Weight Loss Workout – Grease on the Griddle
August 23, 2007 by Kim T
Filed under Get Moving
I was jumping rope this morning and in the middle of it, hot and sweaty, an image suddenly flashed into my head. I saw a scoop of shortening melting on a hot griddle. It made me smile because I suddenly saw my muscles as like that griddle: the only way they are going to be able to melt fat is if I heat them up!
Now the reason I brought this up is that I know plenty of people who say that they can’t lose weight. They say they walk for exercise, but nothing seems to be happening. Yet when I see them in action, their walking pattern is like a Sunday stroll and their muscles never heat up.
So my question is, are you working hard enough to turn up the heat in your griddles (muscles) to melt the grease (excess body fat)? If you want to melt a lot of grease, then you’ve got to use big griddles. In your body, those griddles are the muscles of your backside and your thighs. You want to work out at a level in which you feel challenged, but still comfortable.
If you are challenging yourself enough to melt grease, but still not seeing results then you need to take a look at your eating pattern. Are you adding grease back into your body as fast (or faster) than you melt it? Are you eating excess fat in the form of fried, fast, or junk foods? Are you eating or drinking a lot of sugar? Those excess calories will be stored as fat if you don’t burn them off. Usually, all it will take is keeping a food log for a few days so that you can become aware of what you are really doing nutritionally rather than what you think you are doing.
It is very easy to deceive ourselves. I know one time, I thought I was only having a candy bar once in a while. Yet when cleaning out the trash bin in my car, I was startled by the number of candy bar wrappers I saw. It’s really hard to deceive yourself when the evidence is staring at you in the face.
So I urge you this week to start thinking of ways that you can get rid of some of the extra grease in your body. Do you need to heat up your griddles through exercise? Stop piling on additional grease? Just a few simple steps practiced consistently will yield amazing results over time. But don’t take my word for it; prove it to yourself and I guarantee you will have a lot less grease to haul around this time next year.
I really enjoy reading your articles, especially this one. Great metaphor
Thanks for motivating me and others to truly do what’s right for our bodies and honor God.
My pleasure Christy. I’m only sharing with others what God teaches me
Kim
Do you really answer these emails? Are you for real? Was that really you in that before “fat” photo? How long did that take? What is the purpose of losing weight when we all meet the same end anyway? I am morbidly obese and I have been watching thin and fat folks most of my almost 43 years and I can tell you that there is no difference in us. If people truly knew what was within me that my fatness holds back, they would prefer me fat! I went to bible study last night for the first time in years. I have stayed in the Bible and have tried hard to walk in the word daily. I had been feeling “pushed’ mentally to gather with others and improve my walk with the Lord. Well, the first thing out of the preacher’s mouth is, “Do you have the right mind?” he then goes on to say,” I am not trying to pick on anyone here, but I am saying it is like when you are 500 pounds overweight and you keep doing the same thing and expecting something different to happen.” Now, you tell me, as I look around this church there are all together 4 fat people in the building. Where did that come from? it would seem to me that if the people had things they needed to correct, obesity wasn’t one of them. He went on to discuss how members treat one another and that sort of stuff.
Now, I get gluttony and slothfulness. However I do not remember fat being declared a sin in the Bible. Yes, it is not pleasing to the eyes, but neither are broken homes or children who hate their parents because they don’t treat them right and they neglect the child emotionally. Being a teacher I come into contact with that often.
I am very tired and frustrated with thin people trying to dictate my life by their hateful words. It is true that I prefer the taste of chocolate to an apple. when I feel like cursing but don’t choclate makes it a whole lot easier to keep my peace.
My email seems to ramble, but I do want to say that I like your work that I have been reading so far and after 39 years of trying to battle my weight, your work is actually something that I believe that I can see being worthwhile and doable. I had truly given up and decided to accept me as I am, but with what you have written in your pages, I can see calming my soul and focusing on God’s words in order to straighten out my dependency on food. I hope you are for real because it would be good to have a person like you to communicate with. After last night, i was so frustrated that I went home and devoured a plate of spaghetti with two cheese slices on top. I didn’t even want it.
Bless you and I hope that you prosper in your efforts because what you are doing makes so much sense, because it is built on God. I can attest to the fact that the ONLY thing that has been true and magnificent in my life has been how He comes through for me when I just feel about to explode in anger or sadness. I don’t know how I got to your site. I started out googling “gluttony” and found you in the results!
Hi Patty,
I can tell that you are passionate about this subject and you certainly have a lot of questions! Obviously since I am responding to this post, that answers the “Are you real?” question. Yes, that is me in the “before” picture. It took me a total of 18 months I’d guess between the before and after picture but that wasn’t consecutive. Rather I lost 70 pounds my first year and then lost 2-5 here and there to reach my total of 85 pounds lost.
You asked an interesting question: “What is the purpose of losing weight when we all meet the same end anyway?” Here are my thoughts: Everyone has a beginning (birth) and an end (death). Life is the part that happens in the middle. How we choose to go through “the middle” is up to us. I spent over 20 years obese and it was seriously impacting my middle, literally and figuratively.
I had low energy, tiredness, felt self-conscious, felt out of control with my eating, didn’t feel attractive, worried about whether I was going to fit into certain chairs; felt squeezed in airline, sporting events, and movie theater seats; couldn’t ride certain amusement park rides because the seat belt wouldn’t fit around me; hated being limited to two stores for shopping – who only offered over-priced, “old lady” clothes; was having high blood pressure problems and had to be on medication that was expensive and made me feel worse than the high blood pressure did. Had frequent bouts of depression and seething anger inside. That was my life – my middle.
It took a chest pain to make me say “enough is enough”. I decided that I wanted a different life than the one I was living. For me, my love of chocolate, fast food, and junk food was not worth trading the quality of my “middle” for, not worth my life. Everybody has to make that choice for themselves though. I ultimately figured out it wasn’t about the weight but how I was managing my life…or in my case, not managing it but hiding out in food.
It is true that God does not care about your weight – I wrote a whole article about it called “Does God Care About Your Weight”. Look it up if you haven’t read it – It’s on the home page now but you can always use Search on my website to find it if it is ever taken off. God always deals with people on the heart level rather than appearance. It’s man who judges the outside.
In my case, God had to heal my depression and anger. I found it interesting that you said “If people truly knew what was within me that my fatness holds back, they would prefer me fat!” Wow. That is a very telling statement. I remember when I was heavy, I thought if I lost weight, I would become Alexis Carrington from Dynasty and people would hate me. I would become a witch. Not only that, but I thought I would turn into a “loose” woman!
Neither of those happened. I did not shed my morals along with my excess fat. But what did happen was that I stopped being passive and letting people walk all over me. I stopped being a people pleaser. And you know what? I discovered that you can stand up for yourself without being nasty about it! You can treat people with love and respect, but you can still say “no” and set boundaries. God taught me balance in my weight loss process.
So see, Patty, you get to choose how you are going to live your life. If you are content with the way things are, then accept your weight and the consequences that go along with it. I can’t tell you how to live and neither can anyone else. God gave us all free will.
One thing is for certain though. If you never make another right decision in your life or never do anything right again, you have already made the most important right decision – accepting Jesus Christ as your savior. You are loved and accepted by God on that basis alone. Everything else pales in comparison to the richness of that relationship.
That is the essence of life anyway!
God bless you!
Wow, Patty’s telling statement is something that has crossed my mind and your thought about being a “loose” woman too. I am not afraid of that anymore because that is not me and because my body is going to change and become healthier does not mean I will not be the person that Jesus saved and bought with his blood. I am eternally grateful for his salvation and never ending presence in my life. Your website and daily scriptures have been such a blessing and support in my weight loss. I have lost close to 40 lbs now and many more to go. I just realize that I am not the only one that has thought such things. Kim, your answer to Patty was definitely knowledgeable and spirit-led by your experience and life. Thanks. Will comment more in the future and let you know how the lbs are melting.
Wow, I have never commented on anyones sites before, i have always been a reader looking for someone who has a story like me that i can relate to and get me motivated. Well, todays the day!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a 255 lb. business woman and from what people tell me, i don’t look the 255 lbs at 43 yrs old but it is still there. I am 5’9 and carry it proportionately from what i am told. I have not always been heavy and was very thin in high school. After 2 kids, a rollercoaster of a 17 year marriage and now remarried after 5 years, GOD is the ONLY thing that has been constant in all those years. Once we lean on him and give him everything, the rewards are so wonderful. As of today, the light is on and i truly believe that from this “morsel” forward, i am going to pray harder, stronger and with more conviction every time i sit down to eat, that i am truly putting my weight in GOD’s hands. I don’t think that GOD wants us to have any battles without him by our side. He wants to be our strength. He is our FATHER. I feel bad it took 43 years for me to see the light but from now on, it is ‘All About Him’ which in turn makes it easier for it to be ‘all about me’ and getting my life (and body) right with the world. I want to be the best and look the best when i make my grand entrance into his kingdom, so he can say, ‘Well done, they good and faithful servant’!
Hi Kim & Gals, I, too, carry excess poundage, but am, like you, convinced the answer lies in Jesus. Last year, on July 4th, He gave me http://www.EatingwithGod.com. It has been quite a year, learning to focus on Him as I take each bite — and I’m not there yet. Where I am, however, is to a point where I now clearly see rebelliousness and self-gratification in some of my bites. The bites I eat with Jesus, I fully enjoy, and they satisfy! The bites I take when stressed out, upset or feeling sorry for myself are bites that bring no one pleasure, rob me of joy and prevent my body from being what God intended it to be. Kim, I read your stuff often and am so grateful for your consistent, clear and comforting messages of hope in GOD and not DIETS. I like to say, “Diet is the word ‘die’ with a cross at the end… and there was ever only supposed to be One person who died on a cross for our sins.” Onward Christian soldiers! It’s work the battle to bring glory to God in our bodies, as they currently are, and as they will be. Thanks, Kim!
My dear friend and sister, I feel your pain. I too suffer from the looks and comments. More from myself than anyone else. I beg you to please forgive. Though this pastor may have appeared to be coming at you personally that may not be the case. I know in my own personal life I perceive things and it really isn’t at all what they are thinking. God’s word tells us if we can’t forgive others we cannot be forgiven of the Father. If you do a study on unforgiveness you will see it leads to alot of ailments. My dear, I love you with the Love of Christ, I don’t know you but I do know you because you are me in another shell. I am still battling the battle and though it is not about how big I am but am I using food in place of God. I can say I do. I turn to food before I turn to God. This would be my sin. I am placing another god over the One only true God, my stomach and food because not always is it my stomach that is leading me it is my emotions. I encourage you not to focus on you size but why you eat. What makes you do what you do? What is your motive. I want to pray for you now.
Lord Jesus,
Thank you for showing yourself mighty and with power. I am asking you on behalf of Patty, There are many hurts and pains in her life. Lord I pray and ask you to deliver freedom and comfort to her. I pray for deliverance. That you would deliver her from her. We can be our own worst enemy and I ask you now to be placed in the reigns of her heart. I pray she will lift you up higher that any other. I am praying you will fill her every need. Remind her that you are her comfort and peace. I ask you to carry her in you loving arms and let her find her refuge in you.
In Jesus Name,
Amen,
I encourage you to go to….
nothingstoohardforgod.org
I encourage anyone to go on this web site there are incrediable testimonies of God’s grace and goodness and know nothing is to hard for Him.
Blessings and Grace to you.
Kristina
I found this in a book I was reading, and I love it!! I know I am more than my size and the neat thing is that the more I realize that I am a child of God and He does love me, the more it makes me want to be a healthy child of God!! I now know that when I am weak He will be strong for me in my weight loss journey!!! I know I do not have to be alone in my struggle!!!
“One of the most comforting things I learned was that who I am does not equal my dress size. I am a unique woman, a child of God, with talents, gifts and abilities that reach beyond the superficiality of size. I hope that when I’m gone, the things said about me will never be about me will never be about my weight, the size of my jeans, or what color lipstick I wore. Instead, I hope they will say things about my character and that I was a good mom and a good friend. I am blessed with friends and family who love me as I am. “ from the book Body Clutter
Patty,
All my life I have allowed fear of what others may think of me to limit my choices. I let insecurity stifle creativity and chose to use my obesity as an excuse to limit my activities. But the real bottom line is that it was fear and insecurity that held me back.
This past year I have allowed God to renew my mind with the truths from His Word (see below for examples)and now I am able, with His help, to admit the truth about my fears and insecurities. I haven’t “arrived” yet, but praise God, I’m not where I used to be either! I have lost 47 lbs. and am on my way to losing another 50 lbs. one choice at a time. That’s right – for me, losing weight can be reduced to making good choices. This is not a “diet”. This is more than just choices about what I eat. It is what I choose to say and do, what I wear, my thoughts and attitudes, etc. It is about living my life in such a way that I honor God. It is about letting Him shine in and through me with each choice I make and allowing Him to change me one choice at a time.
Romans 12:1&2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
2 Corinthians 10:3,4&5 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
When people ask me how I’m losing weight, I am quick to point out that God and I are in a partnership. I am eating less and moving more but most of all, I’m learning to lean on Him and allowing Him to change me one choice at a time.