Don't Forget Your River Stones - Part 6

How Clear Is Your Understanding of This Battle of the Bulge?

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom:
and with all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she shall promote thee:
She shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her.
She shall give thing head an ornament of grace:
a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.”
- Proverbs 4:7-9

The war on our weight is much the same.  Our weapons can be as simple as having the right motivation and an understanding of how food affects the way we feel about the things we want to do in life.  When you understand the person you want to be and the things you want to do have a direct relationship with the food you choose to nourish your body, you will begin to view food differently.

One of the things that will help you in getting an understanding is the effect of your culture on your eating habits.  Most cultures around the world celebrate most major events with food.  From weddings to birthdays, promotions to graduations, and even funerals we bring food.  When babies are born, we bring food.  We celebrate every holiday with food, and most of our family outings and events are surrounded by lots of fat-filled, sugar-loaded, festive-type foods.

Do you realize how much of our good times are associated with eating?  Wow!  Our first challenge here is to develop good times that are not inundated with fatty foods.  In some cases it is possible to celebrate without food.  We have all been conditioned to associate food with good feelings.  The problem with that is some of us are feeling a little “too good.”  Food is given for nourishment, we are to “Eat to Live, Not Live to Eat” (the “E” in DREAM).  We eat to supply our bodies with energy, not because we associate food with fun.

Beyond cultural influences, I was raised with pot lucks and church dinners.  My dad even stated one time that the “REV” in Reverend stood for “Rest, Eat, and Visit.”  As Christians we need to learn the difference between fun and fuel.  Now I’m not saying to cut out everything, but use some common sense.  Just because there are 15 different types of fried chicken on the table doesn’t mean you have to try them all.  I even heard a dear little lady at my church tell someone, “Oh, honey, a little bit of everything won’t hurt you.”   In fact it actually will.

Your body is like a machine, a very smart machine that takes the food it is given and turns it into energy.  It is simple mathematics.  If the body gets more calories and fat than it can use, it has to put the food somewhere, faithfully believing that you want to store it away for some future famine.  Then you will call for the extra energy to be used.  For most of us the future famine never comes, and the fat account keeps drawing interest until we can see it “growing” dividends bursting over our belts.

In other words, our bodies start saving the fat for a rainy day that never comes.  It stores all the excess it could not use into fat cells.  As we begin to understand this, we will be better prepared to liquidate the fat accounts and lay aside the weight.

Take an honest look at what you are eating.  Think about this, a typical cheese burger contains about 63 grams of fat.  When you add mayo, it adds another 23 grams of fat!  Throw in a milkshake with another 27 grams of fat and you’ve just eaten 113 grams of fat in one meal!  We are all told hamburgers and French-fries are bad for us, but most of us don’t understand why until we take an honest look at what we’re eating.

Our ignorance of the truth can be devastating to our waistline and our energy.  Most of us don’t understand what we are eating is doing to our bodies.  When you come to that understanding, you will understand why your body has to work so hard just to digest a meal and put the extra fat somewhere for later use.  Imagine the amount of fat grams we are eating every day without even realizing it.  Then you get into sugar, salt, and the list goes on.

Start reading labels on the foods you love to eat.  It is amazing how quickly the fat grams add up.  On the contrary, a great deal of food can be eaten before the calorie limit is reached.  Understand there are many foods that are low in fat and high in flavor, and easy for an overworked body to digest.  As you begin to eat better food, your body will begin to rejuvenate and become strong again.

Make better choices.  Learn to understand why certain foods help you achieve the tasks you’re determined to accomplish.  Also understand why the enemy would like to throw your flesh to the birds of the air.  Choose to stay alive and fight for the Kingdom of God.  There will come a time when your body will no longer have to turn food in to storage buckets of fat.

Understand if you eat too much, you owe your body the service of finding ways to help use up those calories with refilling the fat cells.  There are ways you can work this out.

Until next time…be blessed!

Remember to DREAM!