faith Archives - This Authentic Life

How can I lose weight with faith? Does this have anything to do with prayer, or the faith based diet fad? I am a jaded skeptic, now. Not by nature, but by experience. By nature I am gullible and want to believe everyone has my best interests at heart. Balloon popping moment: they do not. If you're like me, then, this one may be a bit hard. Especially where weight loss is concerned. Because you have to put in the effort, and then do it for a long, long time to see results. Even more so when you have more weight to lose. So, how do you lose weight with faith? Related: How Can I Get My Desire To Lose Weight – Think and Lose Weight Easily: Principle 1 Think and Lose Weight Easily - Principle 2: How can I lose weight with faith? You can lose weight with faith by trusting in the process you have chosen to follow. If you believe it, you can achieve it (oops, that's a quote from Principle 5. They are all interdependent, though, so it's all good). Is there a prayer for weight loss? We can write one. But first, let's think on this. If you didn't think your plan would work, why did you choose it in the first place? Why did you go to the dietician and ask their advice? You probably had faith that it would work. Maybe you thought, I'm not sure how because I'm not a doctor, but I think this will work. That's faith. And it can start to run out if you don't see immediate results. You start to get nervous. Did you choose the right thing? Are you wasting time on something that's not going to work? If I am struggling to lose weight, does that mean I don't have enough faith? No. It means you need to be patient, and have faith in the plan you've chosen. How Can I Lose Weight With Faith? Let's consider a tree. Because I think that's the closest thing to losing weight we can compare. A tree takes 12 weeks to sprout. That means that from the time you put it in the ground, you have to water it every single day for 84 days. You might miss watering it one day, here or there. But you cannot miss watering it for many days in a row. The seed would die if you did that. Then, after 12 weeks, there would definitely be no tree sprouting. You also cannot keep digging up the seed and replanting a new seed every couple of weeks because you aren't seeing growth. When you stop one diet plan after two weeks, and start another one you are doing this exact thing. Let the diet plan work for longer than 2 weeks, or a month. Or two months. Did you know that weight loss stalls can last for 6 weeks after gastric bypass? That's a lot longer than someone is usually willing to allow for their entire weight loss plan to work. And it's just a stall! How Do I Succeed At Principle 2: Faith Don't give up when you don't see immediate results. You can lose weight with faith by trusting in the way God has created His nature. Give your plan time to work. Fat cells can be very stingy, and hold onto everything they've got. Be persistent. Have faith in the process you decided upon, but more importantly, have faith in YOURSELF. You can DO THIS! I know you've failed at tons of stuff in the past. But we only fail at something once we stop trying. You haven't failed at weight loss yet, you've just not cracked the code. Don't stop. Never stop. Have faith that one day it is going to work out. Stick to it until it does. Have faith in your doctors, even though you've been let down before. Have Faith And Water The Seeds Everyday The farmer who plants the field goes out and waters it, even when nothing is happening. He invests in the seeds, which are not cheap, by the way. He knows that some seeds are duds, and that the birds will eat some others. But he still goes out there, every single day. He has faith that if he does the work, the investment will pay off. But he knows it only will if he does his part, and has faith in God to do His. Do the basics as laid out by your plan, every single day. Don't cheat, and don't give up. There was a point right after my weight loss surgery where I really had buyers remorse. What had I done? Could I undo it? This was probably the worst decision I'd ever made in my life! It was in the liquids phase, if that's not obvious. I was starving, and my mouth wanted nothing more than to chew SOMETHING. My (now ex) husband bought pizza. Every single night. I wish I were exaggerating. It got so bad, that I took a slice of pizza, and put it in my Ninja blender. It was horrible. And one of the lowest points in my life. I really had to take a step back. Was this going to work for me if I was blending up pizza? I decided to ditch the pizza (and the husband) and really take this path. I had to trust in God that He was sending me where I needed to go. I wanted this, and I had faith that it was going to work for me. A Prayer For Weight Loss Lord, please help me to not give up on myself, or on the process. Please help me to keep my eyes on my desire, and never forget how important this is to me. Help me to trust that the professionals I've chosen are correct. And if they aren't good choices for me, please make it painfully obvious immediately so I can find another doctor fast. Give me the strength to keep at this, even when I don't see the results I think I should see as fast as I think I should see. I'm a smart person. I deserve to reap the rewards if I can put in the effort. Please help me to put in the right amount of effort. I want to do this for me. I deserve it. A Different Use For Prayer Beads? Something that has really helped me in my weight loss, and curbing the binging moments, is using texture to signal to my brain that we are full. Something many people, of many different religions, have on hand easily are prayer beads. They may be called mala beads, or guru beads. But, if you have them handy, they can be used for more than just counting breaths or devotionals. If you are fighting a craving, or a binging urge, whip out your prayer beads and run them through your fingers. Focus on feeling the texture of the beads as they slip through, and tell yourself you can wait to eat. If it is helpful, repeat your weight loss prayer, or count your breaths using the beads in the traditional way. You can click the beads here to add them to your own toolkit. Keep Faith That You Are Worthy No matter how big you are now, or how much weight you need to lose, you deserve to reach your goals. It doesn't matter how many times you've tried and failed before. You are worthy of success. It's going to work. It just might take more time than you want it to, so you're going to stop trying as hard. Or you're going to try something else. And not give that enough time, either. You have to put in the effort, though. And stick with it. This can happen for you. If you can go every single day checking off the boxes you need in order to get there, this WILL happen for you. I have faith in you that you can do this. Do you? Keeping Faith Keeps You Doing The Small Things Weight loss happens when we do the small things, and we do them consistently. The hard thing isn't the weight loss itself. That's the magic of our bodies. We don't have to think in order to convert food into energy. Our body does it, and we have faith that it does it because it's proven. We KNOW it will work, so we don't think on it. Our job is to bring the right things to the body consistently. We have to hydrate our bodies with boring water, or maybe exciting cucumber strawberry water, but water. Then, we get to have a treat through our sugar-free coffee or iced tea. We shouldn't be hydrating with Trenta cold brews or Route 44 diet sodas. That's not hydration. When we forget that or don't know that really important thing, we will try to hydrate through kool-aid or juice. Hydration comes from water. Have faith in that concept, and drink water to hydrate. Drink everything else to boost your self-image, not to comfort your soul. Wait... what? Bonus: A Crazy Tip For How You Can Lose Weight With Faith Once you realize that you shouldn't comfort your soul through drinking, you can stop drinking just about anything but water unless you are intentionally having something to boost your self-image. Boosting self-image is not a bad thing, if you understand it so you can use it to your advantage. If you know that you aren't actually thirsty or "needing" coffee, but the best version of yourself always goes to Starbucks in the morning, then still get your Starbucks. But don't get a Starbucks because you think you're hydrate. You aren't hydrating. You are maintaining your self-image. It's not a bad thing, but it's not the SAME thing. And that's really helpful to understand. Because, now we aren't relying on Starbucks to fuel our day. We aren't relying on the cream heavy coffee in the same way anymore. Now, maybe you can replace that Starbucks with something non-food related that still boosts your sense of self, because you understand why you are doing it. It's ok to do it. I do, and I often feel like I'm a sassy professional, working in my high rise downtown building when I have an accessory with me, like my Starbucks cup. SUMMARY There is a song by George Michael, and it is playing on repeat in my head, "Cause you gotta have faith, faith, faith..." You are a smart person. You DO make good choices. Trust your intuition and have faith that you chose the right thing. Use your intellect and education to help the original decision, and then have faith that you did right. Allow the process to sprout, like a tree. Don't dig up your seed too soon, and don't stop watering it. If you don't trust your doctor or nutritionist, then find one you do trust or have faith in. Don't stick with someone you don't believe in, that doesn't help either of you. Happy weight loss <3 Related: What is the Power of Autosuggestion – Think and Lose Weight Easily: Principle 3