Honey here, honey there...

Saturday morning...and PJ and Katie are watching the cartoons I was never allowed as a kid.

Unfortunately the topic today is a little too close for comfort.

Pooh is (again) stuck in a log because he has eaten too much honey--another reminder that my own pants are a bit more snug than I would prefer.

"Farewell my sweet honey..."

The solution has been derived, and pooh is on board, but it is far more difficult than anticipated. Trying not to think about it is counterproductive. Distraction is the order of the day. After some play, he gets free and goes right back to his honey.

Hmm...I don't remember cartoons being so pointed when I was a kid, although it seems like the solution is short lived.

Next episode--Neat little Piglet is convinced to play in the mud and finds it IS fun. However, as enjoys a cool nap in the mud, the sun encases him in a mud sarcophagus. I think he was better off being neat. Contentment in slop leaves you trapped.

The only time a diet worked for me it had to do with changing focus. Don't think about do's and don'ts--go live life. If you're physically hungry, by all means--eat! If you're only munchy because you're tired, bored or out of sorts, eating won't fill that hole, and will leave you with indigestion. So now you're bored, out of sorts and have an upset tummy. One of highest praises of the Pr. 31 woman was that "she eats not the bread of idleness..." I wonder if that includes girl scout cookes...

A recent Harvard/LSU study showed that within limits, the biggest thing that mattered was the amount of calories--eat less and there is less of you. All of these diets that have been trying to trick your body into losing weight turn out to be just that--a trick. Some may really work, but only when it does the basics.

This reminds me of trying to beat the stock market. A small group may be able to make a killing, but only at the expense of someone else getting killed. Is that really a good thing? All of this eventually means a massive bailout--the equivalent of stomach stapling surgery for an obese marketplace. Poke in one place and it pops out another. Greed for food, greed for pleasure, greed for money--same stuff, different day.

If God is really our friend, he must have a path out of this mess. Colossians 2:6-8, 20-23 was the core scripture for the one program that truly helped me lose weight:

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ..."

^"Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence."

In other words, instead of feeding your body, feed your soul. Be downright careful about who defines what is able to satisfy you. Contentment with slop is easy, but leaves you trapped. In the end, no amount of willpower will help if your heart is empty.

That's probably why the Harvard/LSU team found that counselling increased the average weight loss from 9 lbs to 22 lbs.

I know all of this, so where did I go wrong?

At one point, I had lost so much weight that people began to ask, "Are you ok?" I felt great, but their criticism was enough to derail my obedience. I suppose that's the final key. Pick your cheering squad carefully. Do not listen to the disinterested, the jealous, the concerned or the opposing team. Only God has the ability to speak life into your existence--everything else is just noise. It might be good noise or bad noise, but it needs to be checked to see if it is in harmony with that ONE important voice.

I'm back on track and down 2 lbs. Here's to a full heart and a not so full tummy!