Not on a Diet

I should be doing a few other things, but I just have to blog while I have that first cup of coffee this morning. It's too good of a revelation not to share. I have lost 10 pounds. If you want to be technical 9.8 pounds - but I feel comfortable rounding to 10. I got on the scale this morning and it confirms what I have always believed - that you don't have to diet to lose weight. Diet, as in seriously restrict your food intake till you're starving all the time.
I did the Weigh Down Workshop years ago with my friend Carol, and we both lost a lot of weight. We also learned a lot of scripture. There was a big hoopla in the Christian community when the founder was outed as a Unitarian - which I didn't bother me nearly as much as her hair! More recently I had started to participate in a similarly Bible based weight loss program online that I failed at rather quickly. I learned something from both of these studies that I have applied with success this week - that God designed our bodies to work a certain way. He created our bodies to function properly under certain conditions. The problem for me was that these programs also required a great deal of Bible study.
Whoa - before anyone gets offended or feels I just made some sort of shocking revelation about an aversion to the Bible, please understand - I love the Bible. But, I personally refuse to use it as some magic formula to get me from point A to point B as far as my weight loss. I just can't do it. I personally don't like it when someone seeks to get close to me with ulterior motivation, and I personally can't imagine God does either. This is not to diminish in any way the successes that others have had - but for me, I know that all the scripture memorization and Bible study had an ulterior motive. Which is why when it ended, I gained all the weight back, and failed. The Bible study was a stumbling block for me - a program of guilt and obligation - when I didn't get to it or stay consistent with it, how I ate and the numbers on the scales reflected it.
But recently I have been thinking so much about what we are supposed to eat and not eat. I have also pondered the all things in moderation - meaning that nothing need be eliminated but put in its proper place. I have had the hunger pangs of an empty stomach. I have experienced the joy of eating cake again, and still been dropping pounds here and there. When I realize that my body is working the way it was designed, I am worshipful towards a Creator who made me this way.
No secret formulas. No guilt and obligation. Just me and God. He is teaching me all about His marvelous creation of the human body - my own.

Contradiction in Terms

I.hate.teen.magazines.
My daughters love them. Well, not all of them. They like Teen Vogue in particular. I have found a lot of healthy and positive articles in its pages. Healthy eating. Healthy exercise. Make-up tips. Hairdo ideas. Neat stuff - and things that teen girls like. There are some ideas about dating that we don't ascribe to, but all in all it hasn't been so bad.
My younger daughter loves fashion, color, perfume, jewelry etc. and has been very excited to look through magazine pages for a new dress for the upcoming formal dance we will be attending in WV in late spring. Today we bought a "prom" magazine sponsored by another teen magazine which contained an prom planning insert. I was thumbing through it and it really
got
my
goat!
The whole thing is a total contradiction. On one page they tell these young women that true beauty comes from the inside, and then peddle makeup, jewelry, clothes on all the rest of the pages. The insert to help plan for the prom is packed full of pages with "prom exercises" and a "prom diet" - complete with pictures of carrot sticks and a cherry tomato or two.
These mixed messages are broadcast continuously to young women, breeding the next generation of good consumers who will buy their "stuff" and participate in the "diet" industry. What clever, wicked marketers.
I am re-evaluating whether or not we will buy any more of these magazines. I want my daughters to be more concerned with the beauty of their hearts. I am thankful that they got subscriptions from my brother and sister-in-law at Christmas for Brio and Brio & Beyond magazines - which have a far better agenda!