“But I Haven’t Lost Weight!!!”

Could your mind be manipulating you into a false picture of truth?

One of my patients, after losing 65 pounds, turned to me and sighed, “But when I look in a mirror Ellie, I still see a huge woman and feel I haven’t accomplish anything!”

Unfortunately, that’s a common misperception. Our mind doesn’t always recognize our successes. “You haven’t changed, you are still fat and the same failure you always have been, so just give up!” is what Satan is whispering in our ear.

Don’t believe it! That’s stinkin’- thinkin’!

It takes several weeks for your mind to catch up with your body image. Allow yourself some patience. Positive thinking is a habit after all and changes take time before we are comfortable with them.

It’s important to create tangible evidence of your accomplishments. Sometimes like Doubting Thomas, we need to see progress with our very own eyes before we believe it.

Here’s a few helpful tips:

1. Create a personal weekly weight loss graph to recognize how much weight you actually lose.
2. Find an old belt to see how much smaller it closes around your waist.
3. Try on a piece of old clothing and see how loose it is.
4. Find an old picture from a year or two ago and compare it to a new photo. See the difference?

By comparing her old self to her new self she recognized how far she had come. She wasn’t trapped at all! She had broken through the mental, spiritual and physical bonds that had previously ensnared her. Her mental image simply had to catch up.

As much as I want to get healthy for you, you must want it more than I want it for you. It is an individual decision to put discipline and training into action to be successful. You alone become a new creation, inside and out. No longer should your mind be trapped into thinking you failed.

It doesn’t please the Lord when you degrade yourself. Just as we accept salvation individually, through a growing faith, we must put positive decisions into real life practice in order to produce the fruit of the Spirit.  We don’t always see that fruit of the Spirit immediately. Sometimes it is a “two steps forward and one step back” process, but you are still going forward!

Have you ever had a day when you’ve said: “I want to be joyful but, man . . . I woke up in such a lousy mood . . . and that boss of mine is such a  . . . and the dishwasher’s broken again and the bills are due . . . ” Sometimes we just do not feel joyful, patient, kind or self-controlled. Everyone has “one of those days.” Forgive yourself; realize you are human, not perfect.

“to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Physiologically there is no quick, safe way to consistently lose 5-10 pounds per week! It is deceitful and dangerous for diet companies to imply one can safely do so. We would be losing water weight, muscle, brain and bone as well as a little fat.

Quit searching for quick fixes and instant gratification! Start educating yourself. By making small gradual changes, you’ll discover fortitude, patience and physiological truths long-term, which honors God.

 God made you special. You were meant for a purpose and you aren’t disposable because God doesn’t make junk!