There have been a lot of moments in my life between these two photos. For years a lot of tears have been shed and a lot of weight has been lost and found.
What I've learned to appreciate is that the version of me that weighed over 250 pounds never gave up. She did not quit, even when she gained back 100 pounds twice.
She is my past version who was willing to learn from her mistakes, a lot of thought drama, in order to discover that the future version (the photo on the right) had so much love and compassion for herself. Michelle (Me) went through a transformation of sorts, like a name change to Shel, to becoming a woman who not only found lasting results in weight loss, but also in starting a new career after tuning 50 and becoming a life and weight coach whose purpose is: to be a conduit of the healing work God wants to do in the lives of other women.
Maybe you have a similar story where you have tried and tried to lose weight only to find it again. Maybe you had similar thoughts that you were broken and that you just couldn't make weight loss happen or even make it long in maintenance when you did lose the weight. By reaching out towards that future version of myself and on day 1 at the starting weight of 250 pounds, I started discovering the thoughts that were keeping me stuck and I borrowed from the woman in my future who said, "maybe I'm not so broken", "look how much I've learned about losing weight with compassion and love". "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline," in other words a sound mind.
I transformed the way I was thinking and decided that the woman who truly loves herself and is living a life of freedom doesn't beat herself up anymore on her journey to success. She embraces who God has called her to be.
I keep going. I now have such a trust with my body that I no longer worry about not making my goals. My issue was not a weight issue but a thinking and feeling issue. Now when I have a moment of thinking that doesn't serve my present self or my future I decide to take that thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) I am thankful for the beautiful woman who learned to love herself, treat herself with dignity and kindness. She is the one who believed in a future where she was set free from the damaging thinking, the cultural bias that told her she wasn't good enough, and stopped the cycle of yoyo weight loss.
Are you someone who believes in the healing work of God but just seems to struggle with doing what you don't want to do over and over again? Gaining and Losing the same weight and feeling worse about yourself? Do you feel broken and without hope? Has the culture told you that you have to fit inside their box in order to be valued and loved and that the only way to be acceptable is to be a certain size?
Romans 12:2 Do not conform 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.
I believe that you can learn from your past, present and future. I believe that God will help you with everything that tries to set you apart from His healing power. He set me free by renewing my mind. I worked on listening to the freedom version of me, the woman who gave up diet mentality for God's word. I have been set free in so many areas of my life. I have more stories to share about the wonderful things God has done but those are for another day.
I'd love to work with you! I can be reached by email: shel@dammgirlcoaching.com or message me on Facebook at DammGirl Coaching.
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