If you’ve ever tried a weight loss program, you know it can be like a ride on a teeter-totter. Your weight goes down – then up. Down – then up. Maintaining your successes seems like the hardest part of the entire process.
What’s the problem? Why can you lose the weight but not keep it off? I believe there are at least 3 reasons why:
#1 – You are working at weight loss for the wrong reasons
- To look good
- To feel good
- To feel better about yourself
- To impress others
- To be “skinny”
NONE of these are the right reasons to lose weight. You need to lose those extra pounds because they are bad stewardship of the body God has graciously given you. You need to do it because you want to do what is RIGHT in God’s eyes. The kind of hard work required to be successful in any weight loss plan (and keep the weight off) has to flow out of a deeper conviction than personal vanity. If it doesn’t, your commitment won’t last.
#2 – You are trying to change your behavior without changing your mindset
Behavior modification simply doesn’t work for the long-run. You can only “be good” on a diet so long – UNLESS you begin to THINK differently about food, and the reasons for it. God gave us food to nourish and sustain our bodies, not to gorge on until we are overweight and sickly. As Dr. Fuhrman‘s book title says, we are to “Eat to Live” not “live to eat.”
Before you will be ready to maintain real weight loss, your mindset must change. How do you change your mindset?
- Begin with admitting your problem to yourself and to God. Confession really IS good for the soul. God says it brings about healing and cleansing (1 John 1:9).
- Follow up your confession with dependent prayer, day after day after day. Confess your need for God, and your inability to accomplish His “weight loss” will apart from Jesus (John 15:5).
- Ask Him to help you, to change you, to give you a new mind regarding weight loss.
#3 – You are not giving your body what it needs to succeed
God created your body to function well, which means that it knows how to maintain an ideal weight. It can only do that if you give it the right “fuel.” If you find yourself riding the weight loss teeter-totter, it means that your body is not getting what it needs in order to do what you’re asking it to do. You need a nutrient-rich diet that actually has the ability to fuel weight loss success. Simply put – you need to be eating your veggies, beans and legumes, fruits, nuts & seeds, and whole grains as the main parts of your diet. Poultry, oils, fish, dairy, sugars, and meats can still be a part of your diet, but only a very SMALL part (less than 10%).
Get off the weight loss teeter-totter
In my experience, these 3 things are what keep you going up and down, up and down. Get off the teeter-totter.
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About Carey Green
radical follower of Christ, husband, dad, writer, blogger, podcaster, marriage & family coach, counselor, speaker, retiring Pastor, and all around good guy (because of Christ). Connect with Carey on Google+
