Day 1 – What’s your definition of beautiful?

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. ~Confucius

So do you have your journal? If not DO NOT do what I would typically do and put the book down until I get a chance to go find a cute little journal with a matching pen. There is a name for that. Procrastination. So if you don’t have your journal go get yourself a piece of paper and any writing utensil(I don’t care if you have to go find one of your children’s nubby little broken crayons….just go get something).

So here we are. Day 1. Oh the possibilities…..a clean slate. The perfect time to make all kinds of resolutions for how we want this book to be different. The problem is we make them and then by about 10 days in we fall back into our old ways. Traditions. Creatures of habit. Feeling like failures but also not feeling we can be different.

Well, today CAN be different if we approach it correctly with our God-goggles on not just viewing it through our own eyes. Over the next 21 days I am going to share something with you about change. It’s all about “choices”. With each small choice can come permanent change. That can be for the good or bad that is why we are going to be intentional to be sure we are choosing for the good.

Even though there will be an emphasis on weight loss and being healthy this can apply to almost any area of our life because I believe rooted in any need for weight loss is the root of some sort of stronghold (please don’t misunderstand I know there can be medical reasons and no I have not been evaluated by the food and drug admin). And even if your struggle doesn’t involve food it is rooted in a stronghold somewhere.

If you picked up this book you have struggled to find peace within yourself and have struggled to find your beautiful.

Today in our journal we are going to set some goals but we are not going to stop there. We are then going to spend some time praying and asking ourselves why.

• Why is this my goal?

• What do I think it will bring me?

If our goals are way off (and God will let us know if they are) we are setting ourselves up to fail. These need to be realistic God-given goals. We also need to discover the “why” behind our choices. So ask God honestly why you make the goals you make if you’re not sure.

When I started on my weight loss journey a few years ago my goal was to be a size 2. That’s what I was in high school and I saw no reason I couldn’t be there again. The problem was this goal was not realistic. I could be a size 2 if all I did was think about it. Exercise constantly. Eat next to nothing. Be miserable. That doesn’t work. And here’s the thing, I have been a size 2 and I have been a size 12 and everything in between and there is no more happiness when I am almost killing myself at size 2 then there is when I am hating how I look and feel at a larger size.

Hear me out on this. If you think losing a certain amount of weight is your answer to all your problems you are DEAD WRONG. It will not do a thing for you if you are still battling the stronghold of food or a stronghold of something else.

Yes food is just as much a stronghold when you are depriving yourself as when your are stuffing yourself. At a bigger size you just get a different result on the outside but misery still takes up residence in your heart either way.

If you think a certain amount of weight loss will make you happier, be more fulfilling, or make someone love you more you need to just stop right now. That would be the reason you failed before because you were looking for something out of it that it just cannot provide. Only God will fill those empty space and longings.

So what is a good goal for you? Do you know the number on the scale that is good and healthy for you? And I mean good and healthy not the stinking one you were in high school, not the one your best friend is and heaven knows not the one the world says you should be. The one you can maintain without obsessing.

I know mine and it’s not a size 2 If you don’t know then pray for God to help you set the goal that is right for you. The idea here is optimum health not to be a picture of what society has sold us. That is all a lie rooted in the father of lies himself. If he gets us focusing on that unrealistic goal he gets our focus off God. We will not allow that to happen!

After you have written some realistic goals I want you to go look at yourself in a mirror. Journal about what you see. Be honest and really write out what it is you think and feel when you look at yourself.

After you write about what you see and feel write down your definition of beautiful. Don’t look it up just come up with your own definition. We are going to at the end of this journey take another look and I pray you will see yourself completely different.

Also today take one of your index cards and write the following verse on it:

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. ~Romans 12:2

Start memorizing it! We are not going to conform any longer to the world and what it says we should look like but we are going to find God’s will for our bodies and our life. Much of this battle will happen in our minds and we will fight the good fight by scripture memorization. This part WILL BE CRUCIAL. We will not succeed without it at least not long term.

Remember today to journal and pray. Today will be one of the toughest days. Hang with me here. Don’t give up!