Why Are You Here?

Welcome to Weight Loss Wednesdays.  We are a cyber group of sisters who desire to support each other in the journey down the scale as we grow closer to God.

Many of you who are new have emailed asking just how our circle of friends works. It is rather simple.

Just join us every Wednesday for ideas and encouragement (and the sometimes -needed kick in the pants!). Then leave a comment. We want to know both your thoughts on the post (if you have any) and how your week went with eating and all things health-related.

To make is simple, sign up to receive my posts via email by entering your information in the box over to the right just above the word ‘subscribe’.

And , if you haven’t already, don’t forget to join many of us Monday nights at 8:00 pm EST for Lysa TerKeurst’s Made To Crave webcasts over at www.madetocrave.org. They are chock-full of both information and motivation!

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Well, since we are beginning over in a sense and have many new gals joining us, let’s begin here:

Why are you here?

Have you tried for years to lose weight and get healthy, to no avail?

Have you lost weight in the past only to turn back to your old ways and regain it all again, and then some?

Are you a yo-yo dieter and SEVERAL times you have gone up and down the scale but can’t seem to make it stick when you are at your lowest weight?

Do you have health conditions that are causing you concern?

To use food in a way God never meant for it to be used? You make it your friend, your comforter, your distraction, your tranquilizer to numb you from emotional pain?

Do you feel left out of life? Can’t play with your young kids, participate in activities with your husband or shop at the regular-sized section of the clothing store?

Do you feel you are a poor witness for Jesus with the signs “lazy”, “glutton” And “undisciplined” on your back?

Why are you here?

I’m here for a combination of a few of those statements. If you’ve not seen my story, you can click on the “Watch Karen” link at the top right in the navigation bar. There is a link for my 700 Club appearance from 2007.

However, I must be honest and tell you I no longer look like my “after” pictures shown there. Now, I don’t look anything like my before picture either. But, over a year ago,  I did gain back around a third of the over 100 pounds I’d lost.

Now, I could blame it on many happenings in my life:

My husband got laid off for 9 months and I began to stress and obsess about finances.

Our daughter was a senior in high school whose college plans would now be affected by the lack of money.

I was feeling the weight of a special needs son entering high school.

I was  homeschooling, carpooling (my kids go to classes two days a week) and trying to get my next book published, a book several publishers said they’d take on, if only the economy weren’t so bad and I weren’t a “medium-sized author” (meaning not a runaway best-seller but not an unknown either.)

However, none of those issues was really the issue.

The issue was that I made one crucial bad choice– I ran to food instead of to God.

So, now here I am needing to AGAIN lose about 30 pounds to get back to a healthy place.

And I’m thankful—really I am–to have you to join me in the journey.

So today, will you simply leave a comment telling us:

~Why you’re here.

~Your goal (not so much a number on the scale or on the label on your pants, but an attitude of the heart or a place you want to get to in your spiritual life)

~And will you also tell us where you live & how you found out about Weight Loss Wednesdays?

Then, please feel free to hop on often between Wednesdays and encourage each other, pray for each other and even give a quick cry out for help, if needed.

I’ll get each of the comments as a message on my phone and I promise to lift you all up in prayer.

You see, I treasure each one of you and look forward to what God has in store.

Seriously. I do.

Thanks for partnering in the journey.

We are in this together.

Down-the-Scale Blessings,

42 Comments

  1. I can identify with many of the reasons you have listed above. I am reading MTC and doing the Bible study with a group of women from our church.

    My weight loss goal is peace…to be at peace with God and with the whole weight issue. I want to find my needs met within the will of God.

    I started this year asking the Lord to restore my joy…I believe that He is answering my prayer through MTC. I am looking forward to the accountability and support I will receive here on WLW, as well.

  2. I’m here today as i just happened to click over from P31 ministries blog list. I live just south of Baltimore, MD and am trying to eat healthier and loose a few pounds to stop the high blood pressure issues that are knocking on my door, and to be a role model for my daughter, and a better witness for Christ. There is also a sense of being lost in this whole process that I am hoping drawing closer to God and relying on him to explain and support me through will alleviate. Having trouble getting started on the road to peace, and am studying the MTC with Lysa and Melissa as a starting point. Have 150 pounds to ideally lose, my real goal is 20 pounds by June. Keeping it real.

  3. Thank you so much for bringing back Weight Loss Wednesdays. I found you last year when you were introducing His Weigh Wednesdays with Lindsey Feldpausch.
    I am also reading “Made to Crave” and following the webcasts. I have been with a weight loss organization as a leader for the past 8 years. I have always struggled with the spiritual side of my “food addiction”. I used to think I was alone in this struggle until I came upon your blog and Lysa’s book. My goal is to make peace with food so that it stays in it’s proper place in my life–To fuel my physical body. My second goal is to have the Word of God become my only source to fuel my spirit. I am so thankful that we can hold each other accountable, but most importantly, uphold each other in prayer.

  4. I’m here, because I’m supporting my accountability partner’s weight loss project, my husband’s weight loss project and my own weight loss project!

    I’m in prayer mode for everyone here, too!

  5. Hi Karen;
    I’m here because I want to be healthy so that I’ll be able to be around for the long-haul – to serve the Lord with gladness and be a good mother to my children and wife to my husband. My weight was not a major problem to me until that last child, born the day after my 40th birthday. It sure is harder to take weight off at 40 than it is at 25. :) I live between Jackson and Ann Arbor, MI – and I will admit that I suffer from winter doldrums. I don’t remember how I found out about WLW – but I’ve enjoyed reading things that you write ever since I first heard you speak at a Hearts at Home conference in Michigan a number of years ago. I also met you in June 2008 at She Speaks in NC. The Lord kept me up half the night before you were due to speak in the morning – praying for you. I thought, how bizarre! But later found out that there was a lot going on for you at that time. I’m so pleased that the Holy Spirit moved me to pray for you then – and I pray for you still. God Bless You. :)

  6. This is also my first time here. I am finishing up Karen’s book “The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized” and I recently heard Lysa on the radio talking about “Made to Crave”. I had no idea the two were related in anyway through the Proverbs 31 Ministries until doing some recent online research. Two years ago I lost 65 pounds after being overweight most of my life. My mother was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and had to lose weight. I knew that would be me soon enough if I didn’t do something about it. I kept it off for a year and have gained thirty pounds back. It wasn’t until I heard Lysa on the radio that I realized I struggle with similar issues with food. I can eat it when I’m sad to fill a hole or when I’m happy. I think I try to fill myself up with food in good and bad situations, instead of turning to God. I am so excited to begin this journey. I have never heard of anything like this group and I am so encouraged by all of your stories! I also want to tell Dawn that I appreciate your honesty – it really spoke to my heart! I live in Boone, NC where, like many of you, it is snowing again! Looking forward to this journey and all of the wonderful support!

  7. I am from a small town in the Northeast corner of Kansas. I am new and found your blog from P31. I am doing the Made to Crave online Study but I think this Weight Loss Wed. will help get me thru the mid week hump! I have to be honest, I love food and think about it a lot. I just like to eat. My Dr. talked with me a few weeks ago about losing weight, eating helalthy and exercise. My bloodwork did not come back good, I am now on Thyroid Med. and am tired of feeling tired and not able to keep up. I need to lose about 25 pounds. Please pray that I can “get the want to” lose weight back. I am also wanting to get healthy spiritually and have God be #1 and not food.

    thank you for your blog, and good luck girls!

  8. This is my first time here; I found you through Lysa Terkerst’s daily e-mails. I too have dealt with so many of these issues: yo-yo dieting, emotional eating, fluctuating weight, etc. I have come to recognize that I need god’s help to overcome my struggles with food. Lysa’s explanation that we were made to crave but have tried to fill that need with food was yet another A-ha moment for me! I do need to lose weight right now and am working on that, but my main goal right now is to be healthy, both in mind and body. I currently live in beautiful Colorado Springs, CO. I am looking for more support to help me maintain the correct focus each day, so I am excited to come across so many others on a similar journey. More than anything, I am excited to be growing in my relationship with the Lord as He works for good in my life!

  9. I’m here because I love your posts, I am doing Made To Crave and love Lysa and Melissa too. I live in southern California and have been overweight most of my life. I have needed to lose 20-30 pounds for about 20 years now and hope to do it. why? Not to fit into all the clothes in my closet, though that would be nice, not to be a size 12 though that would be nice, not to be free from the captivation of food, though that would be nice…I am doing it because when I feel fat and am lethargic and sluggish from eating junk I am not living joyfully and abundantly like Jesus calls us to live. I am doing it to be happy and to be the person God has called me to be. I can’t be that woman if I constantly distracted or unhappy about my weight. It leaves me no time or energy to do God’s will, whatever that is and I am pretty sure it is not to sit on the couch, watching tv, sluggish from poor eating and enjoying buttered popcorn as I sit there.

  10. I’m here because I really need support and accountability for my weight loss journey. I’m a yo-yo dieter, losing the same 20 pounds over and over again. I now have about 80 pounds to lose to get at a healthy comfortable weight. I just started reading Lysa’s Book, Made to Crave. I believe this is really going to help me be successful this time around. My focus has always been on food rather than the creator. I pray I will be able to get my focus more on God and less on food. Thank you for all your support and I look forward to getting to know you and the others better over the course of our journey.

    Marla

  11. Hi Karen,

    I am here from MO, my goal is to grab ahold of my day through Christ instead of through poor eating habits and stress eating. I have seen you through the years at Hearts at Home and God has always used you to speak truth to me. I’ve followed your blog some as well. I have bought Lysa’s Made to Crave book and read it through once and now am doing the webcasts as well. Your story is similar to mine re: weight loss, family stress, weight gain….but now I realize I’ve “circled the mountain” long enoungh and now I have turned north. I have lost 9 pounds in the last two weeks, but I have gained much much more with my walk. Funny, I really don’t obsess about the scale any more, either.

    I am blessed to have this opportunity to encourage and be encouraged!!!

  12. I am also excited about the return of WLW! I was involved almost from the beginning I believe. I’m thinking I found it through the P31 devotion that’s e-mailed to me daily. I live in Central Kansas. I’ve lost 35 pounds over the last 2 years with another 35 left to lose. I’m thinking that all of the reasons above are mine! Sad but true! My confession this week is that I’ve been reading Made to Crave and still trying to lose weight. I actually had been on a great track with getting closer to God and not filling my life with food, but more with Him….then the holiday’s came. From Thanksgiving to now I’ve been back to my old sugar adictions. I know that I need to get back at it and turn to God instead of sugar, but…and here’s the BIG confession….I can’t find my want to. Right now a truely want sugar more than God. There I said it. So far no lightening strike has taken me down, but I feel like it should!! I’m REALLY ashamed to admit that I feel that way. I’m trying to get myself straightened out. I’ll continue to read the MTC book and participate in the studies hoping it can change that thought. In my heart I want God more then sugar, I just need to quit letting Satan tell my head the sugar is better. sigh. Well, I feel better having come clean. My goal is to strive for more because “I was made for more” as Lysa would say. Thanks for everything you do. You and all the other WLW girls are a real encouragement to me. Good luck ladies. God bless.

  13. Ditto to Debbie; I thought I wrote that. I have read the MTC book, kept up with the WLW, Setting Captives Free and looked for all the reasons I love food more than anything else. If I succeed it will be ALL glory to God because it is plain I don’t know what to do on my own.

  14. I’m so glad WLW is back. It’s been awhile so I don’t really remember how I found you. I live in a very small town in southeast Kansas. I am 56 years old, mother of two grown daughters, grandma to a beautiful granddaughter and 3 awesome grandsons, the wife to my high school sweetheart for 38 years and have a wonderful job as a paralegal to three great attorneys for 30 years. So with all this perfect sounding life, why have I been 140 pounds overweight for 35 years of it? That is what I have not been able to figure out. I have never had a traumatic experience, my daughters were model children, my husband nor parents never mistreated me so again, why the excess weight??? I have attended church my entire life and can probably count on my fingers and toes the Sundays I was not in church. I do not have the reason for my excess weight so if someone out there does, I would really like to explore it with all of you. Tried all the gimmicks such as diet pills, liquid diets, no carb diets. All of them I’ve tried at one point. I would lose 20-25 pounds and taking the diet pills I lost 100 pounds but it came back. I would just like to be out of the 2’s – you know, weigh 199 and wear a size 18. I really don’t think that’s too much to ask but I don’t seem to be able to get there. My husband and I are reaching retirement age and would like to do some traveling but I’m too big to fit in the seats of airplanes and I’m too out of shape to do much of anything except ride in the car. I need your help, insight and support.

  15. I live in Northwest Illinois. I’ve enjoyed hearing you speak at Hearts at Home conferences and have read your work. I’m was born and raised in Mid-Michigan. I say the WLW blog shared on facebook and thought I would check it out. I’ve been trying on my own to lose weight forever mostly for the last 5 years. I’ve lost about 12lbs about 1.5 years ago when I was meeting with some friends who also wanted to loss weigth. Since then I tend to loss and gain the same 5 lbs. over and over again. I know that it is self-sabotage but I can’t seem to get over the insanity. I’ve been doing life in the driver seat for so long I’m not sure I know how to give that over to the Lord anymore. I’ve joined other on-line communities for weight loss but I feel like I really could use a partner to walk along side of me. Someone that I can encourage and that can encourage me. And maybe I just need to look up. I don’t have internet access at home so I’m limited when it comes to internet. My overall goals are to create some balance in my life, to rely on God’s love and favor more, and be a good healthy spiritual role model for my kids.
    MS

  16. I am here because i read your blog from time to time. I discovered your blog through P31 ministries. My weight tend to go up and down. The last time I checked my weight I realized I need to lose some because my family on the female side has an history of hypertension and diabetes. So you can count me in to be here on Wednesdays. In addition I have been tuning into MTC on Mondays. Love the sessions so far and have been learning a lot. Oh by the way I am from Jamaica. Thanks Karen for starting your WLW sessions.

  17. Good morning Karen,
    Good morning Ladies,

    I found truth in at least three of the reasons you listed above for why I’m here. Im on my way back from gaining all but 3 of the 100 lbs I lost and kept off for 2+ years. I, as well have many things that tempted me to over-eat and eat for comfort and I accepted satans invitation over and over to find comfort his way instead of Gods. I’m on this journey because I am a princess warrior for our King and my spiritual muscles need a lot of work to get me in the best condition possible for the things He has purposed for me!

  18. I’m here for a combination of reasons: up and down weight, I get to a certain amount of weight loss (not anywhere my goal) and I freak out or something and gain it back, I’ve gone to food instead of God, I feel like I’m not a good witness of what God can do in one’s life, I’m unhealthy, etc.

    I found out about Weight Loss Wednesdays from the Proverbs 31 website and participated some last year.

    My goal has multiple levels as well: to be healthy (blood work and pre-diabetes under control), learn to consistently exercise – I don’t know that I will ever love it like some people do, but mainly to have a different relationship with God than I do right now. I’m going through the Made to Crave study by watching Lysa’s webcasts and with Melissa’s online group.

    Here I go…again.
    Danette

  19. Hi Karen,

    I live in Kearney, MO and heard about your blog through Lysa’s blogs. I, too, along with three of my friends, one who lives here in Kearney, one in Springfield, MO, and one who moved to NC almost a year ago (gotta love the interent!), am doing MTC. I am reading through the book and tuning into Lysa’s webcasts. I cannot say I really have any of the issues above. My issue, I guess I would have to be honest and say is…….this ugly word…..PRIDE! I want to be skinny, I want to be the skinniest (I know, I cannot believe I just admitted that!) My thoughts are so misdirected. Food consumes my thoughts! I am not overweight, but am just tired of food being all I think about, to what can I eat (even when I am not the least bit hungry) to what can I not eat! UGH! I am praying daily that my unhealthy craving of food would be changed to craving my GOD. I pray for God to consume my thoughts rather than food. Thanks for caring.

    Dawn

  20. Cindy B. Yes, I remember you!! Were you able to make it to the Made to Crave tapings for the dvd’s? I remember you were trying to go. Great to ‘see’ you here!!

  21. Hi Karen,

    I was part of Weight Loss Wednesday last year. I heard about it while at your Hearts at Home session in Rochester, MN. I have lost 20 pounds in the last year but my Dr. wants me to lose 30 more. This place really helped with the accountability area and it was great encouragement as well. I live in Central MN and it’s actualy above zero this week so it feels warm! I mainly do indoor workouts on the treadmill or with a Leslie Sansone DVD. Thanks for doing this with us, Karen.

    Rebecca Ann

  22. Hi Karen & friends! I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I had the opportunity to hear you, Karen, in NC last summer, and then “met you” soon after at the airport. I’ve been a reader of your blog ever since. My journey with weight has been long and hard…and has cost me much (almost my life!). My goal is freedom. I enjoy journeying with others ~ what a gift to know we are not alone! Looking forward to our Wonderful Wednesday’s together….

  23. I’m glad you are doing WLW again. It was such an encouragment to me before. My weight has always been a yo yo. I have been watching Lysas webcasts on MTC. What an eye opener for me. I now know my problem is more than being overweight physically, it is also being underweight spiritually!! I live in KY. It is beautifull here this morning with 2 inches of fresh snow!Lests keep in mind this quote I recently found:
    “Goals are funny things.They dont work unless you do.”
    So, lets get to work girsl! Thanks again Karen.

  24. Thanks Karen for bringing back Weight Loss Wednesdays – I’ve missed the group! I am a working Mom of two young kids (10 and 7) who has struggled all my life with weight and food issues. I am here for most of the reasons given above. I too am starting the Made To Crave journey and it is really turning me upside down and inside out on the whole weight issue. I’ve never thought of it as such a spiritual battlefield – but it truly is for me. My goal is to see victory in this area and to mature spiritually. Hopefully the result of that will also be a healthier temple for God to use. I live in southeastern Michigan so we are in the deep freeze of winter. More difficult to exercise and get fresh produce – but I do love the beauty of the white snow covering all the trees! A great reminder of how Jesus covers all the dark nastiness of our sin with his perfect love. Have a great day ladies! Let’s fill our needs with Jesus – not food – one choice at a time!

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