February 05, 2016

Temptation

When my weight plateaued while dieting I pulled out all the tricks found in a dieter’s toolbox. One maneuver was asking for a to-go-box from a restaurant to bring part of my meal home. However, it recently occurred to me that I should ask for a carryout before my meal arrives so that when I’m served I can box up half of it and remove some of the temptation from my plate. It’s not lost on me that after 40 days in the wilderness Jesus was hungry and the devil used bread as a temptation. For some of us our mealtime blessing should include what Jesus said to the devil, “It is written: ‘Man does not live by bread alone’” (Luke 4:4 NIV).

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----When I had ballooned to my peak weight I had heart-burn regularly, and my heels felt like somebody thumb-tacked their bones. I became miserable enough to cut back one-third on my normal meal portions. This cured both the regular heart-burn and the “thumb-tacked” heels. Plus, it taught me the reality of gluttony’s effects.
-----So when I decided to back off my peak weight, I didn’t think of it as dieting as much as just cutting excessive food intake. But this was hard for me to do because my lifelong home entertainment center had always been the dinner table. And when you’ve not learned to be content in all things like Paul was, then home entertainment centers are important recreational devices. Several years of reasoning were necessary to redefine the dinner table.
-----It didn’t help that the slow weight loss methods are so very what they are: slow. When my tummy is yelling for yummy and my mind is seeking to savor a bite of steak, the thought of having lost four pounds in three months quickly dissipates in the dream of romping in a platter of mashed potatoes. Then a little over a year ago, I stumbled across a new mental trick.
-----I have always been thankful for my Dad. He gave me many mental tools for prying open life’s little secrets and joys. One of those tools now became quite handy: water weighs about eight pounds per gallon. When that thought crossed weight loss in my mind, it was like, Aha! I never really cared how many or few pounds I weighed. Nobody looks at me and sees a poundage number. Besides, the more pounds I weigh the flatter I can squash spiders. But when people look at me they do think girth. And girth is gallons.
-----When I started translating my poundage loss into gallon loss, then four lost pounds became impressive. That’s half a gallon of belly tub gone. Well, not all from the belly. But half a gallon is enough to fill both my shoes and all my pockets, including my shirt pocket. Fill all your pockets with sand and pour your shoes down your tucked-in shirt, and that’s about the effect of four lost pounds. Then, another twist turns in my mind.
-----Driving home from church one Sunday when the girls were maybe seven or eight, upon seeing the cute little calves in the pasture, one exclaimed, “I love their cute little ears!” To which the other exclaimed, “I love their cute little noses!” To which the first asks, “What part of them do you love, Daddy?” “Oh, I love their cute little rib-eyes!” I proclaimed quite truthfully. And a rib-eye to me was always a pound or not enough! It’s easy to think of loosing half a gallon of waist, especially when I envision four perfectly good rib-eyes stuck around my belly. Now I’m beginning to realize just how much waste is in a one pound rib-eye.

Love you all,
Steve Corey