What convinced me to lose weight?
For me there is a difference from when I started to want to lose weight and when I actually started to lose weight. I wanted to lose weight when a girl I had JUST MET told me I looked “well-fed.” I wanted to lose weight when I saw “obese” on my medical chart. I wanted to lose weight when I had to move from a size medium to extra large. All these times that I wanted to lose weight led to self-pity and sometimes even binge eating. Obviously, neither of those helped.
But one day, I was getting ready to go to the gym. I sat down to put my socks on, and when I got up I was almost out of breath. I thought to myself, “how can I be huffing and puffing just from putting on my socks?” THAT was the turning point for me. It really was not that different from the other times I realized how out of shape I was, but for some reason, this stuck out to me. I guess I could not imagine being a good mom, wife, or friend in the future if I had to catch my breath after doing something as simple as putting on some socks.
The funny thing is that this story may not even stick out to other people and may even seem like a silly reason to lose weight to some. But hey, it helped me get started. Now I have so many more reasons to be healthy and my reasons for eating right and going to the gym have definitely changed.
How have my reasons changed?
When I started to lift heavier, I became so impressed by how strong I was. My goal became to just get stronger. In the process, I started loving my body as it was because I learned what it was capable of whether that was lasting longer than ten minutes on an elliptical or moving 85 pounds on a lat pulldown.
Being able to lift heavier also means that I need to fuel my body better. I learned how many calories my body needs just to function (also known as my Basal Metabolic rate). Then I factored in how often I exercise. I was able to understand how many calories I need to maintain my weight, gain weight, and lose weight. For me, in the past, tracking calories usually led to binging. But when I learned about my BMR I realized that it was probably because I was not eating enough. All this to say, I learned to also depend on God as I was making health changes. I prayed for self-control (a fruit of the Spirit), help, and strength.
Thus, my weight loss journey also became a journey to discipline and denying myself. As Jesus says in Matthew 16:24, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” In the past three months, losing weight became less about looking good and more about glorifying God.
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