated if we fight the Lord’s rescue. Yesterday, we plunged head-long into a bible study about it.

Now, let’s get practical. For those of you who are Thin Within veterans, this will sound familiar. I hope you will experience a new wind in your sails—fresh motivation.

For others of you who are new to this approach, will you let go of what you think you know—things you have read or learned from science or your own experiences with dieting and weight loss? Will you, for now, just give this a try…where you toss aside fixating on calories, fat grams, or points—just for now for say…two weeks?

Sound radical? It is! Just like God asking Lot and his family (see yesterday’s study) to flee Sodom! Leave it, go, and set your eyes forward. God is going to provide an amazing way of escape.

Instead of counting, weighing and measuring, agonizing, or forcing yourself to eat things that are tasteless, you will trust the Lord that he has made your body reliably. He holds out his hand to lead the way. It can take 40 years like it did for Israel or it can take eleven days (figuratively speaking, of course!). Believe him, trust Him and you will see his rescue!

Bathe this process in prayer—ask the Lord to search your heart, body, mind and then listen to the voice of your Shepherd as He leads you to a place of getting to know the body He created for you.

Your body was designed with a fail-proof system for consuming the right amount of food for the needs it has.  This fail-proof system that you will use is, simply, the concept of eating when you are truly physiologically hungry and stopping when you are no longer hungry. It really is that simple.

When you are more active or the demands of your body, for whatever reason, are greater, you will find that your body signals hunger more frequently. When you are sick or less active, you will find your body requires nourishment and fuel less frequently.

You see, in our attempts to control and manipulate, we make things so much more complicated than God ever intended.  For now, learning what true, physiological hunger feels like is the task at hand.

So, let’s get this established at the get-go: Hunger is not a sound in your belly, sometimes referred to as a “growl” or “gurgle.” It is true that physiological hunger may be accompanied by a growl or gurgle. However, in the thousands of people Thin Within has helped over the years, we have discovered that hunger is more reliably an empty gnawing feeling in the stomach which is actually located much higher in your body cavity than you may think! Take a moment right now to find your rib cage on both sides of your body. Follow the lowest ribs on both sides to the place where they meet, just below your breast bone.  This is the location where your stomach begins, “flaring” a bit to the left side beneath your rib cage. It is an “elastic-type” pouch located just below your sternum. It is actually much higher in your body cavity than many think.

When the stomach pouch is empty, it is somewhat like a deflated balloon and you can often sense a “pit-like”  emptiness in that location. It may take some time to get acquainted with the sensation. We have found when many people wait for their stomachs to growl, however, often, they have waited too long and can get light-headed. Try to develop your sense of how empty your stomach is at any given point in time—when you are hungry, part-way through a meal, an hour after a meal and so on. The more you do this, the better acquainted you will become with true physiological hunger and satisfaction.

That place where it is empty and you know you are physically hungry, we call “O” or zero on the hunger scale.

How About You?

Today, be willing to wait for physical hunger before you eat whatever food you choose. Then, seeking the Lord, select a food that you enjoy and have a modest portion of it. Then, wait until you are hungry for the next time you put anything in your mouth other than water. Try this for a week and see what happens! We would love to hear from you

This is a radical rescue that is at hand. Your Prince has asked you to take nothing with you, but to fly freely as you flee the captivity of the past into the unknown. He carries you as you go. With Him ever present, you can’t go wrong! Don’t fight him! Go with him!

5 Reasons Eating 0 to 5 is WONDERFUL!

Today’s post is another snapshot from my truth card deck.

Have you added to your truth cards just how great 0 to 5 eating is yet?

0 to 5 final

What truths will you add to your truth cards today about the blessings in 0 to 5 eating?

Take some time to review your truth cards today. Ask the Lord to show you if you BELIEVE what is written on them! If not, what will you need to do in order to truly renew your mind and be transformed?