"Every Body Matters"

Over the past few weeks I've gotten several emails from friends asking about how the healthy eating plan is going this year. I have been trying to take better care of myself for an entire month now, and let me tell you...it is working! I feel better, I sleep better, and my clothes fit better! I can even tell a difference in my mood, my energy levels, and my ability to focus.

I'm trying not to focus on the scale, but it has been SO encouraging to see it moving down! :) For those of you that have asked for advice on how to get started or even on how to stick to it once you start, I thought I'd include a few things that may help.

WeightWatchers Online has been great for me. It's helped me actually keep up with what I've been eating each day. It's amazing how all those little bites, sips, licks, or tastes of foods throughout the day add up! It's also been good to kind of reset my body and to learn to know when I'm actually hungry or when I'm just eating from boredom, stress, loneliness, sadness, or guilt.They  have good recipes and online support, too, which has been great.

WW got me off to a good start, but to continue throughout this month, I have really been relying on the things I learned from reading a book called "Every Body Matters" by Gary Thomas. This is a book written by a Christian and looks at the reasons for having a healthy lifestyle from a Biblical perspective. It is straight-forward and pretty blunt in places- which is exactly what I needed.

I'll list below a few of my favorite quotes from the first section of the book. Maybe they can help you too?

*We must stop treating our bodies like ornaments- with all the misguided motivations often displayed by those who build their bodies out of pride and ambition- and start treating our bodies as instruments, vessels set apart to serve the God who fashioned them.

*Understanding my body is an instrument of service to God is giving me renewed motivation to take better care of it in the face of my cravings and laziness.

*God gave us souls- and bodies to go with them. To be fully alive, fully human, fully the people that God created us to be, we have to take care of our bodies, discipline them, and make them our servants in our service to God.

*Not a diet. Not a fad. But as a life change, birthed as a spiritual exercise, a part of your worship, a new way of surrendering to God’s presence in your life.

*As the Bible states in 1 Cor. 6:19-20, we don’t own our bodies. They are not ours to abuse or care for according to our own perceived wants or desires.

*If we mistreat our bodies through poor diet and lack of proper exercise, we will pay the price for it. Such irresponsible behavior may not kill us outright, but it may open the door to problems like heart disease or cancer, which will usher death into the picture before its time. And in the meantime, the enemy can disrupt and disable our lives through sickness, which also thwarts God’s purposes for us in the world. (from Total Heart Health for Men)

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I'll stop there for tonight because, quite frankly, I'm not even sure that most of you will read through to the end of this post. This isn't exactly a comfortable thing to write about, and definitely not a topic that most people want to hear about. I do plan to share more from his book in the future, so there will be more to come. If any of you are struggling in this area of your lives and would like me to be praying for you, please comment below or send me an email at: osborne_kara@yahoo.com

Look forward to hearing from you! Love y'all!