What can you do when you have been here before…and you have typically caved–eaten outside of your boundaries of hunger and satisfaction? What if you can see it coming? How can you observe and correct? How can you prevent another “failure?”
I just can’t renew my mind too often! I need to wash my mind clean from all kinds of lies and line dry it to have a fresh start by putting PURE truth into it!
Sometimes, an attitude of entitlement or justification taints the way I think about food, eating, and how willing I am to minimize the impact of breaking through the boundaries that God has led me to establish!
My husband just left town for a few days and for as long as we have been married (nearly 30 years), when he is out of town I have some of my biggest challenges with desire eating–wanting to break my boundaries of eating only when hungry and stopping eating when I am no longer hungry. When he leaves, it seems to trigger a mindset of some childhood trauma or something–a sense of abandonment! I know that sounds silly.
Exactly!
If I just let myself feel what I feel about it, or, worse, if I tell myself I am being silly and beat myself up over being such a baby, I invariably end up reaching for food to “comfort” me.
Hosting the bible study by Barb Raveling is SO good for me! This time, I choose to renew my mind right now and each day Bob is gone. This is what it looks like for me to do that:
Lord, Bob is out of town and you know that means I get sort of careless or I abandon all resolve with eating boundaries. I want to inhale food outside of 0 and 5. This time, I will not do that. Instead, I will reach for you as my true Comforter. Food is a counterfeit.
The TRUTH, Lord, is that Bob hasn’t abandoned me. This isn’t my childhood. This is my husband who has always come home to me before, so his track record seems to indicate he will come home this time, too! And no matter what happens–even if he doesn’t, food can’t comfort me like you can.
The TRUTH is that while I was abandoned in many ways as a child, you never abandoned me. You were there all along.
The TRUTH is, Lord, you are with me and will never leave me or forsake me, even if everyone else does!
I know that reaching for food during these days when Bob is gone is not going to satisfy the emptiness that I may feel.
Lord, thank you that I have the freedom to eat any food I desire when I am hungry. The rest of the time, when I am drawn to food, what will really minister to my soul is:
taking a hot bath and letting wonderful Christian music sooth my soul as the hot water soothes my body
All the ice cream in the world won’t make my life better, my marriage more secure, or the trials and insecurities I face go away. I choose you, Lord. I choose your boundary lines.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
– Psalm 16:7
Thank you that I can set my mind not on earthly things, but on things above. What is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. I choose to fix my eyes on the promise that you have an inheritance waiting for me, Lord. The boundaries that you have established for me are pleasant. When I am tempted to break them, I will turn to you. There will be joy in doing so. There will be a deep sense of satisfaction. You will be my Comfort and my Strength.
Amen
How about you? Are you facing a situation that often triggers eating outside of 0 and 5? Will you choose to renew your mind about your circumstances so that you can emerge victorious, capturing this moment for the Lord? 🙂
Going with Bob to Disneyland really was unusually enlightening for me this time around. Such a short trip, yet some great new insights!
1. Planning meals is important to me when traveling. Obviously, there are some negotiables that have to be considered when traveling, but having a rough idea of when and where and what seems to be important to me, not only so we can keep a budget and not “blow a wad” buying food in Disneyland, but also to fend off the anxiety I sometimes feel when I am not sure what the plan is for meals. This is something that God is definitely still working with me on and I had no idea it was such a need until this trip exposed that fact.
2. Stress can hit unexpectedly, even at the happiest place on earth. To see how Bob handled the unexpected airline challenge was very illuminating to me. He wanted to deal with the problem before eating…even though he was hungry. I am not sure I would have handled it that way had I been alone with a similar situation! Here is the thing…life IS stressful. If we let stress derail us from adhering to our boundaries, we are likely to never make steady headway. I think the key is how we will handle stress when it hits. In Bob’s case, he didn’t even want to “go there” and sit down to a meal when he was physically hungry because of other factors. He mentioned in the video that being hungry, being in a place with so many good food options, and knowing he wanted to medicate himself from the stress all resulted in him not wanting to exercise self-control if he were to have a meal at that very moment. That was like an “ah HA!” moment for me. Funny how I can learn so much from him when *I* am the one who has been doing this for so long! LOL! He wanted to deal with the problem causing the stress FIRST. (Duh! What a novel idea! You mean, eating isn’t necessary in order for me to handle the problem? LOL!)
3. Walking into a situation where an abundance of FOOD sights and smells bombard (as they do in Disneyland) is NOT for the faint of heart! It seemed as though everywhere we went in Disneyland and when we walked to and from the condo outside the park, there was an assault of FOOD FOOD FOOD! Everywhere we turned people were eating turkey legs with an incredible aroma! It seemed like ice cream cones were as common as Mickey Mouse ears! And that is just the beginning. I can NOT imagine doing this if I didn’t have experience with not giving in to food in the face of temptation. I know that 5 years ago, I probably wouldn’t have handled this without eating my way through the park. I am reminded of years ago when I had just had children and I took them to the mall. For me, the mall was ALL about all the different food options I could indulge in. It had nothing to do with shopping and everything to do with eating. I think that may be what Disneyland (and other similar destinations) are for many…and could be for me if I am not careful!
4. Partnering with a spouse is invaluable. I can’t pretend not to be blessed. The many years Bob was not on board with 0 to 5 eating were hard, though he has never been a “foodie” like me. He has always been relatively supportive…never intentionally derailing me from my boundaries. Nevertheless, to be partnering with him was helpful to maintain my resolve to persevere with my 0 to 5 boundaries.
Do you have a place you enjoy going that could cause you to stumble in maintaining your boundaries? What strategies might you use to overcome these “stumbling stones” and come out the other side victorious?
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DRAWING WINNER!
I don’t want to forget to announce this week’s winner for our drawing! Whenever you comment here at the blog, I add your name to the “hat” (actually a brown paper sack). On Friday each week, I pray that God would have my hand land on the name of the person he wants to have the opportunity to pick a prize from one of our three prizes before I draw one lucky name out. The prizes to choose from are: Thin Within (copies donated by the Thin Within ministry–thanks to Joe Donaldson), Hunger Within (copies donated by Arthur and Judy Halliday), or a week of coaching by yours truly. 🙂
This week, we had over 60 names to draw from. That means you all were busy interacting with one another. THANK YOU.
This week’s winner of our drawing is Cindy!
CONGRATULATIONS! I will be shooting you an email. 🙂
What do you think? Have you made the standard of losing weight so important that when you give in to eating outside of your boundaries you feel like the whole goal is derailed? Or do you have a sense that God is building godly character in you no matter what happens with your weight…and is it worth it to you to press on? Do you see your mistakes as part of the path to growth in character? Are there any boundaries you have set for GOD? Do you need to welcome His involvement in some area of your life?
It is best to give yourself a portion, rather than have a bag of chips or a serving dish of food in front of you. Put an amount of food on your plate and then let that be that. Experiment a bit, but you may want to establish a boundary that whatever food you put on your plate, you will eat that (or less) and then wait 10 minutes before serving yourself more if you think you are still hungry.
A fist is a very reasonable measuring tool to use to evaluate portion size. Here is a video where I share my thoughts on the subject. 🙂
Another approach is whatever you have been serving yourself up to this point (if you haven’t been eating 0 to 5), try serving yourself a third or half of that. I know this sounds extreme, but just remember you can eat again when you are hungry.
Thin Within is quite simple, really, but we find that there are times when it isn’t easy. Times when we clearly want more food than we need. We can have all the practical tidbits in the world, but if we aren’t willing to say no to our fleshly desires, if we aren’t willing to live within our good, godly and delightful boundaries, then all the wisdom and insight will make very little difference!
So, are you willing? I personally, am romancing the willingness. Will you join me?
Below is a video that I made to help people understand what it means to renew the mind…what it is, how to go about doing it and why!
I hope it helps you.
Thanks again to Barb Raveling for her help in understanding how to practically apply the wisdom of Romans 12:2!
Summary:
Renewing the Mind is, simply, thinking God’s thoughts after him.
First, choose a renewing of the mind goal. Why? Because it is our thinking that causes us to act. If we want to act differently and see different fruit in our lives, we need to start where actions are birthed–in our thoughts! What do you want to think differently about? The scale? Your body? Food? Your marriage? Your job? Probably, for our study coming up, you will want to select something that has to do with food, eating or weight, but it is your choice. Maybe you are an emotional eater, so you need to think differently about processing emotions. Maybe you don’t feel like you trust God. You might want to renew your mind about God’s character. So first thing, you want to pick a renewing of your mind goal.
Secondly, select times of the day when you will proactively choose to think God’s thoughts about whatever it is. First thing in the morning is a good idea for most of us since it might set the tone for the entire day. If you struggle in your marriage, you might also want to plan a renewing of your mind session for just before you see your spouse. If it is about food, you might need a mini-renewing of your mind session before you eat each time you eat! Let’s dive in and do this for all we are worth. Give it just a few weeks of diligence and hard work and you will be amazed at how you are impacted! You can also renew your mind in the middle of giving in to behaviors that are counter to your godly goal or after you have given in. It is best to plan a time before that happens, of course! But even if you “blow it,” you can renew your mind about whatever it is after the fact and it will help!
Thirdly, select strategies for actually thinking God’s thoughts after him. In this video, I share some ideas for that, but it is by no means comprehensive. You can use Barb Raveling’s I Deserve a Donut app. You can read scripture or review memorized verses. The bible is clearly where God shows us his thoughts, so it is a safe place to land to find things to think about for renewing your mind. If you want to be more specific, you can do what I have done. On an index card, piece of paper, on a file in your laptop or your cell phone or iDevice :-), you can create a file or jot down a list of TRUTHS about whatever it is that you want to think differently about. Then, each of the times that you renew your mind, you would read those things…preferably out loud. Pray over them and ask God to work them deeply into the soil of your heart and mind.
Also, in the video I say one of the things I like about 0 to 5 eating is that it is easy. Then I talk about Barb’s app and mention that 0 to 5 eating is hard. What I mean by that, is when I am tempted to stray away from it, THEN it is hard. That is when I need to stop myself from whining about how “hard” it is. It is always going to be hard to obey. But the principles are easy, simple, and doable!
I hope this helps clarify what renewing the mind is! 🙂
