Blogs That Are Not My Own #2

I'm starting off the week on a killer 7-Day Plateau Breaker, so some spiritual reminders couldn't come at a better time for me.

This is the other blog that I didn't write that I want to share with you. I received it as a daily devotional last week and the author is Lysa TerKeurst, author of the fabulous book "Made to Crave". I'll let the entry, Shocked by My Own Advice, speak for itself. I hope you enjoy it and take as much away from it as I did!

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate
and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and
many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow
the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)

The choice is mine. If I want to be a sold out somebody for God, I have to break away from the everybody crowd.

Today’s key verses are not easy for a girl who wanted nothing more growing up than to fit in. Don’t cause waves. Don’t stand out. Don’t stand up. Don’t rock the boat of norm in anyway. Just go with the flow in the same direction as everyone else.

But somewhere along my Christian journey, going with the flow started to bother me.

Verses like the one above in Matthew 7 and Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” started to mess with my status quo existence.

Conformed or transformed? The choice is mine. If I want to be a sold out somebody for God, I have to break away from the everybody crowd.

This is a message I shared with my son one day when he came to me scared. He admitted things had gone a little too far with his girlfriend and wanted help processing what to do. They hadn’t crossed every line but enough that he knew they were headed in a dangerous direction.

We sat on the back deck and processed the situation together. We read a list of empowering Scripture verses seeking to filter every part of this situation through God’s truth. In the end, he and his girlfriend came to the realization they needed to break up. It’s really hard to put things in reverse after certain lines have been crossed.

I walked back into the house after that conversation with two things running through my brain. I was thrilled my son came to me to talk about such a sensitive issue. What an honor to breathe Truth into his physical struggle.

But, I was also feeling a little panicked at the realities of parenting older teenagers. And that feeling led me straight to the pantry, convinced I needed some chocolate. I deserved some chips! As I loaded my arms full of treats, I was suddenly struck by a gut wrenching question. How can I expect my son to apply Truth to his area of physical struggle but refuse to apply it to my area of physical struggle?

Ouch. I was shocked by my own advice.

If I wanted to model what it looks like to live out truth in my physical struggles, I would have to break up with unhealthy choices. God made me to consume food, but food was never supposed to consume me.

Making healthy choices with my food would have to be part of my breaking away. I would have to distance myself from my distraction if I wanted to become truly transformed.

What’s your distraction? What’s the one way you can start to break away from the everybody crowd?

The everybody crowd says, “if it feels good it is good.” The everybody crowd says, “don’t deny yourself… that’s so old school.” The everybody crowd says, “everybody’s living it up – so should you.”

Conformed or transformed? The choice is ours. If we want to be a sold out somebody for God, we have to break away from the everybody crowd.

Dear Lord, I want and need to live apart from the everybody crowd. Free me of my distractions. Remove my insecurities. Help me to follow You with my whole heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Please visit Lysa's site with the links above; she has far more valuable resources and insight in this area than I do (she is a professional writer, after all )

She did a follow-up blog,  I'm More Than the Sum Total of my Taste Buds, that provides the list of verses she used with her son. This is just a sampling of the additional resources you will find at her site that can hopefully help along your weight loss journey, as it has helped with mine. I've found her to be invaluable, because she's been there!

Have a great week everyone and please pray for me that I hang in there with this plateau breaker. as this one is going to be a killer!

Blogs That Are Not My Own #1

...but so good that I have to share them with you!!

First a quick update on my week: I lost 2 lbs this week for a total of 83.25. I am happy to have a much better week than the week before (only .5 lbs), but SlimGenics is still having me start a 7-day plateau breaker on Monday to assist things and keep them moving. I'm guessing that I will be starting Plan 1 after the breaker, as I'm only  1.25 lbs away from when they said they were going to switch me. I only have 16.25 lbs to go before I reach my original goal, but as I've said, I'm seriously considering adding 10 more lbs to that goal. We shall see. Now, onto the first of 2 blog posts that I did not write, but feel speak to what I believe and feel very well!

The first is a blog post written by my fabulous husband that so eloquently speaks to the issue of gluttony in a way I could never elucidate myself. I do not believe simply linking to it does it justice, so I'm going to simply re-post it in its entirety below. Enjoy:

We entertained a nice couple last night. Two very good people who sought our counsel in regards to Angie’s recent weight loss. During the conversation, Angie illustrated her views on gluttony and while I was very well aware of them, and the sound, God honoring logic behind them, I don’t know that it had ever clicked so well in my mind as it did last night.

The early church identified seven deadly sins: Lust, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride and… yes, Gluttony.

Gluttony, as defined by Merriam-Webster is excess in eating or drinking, greedy or excessive indulgence.

I think we can also expand that definition to encompass anything from cooking to video games to scrap booking or sports; anything that takes more of our time than is necessary and/or healthy. Overindulgence is to do anything to an excessive degree. Anything.

It’s pretty obvious God doesn’t want us overindulging, especially in light of passages such as:

James 5:5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self‑indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

By indulging in overeating we:

• Devote a significant portion of our attention to food. Attention that could be better spent in the Word, or doing His will.

• Devote a larger than necessary portion of our time and resources to food; time and resources better spent on Godly things.

• Harm our bodies, and decrease our body’s ability to perform as God designed it to. By harming our bodies, we drag down our spirit and emotional lives, for the spirit is anchored to the flesh, and if the flesh is already weak, how much weaker does it become when subjected to overindulgence?

• By dragging down our spirit and emotions, we become less effective for God, missing the opportunities to do things for Him at our full potential. God puts others in our path that we might shine His love on them, but how much are we shortchanging those people if we’re not at 100% because we overindulge in food?

• Our weakened body, mind and spirit become easy prey for those engaging in spiritual warfare. If God designed us to be spiritual prize fighters, yet we turn our bodies and spirits into those of couch potatoes, how easy is it for a fit enemy to defeat us?

Like everything sin related it’s a slippery slope that begins with baby missteps. No one wakes up one morning deciding to get physically, emotionally a spiritually unfit, instead we think, “It won’t hurt to grab some fast food for breakfast” Or “I’ve had a tough week, I deserve some comfort food” Or “We all have to eat, right?” or “one more chip won’t hurt anything…”

From there, it moves from “just this once” to “Well, I’ve done it before…” to “That’s what I do…” and pretty soon, our bodies, minds and souls are in worse shape than we care to admit or even realize. We’re soldiers in the army of the Lord trying to fight a war with broken down, poorly maintained equipment while telling ourselves we deserve this, selling ourselves on the notion that overindulging in food is a reward. A reward our society sells us daily. And we buy that sales pitch willingly.

I understand overindulgence more than most, I would guess. As a child, I was forced to endure hunger and often a lack of the creature comforts many of my peers took for granted. What this led to was a desire to escape my perception that my life was so much less than those around me by diving into a beer bottle. From there, I swam deeper into the waters of alcoholism and did so as if my ability to drink anyone I knew under the table was a badge of honor: Sure I didn’t have a nice car or awesome home life, but I could down a fifth of Vodka and still beat a sobriety test. Pretty soon, I didn’t drink for fun, or drink to blow off steam, I drank because it’s just what I did. I was a drinker; no longer a guy who drank, but a drinker… then a drunk.

After my awesome wife came into my life and I put that aside, I simply traded one overindulgence for another and turned into an eater; a full blown foodaholic.

From society’s point of view, I’d overcome this terrible vice of alcohol and straightened my life out.

From God’s point of view, I’d merely replaced one deadly sin with another.

Thankfully, I’ve overcome that too. Well, let me rephrase that, God has overcome that in my life. Without Him, nothing is done that has been done.

So, my question to you is: Are you moderating your indulgence? Or, are you worshipping at the altar of a false idol and rationalizing it as a reward for yourself, a deserved pleasure, as “just what you do,” “something I enjoy” another “where’s the harm in that” endeavor?

Maybe you spend too much time focused on food. Too much energy invested in a hobby. Too much time taken away from God and given to an indulgence that might be legal in man’s world, but by the very nature of your relationship with it, is illegal in the Kingdom.

If you don’t think this applies to you in any way, that’s awesome. You rock. But, before you decide it does, pray that God would show you whether your thinking on this matter is correct. If He shows you otherwise, turn it over to Him and watch as He transforms you into the son or daughter He had in mind when He knit you in your mother’s womb.

Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 

He then added an additional piece of very relevant scripture that he received in a daily devotional email as a comment:

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

I hope you enjoyed my hubby's blog post as much as I did and I thank him for writing it. I am blessed beyond measure to have him as my husband. I love you baby.

Your Grandma Was Right!

GREAT article from The Resurgence that ties right into what I said months ago about gluttony and overeating. Just too good not to share here!

http://theresurgence.com/2010/12/11/your-grandma-was-right-all-things-in-moderation

What Would YOU Eat?

Ok, so the countdown is on. I have 1 week before I start the new Slimgenics program. We all know the most important question at this point: What to eat?

Now, I want to keep my previous post about Gluttony in mind, so I'm not looking to go overboard here. However, I do want to enjoy some good food in moderation, so I'm thinking about the things I'll miss the most during the weight loss phase, and trying to get them in this week.

Some of my favorites:

• Pizza 
• Pasta with alfredo sauce (or any cream-based sauce, really)
• Mexican food (this one is tough for Minnesota!)
• Chinese food (Orange Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Sweet & Sour Chicken...)
• Pizza!!
• Did I mention Pizza? ;-)

Ok, so these are some of the foods I'm going to be enjoying this week, in addition to just trying to eat a lot of the food in the house that I would prefer is gone while dieting.

What are some of the foods that you would enjoy if you only had 1 week left to eat them for awhile?

Gluttony IS a Sin!

Awhile back, while having a strategic discussion about how to approach weight loss, Mike and I had a conversation that really stuck with me regarding gluttony. The bible talks about it and labels it a sin, just like overeating or sexual immorality. In fact, it was even listed as one of the sins that led to Sodom's destruction (Ezekiel 16:49, NLT states: Sodom's sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness...).

What specifically stuck with me was how so many Christians look down on overindulging in alcohol, but don't think twice about overindulging in food (us included!).

Like most people, we really use food to celebrate (and I don't think there's anything wrong with that). So at what point does it become sinful?

What would we say or think if we saw a family member get falling-down drunk at Thanksgiving dinner? Would we rationalize that they had a good excuse, because it's a holiday or would we still look down on the behavior? So what if we overeat until we need to be rolled out the door? We think nothing of that; in fact, most of us can completely relate. So just like having a drink isn't a sin, enjoying good food, in my opinion, also is not. But overindulging is.

So, how do we flip the switch and change our way of thinking to be more godly when it comes to overeating? My best answer at this point is to ask you to let me know if you find a way, because I haven't yet found it! ;-)

For starters, I looked at the definition of gluttony. I guess I never really viewed overeating at the occasional meal as gluttony. I pictured some 400 lb dude surrounded by food; eating day and night. However, the dictionary definition of gluttony is simply as follows: "excessive eating and drinking". So how does the bible define it? I decided to look at the passage from Ezekiel in different translations to see if it shed any light:

NIV: Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned...

NASB: Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease...

ESV: Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease...

Clearly, there have been many times in my life that "overfed, abundant food and excess of food" have applied. Heck, there have been times in the past week!

Does that mean that I can't ever LIKE or ENJOY food? I don't think so. I just believe it's about moderation.

I must try to work on that, especially with my birthday coming up...

I'd like to ask that you find some other bible verses regarding overeating and gluttony and post them in the comments section. Here's one more from me: 

Proverbs 23:20-21 (NIV):

 ²⁰ Do not join those who drink too much wine
       or gorge themselves on meat,
 ²¹ for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
       and drowsiness clothes them in rags.