On Buying & Bothering & Branding & General Weight Loss Weariness

Ever feel like giving up?

Throwing in the towel?

Calling it quits?

Chuckin’ all plans of eating healthy, smashing the digital bathroom scale with a  very large hammer then heading to a remote island to eat chocolate, potato chips and deep dish pizza for the rest of your life? (with little care for how said eating plan will affect your bathing suit body. After all, it is a deserted island, right?!)

Good. Then I am not alone.

And I am sure I am not alone in the next confession either.

My eating issues have plum sapped the strength right out of me.

Dealing with food issues and a scale that dances up and down the digital dial and the depressing thoughts that invade my mind when my weight is up (and the worry that captivates my mind when it is down and I fear I will “lose it”  and see it start to spike up again) well, they are a huge distraction in my life.

If I let them be.

Yes, I said “let them be”.

You see, we women who struggle with weight….well we buy too much. Oh, I’m not talking about fattening snacks and bigger sized clothes, although we do buy those things too.

I am talking about buying lies; lies like:

“You will NEVER lose this unwanted weight”

“You are physically lazy and totally undisciplined”

“You are undesirable”

“You are an embarrassment to yourself and your loved ones”

“You are ‘less than’ because there is more of you than _________ “( you fill in the blank: Your sister-in-law? Your slim and successful friend? A size zero co-worker? The Hollywood elite that stare at you when you are in the grocery line? The high school friend who stares at you on Facebook still lookin’ attractive and trim while you slap up a cute profile pic of your kids or your new puppy or some random flower so the old gang won’t see what you look like today ?)

Why do we listen to these lies; and not just listen to them, but internalize them? Make them part of who we are to the core?

While I’m not sure we can keep such thoughts from popping in our brain, we could stop them before they advance to the next level of destruction.

You see, what happens is this: Those lies go from an itty-bitty thought, to bothering. You know, we dwell and ponder and stew about the thought. Maybe it is true? We’ll never lose this weight, be desirable or disciplined and trim.

Yep, that is “bothering”. And it is distracting.

But sometimes our ‘bothering’ turns to ‘branding’.

Branding isn’t just distracting, but destructive.

Branding is a term used in marketing; marketing of products, services and people. It is defined as:

“The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product, service or person by regular advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.”

Basically, when people see, hear and experience over and over again an advertisement, they begin to form in their mind a “brand” of a product or person.

They pigeon-hole it. They stereotype it (in a good way) and it becomes memorable to them.

If I say “Nike”. You think of sweaty, physically fit, ‘never-give-up-but-just-do-it’ athletes, right?

Nike has done a bang-up job branding themselves.

However, the kind of branding I’m talking about here with us is a bad sort of branding. It is when we let those little thoughts grow and fester and bother us.

Next, we dwell on them over and over again in our mind. We internalize them. We let them become part of who we think we are.

Yep, we brand ourselves.

Then, we are stuck.

Or so we think we are.

I am here to tell you, you don’t need to stay stuck.

I don’t need to stay stuck.

We can “unstick” ourselves. How?

By changing our thought patterns.

And I’m telling you straight up sisters, it aint’ easy! Take it from a “lost over 100 pounds, went on national TV in my skinny pants and watched the preacher man hold up my fat pants while I served as an example to overweight, emotionally beat-up, “I-can-never-do-this” women that ‘Yes! You can do this!’ ” diet drop out.

Yep, last year I let over a third of what I’d lost creep back on again. Why?

I started buying the lies.

And it progressed like clock work from buying to bothering to branding.

Bummer.

However, I also know this reality: I don’t have to stay stuck.

It is up to me to make the first move. Then, God is waiting, as He always has been, to empower me to make the next step, and the next, and the next.

Because ladies, well….I hate to mention it, but I must. I wonder if all of our negative thoughts turned nasty eating, are more than a bother. What if they are also sin? (Stick with me now…)

Did God say we are hopeless causes, undesirable and basically, that we should throw in the towel and “let ourselves go”?

Nope.

He says He loves us, has a fantabulous plan for our lives (no, that word is not in the Bible, but it describes the kind of life He offers) and that He has made us fearfully and wonderfully.

So, if we disagree with God….well, could that be right?

And constantly beating ourselves up emotionally and branding ourselves with negative thoughts until we buy the lies hook, line and sinker, well….does that please God?

Nope.

Instead, we need to sow truth in our souls; truth that pleases God’s spirit. And NOT become weary while doing so.

“The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:8-9

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11

So, are you with me? Wanna agree together to fill our minds with God’s truths about us? If we flood our very souls with the delightful truths of God rather than the destructive, negative self-talk whispered to us by Satan, we WILL reap a harvest.

If, we do not give up.

Are you in?

_____________________________________________________________

NOTE: Be sure to hope over to Lindsey Feldpausch’s blog Redefining Health. As I announced last week, she will be beginning His Weigh Wednesdays, a cyber accountability group with three levels of participation, including some online participants whose progress will be publicly shared. Check it out! She is beginning today to take submissions if you’d like to be considered. For the rest of us (Yes, I’ll be there each week!) we will be encouraged to put God first in our eating and get to the core of why, in a world filled with “diet” head knowledge, our hearts still trip us up.

Also, many of you have asked me privately if I will still be discussing weight loss here on my blog now that the accountability group is shifting over. Oh yes I will! And, to keep in our routine, if I do post on the topic, it will be on a Wednesday. Also, our P31 president Lysa Terkeurst is releasing her new book Made to Crave in December and I’ll be hosting an interview and giveaway here centered on this fabulous tool for women!

SECOND NON-RELATED NOTE: Tune in this Friday when I’ll be a guest on She Cooks with LeAnn Rice and offering a kitchen giveaway on her blog. Her blog will link back to my blog where a second “back-to-school” organizational giveaway will be happening. Two giveaways in one day!! Whoo-hoo!!! See you then!!

THIRD NON-RELATED NOTE: Next week I will be letting you in on some new changes coming here on my blog. Nothing big. Just some things I’ll want you to be up to speed on to save you time and give you some opportunities to connect.

Have a fantabulous day!

10 Comments

  1. Karen, I’m a little late checking in. Kind of like the tortoise and the hare. Guess what? Last Thursday, I reached the 10% goal I had set back in December of 2009!!!!!! I thank God for you your encouragement and your prayers!!! God is so good!!!!! I lost a total of 23 lbs. AND have been accountable to two ladies who I see on Mondays! Before i joined this blog I had given up on asking to be accountable to others in my circle of friends. But after prayer and giving it another try, I have been blessed.
    Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
    With much love and gratitude,
    Gabriela

  2. Karen – THANK YOU!!!!
    Your post is what is happening to me right now. I gain weight one week, then the next week I lose it and then gain… and it’s doing my head in! Like you said, stressing about not loosing it or not keeping it off!! What to do, what to do??! I have learned lately to be more specific in my prayers so I will pray that God will help me to chase this wrong thinking out of my head.
    Thanks for running WLWs. It has really been a blessing to me! I will miss it. :-(

  3. I am new here today but God brought me here to listen to your message. I don’t know about Weight Loss Weds. but it sounds like I missed a good thing. I have signed up for your emails and will definitely be going over older messages. Thanks for being here.

  4. Hi Karen,
    I will miss you also for Weight Loss Wednesdays. Even though the journey I have been on has been frustrating, I managed to lose around ten pounds since you started WLW. You are leaving us in good hands. Lindsey’s writing is so insightful. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us.

  5. Just as I was telling myself last evening (while eating a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate and pineapple topping) that I was just going to forget the idea of losing weight. I am not getting anywhere…..and here today, God smacks me up side the head with your post!
    Thank you for allowing yourself to be used by God. Please pray for me.

  6. Hi Karen,
    Been there, done that! I know how incredibly frustrating it is to see the scale go down……and then the next thing I know it’s going back up! That has happened a number of times in my life and I’m sure it will continue to. That’s where we have a choice-give up/not do anything (which is still a choice) or get back on the horse.

    Currently my situation is a little different as I’m 19 wks pregnant, so I will of course gain weight. I have to admit this: I’m struggling with my fears that I won’t “lose the weight” after baby. This is my 2nd one with a large age gap between the 2 pregnancies and after the 1st one I gained more weight (yes, AFTER). However, I managaed to change my lifestyle around and I lost 35 lbs. It all goes back to destructive thoughts and branding as you mentioned.

    I’ve been active throughout this pregnancy and am treating it totally differently than the 2nd-more mindful/healthy eating. So even though I’m currently not trying to lose weight, I still internally struggle with issues you’ve discussed on your blog. I look forward to reading your blogs for encouragement.

    ~Amy

  7. I was on vacation last week and am just now catching up on your blogs. I will miss you on the weight loss Wednesdays! You have really helped me get my ducks in a row and I have managed to lose 30 lbs. since last October. You have blessed my life in so many ways. Thank you. I’m so impressed that you have embraced this change and are passing the torch. Thanks for letting God speak to you and for listening. I tend to get stuck in a rut and not do that. I’m looking forward to seeing where God will lead you next. God bless.

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