Weight Loss: God's Way
Here is the photo which prompted my to create this page. This photo shocked me. Sure, I knew I was fat, but here as you can see, I am a mess. The man on the left is my father-in-law. I hadn’t seen him in years and he looks to be in shock! Here I am 6'1", 285 lbs. 48"; (tight) waist. Look at the shadow I cast!
Since early summer 2004, when this picture was taken, I have been on a quest for a way to solve my obesity problem once and for all.
I have been overweight most of my life. I graduated from high school weighing 275 lbs. By fasting, skipping meals, cycling and jogging, I managed to get my weight down to 185 lbs in 6 months. I kept it off for 7 years but it wasn’t easy.
During college I had no problem with my weight: long hours studying and constant long walks to far-flung classes at Carolina helped keep me slim. Besides, I could not afford to eat what I wanted. The problem came when I went home for holidays or school breaks. I would typically gain 5-10 lbs which took me up to a month to lose. Mother could cook.
By 1982, after graduation, my weight began to creep inexorably up, up, up until I reached my maximum of 348 lbs in 1992. Since then, my weight has oscillated between 270 to 328.
I’ve tried many different diets.
- Slim Fast
- Dick Gregory
- Atkins
- Grapefruit
- Fasting/binge-purge
- OTC diet pills
As far as exercise I tried jogging as when I was a 18-19 year old: could not keep it up.
Most recently, I decided to try the low-carb approach again. One book, “The Carbohydrates Addicts Diet” was a revelation for me. I have a BS degree in Pharmacy. I know a little about the role of insulin in carbohydrate metabolism. I had never related it to my eating habits. Never made the association between my overworked pancreas and my love and craving for chocolate, potato chips, ice cream, cookies, and the like.
I tried the low-carb diet for a month or so. It worked. I lost some weight. I also lost weight on Slim fats, Dexatrim, Dick Gregory, and all the other diets I had tried.
Bondage
The problem with low-carb diets– and every other diet I had tried — was that while I lost weight in a physical sense, psychologically and spiritually, I was gain more in the form of bondage to the diet and to my appetite. All day long I thought about what I could or could not eat and when I could or could not eat it.
How to prepare the meat and eggs so that my meals wouldn’t become monotonous. And special occasions: the holidays, birthdays, dinner dates, etc., when I could not control the food set before me?
Losing the weight — rather that revealing the thin man underneath all the blubber — only revealed that I was a slave to my appetite. I only thought I had it in control. My master (my cravings) shrewdly allowed me to give up the carbs but only if I could gorge on what foods I was allowed to eat.
The secret to weight loss.
God created us as living souls. Spiritual beings made of flesh. Our life is in the blood flowing through our bodies. The fundamental processes to maintaining that life were programmed into us by God. Morally, we are free agents: in the flesh we are governed by immutable principles ordain by the Creator to keep us alive.
What has this to do with losing weight? God gave us a clear way to signal when to eat and how much to eat. According to God’s plan, we know we should eat when we have hunger pangs or when our stomach growls. We are to stop eating when we are full.
Simple as that!.
But for the obese (like me), something goes awry. We eat when we feel like it hunger pangs or no. I rarely actually felt hunger pangs. In fact now, I still have to wait a while to be sure its not just intestinal gas rumbles.
Fat people like me eat by the clock. Wake up in the morning, breakfast time. Around noon, lunch. 4:00 pm, start thinking about supper.
We eat according to the occasion. Go to the movies, got to have a large buttered popcorn. Playoffs on TV tonight, order pizza.
We eat by moods. We eat when we are happy. We eat when we are sad. We eat when we are bored.
Weight Loss: God’s Way
A better way
This is nothing new. This was the way my grandfather ate. He lived to be 97: slim and trim. All normal skinny people eat this way.
You were born eating this way. You cried when you felt hunger and you spit out the nipple when you were full. Only later did you learn to accept the bottle as a comfort because you could not make mom or dad understand what was really wrong. You grew to like the apple juice or soda they gave you to keep you quiet. Later it was candy or cookies.
God intended for you to live life on a spiritual plane: the physical dimension would take care of itself.
“25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew 6:25-34
First and foremost realize that for me and most other obese persons our eating is one of several symptoms of the real problem: a damaged, compromised, or nonexistent relationship with God.
What I needed and what you need if you are overweight and unhappy is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Good News that God has entered space-time in bodily form as Jesus (Yeshua, Yeshuat Elohim, Yeshuat HaMoshiah) and has established the Kingdom of God on earth in the bodies of everyone who believes in Him and trusts in Him.
And to those who believe on Him: “to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12,13
And He gives us the Holy Spirit to fill and empower us.
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:38
That is the Gospel. I know you have heard a lot of other stuff but that is it. Our response to the Gospel is to confess (to God only) our sins and turn away from them (repent). Next we immerse ourselves in Jesus. Learn all we can about Him. Pattern our lives after Him. Obey Him - especially His command that we be water baptized. This is not solely what saves us but it is a tangible effort on our part to identify completely with Him. Paul puts it this way:
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: ” Romans 6:4,5
Next you must join a fellowship of Christians somewhere. Join a church or messianic assembly. I will save you some work: there is no ideal church. They all have problems. You will find them all filled with people who may offend you in some way. Ask God to help you to become more Christ-like in how you interact with others in the church. How you might be a blessing. Eventually, I believe God will lead you to a congregation where you can both bless others and be blessed.
Weight Loss: The Plan
How to eat like God intended
Day One: On day one you are going on a fact finding mission. Your objective is to note each time you eat. Each time you put something into your mouth ask your self:
- why am I eating this now?
- Is my stomach growling?
- Is it meal time?
- Am I bored?
- Am I craving this particular food?
- Am I craving something else but I can’t figure out what it is?
After you finish eating, ask yourself:
- Am I satisfied?
- Did I really enjoy that food?
- Do I want to eat some more of this or am I now craving something else.
- Am I physically full?
Write this down if you like but make an effort to ask yourself these questions each time you eat something.
Sorry. This is all you need to do on day one. I know you are thinking this is not going anywhere: I’m going to www.weightwatchers.com. But if I had asked you to do something difficult like fasting, drinking grapefruit juice all day, taking a pill, applying a homeopathic diet patch, or drink only a diet shake, wouldn’t you at least try it?
You have tried may other things. Just do this then we will go on to
Day Two
The object of day one I hoped was simply to let you see for yourself that most of the time when you ate, it was not because of true hunger. How many times do you eat because you are truly hungry - stomach growling and all?
If you are like me, rarely unless I was only one of the popular diet plans which force you to go through extended periods of true hunger before you can have the next shake or the next pre-measured portion.
On day two, your assignment is to eat whatever you want to eat but only when your stomach growls. Eat as slowly as you can. I know that this is hard to do when you are hungry, but try to make your meal last 20 minutes. Eat till you sense you have had enough. Don’t feel that you have to eat until your stomach is full: just stop when you know you have eaten enough to satisfy your immediate hunger. If you want dessert, eat it now.
Now don’t eat again until your stomach growls. No snacks, no nibbling, no grazing. When your stomach growls, eat again whatever you want.
If your stomach starts growling 3 hours after your last meal, don’t worry. Go ahead and eat whatever your like. If you find your stomach is growling and you have to eat 4 times a day, go ahead.
Now lets go to day three
Weight Loss: The Plan
Day Three
Day three is a repeat of day two. Eat only when your stomach is growling and stop eating when you sense you have had enough — not when your stomach feels full.
” Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.” Proverbs 25:16
On day two, your assignment is to eat whatever you want to eat but only when your stomach growls. Eat as slowly as you can. I know that this is hard to do when you are hungry, but try to make your meal last 20 minutes. Eat till you sense you have had enough. Don’t feel that you have to eat until your stomach is full: just stop when you know you have eaten enough to satisfy your immediate hunger. If you want dessert, eat it now.
Now don’t eat again until your stomach growls. No snacks, no nibbling, no grazing. When your stomach growls, eat again whatever you want. If your stomach starts growling 3 hours after your last meal, don’t worry. Go ahead and eat whatever your like. I you find your stomach is growling and you have to eat 4 times a day, go ahead.