I am so excited, my fingers on the keyboard can hardly keep up with my brain!

Wonderful changes are coming for our Weight Loss Wednesday group. I firmly believe they are needed, will be immensely helpful, and are actually what God had planned all along. Let me explain.

Last fall, we began our little cyber-group of sisters here trying to encourage each other to eat less and move more. We started with around 75 gals. More joined along the way.

As I’ve keep a list of email, we now number over 1,000. However, on any given week, the same group of “regulars” usually check in. This number can vary from 971 to 15!!!

The numbers never really mattered much to me. Each week as I posted, I always felt God use the words on the screen to encourage at least one other gal who would leave a comment and to help keep my own mind focused.

We also saw results. Since beginning last October, many of you have emailed me saying how much weight you have dropped and kept off. I myself shed around 30 pounds.

Enter my creative, Jesus-loving, have-struggled-with-weight-my-whole-life friend Lindsey Feldpausch.

Three years ago, I heard through her mother-in-law, my close friend Eileen, that she had a dream to write a book. Always grateful for the help I received nearly twenty years ago from an author and speaker who later became my mentor, sweet Elise Arndt, I decided to get together with Lindsey, give her a copy of our Proverbs 31 compilation book edited by Marybeth Whalen on getting started as an author called For the Write Reason and help her in any way I could.

Fast forward to 2010.

Lindsey has a passion for God-centered weight loss. She lives it; she breathes it; she can’t stop talking about it.

So I encouraged her to start a blog about it; forced her to get a Facebook page; and I hopped on both of those to cheer her on. However, as I did, something happened.

She cheered me on.

Seriously.

Ladies, this gal has a passion for Jesus and an uncanny way of transferring it to all those around her. She has a fresh take on weight loss I have seen no where else. She even has a completed manuscript for a book on this topic that God laid on her heart.

She and I got to spend precious time together at our Proverbs 31 She Speaks writers, speakers and womens ministry conference a few weeks ago. As I left, she tucked a copy of the manuscript in my eager hands. I planned to read it sometime before school started.

Instead, the God of the universe obviously wanted me to read it that day for my suppose-to-be-home-in-4-hours trip experienced delays, aircraft changes, mechanical problems and even a ramdom knob falling of the flight panel just as we were to leave. This more than doubled my travel time giving me more than enough time to read the entire manuscript.

I could NOT put it down. In the airport, on the plane, in the bathroom.

Honest!

And as I sat on the tarmac in Detroit finally ready for my last 18 minute flight, I bawled like a baby at the end. I’m talking snot-running-down-my-face-shoulder-heaving bawling.

So…..it has become clear to me that the reason God wanted me to start Weight Loss Wednesdays, was not so I could keep it going, but so I could pass the torch (uh…er, maybe the fork!) to Lindsey.

Sisters….you are gonna be encouraged; inspired. This “why is this such a lifelong battle for me?” question will come into focus. She has fabulous ideas and some clever and creative features she is going to implement. (Including my favorite– watching the progress of a few of the participants in a sort of “reality tv” kind of way)

It is gonna be called His Weigh Wednesdays. And I hope to see you ALL there. I’ll be the one sitting on the sideline with a big smile and an eager heart as I too am cheered on.

So, in order to make this transition as seamless as possible, I will still post next week and remind everyone of the change. And over at Redefining Health, Lindsey will give more particulars and ask for volunteers for the progress dealio thing (sorry, the name of it escapes me now!)

And, she is making sure there is a place for everyone: those who want to be the ‘guinea pigs’ whose progress we can watch; those who will be regular commenters and a vital part of the group each week; and the snoopers–those who poke around and watch, but who never leave a comment. Snoopers are TOTALLY welcome!

So September 1st Weight Loss Wednesdays shuts down and His Weigh Wednesdays begins!

You’ll still have a place to go for encouragement; a group to check-in with; connection to experience.

Lindsey will be enabled to live her passion.

I will be enabled to tackle some topics I feel God nudging me to take on.

Oh, I’m sure I’ll still post occasionally about weight loss. I’ll still feature some guests on that topic. (In fact, our P31 president and my dear ‘sistah’ Lysa TerKeurst is releasing a book in December entitled Made to Crave. It deals with satisfying our deepest desires with God, not food and tackles the whole ‘craving’ piece of the weight loss pie— plus so much more. You are gonna love it and you can bet I’ll be chatting it up big time on that one!)

You see, I have come to realize I must take the advice I gave my “Building Your Platform” group at She Speaks; find your unique niche; what you were made to talk and write about. Then, stick with it.

I’ve been at this speaking and writing thing for over two decades (with a 5 year hiatus when God called me to a season of focussing solely  on my hubby and babies) and I am still finding my footing. However I know, although I am passionate about God-centered weight loss, it is not to be the main thrust of my ministry.

So, I hope you will be excited with me! I still want you to hop on this week and next and let me know how you are doing. It has been my IMMENSE pleasure to pray for you by name.

I will continue to do so.

Please hop on and tell me your thoughts. How was your week? What has WLW meant to you? How has God used it? What else would you like to see in an online accountability group on this topic?

Change is coming, and as my kids say, “its all good”!

Sweet Blessings,