Grace & Weight – Encouragement for Dieters
For over a week I’ve been searching through my files for the columns I wrote for three years for what was then The Christian Writer. It’s not hard for things to get lost in the three filing cabinets, five carts of drawers, and three other carts of hanging files with two drawers each that are packed into my office that my husband calls “the black hole.”
I even searched in the basement but with no success. “Father, please show me where else to look.” Then I remembered the filing cabinet in our garage. The drawers are so stuffed I could hardly get them open. But finally, in the third drawer I found what I was looking for and something else. I’m certain God was NOT surprised!
Thirty-seven years ago I began work on Grace and Weight – Encouragement for Dieters. I found an outline for 17 devotions along with Scriptures for each, the introduction, and the first devotion. Thirty-seven years ago was also the year I launched the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Fellowship and directed our first seminar. I had no idea it would grow to a 3.5 day conference with a faculty of over 50, or that 24 years ago God would also lead me to begin directing the Colorado Christian Writers Conference.
Thirty-seven years ago – and this year’s GPCWC would have been our 37th year!
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Day 1
But I Don’t Eat that Much!
God has given us an appetite for food and stomachs to digest it.
But that doesn’t mean we should eat more than we need.
1 Corinthians 6:13 (TLB)
I’ve always resisted counting calories. And I detest kitchen scales almost as much as the bathroom scale. Unlike the scale in my bathroom I can “adjust” by the way I lean, kitchen scales can’t be fooled. (controlled manipulated sabotaged)
Perhaps I can blame my childhood or at least use it as an excuse.
Because my father was a diabetic, my mother tried really hard to follow the diet his doctor had prescribed. She carefully measured and weighed everything she gave him to eat only to endure his complaints that she was starving him. (I didn’t have a happy or peaceful childhood!)
You can imagine my dismay when I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes about 40 years ago. At least I don’t need to give myself shots of insulin every morning as I watched my father do. But I do stick myself with a tiny needle most mornings to check my blood sugar. I should check it throughout the day, but I don’t like needles either.
I would be a challenge for a weight loss coach, but since I can’t afford one, I need to get over my hang-ups.
While both the kitchen and bathroom scale are a “necessary evil,” they are tools I need to use. But as for counting calories, I have found a solution.
I’m an enthusiastic believer in the resource I found online. MyFitnessPal.com* does for me what I don’t have the time or patience to do for myself. Its database provides the calorie count for most everything I eat. I still need to measure or weigh a lot of foods unless that information is already on the package label. (Yes, I do read labels. That’s a good carryover from my childhood when I read cereal boxes as I ate breakfast.)
MyFitnessPal.com does more than just give me the number of calories in the food I’m about to consume. It also tracks the nutrients—things like fats, carbs, and proteins. Since I hate math, I love that it does all the calculations and so much more.
By faithfully recording everything I eat, it’s clear there is a reason for the pounds I gain. I do eat more than I realize!
The Bible says, “God has given us an appetite for food and stomachs to digest it. But that doesn’t mean we should eat more than we need” (1 Corinthians 6:13 TLB).
As I endeavor each day to eat what I need—not more than I need or what I crave rather than what is good for me—I’m grateful for what Jesus said. “Remember, your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” (Matthew 6:8 TLB).
So let’s be certain to ask Him and to weigh and measure our food rather than tell ourselves “I really don’t eat that much!”
Thank You, Father, for giving me so many good and healthy food choices. Forgive me when I choose to overeat. Help me, please, to ask You what I should eat and to control my appetite.
*There is no charge for MyFitnessPal’s basic program. I am not paid for this recommendation.
© Copyright 2020, Marlene Bagnull
