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I hosted a podcast called Health Matters where I interviewed leading health experts. Barb Raveling has authored three books on weight loss, including Taste for Truth: A 30 Day Weight Loss Bible study, Freedom from Emotional Eating, and I Deserve a Donut (And Other Lies That Make You Eat). Barb blogs about breaking free from strongholds and growing closer to God through the renewing of the mind at barbraveling.com
What is renewing your mind?
“The renewing of the mind Paul talks about it in Romans 12:2 says, ‘Do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.’
“He doesn’t say, ‘Be transformed by finding the perfect diet that’ll help us lose weight and keep it off.’ Or he doesn’t say, ‘Be transformed by exercising like crazy.’ He says be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
“We still do those things, we still have some sort of weight loss program or maintenance boundaries and it’s good to exercise, but the truth is unless we change the way we think about food we’ll never be able to lose that weight, and keep it off. It’s just as important to work on our thinking as it is to work on our physical exercise and eating right.
“The renewing of the mind is taking off and putting on. Paul says it’s not the old self putting on the new self. We also take off all those lies we put on about food and put on the truths. We take off our cultural perspective of looking at life and put on our biblical perspective of looking at life.”
How to do it on a practical level?
“Let’s say I’m just going about my business and I’m trying to follow my weight loss boundaries (I may be doing calories or points or hungry-full or low carb) and then all of a sudden I walk by my kitchen counter and I see that 9”x13″ pan of lemon bars, just sitting there waiting to be eaten. It doesn’t fit into my boundaries but I really want those lemon bars. So I would have to renew my mind.
“I have two choices: either I could try and say no to the lemon bars with self-control or I renew my mind, change what I think of those lemon bars so I don’t even want to eat them.
“For anybody that’s struggled with weight, myself included, we don’t have a lot of self-control in that area of our life so we can muster up self-control at times, maybe even for a few months to lose some weight. But if we haven’t changed our mind of what we think about it we’ll gain the weight back as soon as we’ve lost it.
“So what I would do if I wanted that lemon bar I could meditate on some scripture that talks about discipline or eating. I have quite a few Bible verses in my I Deserve a Donut book that you can use for scripture meditation.
“Or I could have a conversational thought. I have lots of questions in my books that you can use to have conversations with God about temptations depending on what lies we’re believing. There are a number of different ways to renew your mind. Whatever works to help change our perspective about food in that moment.”
What lies may we be believing?
“A lie I might believe with the lemon bars may be that if it’s good and available then I should eat it.
“Or I might say, ‘It’s just one bite’ and maybe I’ll plan to just eat one little bite of that lemon bar. But we all know what happens when we eat just one little bite. We want more and more bites right?
“Or we’ve all laughed over the ‘I need chocolate’. That would actually be a lie that we need chocolate.
“Or we might say, ‘I deserve this’. You know my day’s been so bad that I deserve this.
“Or we may be thinking, ‘It’s a holiday, I deserve this treat.’”
Ask yourself questions
“There’s all kinds of reasons that we may feel like we have a right to eat. So the next question is, ‘Do you think God agrees on your outlook on life? Why or why not?’ If we’re going to renew our minds we’re going to have to be actively engaged. We have to think through each question. The questions themselves, they’re not going to change anything but talking to God about the questions and rethinking the way we look at life that’s what’s going to change us.
“Would God agree that I deserve a little treat when life is hard? You know if you think of everything, all the people who went through hard things in the Bible God doesn’t buy into our American culture that says, ‘Hey you shouldn’t have a hard life. Your life should be easy and if it’s hard you should at least deserve a little treat.’
“It’s more about giving up rights, treating other people well, and He wants us to find our satisfaction in Him and be filled up with Him. Right away when I answer that question I take off those lies that I’ve grown up believing and then when I put on the truth that automatically changes my desires.
“What usually happens when you live by your rights and your feelings in this area of your life? What usually happens when I eat a bunch and then I gain a bunch of weight, right? So on a practical level, this isn’t really a good policy to eat whenever we feel like we deserve it. It doesn’t make our life better.
“The questions will help you take off the lies that make us want to eat, and overeat, and break our boundaries.
“Boundaries are just limits that we have in place. Volunteering limits that we put in place that determine how much we can eat, maybe when we can eat. What we really like to do is eat whatever we want whenever we want but when we do that we’ll have a hard time ever losing weight or maintaining weight. If we want to live with freedom in that area of our lives we have to eat with some sort of boundaries.”
Since interviewing Barb, I have become more aware of the lies I tell myself and have worked to renew my own mind through asking questions and considering the way I think about food.
Although the podcast is no longer available, if you’d like a copy of any of the full interview transcript, please send me an email.
This has been an excerpt from the Health Matters Podcast, believing that prayer & Bible study are to the spirit what exercise and healthy eating are to the body.
Blessings on your journey to health.
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