by Heidi Bylsma | Apr 15, 2013 | Blog
This week, we deal with two really important challenges to our 0 to 5 eating boundaries:
“Yummy Food Eating” – when the food is there and it is “yummy” and we want it, so there! (Yep, it really is that simple sometimes!)
and
“Bad Scale Eating” – when I get on the bathroom scale and am depressed that I didn’t get away with eating outside of my boundaries or jubilant that I did or am disappointed by unrealized expectations and want to eat to celebrate or medicate (depending).
Can you relate to either of these causes for eating?
So jump on over to Barb’s blog and do Days 13 and 14.
Below are my thoughts on “Yummy Food Eating” outside of our 0 and 5 boundary.
(As always, if you are an email subscriber to the blog, the video doesn’t show up. Please come to the blog to see the video! Thanks.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p40vD85fd1M?rel=0
This week continue with your renewing of the mind goal. I would LOVE to hear how this is going for you. Are you discovering that you are changing the way you are thinking by being proactive about what thoughts you will allow your mind to dwell on? Is it time to recommit to renewing your mind each day or more than once each day? I know it is for me!
Please complete Day 13 and 14 (links above the video). More to come this week on these topics.
Please share with us here any questions or thoughts you may have.
What can you do to be proactive about the temptation that “yummy foods” offer you?
by Heidi Bylsma | Mar 29, 2013 | Blog
When I saw this image, it totally reminded me of ME! She has that “I can TOO eat this if I want!” rebellious look about her. AND she is redheaded and freckled like yours truly. Do you ever feel this way? 🙂 I hope not! But if you do, I am in company with you. I praise God that he is at work in me, though, and the moments when I feel this way are fewer and fewer! YAY, God!
I want to cover a lot of ground today. This post includes:
- A Video about Overcoming Failure Eating
- Announcement: Who is the winner of this week’s drawing
- Updated Bible Study schedule
- Poll asking you for what you would like to study next.
Video About Failure Eating – If you subscribe via email. please visit the blog to see the video.
Even if you haven’t been doing the study with us, you can probably relate to a day when you gave in and ate outside of 0 and 5. You may have given up for the day, not even trying any more to maintain your boundaries. This is NOT uncommon! This short video is an option for what to do instead! I hope it helps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zhxwI2qF80?rel=0&w=640&h=480
Now, on to Blog Business! 🙂
Winner of This Week’s Drawing
The drawing this week is a bit…well…unusual. I prayed as is my practice and my hand landed on NATALIA! She won the week of coaching week before last. So, if Natalia would like one of the prizes, she will get one.
But it also seemed like I should reach in again…so I did. We have two winners. 🙂
The second winner is Lesley UK. 😀
CONGRATULATIONS!!! I will send you both an email and you can let me know which of the prizes you would like:
- A Thin Within book (donated by Joe Donaldson of the Thin Within ministry)
- A Hunger Within book (donated by Arthur and Judy Halliday)
- A week of One-on-One Coaching (donated by yours truly)
Schedule
This is what is ahead for the remaining weeks of our Weight Loss Bible Study:
- Evaluation: How are you doing? Use this worksheet to find out. Week 5 March 31-April 6
- Emotional Eating: “This will make me feel better.” Week 5 March 31-April 6
- Losing-Weight-is-Hard Eating: “I’ll start again tomorrow.” Week 6 April 7 – 13
- Hopeless Eating: “I’ll never get over this. I might as well eat.” Week 6 April 7 – 13
- Good Food Eating:Â Hey, that looks good. I should eat it. Week 7Â April 14-20
- Bad Scale Eating: I didn’t lose weight. I might as well eat. Week 7 April 14-20
- Social Eating: She’s eating. I should eat. Week 8 April 21-27
- Preventative Eating? I have to write this one up if we are going to look at it, but I think it bears doing! Week 8.
Then I will probably have a wrap up during a week 9. A chance for us to debrief about some things and a looking forward to what might be next.
What Do You Want To Do Next?
What’s next? Well, let me know what YOU would like to see! 🙂 Here is a poll to help me figure that out. 🙂 This is the first time I have tried this “polls” feature, so here’s hoping it works!
[polldaddy poll=6998572]
Practical Questions:
You may see by now that I like to end most of the blog posts with a “bringing it home” set of questions. So let me ask you: What practical steps can you take today to maintain your 0 – 5 eating boundaries? What have you learned during the past month of our study that really stands out as something you can apply today? 🙂
by Heidi Bylsma | Mar 27, 2013 | Blog
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:
- sitting still in your presence
- quieting myself
- opening your Word
- praying
- Adding to my God List
- praising–having a Praise-Feast (Praise-Fest)
- writing in my gratitude blog
- calling a friend
- 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? 🙂
by Heidi Bylsma | Mar 17, 2013 | Blog
Sometimes, we hear food calling our name. It seems to insist that we come, give it attention, consume it…even though we aren’t hungry. I am pretty sure you know what I mean.
For me, it is often the ice cream that I have in my freezer. I am free to have ice cream, but want to enjoy it within the parameters of hunger and satisfaction. There are times, though, when I can’t get it out of my head. I can grit my teeth all I like with a resolve “I WILL NOT THINK ABOUT FOOD,” but that seems to do little good.
This video just shares in brief (a bit over 3 minutes), what I suggest instead. I hope it helps!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stumFaxAD10?rel=0
If you would like more information about the God List and Praise-Feast (or Praise-Fest), visit my other blog where I have described how to do these things in some detail.
by Heidi Bylsma | Mar 7, 2013 | Blog
When I woke up one day and found myself at a size 24 again (I had lost 100 pounds with a popular weight loss program previously and gained most of it back in a very short period of time) I realized that I didn’t get that way magically. It was action upon action that had gotten me to that place. Actions come about as a result of thinking.Â
So, it made sense that the key to why I gained weight again so readily is I had never learned to think differently. It was my thinking that caused me to act in such a way that all that extra weight landed on me. By the time I lost the weight in 1997 with Weight Watchers, I was even more obsessed with food and exercise than when I started. I know this may not be the case for everyone, but it was for me. While the outside of my body was changed physically,my heart and mind had been changed too…not for the better either. My mind was riveted to food as never before. I thought about it constantly. When an overuse injury kept me from being able to exercise excessively as I had been, my thoughts and actions about food and eating were betrayed. The weight poured back on.
It was time for me to realize that, if I wanted to see an outward change–to be a healthy size once and for all–I needed to not only act differently, but also to think differently.
In all honesty, this process continues to this day. It is a constant training!
James 1:14, 15 speaks of a progression. We have a thought. We mull it over. We ponder it and allow the thought to grow. Finally, it incites us into action.
Before it ever gets to that place, Paul in 2 Corinthians urges us to take the thought captive and submit it to obedience to Christ.
It stands to reason, if we want to act differently (knowing that health is found there), we have to learn to think differently. We have to train our minds.
This takes work. But anything worthwhile is worth working, fighting for!
And notice this…all along the way, we have a choice about what we will think. We can think the thoughts that lead to actions that don’t correspond with our godly goals and with truth. Or, we can choose to think thoughts that align with my desire to honor God with my eating and drinking and with my living.
Here are some things that we may need to think differently about–that we may need to renew our minds about.
ABOUT THE BATHROOM SCALE
Thoughts you may have now:
- I need the scale to land on this number ______.
- I need to see the numbers go down.
- The scale will tell me if I have been doing this “right” or not.
- The scale tells me if I am a failure or not, if I have value or not.
- I need to get on the scale each day (or multiple times each day).
And other thoughts like these. The thoughts you actually have may be more subtle, of course.
Do these thoughts pass the Philippians 4:8 test? Are they true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy? The answer goes without saying.
What is really true?
- The bathroom scale is a piece of metal and springs with an arbitrary number system on it–that is ALL.
- I can survive even if I don’t get on the bathroom scale. I can use other tools to evaluate my progress in losing weight–such as how my clothes fit or what I see in the mirror.
- God is after my heart and the scale can’t measure that! I can go to the Lord and ask Him if I am doing this as He would have me. HE is the only one I will go to for approval–not a machine made by man.
- God redeems all my past mistakes. He has declared me precious and holy in His sight. He has declared me HIS. He declares forever that I reflect HIS success through Jesus on the cross. He determines my value and worth. Not the scale.
- I do not need to get on the scale each day. In fact, I will survive if I never get on the scale again. (Yes, you really will.) The scale is designed to be a tool to help me. If it is not helping me, I can get rid of it until the time comes when I can think about it differently.
If you are feeling down about what the scale is telling you, my suggestion to you is get off the scale. Replace the thoughts you have about the scale with God’s thoughts about it.
Did you find yourself responding like this to my suggestion? I could never stop weighing myself at LEAST once each day!
Replace that thought, too! How about with this thought: Ok, God is doing a new thing. Me staying off the scale really WOULD be proof of that! I will choose to stay off the scale and I will survive! 🙂
ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF FOOD NEEDED BY YOUR BODY
Many are surprised about how little food it takes to satisfy physical hunger between 0 and 5. You may have thoughts like these about the small amount of food it takes to sustain your body:
- I can’t believe that I am not still hungry. Of course I need more food than that little bit!
- I really HATE that I can’t eat more that this without being over a “5.” God couldn’t possibly expect me to live on so little food!
- I will never be able to live like this the rest of my life! I love food just too much!
Here is another opportunity to see if these thoughts pass the Philippians 4:8 test! Are these thoughts true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy?
What is really true?
- My body is remarkably efficient! I don’t need that much food to sustain me. How COOL is that? God, I am fearfully and wonderfully made!
- God empowers and strengthens me to break strongholds such as eating more food than I need for reasons other than physical hunger. He is in the business of sanctifying–purifying–perfecting and this is part of that work. He is teaching me to depend on him so much. He is calling me closer to His heart through this struggle. With an invitation like that, I can definitely learn to feast on the Lord and release my hold on so much food!
- For my entire life, I get to walk with God in humble dependence on Him as He continues to work this fact–my need for so little food–into my life. I can’t fathom the great intimacy with a mighty, good, and wonderful God that is yet ahead for me!
- God promises to be my portion. I know that he means what He says and His promises are true. He will work into my life a deeper love for Him than I currently have for food.
- I have the wonderful privilege of selecting foods from all that is available. I may not eat very much of it, but I get to relish each and every bite and enjoy it thoroughly. What a gift that is!
What other thoughts could you use to replace the negative thoughts that don’t pass the Philippians 4:8 test relative to the small amount of food it takes to sustain you?
ABOUT THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND
You may have thoughts about the process mentioned in Romans 12:2 about the renewing of your mind.
- It is just too much work to change the way I think!
- Do I really have to sit down and journal about all of this EACH time I am faced with the temptation to eat?
- This renewing the mind stuff takes too much time. Just gimme a diet so I can GET THIN!
These thoughts don’t pass the Philippians 4:8 test either. How about replacing them with:
- This will be worth fighting for, worth working for. This is transformation I am after and God will do it in me. I will participate in it with Him as He calls me. It will be worth it!
- I sit down to do things all the time (tv, read, computer, etc.) so I probably have more time to sit down and journal than I want to admit, but I also know that as I develop renewing my mind as a habit, I will be able to do it “on the fly” and won’t always need to sit down to do it! It is a process and I am in the early stages! It is worth learning. Romans 12:2!!!
- I have done diets before and gotten thin(ner) before. But they haven’t worked for me. I want a change that will draw me closer to God and change my inside AND out–for the rest of my days! This is it!
What other thoughts have you had that you want to renew your mind about?
