Your Calendar is Making You Fat!

"Oh! Teach us to live well!
Teach us to live wisely and well!
Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?
and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
Surprise us with love at daybreak;
then we'll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times;
we've seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
Let your servants see what you're best at—
the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
confirming the work that we do.
Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!" Psalm 96

I have been reading Debbie Danowski's book: The Emotional Eater's Book of Inspiration: 90 Truths You Need to Know to Overcome Your Food Addiction. I thought I would read one short chapter a day. Below is an part of the 1st chapter and the "truth" hit home hard:

"IT MAY SEEM unbelievable that the first and most important step in beginning a sensible eating journey has nothing to do with food. But if you think about it for a minute, it begins to make sense.

How many times have you become discouraged because you weren't losing weight fast enough? And what did you do when you became frustrated? Let me guess: eat.

One of the biggest mistakes most emotional eaters make is to plan their weight loss. How many times have you tried to lose weight in anticipation of that big party in a few months? Or any other big event taking place on a designated date? What happened when you didn't reach your goal? The party came and went just as planned. If you did lose weight, then chances are you returned to your former eating behavior shortly after the event. The calendar served as both a beginning and ending point.

Your journey into healthy eating must not be dependent on calendars and timetables. It must become a daily way of life. The truth is that no matter how much planning we do, the weight will come off in our body's time, not our calendar's. Weight loss is proportionate to the types and quantities of food we eat and the exercise we do, not to the amount of time we spend planning it. Planning our weight loss only makes us frustrated and angry when we don't reach our goals, or cocky and celebratory when we do. Either way leads us back to overeating. The time will pass no matter what, but how we spend that time is up to us.

..... So, go ahead! Forget planning your weight loss. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself. Your first task in this program is to throw away your calendar. Open up that garbage can immediately! Your body, and your mind, will thank you.”

Wow! To bring this thought home for me, a believer: If God "determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name" then I need to let him plan my weight loss! (Ps.147:4)

Col. 2:2-3 "My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

There are so many scriptures that talk about not relying on my own understanding or plans. As for the book - if this is chapter one - I am looking forward to learning more "truths".

Lord, God thank you for this new life and new beginning. Help me to be honest and true when it comes to my eating habits. Shine Your holy light on me and my daily thoughts and my journey. Lord, Your will be done. In Christ's name, Amen