Tag Archives: new paradigms

Hung Up on Weight?

emotional eating, Free to Flourish, Last of the Weight Loss Journey, Simple things that make life better, Spirit Seeker, Weight Loss March 5, 2018 Comments: 11

My body.

It takes up too much of my thought life.

Especially the negative zings, which don’t belong in my head at all.

If you’ve been around for a while, you know that in 2012 I started paying attention to my body and lost 55 pounds.

Unfortunately I’ve found some of those pounds again. To be honest, I don’t know how many because I’m afraid to get on the scale.

I learned a lot about where I turn for comfort in 2012 and 2013. I mean you can pray and read Scripture and love your family and talk to your friends and all of that but still try to eat your negative emotions.

I got a lot better. I learned to pause to think about what was really going on when I craved food. And usually I could let go of the craving.

So here we are about 5 years later.

I haven’t totally gone backwards, but I’ve shrugged off more fresh veggies and healthy exercise choices than I am willing to admit.

And lately I’ve given space again to the negative “I’m fat” thoughts.

This has been going on awhile, and has really cranked up in the stress of the aftermath of my husband’s heart attack.

So why I am writing about it now?

Today I browsed blogs written my folks who’ve recently followed mine. I’ve had some new follows by people talking about health and weight and body image, including a young girl from another country. She’s only 15 but, like me, she’s focused on her body.

I’m 52.

I don’t know if it will comfort or discourage her that I still think about this stuff.

I was reminded this weekend of a blog post I wrote a few years ago. I posted a picture of how I really looked and a picture of how I thought I looked, which was much heavier. This memory made me wonder how much of my weight gain since that day is related to never truly being able to see myself as I truly was.

It’s hard enough in your 50s with these struggles, but what about this young girl–and all the others like her? What would it mean to all of us if we saw ourselves as we really are?

Not just our real weight.

I mean the real weight of our existence.

What if we saw ourselves as amazing, strong, worthy, and beautiful?

What if we understood our value?

Ladies, we are God’s treasure. The Creator of the whole universe had us specifically in mind even before the world began. GOD dreamed us up. He not only loves us, He likes us. He thinks we’re beautiful and unique and of great value.

He also knows all the wonderful things we are capable of–the ways we can impact our world for good–if we can break out of negative self-focus and live fully aware of our value and how He’s wired us to live in this world.

I was recently talking to Him about all the stuff bugging me. When I got to my weight, I swear I heard Him laugh. Not at me. Not in a mean way. Just a laugh that seemed to include a shrug, as though I made way more consequence of it than He did. As if all the things I found unattractive were not even an issue for Him. As if His focus was somewhere entirely different than those pesky extra pounds.

As if He thought I had better things to think about and do than to worry about how I looked in the mirror.

I’m not saying He doesn’t care about my weight or health. He proved His personal attention to this area of my life time and again as I lost weight and learned to make healthier choices five years ago.

What I’m saying, is that He isn’t hung up on my weight.

It doesn’t limit or diminish His approval.

He isn’t wringing His hands or spending precious thought time on the number on a scale.

He’s thinking about His women in a whole different way.

Sure, He thinks we’re beautiful. He designed us to be beautiful! It’s just that He knows beauty isn’t a number on a scale or a perfect figure or perfect outfit. Beautiful is being fully present in this world. 

Taking up our own space.

Living out our destiny of bringing goodness in our own unique way to our little corner of the world.

So to my new 15 year old follower and to myself, this is what I have to say.

Be healthy. Eat well. Live active and strong. It’s good for you!

But it is not your totally and need not be your world.

(Your world is so much bigger than a number on a scale!)

It is not your identity.

It doesn’t deserve undo focus in your thought life.

You have so much more to think about. So much more to do.

Like notice a sunset or a shaft of bright light.

Like laugh with a friend or encourage someone who needs a bit of help.

Like enjoy amazing music or art or poetry.

Or create it.

Like love.

Love others.

Love God.

Start by loving yourself.

To do that you receive love.

You believe you are of great worth to your Creator.

You tell your Creator you want to believe you are valuable.

You ask Him to help you change your thinking so that you don’t focus negative thoughts about yourself

You start seeing the gifts, the strengths, the beauty, the courage you possess.

As as you receive God’s love, then you share it.

You help a friend see his or her worth. See that there is more to them than what people think or say (and that’s what I’d tell another new follower, this one from India).

There is more to you than even than you know.

And it is good.

Until Next Time,

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PS It’s not too late to download that free Easter devotional on my website, Soul Scents: Selections for Easter.

 

 

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Authenticity, Courage, My Hubby, and DtC

Becoming a Business Woman, BeNew Products, Ditch the Can, family June 24, 2014 Leave a comment

For a year and a half I’ve let it all “hang out” here at A BeNew Journey. I’ve admitted my struggles with weight, with cravings, with grace. I’ve invited you to taste the hopes and successes even as I’ve invited you to walk through the struggles with me. In return I’ve been given the grace of wonderful support from you, my readers, friends, and fellow bloggers. You’ve cheered me on, wept with me, and shared your stories, too. Thank you.

This weekend my husband did something incredible. He began his own journey of public authenticity.1597648_10202467803671428_1674233776_o Over the years he’s allowed me to share bits of our story, but on Sunday he wrote a blog post that gives a glimpse into one of his most personal areas of struggle and pain, and he talks about how he is processing out of old paradigms to overcome.

Marking my weight loss journey through this blog has been a bit of an unveiling so I can succeed. It’s taken courage to talk about this place of shame in my years of obesity and courage to invite you into my successes. Jerry’s latest two blogs, Before and After with the DtC Movement Part I and II, are the beginning of his own courageous unveiling. I gave him permission to start with my story. I was thrilled when he used it for a springboard for his own.

Please take a moment to visit his new website, DtC Zone, to catch a glimpse of how finding the courage to face financial struggles can be a launchpad into hope and success.

I’m proud of my courageous husband. I’ve watched with awe as he has fought for the last few years to enter a place of pain and push through to the other side. He grabbed hold of a new way of thinking. Once he grasped this new paradigm, he then had to learn to walk it out. He is doing so with determination and faith, looking consistently to His God for direction and asking God to teach him to be the provider he desires to be for the family he loves.

Jerry and I are very excited about the DTC movement and how this new concept combines a tried and true method of producing income with the innovation and opportunities of this new age of social media.

I invite you to follow Jerry’s blog. To glimpse his own journey of transformation as you have mine.  If you intrigued, then why not follow the links he’s provided and consider not only watching, but entering this journey with him.

I entrust you into the hands of the man who has taken good care of me. I know Jerry will be faithful and loyal to those of you who choose to journey with him. His track record is proven by the loyalty, devotion, and faithfulness the kids and I have enjoyed the last 25 years.

San Diego – And We’re Off!

Becoming a Business Woman, Inside Out, Sidewalks and jet streams November 12, 2013 Comments: 5

Sometimes when you see the world, you can’t take a sidewalk, you have to stroll a jet stream.

It’s been years since I traveled west. In fact, best I can remember it was 15 years ago when we went to Hawaii. At the time Sarah was all of six years old. This time I flew with her and her HUSBAND! In case you’re wanting an update on the newlyweds, I think this picture says it all.

san diego 52Aren’t they cute??

Soaring above the snow-capped Rockies was breath-taking.

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I love to fly. I only wish the pilot would have announced it when we flew over the Grand Canyon. I’m fairly certain I recognized the landmark far below, but a confirmation would have been nice.

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For me, the trip was all about my new foray into the world of learning to become a business woman. Sharing the experience with Sarah and David was an added bonus. There are few businesses left where a family can work together for the common goal, but network marketing affords this rare treat. And even better, no one is the boss but everyone helps each other. I love this servant-leadership business model.

I had much to learn at the Life Force National Convention. Some of it I continue to process. You never know what’s going to bubble to the top when you get plopped into a new paradigm. But most of that story is for another post.

This day’s goal was to tour the home office. It was fun to pose in front of the sign of the company who helped bring Jerry and I back to health through its nutrition and weight loss products.

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Maybe it’s homeschool mom hangover, but I love field trips. I even loved wearing the stupid hairnets,

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seeing the bright blues rows of Body Balance and the huge vats where raw product is stored,

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and touring the shipping area and office space.

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Maybe I loved it all because I feel such a connection to this place, such gratitude for the people who formulated and marketed these products that have helped restore my health.

Or maybe it’s a piece of the American Dream that beckons me, reminding me that a business can start in someone’s garage just because a man was determined to find a way to help his wife get well. That little dreams can grow into full-fledged companies that sell product all over the world, helping people like me overcome health issues. And that the success of this garage business grew into something that helps people like me grow her own home business.

That just might be it.

I talk a lot about freedom on this blog. Usually it’s the inside-out kind, like losing weight inside to help ensure the weight on the outside stays off. Or finding freedom from the negatives of life, shedding old thinking patterns, and walking forward less encumbered.

Many years ago the Lord showed me that the novel I was writing was about my life call–joining with Him in setting captives free. I’d been set free from  great spiritual and emotional bondage and wanted everyone to find what I’d found. I spent the next 12 years writing devotionals, Sunday School curriculum, articles, and stories to share my passion. Then the car accidents happened and I couldn’t write for a season and the Lord used that time to introduce me to another area of bondage in my life.

Almost exactly a year ago God brought Life Force and the Benew weight loss line into my world and started teaching me a new kind of freedom–freedom from the outside weight. Freedom of movement. New joy.

I’m still processing that learning curve, and now He’s sent me on a new one, learning freedom from financial encumbrance. As I was to find out at the Life Force Convention, this kind of freedom, like the weight loss journey or the spiritual and emotional healing journeys I’ve been on, is also an inside-out discovery. More on that another day . . .

Until next time . . . enjoy your world one sidewalk–or jet stream–at a time.

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Enjoy life one sidewalk (or jet stream) at a time.