Weight loss success in 20 days: day 7

One trait that many people say they have is that they say that they have no self control. This is rarely the case. If you had no self control you would binge every minute.
All of you have some self control. If you have held your job instead of spending 100% of your time feeding your addiction you have some self control. If you maintained some relationship despite your addiction you have self control. If not in these ways, in some other way you show some self control.
If you often say to yourself – I can’t help it – I am out of control. You will forget the fact that you indeed have some self control. You may not have enough control to eliminate the addiction yet, but by remembering that you have some control and that you can do it, is a positive.
So remember the control you do have and learn how to build on it. If you believe you can do it and you have a specific plan on how you will do it with specific alternate activities, you can make it.
You say “I want to quit but I just can’t overcome the cravings. To lose weight you need to learn about cravings.
Cravings are limited by time. If we don’t give in, it goes away. A craving can’t force you to do anything.
Every craving that you did not give in to has ended. In fact it is hard to keep having cravings for an extended period of time. Our mind is in constant change. Change is the typical state of the mind, not concentration. The mind will get tired of craving food addiction or drugs and it will move on to something else.
Thomas Horvath in the workbook Sex, Drugs, gambling and Chocolate talks about how craving always end. They tire (fatigue), then they end. He wrote the following:
“Perhaps the most dramatic example of the fatigue principle is the elimination of hunger by fasting. In chapter 8 I mentioned that craving will increase until it is acted upon. The discomfort is why the craving is motivating, so the craving is often acted upon. But this is only the first part of the story. If the craving is not acted on, eventually it peaks and diminishes. If you skipped breakfast and skipped lunch, you might be quite hungry by mid-afternoon. But if you continue not eating, somewhere during the first 24 hours, for most individuals, hunger goes away. You obviously still need the food, but you no longer feel hungry. You could say that your nervous system got bored with feeling hungry, and moved on to feeling something else.
Just as your nervous system can get bored with feeling hungry, it can get bored with feeling anything. If you’re impulsive and tend to act quickly on your feelings, you might not have realized this. Feelings, like craving are time-limited. Learn to outwait them and your behavior can become much more stable.
You do not need to make a craving go away, it will go away on its own.”
Read Proverbs 1
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life.
If you are on track great, if not review the red letters from day 2.
…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus Phil.1:6

Pray to be moderate”. Remember that to improve the chances of getting your prayers answered you sometimes need to do something. In this case planning to be moderate today may cause God to notice that you are serious about being healthy and He may say – you know what I normally don’t step and change the course of history, but this person really wants to live the way I want them to live.

For me stress can lead back to addiction. When I put a specific time frame on activities which raise my stress level, plus praying about being moderate in all things – I probably triple or quadruple my odds of success. What do you need to plan more often which will help you avoid your addiction?
Matthew 5 is about how we can change so that we will start to be blessed by God. www.relijournal.com noted the following
The Fourth Beatitude v6
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
To want justice is to want righteousness. Righteousness is right living. Proverbs 21:21 tells us that we will find love, honor and justice when we search for righteousness. It means we are concerned about the welfare of others, seek out what is honest, stand firm, receive peace and joy and are rewarded by God. Being righteous is a lifestyle that Jesus approves of and it tells us that in Psalm 11:7. There are plenty more verses in the Bible that talk about how to live righteously and about how Jesus is righteous. It is fair to say therefore that God expects us to take notice of it.
We must do our best to want what is right for ourselves and other people and then God will make sure we are satisfied.

The Bible says “Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter from the Bible was mightily filled with the Spirit. If he walked by a man dying of cancer he would be instantly healed. All Christians have more or less of the Spirit in them. Christians who have more of the Spirit have less addictions or no addictions. Christians who have less of the Spirit have more addictions. Why did Peter have more of the Spirit in him then I do. It was because he spent way more time working on being filled with the Spirit. It is an aquired gift. A person who works hard to run from sin, who spends a lot of time in prayer and Bible study will be more filled with the Spirit.

People with addictions get run over by life, get depressed and run back to their addiction. People filled with the Spirit get run over by life, keep their joy and continue to fufil their life’s purpose.

When can you pray more. While driving your car (only do this if it will not endanger you) mute the TV and pray during commercials.

The Holy Spirit is a fire that should be burning in us. When we truly acquire the fire, the addiction disappears. Find time to prayer more. But the prayers must be on fire, fervent, intense, original prayers pleading with Almighty God to change your life. We must pray to get the sin out, find our purpose, and kill our addiction.

If you are prepared for your darkest hour (which leads to addiction) you will be ready to fight your addiction in your darkest hour.
Psalm 33:18
But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.
Let’s continue to watch people who quit to see what they are doing. Bill determined to pray every day: Father keep me from temptation.

Lisa decided to make it a habit to pray at least 3 times per day “Lord, help me to always be moderate in all things.”

Mike made it a habit to have a time and place to pray every day.

Jan prayed every day about being filled with the Holy Spirit and it really changed her thinking which lead to a change in actions.

If this article has helped you, share it with your friends. Share buttons are below the index.

Thank you for reading day 7 of this program to learn how to change your habits to control your weight.

Index

Day 1: cravings
Day 2: Develop positive addictions
Day 3: Start an overcoming addiction journal
Day 4: Controlling emotions
Day 5: Don’t sell your pleasure backwords
Day 6: With the Spirit we have liberty