The True Reason

Okay, today is the day.  Today is the day that I am going to start eating right. Well, I am going to start with eating just meat and I will exercise five days a week.  Forget the fact that I am 100 pounds overweight and I have rheumatoid arthritis.  I am going to do this.  Oh yeah, I have to find away around this anemia, too.  Regardless, today is the day.

So what should I eat for breakfast?  I will start my day off with some bacon and eggs, because eggs are considered a meat, right?  Oh, I don’t have either one of those; well, I will just eat some tuna then. Oh wait, I haven’t been to the store yet.  Okay, well the store doesn’t open for another 2 hours… Hmm. I will get a breakfast sandwich without the bread and some juice.  Then I will head over to the grocery store.

Lets fast-forward ahead two weeks and chocolate, starches, and alcohol later.  I feel worse than I did when I started.  Well, that is it. Next month I am going to do the juice fast–no more excuses.   This time instead of trying to work out five days a week, I will focus more on four days a week; I will walk three out of those four days and that should make it better for my joints and give my body time to recoup and build energy for the next day.

Forward one month and six steaks  and two cartons of ice cream later!  I don’t know what is wrong with me.  I have good intentions but I just can’t seem to follow through.   Do you see the pattern that is forming?  Many of us can mentally win the battle, but when it comes to the follow through it is a different story.  It was not until I took the time to see my body as a vessel for God to use that I began to really take my weight much more seriously.  I stopped thinking of the clothes that I could fit in, the energy that I would have, and the self-confidence that would come with being thin.  I began to think of my body as a vessel.  The vessel that God has been waiting to use the moment I was born and the moment I gave my life to Him willingly.

Do you no know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you , whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

Too many times we get caught up in the new fad for weight loss or the new look for clothing, how the thin look will gain you more attention, power, or maybe even love, that we begin to lose focus of God and everything becomes about what we want and how we want it.  We want the loss fast and easy.  We love to lose the weight quickly and not have to give up or make those sacrifices needed to make us stronger as a child of God as well as a stronger vessel for Him to use.

You wouldn’t give your infant who just started to walk a bookbag of toys to hold, would you?  As a parent you help the child build up physically as well as mentally, making sure he can handle the responsibility before giving him that task. Well, isn’t it pretty much the same thing with us?   Keep that in mind next time you are setting your path to speedy weight loss.  Think of the things that you are trying to avoid giving up and how they may be the very thing that is hindering you physically as well as spiritually.

Our lives belong to God.  He doesn’t give us everything at one time.  He allows us to go through different trials and tribulation because they are what make us stronger and steady.  They are what solidify our foundation in the Word.  So remember we have to go through trials and tribulations with our weight loss in order to be stronger on the other end.  When doing it this way, it is less likely that we will fall back onto the habits that caused us to become overweight in the first place.

For me, I had to fast a few times and really take the time out and focus on God before I realized that I was using food to fill an emotional void instead of God.  We all have our issues and it is not until we take the time to focus on God that we can discover the cause of the gain in the first place.  Once this is discovered, it is easier to follow through what you see in your mind through to your body with God’s guidance. This will also help to continue on the right path to better health so that it is everlasting instead of a fad.