Every Christian on a weight loss journey has a favorite Bible verse. It's Heb. 12:1:
"Let us lay aside every weight!"
So there you have it. Weight Watchers is scriptural!
All humor aside, can I ask you a personal question? What's the "weight" that's holding you back from embarking on your own weight loss program? What's the "baggage" or the 'bulk" (so the Greek term) you need to lay aside if you're ever going to get a handle on your health?
Most of us struggle with this. Three causes come to mind:
1. Laziness (sloth). Some of us struggle with this more than others. I am the laziest person I know. After all, I grew up in a hang loose, mañana culture. I was also the youngest of four. You get the picture. But God can make even the laziest person unlazy. We're told as much in 2 Tim. 1:7:
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.
All shrinking from doing one's duty proceeds not from the Spirit of God! There's only one thing that can give you complete self-control, and that is to ask Christ to help you control yourself. Self-control is a gift of the Spirit.
2. Indifference (apathy). Our efforts are affected by altered levels of motivation and apathy. Apathy is lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. Success in weight loss requires motivation to give up immediate gratification in favor of delayed gratification along with an honest confrontation of realities that are difficult to think about. The problem is that we lose the sense of WHY. We lose sight of how important these things actually are. Once our sense of commitment is gone, so are we!
3. Impatience. In 1360, poet William Langland wrote a poem called "Patience Is a Virtue." It's also a necessary component of successful weight loss. Your goal is to see the numbers go down on the scale, but this is a process that takes bucket loads of patience. Abandoning your diet should not be the response. You can't learn to play the piano with just a few lessons. Patience will be needed, along with a diligent adherence to your weight loss plan.
My own experience bears this out. When I began my serious weight loss journey back in November, I weighed about 240 pounds. Almost immediately the pounds started melting off like a popsicle in August. Then everything began to slow to a crawl. For several weeks I plateaued at 225 pounds, then at 215 pounds, and then at 210 pounds. Mentally, I knew this would happen as my metabolism slowed down and my body needed fewer calories each day. However, I also knew that eventually, slowly, I would reach my goal of 205 pounds, but sometimes it was very hard to believe. I often asked myself, "Do I have the patience to stick to it long enough to get to my goal?" But I'm glad I did. In fact, this is what the scale said today:
Praise God!
All around me at the gym are people who are struggling. We're all involved in the same battle against sloth, apathy, and impatience. And yet, unconcerned with what others are doing, and driven by our need to do our best, we make the effort, and we make it more often. "I am writing the best I can," said the author of a best-selling popular novel. "If I could write better, I would. This is the peak of my powers." Friend, it matters little that you cannot write any better. What matters is that you are doing it with all of your might.