Last week I told you about a recent seminar I gave in Pennsylvania, and how I saw people were the same everywhere, with the same needs and same struggles!
Out of 65 people, everyone raised their hand when I asked who’d tried a diet and failed. When I asked about two, three, four, or five diets, some still had their hands up. Five different diets!
We do it too. We’re so desperate that we try everything: Lo Fat, No Fat, Lo Carb, No Starch, No Sense, and more. But then we go right back to business as usual. It’s not the diet. To coin an old phrase, we have met the enemy and he is …us!
No diet works if we won’t. And the best diet? It’s no diet. It’s about eating right most of the time, and avoiding the things you know are bad for you. It’s about not over-eating, and in some cases not under-eating. It’s about getting moving and using the muscles that God gave us. It’s about taking your head out of the sand.
It’s about making decisions and sticking with them. Diets fail because people fail. When people get results, it’s really not the diet, it’s that they get off the junk, and start eating right.
We want to think it works though, because if it fails—and it usually will, then it’s not our fault—it was the diet. It was too tough, or too restrictive. We transfer blame to the diet, or system—anywhere but ourselves.
What we really need is some gumption. To stick with it. To not quit. To get back up and keep going. So it takes a year, or even two, to get back in shape. So what? Don’t quit just because it’s not fast enough to suit you. Or because you happened to slip up.
It’s kind of like marriage. The rate of divorce is what—50%? How can we expect success when we won’t invest ourselves in it? We’re too willing to walk away. We lack commitment. It’s the same thing with getting moving, and learning how to eat right.
It’s kind of ironic, because we’re so desperate to change—but we don’t. It’s biblical. The things we know to do we don’t, and the things we shouldn’t do—we do. We need some help with this thing.
The first step is to acknowledge our weakness. I’ll start. I really like Oreo’s. My first memory in life is sitting on top of the stairs at age 4, eating Oreos while my parents moved into our new house. I figure it was a convenient way to keep me out of the way.
Think about it. My earliest memory—cookies! Later, in school, as a pretty sick asthmatic, I became pretty much an outsider. No sports, no gym class—and no friends. All I had was my music, and snacks at home. No wonder I love sweet crunchy things. They filled the void. And no wonder I’m so into exercise and physical things now—I’m compensating like crazy for all those years before.
What are you struggling with? Where do you fall short? Is there a reason why you do the things you do? Spend some time and think about it. Pray about it, even. Get some real help. And get started!
No comments:
Post a Comment