I NEED to lose weight!
“You NEED to get to 145. This is getting ridiculous, Amanda.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said that to myself. I thought I needed my “ideal” weight.
The reason I "needed" it so badly is because I thought I’d be set, I’d be happy once I got there.
So, my body is one thing I obsessed about for years, believing I could change it but feeling out of control when I tried. It left me frustrated, embarrassed, and desperate. The exact opposite of what I really wanted.
Not something I look back on lovingly, to say the least.
If you feel like you HAVE to lose weight to be “happier”, enjoy life more, or be satisfied, then this is the lie Satan is using to keep you stuck and overweight.
How does this lie keep you stuck?
Well, one, it hurts your relationships with God.
When we think something outside of God, something in the world will “complete us,” we set ourselves up for heartache.
And if we do lose weight, we find that emptiness still present and tend to fall back into old habits to fill it back up.
Second, if your focus is on a number, every misstep that may veer you away from that number means you’ve failed.
When we see ourselves as failures, we quickly give up. Instead, if we work towards a strong relationship with God, with ourselves, and with our health, well, screw-ups aren’t failures. They turn into learning opportunities to helps us figure this journey out.
Ask yourself, “Do I need to be thin? Am I chasing after a number to make me happy?”
What will happen if I try to “fill myself up” with being skinny?
Do I think God wants me to lose weight? What are the benefit to God and me if I do or if I don’t?
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
The world is passing away, and all the things that people want in the world are passing away. But whoever does what God wants will live forever. 1 John 2:17
“Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.” C. S. Lewis
The only thing we can never lose is God. Let your happiness depend on Him. Once your happiness comes from him, then you're outside changes just like your inside.
Let nothing hinder us from completely loving God. Not even our weight loss journey. Even good things Satan can twist to blur our focus from the most important.
