Can God really help me lose weight?

 

Two months ago, I was sitting in a pile of clothes that was thrown to the ground after each one was tried on, sobbing with a ugly cry when I felt a sense of urgency that this can not be my day to day life anymore.

I was now on the fourth day refusing to leave the house. This particular day, my husband walked out of the house with all five kids without saying a word to me.

 

I sat there with conviction as I felt his frustration from afar. He was done trying to encourage me at this moment. My husband had been patient for months already. Consistently encouraging me and telling me that I was beautiful to him. He did all that he could do to understand my feelings.

But being in the gigantic pity party that I created for myself, I had refused to receive any kind words into my mind or heart.

I was completely heartbroken about my weight lost.

I went to bed that night feeling mentally and emotionally exhausting from feeling like nothing was working. But then as I laid there, a sudden spike of determination rose in me.

 

All the memories of diets I had tried was tearing me down. Reminding me that I failed each one.

 

How I tried a juice fast, gave up breads and sugars, even coffee….. without one ounce of weight dropping. Even worse: I was constantly tired and feeling sick with stomach cramps. Every diet made me sick and sucked every bit of my energy.

 

As a mom of five, that is a big ‘No, No’…..I need every bit of energy I can have.

Truth be told; that is the reason why I started stressing over my weight so much. It wasn’t that I couldn’t fit into certain clothes or the number on the scale bothered me. It was moments that I couldn’t get off the floor from playing with my kids without help or that when I carried my newborn up the stairs to bed, I was out of breathe.

 

Those moments added up to #momfail moments for me.

 

I wanted to have energy to go to the park with my children. I no longer wanted to dread grocery store trips just because of the work lifting kids into the car. Nor did I want to fear the future of my health anymore.

 

The next morning I woke up and for the first time I took the burdens of my weight issues to the Lord.

 

I didn’t ask for determination to get through the next new diet or to revive my body with little action. Nor did I ask Him to make me feel confident overnight so I could start a new way of living.

I simply told the Lord, I needed help and wisdom with how to care for my body. My request was to take the desire of foods that was not healthy for me away. I asked Him to build me to fight for a healthy life. It wasn’t about making me look perfect but instead to give me a better way of living for me, my marriage, and children.

 

Before I continue on, here is the passionate marriage advocate of me coming out…..

 

When we are overweight and become obsessed with how our bodies look in the mirror, imagine what we can be doing to our marriages. It can seriously cause limitations to intimacy with our spouse. We still may be sexually active but how intimate are we allowing our partner to become. Are we holding ourselves back or holding them back? Are we refusing romantic touches with them because we don’t like how our legs look?

 

These are things we can take to God. We can ask Him to help us lead us to a healthy life for the sake of our marriage too. This is just as important. If we do not consider this as part of becoming healthy, we can be provoking ourselves and/or our spouse into situations that should not happen.

 

After praying, I literally felt like it was an positive action towards change. Speaking to God about our weaknesses is refreshing but also convicting. It will take us to a new level of liability.

 

Within days I started a new lifestyle. No more diets. Just clean eating.

I've tried everything and all diets. Why wont I lose weight? Can God even help me at this point? Share on X

 

For me clean eating looked like this:

 

No fast food.

If I am traveling, I will choose wisely from what is offered but to avoid any fast food menu I pack small meals in a insulated pack. It is a money saver and so much healthier.

 

1 Gallon of water per day

Ok… I know this can seem intimidating but it is well worth it. What encourages me to keep drinking is buying gallon water jugs. I carry it everywhere I go. Watching the water go down throughout the day reminds me how much more to go but also push me even more when it goes down.

 

Stock up on fruits and veggies:

I visit Sprouts Farmers Market once a week and do a complete stock up so there are no excuses throughout the week. I choose items I can blend in a smoothie, make salads with, roast in the oven, and/or toss into my purse for a snack on the go.

 

Stopped 1 sugary item that I had every day:

Years ago, I heard someone say, “If you stop one sugary item you have everyday, whether its a candy bar, a bowl of ice cream, or sweetener in your coffee, just imagine how much weight you can loose?! That always stuck with me. I did that once with Starbucks years ago. When I stopped for 30 days I lost 13 pounds!! Can you believe that?! I was only twenty five years old so I am sure that was a big factor but here I am, giving up Starbucks again (expect weekends). I have not lost thirteen pounds in thirty days but whoa, so much more energy than compared to having it everyday.

 

Stopped eating meat: 

This is my most recent change and to be honest, I wish I did this a lot sooner. I was terrified to stop eating meat. I truly thought I couldn’t live without it but after seeing less organic meat coming into local grocery stores I knew it was time. It was hard to see where added steroids were put into “fresh meat”. I just couldn’t imagine putting that into my body anymore. Giving up meat is by far the best decision I have made thus far. My energy and focus literally skyrocketed within a week.  I personally did not feel any negative result from eliminating meat but I also take caution to making sure I am still receiving enough protein within my body per day. Speak to your doctor if you are unsure if this is a option for you.

 

Limiting bread intake:

If I do eat breads, I make sure it is whole wheat. By limiting my bread intake, I now crave it very little. It’s only about two to three times a week now that I will have a sandwich or toast. Warning: it took a good 30 days to get use to not have bread everyday. This was the hardest transition for me but well worth it.

 

Besides the eating habit changes, I also started to spend more time with God to change my perceptive on my body image.

 

Spending time with God has put my mind more on things that is good and true (Philippians 4:8). When you are walking in the spirit and thinking on things that we put in us while growing in a relationship with Him, we will see how little time we actually have to become negative about our body image. We will also pay more attention to what we actually want to be inside of our bodies..

 

A few more tips to live a healthy lifestyle is:

 

Set time to pray

This has been the most important part to my journey of losing weight and changing my eating habits. Through prayer I have found confidence in who God created me to be. It has also dramatically changed my perspective on my body image. Only God can do that!

 

Have an accountability partner.

My friend Dawn from DawnKlinge.com texts me three times a week. Mondays are to set goals. Wednesdays are to check in with our goals. Fridays, we rate how well we did through the week. And we always make sure to cheer each other on!

 

Find something that motivates you

For me, I love to journal so my new Faith and Fit journal from Fitlosophy was the perfect fit for me. It reminded me daily to spend time with the Lord and to write down at least three things that I am thankful for along with keeping track of my new lifestyle journey. Every morning I took time to write in the journal to write down my goals for the day. What to eat, how much to workout and what thoughts to hand over to God.

Always have healthy snacks with you.

Fruit is easiest to carry with me but since I gave up meat, having snacks that has a good amount of protein is important to my daily intake. I easily get tired of the same ol’ protein bars over and over so I try to carry almonds or other snacks that is higher in protein. Most recently I entered a giveaway on Mamacollective IG and was sent a package of Vanilla flavored Protein Animal Crackers from Good Zebra. So good! I have actually grabbed a few for when I am craving something sweet! They hit the spot when you need a sweet!

(Photo credit: @Goodzebra Instagram)

Stop looking at the scale

Seriously, stop looking at it! Check out this post that I recently found on Instagram that extremely encouraged me. I have officially stopped looking at the scale because of this post!

(Photo Credit: @Fittabulouslife Instagram)

As of now, there is no big drops in my weight but I am only two months in. It is all a progress. Proudly, the biggest progress I have seen in myself is my daily activity.

Here is an example from my Instagram page of what my days now look like just by eating more clean, exercising two to three times a week, and practicing all the other things I mentioned here.

Are you on a lifestyle change journey? Are you getting ready to start one or have a desire to start one? If so, what is holding you back?! Take this to the Lord. Seek counsel from Him and ask Him to lead you in areas of how to make changes in your life. But most of all, ask Him to heal you in areas of your body image that you may have against yourself. In my opinion that is the best way to start loosing weight and starting a new way of living.