I'm NEVER Dieting Again

I'm not tired of being fat, I'm not giving up on losing weight, but I am sooooo DONE with dieting. Forever!

Me and two other ladies at my church decided to support each other in our efforts to lose weight. We decided to do this early last November. We brought in all our diet books--I won--I had the most. We brought in all our exercise tapes--I won--I had the most. I had been in the most diet programs too. Ha Ha - nothing very funny about being a winner in this contest, is there? There I was again, dieting! And not being successful--feeling like a failure.

One of the ladies brought in a book entitled "The Weigh Down Diet--An Inspirational Way To Lose Weight, Stay Slim and Find a New You". It's been around since 1973. I think I heard of it, but thought it was just a gimmicky idea. It may have been the only diet book I had never bought. This book told me I was NOT a failure. It told me that there are NO "Bad" foods. It told me to ask God for help. It told me to pray before I ate--every time--BEFORE I ate. It told me to stop eating diet foods. It told me to eat what I like???? How could THAT work??? It kept me reading, to say the least!

I want to say one thing before I extoll the virtues of the Weigh Down book. Our little support group has grown from the 3 of us to 9 people. I think that using this book as part of a twice a week support group is VERY important. We truly SUPPORT each other. We rely on God to support us. The book is based on biblical principals. If you google the author of this book today, you will see that she has headed off into another direction altogether. Back when she wrote this book in the early 1970's, she was right on. I don't care with she is doing today....the principals in this old book are working. They make sense and God is rewarding each one of us in the group as we draw nearer to Him thru prayer and reliance on Him for His strength, not our puny willpower!

Here it is again

And it’s all about – okay here’s that word once again – CONTROL. The classic Type A personality with people-pleasing thrown in.

I give to others as my way of exerting my control over people and situations, I resent their dependence on my giving and giving because now they expect it and the stress on me to perform is ever-increasing. But can I release that control? Maybe for a little bit of time, but it’s excrutiating to do so. Why can’t I just trust the Lord, be obedient to His Word and rest assured that He will look out for me? Why do I have to manipulate every situation so that I feel some measure of control? A posting I read today has made me think about these issues to the point that I must pray to my Heavenly Father to cause me to desire letting go of control. I need to give up this filthy habit. Every thing that I struggle with in my life rotates around the control issue. I can see that now. Time to pray!

I spent 2 hours looking a non-diet websites, blogs, Yahoo groups, etc. The support group I belong to has decided to follow a non-dieting approach to weight loss and healthy living. The idea is that for 25 years(or how ever long each of us has had an issue with food) dieting just hasn't worked. We are now set to begin eating smaller portions and only when we are hungry. We have to reprogram our way of thinking about food. No BAD foods. Eat when hungry and eat only enough to sate that hunger. That means eating an amount of food about the size of a deck of cards. How can I do this? Only with God's strength. I have no willpower(i.e. control) over food.

Jesus, today give me Your strength to endure to the end of the day. Let me rest and not struggle to retain control. Help me to pray or call someone when I get weak, let me lean on You or a friend for help. I can't do this alone--I never could.