Why Do You Want to Lose Weight?
I hope you love the products and resources I recommend here at A Little R & R. Just so you know, it is possible that I get a commission and collect income from the links on this page. Click here for more info. I am not a doctor, none of the information on any of these pages pertaining to the Ketogenic Diet or Adrenal Fatigue should be considered medical advice and should not replace the care of your personal physician. I am simply eager to share the information I have learned while on my own journey to health. Before you embark on this journey, please consult with your physician.
The question came to me recently, “Why do you want to lose weight?”
The answer was ready on my lips – the one I had formulated, because it was the right answer, “For my health”.
Because it is the answer we know is the best one, right?
The one we’ve been told women should embrace: weight loss for health.
But deep in my heart, I knew what the real answer was: I am not satisfied with what I see in the mirror.
I’m not happy with me as I am.
Health is secondary.
I am a Christian.
And I am one of those Christians who believes that the Bible is at the center of everything I believe and do.
So, when I began to seriously ponder this question, I realized that here is one area of my life that isn’t yet submitted to God’s Word.
I have prayed for God to help me lose weight (as recent as this morning), and yet here I am.
Still overweight.
Why Do You Want to Lose Weight?
Then a verse came to my heart
James 4:1– says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
Suddenly, a light bulb came on for me!
The motivation behind my prayer was entirely wrong!
I want to lose weight because I think I will be happier, more content, and feel better about myself.
I want to prove to those around me that I can do this. And when I fail I feel really bad about myself.
Those are not only selfish motives, they are idolatrous. How can my weight make me happy, content, and give me confidence?
The answer is easy: it can’t.
It never will.
Happiness, contentment, and confidence are only found in God.
For the past couple of years, I have been working on learning Paul’s secret to contentment:
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11-13
There are four areas where this completely alters how I view my weight-loss journey.
1. Learning to be be content with the weight I am at right now
Being content with where I am doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge that my weight potentially carries health risks.
What it means is that I refuse to look in the mirror and allow discontentment to rule my heart.
It means learning to love me right where I am and accept the fact that if I never lose another inch or pound, it won’t destroy my self-worth.
Because my worth isn’t in my weight, it is in Christ!
Sister, this isn’t easy.
It’s not only not easy, it is really, really hard. It means undoing years of toxic thinking and flogging myself with words and negative emotions.
But when I learn to be content at the weight I am, I can divorce myself from chronic dieting, daily weighing, and emotional ups and downs that are directly tied to what I look like in the mirror.
2. Learning to be content with the food that is healthy for me
Admittedly, this is a problem that I face, and I am certain that I am not alone here.
Being on Keto, I sometimes bitterly remember the delicious foods I could have before Keto.
I bemoan the fact that I make bread for my family and can’t have a slice.
I long for the large bowls of popcorn (that I all too often give in to) and gripe about how I’m not allowed to have that anymore.
I look at other’s meals and covet what they’re allowed to have.
Why?
Because I’m not content inside. I haven’t learned contentment within the boundaries God has set for me.
Keto isn’t about dieting – or at least it shouldn’t be (but in the interest of full disclosure, for me it is still that mindset!).
Keto should be about giving our bodies the food it needs to heal and stay healthy.
These are not man-made boundaries.
These are divine boundaries — because if God truly intended that chemical-laden Oreos and factory-produced potato chips were okay for you to eat….
even in moderation, they wouldn’t destroy our bodies defenses and lead to every kind of modern disease today.
The Modern American Diet largely falls outside the divine boundaries God has given for our consumption, and if we truly want to find the answer to our prayer “Lord, help me lose weight” we have to first start with learning contentment within God’s divine boundaries.
3. Learning to be content when full
If I sit too long, I ignore my body’s “full” signal and reach for a little more than what is reasonable.
Why?
My body is telling me I’ve had enough; and this is another one of God’s divine boundaries.
He created our bodies with the hormone leptin, which is responsible for telling us when we’re full.
Leptin is a divine boundary set for us.
But when we’re discontent inside; when we’ve failed to address the real source of our hunger – which isn’t physical hunger…obviously, since leptin has already told us, “You’re full”…
we will never be able to consume enough “comfort food” to bring us to a feeling of contentment.
We may consume enough food to bring us to a feeling of nausea from becoming over-full, but we’re still not content.
Food was never meant to comfort, and it was certainly never intended to bring contentment.
It doesn’t have that power, and we need to stop assigning power to food that it doesn’t have.
4. Learning to be content with my chronic illness that continually sends me running back to the throne of grace
God bless this broken road that is adrenal fatigue.
I am learning to find contentment within the divine boundary God has given me that is called Adrenal Fatigue.
The fact is, without it, I may have killed myself by now with stress, perfectionism, bitterness, disillusionment, discontentment, and toxic thinking.
But, discovering I have this chronic illness forced me to reexamine the mess I was in!
And over the past decade I have been slowly unraveling the tangled emotions and thoughts that led me here.
I have gone through phases when I felt like I was a victim – held prisoner in this body that doesn’t function like it should.
I have cried out to him, time and again, for Him to heal me — and you know what He has chosen to do?
He has chosen to lead me on a long path to discovering and correcting my wrong choices.
Not only with my toxic thoughts and emotions, but toxic food as well.
So, until I’m able to say with complete honesty and sincerity that health is my one and only weight loss goal, I am working toward total contentment.
But who knows, by the time I get there, maybe that goal will no longer be an issue with me!
- Freedom in Christ FREE 14-Day Challenge for Women - July 23, 2024
- 10 Bible Verses for Freedom in Christ – FREE Download - July 16, 2024
- Walk Free In Christ – the Book of Galatians Workbook – FREE DOWNLOAD - July 3, 2024
