This week we are investigating two things that spur us to eat outside of our primary boundary of physical hunger and satisfaction. One is our response to our weight on the bathroom scale…(I really hope you aren’t still hopping on your scale, though!) As we begin this week, I urge you to remember that your ideal size is whatever you land on when you faithfully eat according to the God given parameter of physical hunger and satisfaction. You don’t ever need to step on a scale again! So, if you haven’t yet, why not give your scale to someone else to keep for you? 🙂
Additionally, we will look at how often we can wait for physical hunger before eating. We may even be growing in our willingness and ability to process our emotions with the Lord instead of running to food instantly each time. But when we DO sit down to feed our “0” , we may zip on past our comfortable “5” or place of physical satisfaction. Let’s see what we can learn to help us stop it!
If we can take care of these two things, practically speaking, we will eliminate a bunch of our overeating!
I have broken this week’s assignments down again in the hopes that it will be helpful for you.
Monday
Visit Barb’s page: Bad Scale Eating at this link. She points out that we typically want to lose weight in a way that is fast, easy and fun and that when we have been dying to self for 8 weeks, it really is hard to get on the scale and see that we haven’t lost weight…but maybe we have even gained!
To be honest, with the Thin Within approach to landing on your God-given size, it often happens that way (sorry to break it to you now…). People may gain weight when they start off! Sometimes this happens at the beginning before the weight starts coming off.
That isn’t to say you should ignore that fact, shrug your shoulders, and just accept it. NOPE! Instead, re-evaluate and see what it is that needs to be tweaked. Instead of focusing on the man-made bathroom scale, how about focusing on the God-given HUNGER scale–that true physical “empty” or what we call “0” and that true physical SATISFIED or what Thin Within calls a “5?”
Chances are, if you aren’t feeling your clothes loosening up, you may be either deceiving yourself about eating between 0 and 5 or you may be drinking a lot of sweetened beverages throughout the day (stop it!–said with love!), or is it possible you are already at the size God intends for you?
Which do you think it is?
Barb has a section in her post about the scale called unrealistic expectations. She hits the nail on the head! We often have unrealistic expectations, but, again, I want to urge you to THROW OUT YOUR BATHROOM SCALE or, at the very least, have a friend take it and hide it. We can get so focused on it that we miss the thing that God IS doing and he promises that HE IS DOING A NEW THING!
Wouldn’t it be a “new thing” if we stopped weighing ourselves? At least it would be for many of us. Give it a try and after the typical week or so of panic, you will likely settle in to experiencing the peace and freedom that comes from refusing to let a man-made hunk of metal, plastic, springs, etc., arbitrarily assign a number to your size.
In Barb’s section called Unrealistic Expectations, can you identify with either option #1 or option #2? Which?
So how about doing what she suggests! In order to keep following your boundaries with a good attitude, take some time to renew your mind about the scale.
What other unrealistic expectations do you have? Can you find any truths in God’s Word that speak to this? Jot them down or share them with us here.
NOTE: Tomorrow, I will be posting about a “Fire the Desire: 3 Day Challenge.” We can do just about anything for three days. You may want to plan now for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — for joining the Fire the Desire 3 Day Challenge!
Tuesday
Barb includes an “Exercise for Journal” section at her Bad Scale Eating page (this is the same page as the one I had you visit yesterday). This is an OUTSTANDING exercise for us to do. Note her examples. (Again, please note that Barb uses dieting “lingo,” but you can trade the words and phrases out for ones that fit Thin Within and 0 to 5 eating.)
If you do this exercise, share with us here what the truths are that replaced any of the lies that you struggle(d) with!
Read today’s blog post about the “Fire the Desire 3 Day Challenge.” Are you going to give it a try? Do you have an accountability partner? If you haven’t connected with your accountability partner in a while, you may want to! Will you check in here? Tell us your intention if you plan to do the Challenge!
Wednesday
Turn to Barb Raveling’s Good Food Eating study at this link.
If you are like most of us, you can wait for 0 most of the time before eating, but stopping at 5 (or before) is another story altogether! What do you think? Do you find yourself continuing to eat past that place of pleasant satisfaction just because the food available is so YUMMY? Sometimes the food just is there and tastes so good that we want to keep on eating it.
Do Barb’s More is Better bible study. Summarize what God shows you.
Are there any truths you can add to your truth cards as a result of going through these two studies of Barb’s?
Barb asks “Do you need to set any secondary boundaries to protect yourself from good food eating? If so, what boundaries could you make?” As you consider this question, we rejoice hat we don’t need to have ANY food be off limits completely, but what about staying within the boundaries of 0 and 5? How can you set yourself up for success with your eating when Good Food abounds and you waited until 0? How can you plan ahead to help you succeed?
Are you joining in the Fire the Desire 3 – Day Challenge? If not, why not? 🙂 Today is Day 1! (You can start it any time, actually, but why not today?)
Thursday
Complete the Good Food Eating section included in Barb’s blog post (again, this is the same post as yesterday’s).
What insights come to you as a result of going through this material?
How are you doing on the Fire the Desire 3 – Day Challenge?
Friday
This is the last day of the Fire the Desire 3 – Day Challenge. How is it going? Stay off the scale in keeping with this week’s study. Truth journal about the scale if it will help. What about stopping at 5? Are you recognizing a 5 as it approaches? Are you eating slowly enough so that you can stop after a reasonable amount of food? What plan can you have to be proactive?
Extra Credit: 🙂 Weekends are tough for many of us. Sometimes it is because weekends signal us to let up our boundaries. Our routines are typically set aside. Can you create a plan for this weekend–a routine for yourself, some way to be proactive about experiencing success? Even if you aren’t doing the 3-day challenge, I hope you will include adding to your God List, having a Praise Fest, and adding to your Gratitudes Journal this weekend! I really believe that we will not stay in rebellion when we exalt God.
Share here with us how it is going!
Heidi, my scale will get dusty of lack of use. 🙂 I am one of these people who hates to get on one! So, this isn’t such a problem for me. I have written in my commitment to myself and to the Lord that I will not weigh for 6wks. My areas to work on are some of the things Barbara touched on. Mainly deceiving myself about not eating past 5. I had a great weekend and waited until I got to 0 before I ate, but I know there were a few times I should have stopped a few bites earlier than I did. I have been working on my Truth Cards and My God list–starting with Psalms. So wonderful to see the love our God has for us! I re-wrote all my notes that I take from your videos and it’s amazing how they stay with me through out the day. Also still memorizing scripture. I can’t tell you how much I needed this study! God is doing a new thing—–in me!
Sounds like a great plan, Mary Anne. We do need to keep at this, even when we think we aren’t doing “perfectly.” Life is never “perfect.” We are *being* perfected by Jesus and one day we will enter His presence and be perfected forever! It sure sounds like you are being super diligent! YAY! I am so glad that you SEE the new thing that God is doing!
Well, I had some free time this morning, so I did the exercise for journal exercise. Great stuff. Here are some of the thoughts I had and then the truths. Keep in mind this is off the top of my head/first thoughts, not polished at all.
Following my boundaries should be….easy, natural, not painful, only temporarily requiring effort
Truths – following boundaries requires saying no to myself, it is not always easy, some “pain” is OK – the Bible never said that life should be easy, this may be a struggle that is never easy, but God will be my strength.
I shouldn’t have to….put so much time into this, say no to really good things, struggle so much
Truths – my goal is growing in intimacy with God, so of course I need to put time into it. It’s a relationship and He is God and so worth it! I wasn’t put on Earth fulfill my fleshly desires and sometimes the good tasting things are not good for my body (temple). Again, life isn’t fair and this is still so much better than counting points!!
I should be able to….relax, do this naturally, eat what I want
Truths – it took many years to get to this point, so it will take time and practice to be more natural at 0-5 eating and believing the truth instead of lies.
I can eat what I want! I just have to stop at 5.
I can’t believe that…sometimes it’s hard to believe that I will ever get better at this
Truths – Jesus is my savior, I can do all things through him, his path is right and the Bible tells me that I am a new creation in Christ, the old is gone, I can “put on” Christ, put on God’s armor, I have been set free. There is hope in the Lord.
It’s not fair that….I have to do this, I don’t have the body that I want, I have to struggle with this
Truths – Life isn’t fair, and I have it so much better than so many people, I don’t have to do this – but if I want peace, freedom and a closer relationship with God, I do – it is a choice – what/who am I going to choose??! Trust and Obedience is the best choice.
Great stuff here, Carrie. Yes, it IS painful to follow boundaries. You are so right about that. But I am with you…this iS so much better than counting points! I am so glad that you are allowing yourself time to train yourself in this approach instead of demanding perfection now! I am so glad life ISN’t fair as I would be separated eternally from God if it was fair!
I am still new to your site so i am not even going to try and catch up. But i can report that i ate 0 to 5 all day today and most of the weekend. And i am memorizing James 4:7…..submit yourselves there to the Lord. Resist the devil and he will flee.
Hi, Carol. Welcome on board if I haven’t said that already. 🙂 What a great verse to memorize and great job eating 0 to 5!
Hi Heidi…I have good news to report..I started eating 0-5 on July 25 after reading your blog..and I weighed in on Sat. am and God in His faithfulness removed 3 lbs..What an encouragement..I have been praising Him for His faithfulness, and leading me to start reading your blogs..I was able to print out all of your lessons and have been reading thru them..What great encouragement..Barb’s lessons have been great also..Luv N Hugs…Barbi