Excerpts From Intermittent Fasting & You

Idolatry

Like many people, I have been battling with my weight and self-image for most of my adult life. I spent my youth participating in year-round athletics and played a few years of collegiate, Division 1 basketball. I was very active and my body reflected my activity. But after quitting the team after two disappointing seasons, six pitiful academic semesters, filled with excessive drinking and greasy take-out, I was almost completely unrecognizable. I had ballooned from 180 pounds to 260 pounds and I felt terrible.
 

I have gained and loss weight repeatedly over the years. Losing weight always meant hours of exercise, running, sweat, squats, all types of lunges, unseasoned food, salads and hunger. I would literally work my butt off but be unable to keep it off. I would always gain back everything I lost, plus more. I carried the feeling of disgust and defeat around with me everywhere. They say that nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels and they’re right. No one thing does, but comfort foods, sugary drinks, busy schedules, guilty pleasures and/or lounging around from being run down by life make it hard to care about being skinny. When you’re surviving day to day, whether it be raising kids, a demanding job, multiple jobs, taking care of aging parents or marriage being healthy and taking care of yourself always seem to take a back seat.
 

After having my second daughter, I desperately wanted to get healthy. I wanted to be able to teach my girls how to be fit. I didn’t want them spending their lives yo-yo dieting and dealing with weight issues. I didn’t want my inner voice of inadequacy, self-disgust, and nitpicking to become their inner voices. I wanted change but did not know where to begin.
 

My girls are very spoiled, and we spend every minute of the day together. Taking off to spend one to two hours at the gym was not an option. To be honest, I wasn’t too sad about that because the gym has skinny people, being cute in their skinny workout clothes, not breathing heavy and looking gross like I knew I would have looked. Spending a few hours alone, at home, working out, uninterrupted was completely out of the question, too. I don’t know about yours, but my kids know nothing of personal space, privacy or alone time. Months passed by, and I was no closer to becoming any healthier. In fact, the numbers on the scale were getting bigger and bigger. I was in trouble, but my God came through and showed me the way. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 (NKJV)
 

It was during a sermon given by my beloved preacher and uncle, Michael Lowe, at my home church, Grace Bible Baptist, that the Lord made everything clear to me. Michael was speaking on idolatry. Hang with me, this will all make sense, I promise. The dictionary has the meaning of idolatry as the worship of idols. It’s listed as the extreme admiration, love or reverence for something or someone. For us Christians, idolatry would mean serving gods other than the one true God. God is very clear on His stance about idolatry. In Exodus 20:3 (NKJV), God tells us, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” God despises idolatry. He is the one, true God and He will not accept sharing His rightly deserved worship with anyone or anything else. Michael explained that “Idolatry was when we looked to any noun, person, place or thing to meet our needs or who or what we look to for guidance or comfort over God. Anything we put before God and His will, can be made into a idol.” He asked that we ask ourselves honestly what we run to in times of distress, anger, sadness, joy, boredom and confusion. I looked honestly and could provide no other answer than my yummy food; I was serving my stomach and didn’t even know. My weight, jiggling rolls of fat and cellulite were all evidence that I could not refute. Romans 16:18 (NKJV) states, “For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly...”
 

If I’m having a hard day or I am sad, I want something yummy to comfort me. When I’m celebrating, I want to enjoy a nice meal. I can remember snacking incessantly, for no reason, on lazy Saturdays (before my girls arrived. Lazy Saturday, HA). I have a happy dance reserved for moments when my food is especially tasty or when I get to enjoy that in which I have an exact taste. I do not have a dance reserved for God.
 

Matthew 6:24 (NKJV) states, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” I love God.  He is amazing, but I have spent my entire Christian life, loving Him, second to my stomach. My stomach has always been my spouse, My poor Savior, my side piece. I go to God in times of distress and joy, just after I’ve fed my stomach. If my stomach wants tacos, it will get tacos, by any means necessary. If it’s 2:00 in the morning and my stomach wants a yummy, snacky snack, a yummy snacky snack it shall get. Let God instruct me or tell me to do something, and I will either find a reason not to do it or a reason why it can be done at a later date. Despicable!!! That was a truth that I could not live another second accepting. It was time for an IMMEDIATE change!
 

If you can relate to food as I do, please take the time to acknowledge your idolatry and ask God for forgiveness. There is no shame in admitting this. Now that we know, we can ask our Father to help us fix it!
 

Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, as I now realize my idolatrous behavior with food and my stomach, I ask You in your infinite mercy to forgive me. I have ignorantly treated You carelessly and have not held You in the holy esteem that You so richly deserve. You are my God, my only God! Reveal to me other idols in my life that threaten my relationship with You. Help me to banish them from my life. You are the creator of the heavens and earth. I will praise You always. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Thank You for loving me despite my shortcomings and help me to love You in all of Your magnificence. In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen!

I'm still fighting and I hope you guys are too!  

~Stay in the fight!