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Balanced Beauties Lesson 5.2
In my last post, I discussed the struggle many of us have with emotional eating. I gave you ways to conquer the lie that food has the power to comfort. It’s not by our own will-power that we can break that habit, but by the Holy Spirit.
“Let us beg God for a fresh outpouring of His Holy Spirit in our lives.”
Ciuciu, Asheritah. Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction. Moody Publishers, 2017.
“”Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
Zechariah 4:6 NIV
He is the one that has to fight this battle with us and He is the one who will get the glory when we can find satisfaction in God alone.
As we gain victory in this area of emotional eating, we also know that WHAT we eat matters.
Our next lessons will be diving into how to fuel our bodies. By caring for the temple in which the Spirit resides, we are better suited to be used by Him in whatever capacity He places us.
Focus: Food as Fuel
In this lesson we will establish our “why” in the balanced physical nourishment of our bodies.
When we have a right relationship with food we can then move forward with the types of food we need in order to nourish our bodies. Nourishment is the intended purpose of food after all.
While I don’t believe in strict diets that are difficult to maintain, having boundaries, guidelines and goals are helpful. I also think moderation is key.
Anything too extreme – too much or too little – seems to go against the “balance” we are aiming for! Obsessing about nutrition can be an idol as well! Here are a few things we are going to focus on:
- ⬆️ Water
- ⬆️ Vegetables
- ⬆️ Whole or Real Foods
- ⬇️ Sugar/processed/packaged/fast foods
We will dig into each of these areas in future lessons.
Goals we hope to accomplish with healthy eating:
- 😷 Improve our immunity to fight off illnesses, virus and bugs.
- ❤️ Decrease the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases.
- 👨👩👧👦 Set a good example for our families and those around us in taking care of the temple God has given us.
- ✝️ Do what we can to improve our health so that we can serve God to the best of our ability in whatever He has called us to do.
5 Motivating Factors to Start Eating Healthy Today!
1. Keep the long term in mind. Satan wants us to focus on the short-term pleasures and keep our minds off of the long-term benefits of eating healthy.
2. You are not denying yourself when you say no to an unhealthy choice. You are caring for yourself – your future self!
3. You may feel you deserve it, but you deserve so much more than the temporary satisfaction you will receive. You deserve God’s best, which might mean short term sacrifice of the looming temptation in order to receive God’s gift of optimal health and feeling your best.
4. Our body craves what we give it. When we feed it junk, it will crave junk. When we begin to eliminate the junk, and replace it with the good nutrition our body needs, our bodies remember this.
Your body will notice right away when you go back to junk. It will reject it and you’ll remember how much better you feel when you fuel it properly. Your body will eventually crave what it needs and not just what tastes good.
5. While there are no “bad” foods, it’s best to avoid foods that God didn’t make. Processed foods are designed to be addictive. Salt, unhealthy fat and sugar are added in the processing that make the food taste good. So good, that we have a hard time eating them in moderation.
We should avoid packaged foods with longs lists of ingredients. As we wean ourselves off of these items, and limit or eliminate these foods, the cravings will lesson or even disappear.
Get Balanced
We are going to take a balanced approach to healthy eating for optimal health. We will not be taking extremes, or obsessing about nutrition. However, we will become educated about how to best fuel our bodies. We will focus on decreasing the foods that destroy or offer no benefit to our bodies while increasing the foods our bodies truly need to thrive and to boost our immunity.
Take Away
God’s purpose for food is to nourish our bodies. We have so many convenient food options that have been processed in order to fit our busy lifestyles. It is addictive and destructive with added sugar, salt and unhealthy fats.
When we eliminate as much processed/packaged foods as possible, and get back to the whole foods God designed, our bodies are nourished to perform at an optimal level – to do the work He has for us!
Scripture
“‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say – but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’ – but not everything is constructive.”
1 Corinthians 10:23
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
Hebrews 12:1
We have freedoms as Christians, yet those freedoms are not to be used in a destructive way. Our freedoms should not to be used as an excuse to do what we please.
Instead, as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and throw off the sin that entangles (that may be our emotional eating or overindulgence), we can run the race He has for us and honor the temple the Spirit indwells.
Action Step
Write out your “why”
When we begin a journey, developing new healthy eating habits for example, we can expect it to be difficult. We know the temptation to give in or to give up will be great.
When we seek God’s best, Satan will be working with equal or greater effort to defeat us. We need to remember why we started this in the first place.
Write your “why” down somewhere where you will be reminded often (the fridge or pantry for example).
Write down why you are choosing healthier options and the benefits you hope to achieve. Remind yourself that the long term benefits far outweigh the short term pleasures.
Habit
Review your “why” each day. The more it becomes ingrained in your brain the easier it will be to resist temptation and make healthier choices.
I am sharing with you my “Why”. Use it as an example to write your own. You might have other specific reasons you are choosing to eat healthy. Write it out. I promise, this is an important step – don’t skip it!
My Why:
I am choosing healthier options, because I was created for victory. I don’t want to fall into the trap of eating foods that are destructive or that I know are addictive and cause me to eat too much.
By choosing to be disciplined in this area, I am choosing God’s best. I am choosing victory in this area rather than defeat. I would rather fuel my body for focus rather than fatigue.
Sugar destroys my immunity so I’m going to say no to it as often as possible. I desire to be disciplined in the little things, because it’s the small things that add up to big things.
I want to be able to carry out the tasks that are needed each day. I want to be able to enjoy my future years without disease and illness, so I will do what I can to prevent them.
Why waste money and calories on food that is not fueling my body with the nutrition it needs? The short term pleasures are not worth the disease and sicknesses that will result from eating junk.
I want to do great things for God, so I will take these small steps of obedience in order to become disciplined in this area.
Susie Schroeder
Testimony
I have a new friend and new favorite author, Dawn Klinge. We have been in a group for the past 3-5 months learning all about Instagram together. Go check out her website and her books – you will not be disappointed!!
She shared her story of a recent medical scare, and the steps she took to drastically improve her health. I thought it would be another great motivitor to share here!
Here’s her story:
“From my lowest point, a Sunday afternoon in January in the ER, alone, (because of Covid rules) with what the doctors called hypertensive urgency, to now.
After being put on blood pressure medication, I was determined to do whatever it took to make the necessity of medication temporary. All indicators pointed toward this being a real possibility if I was willing to do the work.
I started working with Michelle, a dietician who specializes in heart health. I found her on Instagram @heart.health.nutritionist and we’ve been meeting over Zoom. I followed her plan – and it hasn’t been hard. There are so many wonderful healing foods that she told me I should be eating, that I found there wasn’t even room left for the ones I was supposed to be avoiding.
I also added regular strength training, walking, yoga, and running back to my life. Meditation has also been a part of my days, using the @HeadSpace app, and it has been super helpful in teaching me how to handle stress. Bible study and prayer have also been an important part of what has helped me.
Twenty-two pounds lighter, and I’m feeling better than I even remembered was possible – brain fog gone, energy up, blood pressure down. Recent blood tests and ultrasound showed big improvements and my doctor told me she fully expects me to be off BP medication within six months if I continue doing what I’m doing.
This experience has been a wake-up call, and a great reminder that God has already provided everything we need for good health through His creation and the amazing foods He has provided in nature. The less processed the food is, the better.” – Dawn Klinge
What a great story! I hope this is inspiring for you to take forward steps in your healthy habit journey! Stay tuned as the next few posts will be examining healthy eating a bit further. If you’ve missed the first lessons in this Balanced Beauties journey, be sure to check them out!
Lesson 1 Becoming a Balanced Beauty
Lesson 2 Finding our Identity In Christ