Check-in: The undervalued success of weight maintenance
Our culture is inundated with two main messages when it comes to physical health: gain muscle and lose weight. The Western Society especially has become obsessed with reaching a certain weight, or certain dress size. We feel that when we reach that weight or size, we will finally be happy with who we are and with our lives.
We will do whatever it costs to reach a “healthy weight,” and in the process become the most unhealthiest we have ever been. We deprive our body of food through starvation, force food out of our bodies using unnatural and unhealthy methods, exercise excessively, and try every restrictive diet possible. However, what many of us come to find is that when we actually reach that goal weight, we are still unsatisfied with our bodies, discontent with our lives, and still unhappy deep down.
Personal Struggle
Now, I’m being blunt because I know this reality and experience far too well. I personally have struggled with weight the majority of my life and took unhealthy measures to obtain a weight I thought that would make me happy, but then later realized that weight didn’t make me happy. I had to understand that it is not whether I gain muscle or lose weight that will define my beauty or make me happy, it is an inner state of love for myself that will. I came to a point where I had to make the decision to pursue health, no matter what the scale said that day or would say the next. I had to break my relationship with the scale, dump it, and tell it we were through.
It was only then that I started to exercise and eat well consistently and naturally. I wanted to exercise each day, I wanted to eat foods that made me feel good, and I wanted to get my body to a state of being and even a weight that it wanted to be at, versus what I wanted it to be at. I finally reached this weight and state over a year ago, and for the last year have honestly not been deeply concerned about losing weight.
Every now and then, I creep back to measuring my success in health by the scale, but would force myself to come back to the place of contentment with my body’s weight being where it was at and should be.But let me be honest with you: for the last few weeks, I have not felt that way. It has felt like a wave of insecurity has swept over me and I have been thinking about whether or not I should lose weight again or not. Various situations made old thoughts start to creep back in, telling me I was too heavy, that I needed to lose a few lbs to be like that person or that person. The whole time, I knew the truth but I just couldn’t shake these lies from head. These lies have tried to convince me that not only is my weight wrong, but what I’m doing in my personal eating/exercise is wrong.
So how did I respond? How did I work to overcome these lies and get my thinking back to what is true? Well, I did my best to grab a hold of the truth for my dear life, celebrate my accomplishments, and honestly, and forget what people have to say about how I should look and what health is.
We Must Grab a Hold of the Truth
Here is the point in the story where a “turn around” or “upset” would happen and I would tell you how something miraculous happened and now I don’t feel that way, but am completely comfortable with my body and weight again. Well my friends, I simply can’t type that because it’s not true. I am still fighting the lies of the enemy in this area, and I’m still struggling with these thoughts. The enemy knows this is my weak point, and wants to tear me down at a point in my life where I’m not only trying to fight in the area of health for myself, but for others. Even though I do not feel like it, I must grab a hold of the truth – which is something I don’t know if I would have done a year ago. You see, the difference between Brianna Wilkerson now and Brianna Wilkerson a year ago, is that this Brianna knows and is holding fast to the Truth for dear life. The Truth that:
- I am a daughter of the Most High King of the World
- I am the Bride of Christ
- I am precious in the eyes of God and belong to Him
- I have a Warrior King who has won the victory over my enemies
- I am filled with the Holy Spirit which will triumph over any evil spirit
- I am called to partner with Jesus to see His daughters and sons set free in the area of holistic health
- I am made strong by Jesus and His power
- I have been saved, redeemed and transformed by the blood and sacrifice of God in my health
- I am loved just because
Therefore:
- I will not shrink back when the enemy’s lies come
- I will stand firm with the armor of Christ all around me
- I will fight in the name of Jesus to see every chain binding me and his other children, destroyed
- I will hold fast to the love and strength of God in this fight
- I will be an advocate for holistic health and fight for the truth of weight gain, loss and maintenance to be heard
- I will and am victorious, yesterday, today and forever.
We Must Celebrate
My friends, we must celebrate every aspect of our health and not let the lies dictate our lives. We must come to see that weight gain is good, weight loss is good, and weight maintenance is just AS good. I may not be able to celebrate that I lost a lb. this last year, but I have many other physical and other health victories to celebrate. Not only have I stayed roughly the same weight this last year, but I also:
- Learned how to do gymnastic exercises (pullups, toes to bar, handstand pushups, double unders, etc.)
- Ran my fasted 5k and 4 mile race, ever
- Learned how to Olympic Lift better than I did a year ago
- Gained muscle and strength, lost body fat
- Sleep more than I used too
- Handle stress way better than I ever have
- Appreciate my body for it’s health, functions, and even looks
- Lead others in their health journeys, which is one of my biggest passions and joys
- Am learning to love myself more and more for who I am, and not who I think I should be
We Must Forget What People Say
If we are going to be healthy for our entire lives, our goals will have to change in each stage of our lives. You may be in the weight loss stage, or gaining muscle stage, but hey you maybe be in the weight maintenance stages. Think about it – why do we lose weight or gain weight? Is it not to get to a weight that we feel will be best for our bodies? So then, when we reach it, why are we trying to either go below or above it, again and again? Break that habit and thought right now and tell yourself that weight maintenance is good and honestly, where we all should eventually be. Furthermore, know that you are not defined by any accomplishment you make or others think you should make in the area of health. It is YOUR body, so start to listen to it more than you listen to what OTHERS say about your body. Get yourself to a weight that is good for YOUR BODY, not what your MIND or OTHERS think it should be.
Hang up your people pleasing hat and love who you are and who you can potentially be. Love the body you’ve been given now, not when it looks or feels the way you want. Leave behind the negativity and embrace the truth. You and I both are amazing and were created in the splitting image of God. Humans are the only creatures who can say that. Yes, nature reflects God’s beauty but we as humans reflect his very image.
Now I don’t know about you, but if I’m made in the image of God that means that I’m pretty good looking, beautiful and worth far more than I could ever imagine.
And guess what? So are you.
