I've been reflecting a lot on my "Made to Crave" journey the last few days. God has gently reminded me of a few things that I thought might be encouraging to some of my blog readers as well. Whether you're struggling to lose weight, build a positive body image, or just get on track with your relationship with food...listen to some of what is running through my mind on the topic.
#1~ Everything mentioned above has to start with getting our heads on straight. I honestly can't stress enough how important this step is. This is the step that the study "Made to Crave" has helped me with the most. Every other time when I've tried to lose weight, I only partially dealt with the head stuff. And then it was never too far into the journey that my lack of dealing with that emotional baggage stopped my weight loss dead in its tracks. We HAVE to get our heads on straight in this area. God's Word has a LOT to say on the matter. If you haven't already done so, I hope you'll pick up Lysa TerKeurst's book "Made to Crave" and start letting her open your eyes to the Truths of God's Word. It is really life-changing stuff.
Want to know why this step is so hard? Because the enemy would like nothing less than for us to continue to be stuck in the crazy cycle (bad choices/guilt & condemnation/more bad choices). He loves it when we shower guilt and condemnation onto ourselves. He loves it when we call ourselves "fat, ugly, loser, weight loss failure" (or whatever else we can call ourselves). If we're all being honest, we know that when we're stuck on this horrible emotional "crazy cycle", we are NOT giving God our best each day. There's no way we could be! How can God use us to the extent He wants to when we're walking around not talking to ourselves in a very Christian manner? I know first-hand how years of negative self-talk can damage our soul. I was a walking war-zone. When I started the Made to Crave journey one year ago, I had to work the hardest at first on just speaking lovingly to myself. I had to, word by word, change my internal dialogue. I was a serious kind of messed up. When I look at pictures of me that are over a year old, I see the hurt in my eyes. I may have put on a smile on the outside. I may have been quick to laugh and sound cheerful. But I was one broken-hearted, sad, self-loathing person on the inside. Just thinking about the healing God has given me in this one area, makes me want to shout from the rooftops. Just a few short months ago, I was a prisoner in my own body. I couldn't break free from the chains of this emotional baggage. But through God...I am FREE! I'm singing the song as I type: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, THERE IS FREEDOM!"
One more thought on this first step. Since Satan does NOT want you to gain freedom in this area (you'd become dangerous to him!), I caution you to be careful what you say out loud about your struggles. If you are starting this journey as messed up emotionally as I was, there is a LOT of changes to your internal dialogue that have to happen. A LOT of emotional healing that must begin. Since Satan is not omniscient and cannot read our minds, he can only use against us what he hears us saying/sees us doing. My advice at first (when the healing needed seems so large) is to keep your struggles in this area a private issue between you and God. When you're really struggling with some kind of negative self-talk and your first thought is to talk about it with your friends (or even pray about it out loud), at first I would suggest to just pray about it silently. I felt like I didn't want to give Satan a clue of my weakness. Or if I was having a really bad day, I didn't want Satan to know that either! Call me crazy, but I really think this helped make the healing go faster. God could help re-direct my thinking and heal my tender soul without the enemy having a clue that the healing was happening. Oh sure, later on Satan must have figured it out - based upon my lifestyle changes and things. But at first, when I was an emotional wreck and walking war zone...I didn't want to give the enemy any extra ammunition to use against me. Give it a shot. I really felt I needed that extra "secret" dose of healing. Eventually, you will be strong enough to fight the enemy's attacks (you'll recognize them as lies). At first, though, I was so wounded I needed some strength built up before I was ready for that fight.
#2~ The next step is to make sure we've got a healthy eating plan in place. Maybe you're floundering around just because you've never settled on an eating plan that you can stick to. Or maybe it's one that doesn't work well with your lifestyle. I found that I needed one where I didn't have to think about food too much. As I was trying to overcome my food addictions, the whole process of having to weigh everything and write everything down seemed like too much focus on the very thing I was trying to "get over." For me, I found a healthy plan where for two meals a day (if I chose to follow it exactly), I had either a protein bar or a protein shake. It was perfectly balanced and healthy. It knew that for two meals a day, I could eat without any guilt or extra planning. Then one meal a day was a healthy, balanced one that I cooked and shared with my family. Find what works for you. If you think you're making some good headway on the head stuff, but the scale isn't moving...maybe it's time to take a hard look at your eating plan. Oh, and one last thing on this one - I HIGHLY encourage you to find a plan that is not a "diet." Make these permanent, life-long healthy eating plan changes. Diets don't work. I should know. Find the healthy changes to your eating that you can (literally) live with for a long, long, time. Looking at it as a lifestyle change helps to take away the diet deprivation mind-set.
#3~ Are you moving enough? This is the obvious next step, right? We can't conquer everything in a day or a week...or maybe even a month or more. The head stuff has to come first. Then once you've started to get some of that addressed, you begin to focus more on what's going into your mouth. Once that is set, I think it's time to focus full force on exercise. This is especially true if you're mostly a couch potato right now. Don't try to change everything about your lifestyle at once or you'll put too much pressure on yourself and set yourself up for burn-out. But at the same time, you have to know that regular exercise must happen - and not just for now. Regular exercise should happen for the rest of our lives.
As you begin to workout, maybe you're like me and you have some false ideas about yourself and what you can/cannot do. Don't be afraid to push yourself! Now is the time to break free from those comfort zones (that really weren't so comfortable) and challenge yourself to do things you never thought you could do. For me, it was becoming a runner. What's it for you? Build up your cardiovascular health and you'll be surprised what your body can do. It's really exciting when you start using your body more and pushing it to levels you never knew you could. Just one more way to stand in awe of God and His Majesty.
#4~ Ask God to daily help you in one specific area. Are you negative? Are you un-disciplined? Are you rebellious? I know that for me, often what leaves me struggling for every pound of weight loss is my desire to get as close to the edge of my healthy eating plan as I think I can get away with. Why would I do that? Rebellion (a.k.a PRIDE!). That whole thing of not wanting to be defined by boundaries. Being upset that x, y, and z should really be off limits to me. Especially if I feel that others aren't held to the same boundaries. I was thinking this morning in church about what God has called each of us to. If we are Christians, our bodies are to be treated as temples - because, after all, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us! Whether we're trying to lose weight or not, we need to treat our bodies with respect. Don't defile ourselves. Whether it's in relation to drugs, alcohol, sex, physical mutilation, what we think about, or our eating/exercise habits - we are to take care of these temples! I know that, for me, when I really think about my body in those terms it makes me want to eat lots more veggies and fruits. Stay away from junk food and empty calories. So when I ask God to help me to crave those healthy things - He is happy to help me do just that! When we ask for things that are in line with God's will, He loves to bless us with our request. My goal this month of October is to take a daily inventory of how well I'm doing with taking care of myself. I want to ask God each morning to show me what my area of greatest need for improvement is. I'm going to be bold and pray for Him to change my cravings and turn around my rebellious tendencies.
Let's stop thinking that God doesn't care about this part of our spiritual walk. If our relationship with food or our body image/self-talk are getting in the way of us being fully used by God...then you bet He cares deeply about this struggle. Oh how I can't wait to be fully free from these chains. Many of them have been broken, and I feel incredibly empowered in this area now. But I know God's not done with me yet. My deepest prayer now is that I won't allow pride, rebellion, or fear to keep me from reaching the finish line. If you're at the beginning stages of this journey and feeling overwhelmed by the length of the road ahead (or how high the mountain feels) - just start making better choices today than you did yesterday. Pray like crazy. Re-program your self-talk. Eat a little less. Move a little more. I promise you - all of those little things start adding up to big results. And I'm not just talking about the number on the scale.
Blessings friends! Until next time...
#1~ Everything mentioned above has to start with getting our heads on straight. I honestly can't stress enough how important this step is. This is the step that the study "Made to Crave" has helped me with the most. Every other time when I've tried to lose weight, I only partially dealt with the head stuff. And then it was never too far into the journey that my lack of dealing with that emotional baggage stopped my weight loss dead in its tracks. We HAVE to get our heads on straight in this area. God's Word has a LOT to say on the matter. If you haven't already done so, I hope you'll pick up Lysa TerKeurst's book "Made to Crave" and start letting her open your eyes to the Truths of God's Word. It is really life-changing stuff.
Want to know why this step is so hard? Because the enemy would like nothing less than for us to continue to be stuck in the crazy cycle (bad choices/guilt & condemnation/more bad choices). He loves it when we shower guilt and condemnation onto ourselves. He loves it when we call ourselves "fat, ugly, loser, weight loss failure" (or whatever else we can call ourselves). If we're all being honest, we know that when we're stuck on this horrible emotional "crazy cycle", we are NOT giving God our best each day. There's no way we could be! How can God use us to the extent He wants to when we're walking around not talking to ourselves in a very Christian manner? I know first-hand how years of negative self-talk can damage our soul. I was a walking war-zone. When I started the Made to Crave journey one year ago, I had to work the hardest at first on just speaking lovingly to myself. I had to, word by word, change my internal dialogue. I was a serious kind of messed up. When I look at pictures of me that are over a year old, I see the hurt in my eyes. I may have put on a smile on the outside. I may have been quick to laugh and sound cheerful. But I was one broken-hearted, sad, self-loathing person on the inside. Just thinking about the healing God has given me in this one area, makes me want to shout from the rooftops. Just a few short months ago, I was a prisoner in my own body. I couldn't break free from the chains of this emotional baggage. But through God...I am FREE! I'm singing the song as I type: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, THERE IS FREEDOM!"
One more thought on this first step. Since Satan does NOT want you to gain freedom in this area (you'd become dangerous to him!), I caution you to be careful what you say out loud about your struggles. If you are starting this journey as messed up emotionally as I was, there is a LOT of changes to your internal dialogue that have to happen. A LOT of emotional healing that must begin. Since Satan is not omniscient and cannot read our minds, he can only use against us what he hears us saying/sees us doing. My advice at first (when the healing needed seems so large) is to keep your struggles in this area a private issue between you and God. When you're really struggling with some kind of negative self-talk and your first thought is to talk about it with your friends (or even pray about it out loud), at first I would suggest to just pray about it silently. I felt like I didn't want to give Satan a clue of my weakness. Or if I was having a really bad day, I didn't want Satan to know that either! Call me crazy, but I really think this helped make the healing go faster. God could help re-direct my thinking and heal my tender soul without the enemy having a clue that the healing was happening. Oh sure, later on Satan must have figured it out - based upon my lifestyle changes and things. But at first, when I was an emotional wreck and walking war zone...I didn't want to give the enemy any extra ammunition to use against me. Give it a shot. I really felt I needed that extra "secret" dose of healing. Eventually, you will be strong enough to fight the enemy's attacks (you'll recognize them as lies). At first, though, I was so wounded I needed some strength built up before I was ready for that fight.
#2~ The next step is to make sure we've got a healthy eating plan in place. Maybe you're floundering around just because you've never settled on an eating plan that you can stick to. Or maybe it's one that doesn't work well with your lifestyle. I found that I needed one where I didn't have to think about food too much. As I was trying to overcome my food addictions, the whole process of having to weigh everything and write everything down seemed like too much focus on the very thing I was trying to "get over." For me, I found a healthy plan where for two meals a day (if I chose to follow it exactly), I had either a protein bar or a protein shake. It was perfectly balanced and healthy. It knew that for two meals a day, I could eat without any guilt or extra planning. Then one meal a day was a healthy, balanced one that I cooked and shared with my family. Find what works for you. If you think you're making some good headway on the head stuff, but the scale isn't moving...maybe it's time to take a hard look at your eating plan. Oh, and one last thing on this one - I HIGHLY encourage you to find a plan that is not a "diet." Make these permanent, life-long healthy eating plan changes. Diets don't work. I should know. Find the healthy changes to your eating that you can (literally) live with for a long, long, time. Looking at it as a lifestyle change helps to take away the diet deprivation mind-set.
#3~ Are you moving enough? This is the obvious next step, right? We can't conquer everything in a day or a week...or maybe even a month or more. The head stuff has to come first. Then once you've started to get some of that addressed, you begin to focus more on what's going into your mouth. Once that is set, I think it's time to focus full force on exercise. This is especially true if you're mostly a couch potato right now. Don't try to change everything about your lifestyle at once or you'll put too much pressure on yourself and set yourself up for burn-out. But at the same time, you have to know that regular exercise must happen - and not just for now. Regular exercise should happen for the rest of our lives.
As you begin to workout, maybe you're like me and you have some false ideas about yourself and what you can/cannot do. Don't be afraid to push yourself! Now is the time to break free from those comfort zones (that really weren't so comfortable) and challenge yourself to do things you never thought you could do. For me, it was becoming a runner. What's it for you? Build up your cardiovascular health and you'll be surprised what your body can do. It's really exciting when you start using your body more and pushing it to levels you never knew you could. Just one more way to stand in awe of God and His Majesty.
#4~ Ask God to daily help you in one specific area. Are you negative? Are you un-disciplined? Are you rebellious? I know that for me, often what leaves me struggling for every pound of weight loss is my desire to get as close to the edge of my healthy eating plan as I think I can get away with. Why would I do that? Rebellion (a.k.a PRIDE!). That whole thing of not wanting to be defined by boundaries. Being upset that x, y, and z should really be off limits to me. Especially if I feel that others aren't held to the same boundaries. I was thinking this morning in church about what God has called each of us to. If we are Christians, our bodies are to be treated as temples - because, after all, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us! Whether we're trying to lose weight or not, we need to treat our bodies with respect. Don't defile ourselves. Whether it's in relation to drugs, alcohol, sex, physical mutilation, what we think about, or our eating/exercise habits - we are to take care of these temples! I know that, for me, when I really think about my body in those terms it makes me want to eat lots more veggies and fruits. Stay away from junk food and empty calories. So when I ask God to help me to crave those healthy things - He is happy to help me do just that! When we ask for things that are in line with God's will, He loves to bless us with our request. My goal this month of October is to take a daily inventory of how well I'm doing with taking care of myself. I want to ask God each morning to show me what my area of greatest need for improvement is. I'm going to be bold and pray for Him to change my cravings and turn around my rebellious tendencies.
Let's stop thinking that God doesn't care about this part of our spiritual walk. If our relationship with food or our body image/self-talk are getting in the way of us being fully used by God...then you bet He cares deeply about this struggle. Oh how I can't wait to be fully free from these chains. Many of them have been broken, and I feel incredibly empowered in this area now. But I know God's not done with me yet. My deepest prayer now is that I won't allow pride, rebellion, or fear to keep me from reaching the finish line. If you're at the beginning stages of this journey and feeling overwhelmed by the length of the road ahead (or how high the mountain feels) - just start making better choices today than you did yesterday. Pray like crazy. Re-program your self-talk. Eat a little less. Move a little more. I promise you - all of those little things start adding up to big results. And I'm not just talking about the number on the scale.
Blessings friends! Until next time...
Another super powerful, Truth-filled post! I love it! You inspire me more than you know!
ReplyDeleteSweet blessings
Cindy :)