How to combat temptation, laziness & self-sabotage on your weight loss journey.
I don’t understand why people don’t teach this to us, because it has been the ONLY reason I’ve been able to lose weight. What most coaches and weight loss experts teach us to do is to count calories, exercise, eat a clean diet, weigh, measure, rinse and repeat. But not many teach that while that may get us to a thinner frame, the struggle is real. Temptation, sabotage, cravings, stress, emotional eating, bad habits, boredom and even LACK of willpower and motivation are seldom mentioned. How many diets have you been on where you’ve been told to just push through it, to be 'self-motivated'? But what do you do when your motivation to lose weight is gone? The willpower you had at day 1 has worn off and you’re staring a bag of Doritos in the eye? Where do you get the strength to say no? And what do you do when NO doesn’t come easily? If you’re anything like me, saying no to wrong foods is hard. Sacrificing your favorite munchies or dinners is NOT something you enjoy, and the sacrifice becomes TOO difficult until you finally give in. But WHAT IF it doesn’t have to be that hard? What if I told you that my faith is the SOLE reason I’m finally living in my goal pants? For so long I prayed for strength to say NO to the foods I loved. I sacrificed and tried to get the strength to say no to food because I wanted to lose the weight so badly. For.So.long. But then I started to read the bible and I learned that God doesn’t want our sacrifices for anything. He wants OBEDIENT hearts, seeking HIM for strength! What I’ve learned is that if obedience is hard; you’re out of balance in your disciplines. Here’s what I mean: If you're hungry; you eat. If you’re thirsty; you drink. If you’re tired; you sleep. God designed our bodies perfectly to know WHAT we need when we have a physical feeling. But what about when you’re anxious? Or stressed, overwhelmed, fearful, sad, depressed, tempted, lonely or confused? SHOULD our natural reaction be to eat? No. Our natural reaction SHOULD be to pray. But we're not taught to link these emotions/feelings with God. We're taught to feed our emotions/feelings with food. Matthew 4:4 says that “We do not live by bread alone.” Our emotions are just the hunger pangs of life. But we don’t feed our emotions with food. We’re meant to feed our emotions GOD. Through Prayer. God wants to satisfy our emotions THE RIGHT WAY. And in so doing; we’re strengthened to OVERCOME what attempts to weaken us instead of being overcome by our weaknesses.
Are you spending time with God? Every day? As a priority? If you want to hear from God, and to be coached in the spirit, even around food, then YOU MUST PRACTICE SOLITUDE. From it is the physical blessing of fortitude. (Fortitude is the courage/strength in adversity.) If Jesus is our example, our teacher, then we must nourish ourselves as he did. I found 22 scriptures where Jesus taught about seeking God in solitude, or where he escaped to be alone and pray. His solitude gave him fortitude and strength! It is how we stay connected to God. It is how we CONTINUE to hear him. It is how we learn to be led in the spirit, to then walk in the spirit, and override our bad habits or even temptation. Seeking God, prioritizing time with Him is a SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE. And THIS is the type of discipline that will lead you to the physical blessing of WEIGHT LOSS!
As a Christian, if you are struggling to lose weight, do a priority check on your life. Do you have time for exercise or tv shows, or even the news, but you don’t have alone time with God; expect your weight loss to be repeatedly hard. God doesn’t want us “sacrificing” foods and suffering to be skinny, using our willpower. He wants our obedient heart, seeking Him for strength, seeking God Power. This journey is about your spiritual maturity. It’s not just about arriving at skinny. It’s about WHO God is developing you to become for HIS will on your life. If ANY part of this process is hard for you, then you may be out of alignment with His will for your life. When you seek Him, prioritize Him and exchange ‘sacrifice’ and ‘willpower’ for HIS power. And that is when obedience becomes easy. Obedience to your food choices, to your chosen diet. From your obedience you will step into ease of physical disciplines. From that place you begin to hear Gods voice more clearly and you begin to step into supernatural strength over your excuses, emotional eating, bad habits, laziness and even temptation.
Discipline yourself physically to have spiritual disciplines. From this will come your Spiritual Blessings which will strengthen you to be led in the spirit against temptation. Do this repeatedly and you will experience physical blessings in the form of strength over temptation, laziness, bad habits, old excuses and EVEN weight loss!