I hope you have been developing a batch of Truth Cards. If so and if you don’t have these truths added to them yet, maybe you would want to include these truths:
What truths are you adding to your truth cards today?
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Sometimes, with all the time, effort, and intensity that we put into Thin Within, it is hard to remember that the most important thing of all in our lives isn’t pursuing good health.
The most important thing of all isn’t eating within the parameters of physical hunger and satisfaction—even though, as we do this, we seek to surrender our hearts, lives, thinking, choices to God.
These are noble, important goals, but they are superseded by something that is The Most Important Thing of All.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
– Philippians 2:3-7 ESV
What was it that motivated Christ to act while on this earth? We see it many places in the Scriptures, but this sums it up:
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world,
so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
– 1 John 4:9-11 ESV
This has practical applications to our 0 to 5 eating. I want to share with you how by telling a story first. 🙂
I love getting up each morning and having my quiet time. This isn’t because I am godly (as that is quite debatable!). It is because I am desperate. The days I don’t start the day quiet with Him, I feel deflated and defeated. I am desperate for that time of being still, soaking in God’s presence. Since Monday of this week, I have been in the Chicago area with my 19 year old daughter, returning her to Wheaton College for the beginning of her sophomore year. Between jet lag, a busy schedule  with Michaela, and my inability to sleep away from home, I am tired!
Yesterday evening, I said goodbye to Michaela for the last time (I thought) as she starts class this morning (I am writing this Wednesday morning, but it is posting on Thursday). Last night, I planned today. My plane doesn’t leave until later in the afternoon, so first, I would sleep a bit later (assuming I could sleep). Then, I would relish a nice long leisurely time with the Lord. After making my plans last night, I got a text at 11pm from Michaela asking me to come back to see her at the school. I had a choice…to preserve my plans, including a longer time with the Lord? Or take the hour and a half to drive to the school, help my daughter with one last task before class starts, and then come back to the hotel for a shorter time?
I longed to just be still and know that God is God…to be refreshed in His presence. But I also knew that I couldn’t spend time in His presence without Him asking me “Have you loved well?” If I had chosen not to go back to help my daughter with one last task, I know  having my quiet time, no matter how valuable, would not have honored Him. In this situation, having my quiet time at that moment, would have dishonored Him as He has called me to love well. I knew in my heart of hearts that He wanted me to help her one more time. (Besides, I wanted one more hug or two!)
This serves as a reminder  to me that nothing is more important to God than love. I want to be sure that I  love others well — even above insisting on having a quiet time or eating 0 to 5 if there is a conflict.
Sometimes, I elevate having a quiet time or even eating 0 to 5 above The Most Important Thing of All—loving others. God wants to cure me of this legalism.
I don’t think God will often put us in the position of having to choose between loving others and obeying him with regard to our eating boundaries. It’s important to be aware that the human heart is deceitful and will rationalize and justify breaking our boundaries using “loving others” as an excuse. Please don’t let what I am saying here today be fuel for that lie.
The truth is, God wants us to delight in living within our boundaries. But every “rare once in a while,” a dear friend will work hard in her kitchen to bring warm brownies over when she comes for a scheduled visit. The fact that I just finished my lunch before she came and am not at a 0 yet, might need to be set aside for the greater, the Most Important Thing of All… love. I may need to have a small brownie to love my friend well–-even if I am at a 5 already.
I believe that in instances like these, asking the Lord to give His wisdom, we will experience a confidence as to what will be the right thing to do. We can know that, generally speaking, there is nothing godly or honorable about eating outside physical need, but the Most Important Thing of All is beyond that. When faced with a decision between loving well and adhering to my 0 to 5 eating boundary, I want to do both. If I can’t do both, I want to PRAY first with a surrendered heart. Am I WILLING not to eat at this moment if God were to make it clear that THIS was His will? If I can honestly answer that question “yes,” then I may be in the best position to know that right now, loving well means honoring God in some way outside of 0 and 5.
Again, these instances are extremely rare, thankfully. But we don’t want 0 and 5 to become our functional Messiah. It can’t save us. Only Jesus can. And he loves people. We want to learn greater dependence on the Lord, to ask Him for His leading. To respond to His direction.
The Most Important Thing of All is not 0 and 5.
It isn’t a thin body.
It isn’t mastery over food.
It isn’t consistently eating only when hungry.
The Most Important Thing of All is to love God and love others.
Can you think of any situations when you had to choose between maintaining your 0 and 5 boundaries and loving others well? What did you do? Looking back at it now, is there something you could have/should have done differently? What will you do the next time this type of situation presents itself?
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Since January 11th, I have been going through a tough trial. It is taking me deeper and making me more desperate for God than ever. This has affected my eating. I feel like I am FIGHTING to do the right thing so often. And sometimes I just stop fighting…until I start fighting again…until I stop fighting again…until I…well, you get the gist, I bet.
I know that God peels back layer upon layer of stuff in my life…like the layers of an onion. Like Eustace in CS Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader when Aslan had to tear off the reptilian skin from Dragon-Eustace, ripping him clean of his scales…the pain of it all was necessary for him to be free of what bound him. Having gone through the transformation, though there may have been a grieving, there was also relief.
I feel a bit like Eustace. Will I welcome God’s new thing that he is doing, even in this? Or will I tenaciously cling to food as if by going through a hardship, being so sad, beaten up emotionally, etc., I deserve “this one vice?”
So, this week’s topic of emotional eating, coupled with hopeless eating, is something that is near and dear to my heart. Please don’t for one minute assume that what I share with you here is theoretical in my life. Far from it. Chances are, I have been in or AM in the trenches along with you. Or BOTH. Like with this week’s study topics, it is both. I have seen the truth of living these principles, but I need to be reminded.
 Monday
Do you ever feel driven to eat? You give in and you are still driven to eat? And does it go on until you are just too miserable to keep going or all the food is gone? What causes this? For many of us, it is overwhelming emotions. I think sometimes we are trying to literally make ourselves so miserable physically so that we can’t FEEL our emotions any more. Or maybe we are trying to punish ourselves for something…like for “being so weak” that we feel hurt, or sadness, or pain, or anguish or guilt. Using food for these reasons won’t solve the problems. We know that with our heads, but we keep eating anyhow.
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
I love what Barb says. This is NOT hopeless as long as we keep fighting lies with truth. That is KEY! We have to be willing to do the hard work!
Friday
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After the first “freedom” phase of Thin Within–the phase where we have tossed aside our former dieting mentality and all the “Good Food/Bad Food” lists that restricted us in our dieting days–we move on to the second phase–the discernment phase. This is when many people begin to notice that they actually enjoy foods that they had to eat when they were on diets. So sitting down to a wonderfully, nutrient-rich salad may end up being a “whole body pleaser” experience for you. Not only is that ok, but it is desirable!
That is…UNLESS you allow certain thinking (and acting) to kick in!
There are some potential pit-falls to be aware of as you head into the discernment phase and begin to select more nutrient-dense foods.
Pitfall Number 1: Many of us come from dieting pasts when fresh fruits and vegetables were considered “freebies.” We didn’t have to “count” them so we could have them as often as we liked. If we bring this thinking into our Thin Within program, it will mean that we will justify eating those foods even if we aren’t yet at a 0. Â Remember that no matter what form your fuel comes in–a candy bar OR a salad–if your body doesn’t need the fuel (as indicated by clear hunger signals) it will be stored on your body…as…well, you guessed it: Fat! So whatever you select as the food you will eat at any time, you want to do so only when you are at a clear “0”–physically hungry.
Pitfall Number 2: There is a tendency to think that because it is nutrient rich, it is a carte blanche for eating MORE of it. So, as we sit down to eat a salad (or celery or carrot sticks–or even fresh salsa!) it isn’t uncommon to do some “justification eating.” To justify having a larger portion than we need because it is, after all, a “healthy” food. Again, no matter what form the fuel comes in, if it is more than our bodies need, we will store it as fat.
 Pitfall Number 3: When we eat more of a food–even a food like salad, carrot sticks, etc,  we get used to quantity. We can overeat even salad. We begin to get desensitized to the feeling in our stomach that sends us the signal that we don’t need to eat that much. We then take this desensitization into eating other foods which means “energy dense” foods (or what we called “high calorie” foods in our dieting days) are then consumed in greater amounts as well, without our feeling quite so bothered by the feeling in our stomach that, had we been faithful to 0 to 5, would be uncomfortable for us.
The solution to avoiding all three of these pitfalls is to keep in mind that no matter what foods you select, you want to do so according to physical hunger–a true need for fuel–and physical satisfaction.
When you select a beneficial food like a fresh garden salad be aware of the potential to justify eating outside of your primary boundaries and the impact this can have on you the rest of the time!
Do you see this thinking at work in you? Do you tend to think of salad and other similar foods as “freebies?” Is this affecting how sensitive you are to “5” so that you are more likely to overeat other foods as well? What will you do about this going forward?
Samson, Our Puppy Boy
This is Samson. He was my soul-mate dog. I think a girl is blessed to have even one dog like that in her life and he was mine. I have had other dogs that have meant a lot to me, but something about Samson was just unique. VERY unusual.
Samson was always willing and eager to come to me when I called. In fact, he didn’t like to leave my side. I could let him off lead and, assuming he had strayed any distance away from me at all, if I called, he would come. Â He trained with me for the San Francisco marathon so we went on a lot of runs together at Ancil Hoffman Park and along the American River in Sacramento. One of my fastest run times was a “Mutt Strut” that we did. It was a 5k (3.1 mile) race in Davis, California. I had *never* run a 10 minute mile before, but Samson wanted to be at the head of the pack so badly that we went out at a sprint! Oh I miss those days!
Because Samson handled his freedom so well, I was able to allow him privileges that I wasn’t able to offer other dogs before or since.
Probably the most enjoyable of all of these privileges was offering Sammy the chance to go play at a neighbor’s house. “Ben,” a black lab, lived down the street. They LOVED each other. I would make a plan with Ben’s “mom” and, at the prearranged moment, I opened our front door, urging Samson, “Go play with Ben!” He typically hesitated for just a moment, as if to be SURE it was ok. Â “Yes, Sam! Go have fun with Ben!” Off he ran out the front door and down the street where Ben’s mom had raised the garage door for Samson to enter.
Ben and Sam had their “play date” for a couple of hours and, after they were through, Ben’s mom called me to say the “boys” were done playing and to let me know she was sending Sammy home. She then lifted the garage door and Samson bounded out and came running home where I threw open the front door. I was greeted by the most wonderful doggy appreciation known to man (or woman)!
If Samson hadn’t been trustworthy with his boundaries, I couldn’t have take him on the great runs we did together. He wouldn’t have gotten a chance to play with Ben that way. Samson would have been on a leash a lot more. I would never send him down the street!
Even more than I longed for Samson to delight in romping with his buddy, Ben, God wants me to thrill in the wonderful gifts he gives. He sees what I do with the freedom he offers me, now. The way I abuse the freedom he has given me now, keeps me from experiencing the broadening of my boundaries, I think. With Samson, there was truly a safety issue. Had Samson not been trustworthy with his boundaries, safety would require that I keep him on a leash. I think it is the same way with me with God. Left to myself, I am not trustworthy with the boundaries he has given me. This is to my detriment. God wants me to be free and safe. The boundaries he has given me now are wonderful and yet I chafe. I abuse the freedom I have even now–how can he expand the boundary lines when he knows I couldn’t handle it?
Can you identify more with me? Or with Samson? Are you the type of person who responds well to the boundaries that God has established for you?
If you are more like me, what truths can you tell yourself that will help you to delight more fully in the blessings of the boundaries God has established for you and to chafe less? (I am asking myself this question, too!)
Here is Samson’s memorial video. I share it with you because you will see what I mean about him. He wanted to be close to the one who loved him the most. I want that to be my heart for God. Not only will I experience greater joy, but I know that then he will be able to trust me with broader boundaries. I want all that he has for me.
(The other dog in the video is a wolf hybrid that Sammy rescued. 🙂 His heart broke when Samson went to rainbow bridge. Bo joined him almost exactly a year later. If you want to see his memorial video, it’s here: http://youtu.be/s178EdeIP-k)
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