Confession – This is my
first guest post ever and I have been totally nervous about what to write. At Monkeys & Tutus I generally blog about
a lot of mommy and toddler stuff because I have 3 kids under age 3, yes I know
what causes that! I also blog a lot
about my quest for health and weight loss, which is partly what I wanted to
talk to you about today.
It is so easy for us as women to get caught up in the
constant need to diet. I know women of
all shapes and sizes that are on the quest.
It doesn’t seem to matter if you are a size 2 or a size 12 or a size 22,
most women struggle at some point with their want to lose weight for one reason
or another. You really can’t go anywhere
without being bombarded with the latest diet fad, the newest work out, the
newest gym etc.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be the best you that
you can be but lately I have been challenged and even convicted to quit being
so hard on myself and love who I am and to not put my want for physical health
over my need for spiritual health. I
don’t know about you but for me it is so easy to get caught up in trying to eat
healthy, trying to find time to exercise, beating myself up for doing really
bad one day and not spend any time working on spiritual health. I love this verse: Proverbs
31:30 in the message says ‘Charm can
mislead and beauty soon fades. The
woman to be admired and praised is
the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God’
My husband is sexy but you know when he seems even sexier to
me than just looking at the physical aspect?
When he prays, when I see him reading the Bible, when we are in church
and he is praising Jesus. I cant tell
you how many days I get caught up in everything around me and don’t spend one
minute praying, reading my Bible or seeking Gods help with the challenges I
face.
If you read Dalaynas guest post for All Things Blogs last
Friday it really sums it all up for me! It’s so simple to lose track of time
without setting out some priorities.
Lately my priority has been everything else above spiritual health. When that happens nothing works, I fail miserably
on just about every level; I have no discipline & no self-control. I know when I start my day right, talk to God
about things, seek his help, his guidance and his wisdom things fall into
place.
Matthew 6:30-33 MSG
"If God gives such attention to the appearance of
wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to
you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to
get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so
you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the
way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.
Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry
about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met”
It’s funny how we make things so hard when they really are
so simple. Seek God first and every
other every day thing you need will fall into place. Whatever your struggle is, be it losing
weight, getting healthy, finding a job, making a big decision, whatever it is
if we seek God he promises to show us the way.
My ‘health’ challenge for last week was to not have any soda, sugar or
chips of course I didn’t pray about it once, I didn’t ask for strength etc and
I failed. My challenge for this week is
to seek God first! Ask for his help in
managing my health and asking him to guide my journey.
Hope you found some encouragement and know that God loves us
regardless of where we are and where we have been. He is always there waiting for us to rely on
him and ask for his help. He promises to
never leave us and never forsake us. How
amazing is that?!
Thank you Dalayna for letting me share my heart and
challenges! You are an amazing influence
to other bloggers and I am very excited to see what your post will bring to my
readers!!!
Hey Misty! I totally agree that the pressure to constantly diet does pile up on women, if only because everyone's trying to push their one way of eating over another one, leading to a bunch of value judgments on people. You couldn't stick to this plan, you couldn't lose weight, try again, get caught in the cycle.
ReplyDeleteThe real key to weight loss isn't just about what we eat or what exercise we do—it's also about why we do or don't do the things we know we should do to become better. It's easy for us to get caught in bad habits like eating because we're stressed out or having a bad day. It's easy to say that we can skip the run today because we're bored of running the same route for ten days. It's a way of filling our different human needs.
I'd encourage you to take a look at this video of Beverly, who lost 230 lbs. without any surgery or weight loss "magic bullets" aside from diet and exercise: http://bit.ly/RVsSYU In it, our different human needs are explained along with ways to become healthier. It's not that long, and you might find it to be pretty interesting.