No More Diet Rules!
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I hope you have been blessed by the focus on the truth God speaks over you, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
It has encouraged me to no end to see you participate in the study with one another in your comments and there are a bunch of you who have posted on the Accountability page! Be sure to email me and let me know if there is someone you want me to send your contact information to. Let’s get paired up for the next 5 weeks. 🙂 I don’t want anyone left behind!
This week, we have a chance to look at the *mechanics* of this way of eating and living. Where last week a foundation was laid for our relationship with our good and patient Savior and establishing the fact that we want to EXALT Him instead of making it be about ME ME ME, this week, we learn to rely on the signals that our Great and mighty, creative, God has put in our bodies. He has made our bodies to be trustworthy indicators–especially as we submit to our God in prayer and ask Him to guide us to be obedient and honest.
Here is today’s video:
You may need to renew your mind if you are fresh out of dieting or if you have been vacillating back and forth between Thin Within and a diet. Just jot down (in a moment when you are convinced) truths about eating based on the physical cues of your body vs. eating according to a plan provided by a dieting company or industry (who loves to make money out of our failure).
What IS true about letting your body signal you for hunger and satisfaction? Here are some truths to get you started:
- When I am hungry and eat, contrary to popular “wisdom,” I am not going to go into starvation mode and not lose weight. Instead, I am showing my body that it is perfectly safe to get hungry as I will eat when I am hungry!
- It may seem like a small amount of food that satisfies me. That is because it is! But I can eat again as soon as I am hungry!
- My body is so efficient!
- When I eat when hungry and stop when I am not, I choose an effortless, easy way of regulating my food intake.
- Eating when I am hungry and stopping when I am no longer hungry is the most natural way of eating the amount that my body needs in order to be it’s God-ordained size.
- Eating when I am hungry and stopping when I am not enables me to eat all kinds of foods that I enjoy. I don’t have to count. This works. It has for millennia!
- This approach frees me from obsession about food and nutrition information. I am free to use what I know about nutrition and free not to. I can listen to the Lord’s leading instead of the “leading” of the popular diet guru.
- God knows me intimately (Psalm 139) so it stands to reason that his way will provide me with what I need.
This is radically different from the world’s way of doing things!
Colossians 2:20-23 confirms this:
You have died with Christ,
and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world.
So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as,
“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?
Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.
These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion,
pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline.
But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
So let me ask you the same things I ask in the video…the same things we are asked in the material we are studying:
Has being obsessed (even just a bit) with food, eating and your body, hindered your growth to be all that God intends?
This is a convicting question! Notice that it zeros in on being obsessed with food, eating and your body…obviously, God has a plan for all of us that we haven’t yet realized! But the focus here is…what is keeping you from it? Is it possible that the very thing that you pursue because you “want to honor God” is pursued in such a way that it stands in the way of being what you could be?
If the Father seeks worshipers who worship in Spirit and in Truth, and we are thinking about ourselves so very much…does that, perhaps, tell us the answer?
What self-destructive lies have you believed?
What TRUTHS can you embrace to counter the lies?
Are you willing to befriend your body? What might this look like for you? Do you need to renew your mind about your body in order to do that? Here is what that might look like for me:
- My legs have enabled me to hike and bike ride and see amazing scenery where no car can travel.
- My abdomen–the one that has stretch marks (now faded)–carried both of my children into this world.
- My chest nursed my children to give them a good start. Even if I think I look like “National Geographic Woman” now (everything is dripping a bit south), I know that my body has done a remarkable job!
- My hands have played the guitar and keyboard for the worship team and our church family
- My teeth have chewed the food I need to get the nutrition I need and while I have sometimes used them to chew more food than I need, I am still thankful for them!
- My feet–which I so often criticize for being too big–have carried my body for 52 years (less the first year of my life, I guess). They have taken me all kinds of places!
- My shoulders–as broad as they are–have enabled me to be strong to move hay, to carry furniture when needed and other heavy burdens.
I think you get the idea. Sometimes, I need to renew my mind several times a day about whatever it is I am struggling with. To “befriend” my body, as the authors suggest, I might need to review this list a number of times!
How about you? What do you need to renew your mind about as we progress this week and begin to get in touch with our hunger/satisfied signals? Does befriending your body seem impossible and, even, repulsive? Ask the Lord to show you HIS truth!
Assignment:
- Complete all of Lesson 2, the personal study and the group study.
- Write out your responses to the questions on page 45 under “Sharing and Discussion Questions.”
- Create personal HEAL goals for each level of the HEAL pyramid (page 36)
- Renew your mind about anything that God leads you to renew your mind about. I recommend doing this as part of your time with the Lord first thing in the morning–even if it is in the shower or as you dress and get ready for the day.
- Select an accountability partner if you haven’t yet!
Optional:
- Consider memorizing the verse on page 42
- Add to your God List and have a praise fest! Do this at least once this week, if not several times.
What do you sense God is leading you to make a priority this week regarding your eating, renewing of your mind, your time with Him, an accountability partner, and anything else mentioned in our study so far?
What questions do you have going forward?
Great encouragement…we can do this 0-5 eating…so simple yet so freeing…..praying that we can all do this for the week….focus on God and knowing Him not on my body…this is my goal…enjoy God’s presence and his nudging me when to eat and when to eat and than the courage to say no to my flesh and yes to God…
Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name. — Jeremiah 15:16
I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. — Job 23:12
Love the scriptures, thank you Marie!
Thank you Heidi ,
This so freeing…waiting for hunger and just enjoying the LORD and his peace. We ate out at a BBQ Place for a late lunch/dinner. Was very good. My husband and I shared our meal. We were very satisfied with our dinner. Later when my body is ready to eat and with God’s guidance I will have a dessert. Waiting for that 0-5. Jesus you are amazing, wonderful! = ) I fill so free in my heart….I also got the book thin within ON my Kindle Fire and my sweet husband blessed me with the book victim of grace on my Kindle Fire…what a blessing from the LORD. God really wants me to get it! : )
I need to get the book Heal next. Praising Jesus my savior all day long.
I went to the House of Restoration tonight and I was hungry. I went up to get a slice of cake but put it aside to see what there was t eat. I chose only a whole BBQ Chicken leg that included the thigh. It was on the small side and when both pieces were lined up they equaled to be fist size, not very big. After I ate that I did not know what to do with the slice of cake. Pastor Mike said “No, Desert?” I then took the slice of cake and gave it too Pastor Mike and told him I couldn’t eat the cake and that he could have it. So I gave him my slice of cake. I was certainly glad I found a home for the slice of cake tha I had. I did not want to throw it out. My book comes on May 16th so I will soon have the book.
Good job ladies, it is so encouraging to hear the victory stories. I learned in the study today that even though I am eating within my boundaries, I lie to myself and keep some foods off limits. If all foods are clean, why do I feel bad for choosing the pastry over the bran muffin? God showed me this is how I am still being legalistic. I tell myself I won’t be able to control my cravings for foods that I have deemed forbidden. God told me today it is OK, not just OK but great to be excited about a treat if I am within his boundaries and I can rejoice in it and be thankful for it. Then I can truly enjoy it without guilt and be satisfied with his provision. I am so thankful for this breakthrough and can also feel freedom seeping in!
This week’s lesson is really going to speak to me. Eating 0-5 is one battle but when I truly am hungry I find I stuggle with what I think I “should” eat. Maybe it’s too soon but a lot of days I still feel like eating things I have put in the unhealthy category. I think I need to try praying before deciding what my meal or snack is and tuning out all those “rules”.
I am a day behind, but this lesson was so needed today! I made the ultimate mistake, I stepped on the scale this morning after a weekend of weddings and family parties. Thoughts of starting Weight Watchers again popped into my mind as I counted the points of the cream I put in my morning coffee. Thoughts of eating fruit for breakfast (it’s 0 points) today came to mind. Thoughts of what I could have as a light lunch came to mind. Thoughts of everything but God came to mind. So it should be clear to me. When I focus on my weight, I don’t think of God at all. When I diet, I don’t think of God at all. This lesson was the encouragement I needed to start the challenge of setting aside dieting and following God’s way of hunger and fullness. For 5 full weeks. And I am taking up Heidi’s challenge from the last bible study of no stepping on the scale during these next 5 weeks also. And here I go. I sure could use some group prayers!
Your post is a great inspiration to me, Linda. Those “old” habits (counting points) pop up in my life too, and you are so right… when I focus on those things, I don’t think about God. Freedom from the scale is a beautiful thing… it’s ONLY measuring our relationship to gravity. Nothing more. (actually that thought always makes me giggle… “gee, let me go check my relationship to the gravitational force that holds me onto this planet…”) The only thing I care about weighing these days now is my luggage, so I don’t get overcharged at the airport! 🙂
MK,
Thanks for a humorous spin on what the scale really is!
Linda
PS. Thank you all for your post – they really do encourage me and make me know I am not alone on this journey! Linda
Linda-
You are speaking my thoughts today. The funny thing about my weight is I have no idea what God’s ideal weight is for me. My different weights (even at my high ones) were always self-imposed not God-imposed. Why then do I let the numbers on the scale encourage me or discourage me? God knows the number of hairs on my head. He created me and knows my thoughts b4 I think them. He has the ideal weight for this body that He created. Then I start to think “Does God even think in ‘pounds'”? No! That is a man-made unit of measure. I am also going to take the challenge of not using the scale for the this study. I will be praying for you Linda! : )
MK- Thank you so much for that insight about the scale. It made me LOL but it is TRUE!
Heidi-This blog and study have been blessing my socks off! Thank you for all your hard work!
Blessings to all,
Jennifer