Over the past few weeks I’ve been making my way through Barb Raveling’s, Taste for Truth. It’s a 30 day “weightloss” Bible Study. I personally would say it’s 30 days of practicing renewing your mind about weight and food issues.

Each day is short but she packs a lot in a tiny book. Some of the topics I felt I had already “dealt with” over the past year, but they were still good reminders of where my thoughts should stay. I think the beginning few days where you come up with boundaries are very important and I took a few extra days to mull that over.

If you’re looking for a short and sweet example of how to renew your mind from a Biblical perspective about weightloss, weight, food, skinny, body image… etc, this is an excellent book for that. I’ve practiced renewing my mind consistently since June, so I think some of the exercises might have come easier for me than if I hadn’t already been in that place.

One thing I did start doing differently as a result of going through this book, is writing out the questions and answers from the I Deserve a Donut book when using it to renew my mind. This embedded the change in perspective deeper in my mind. Now, I tell myself I have to write them if I break my boundaries. It’s a huge deterrent. At the same time, I noticed when tempted to break my boundaries, the questions would pop into my head almost immediately. The added benefit of this is it makes me stop and actually think about why I want to break my boundaries.

You may be thinking, “Ok, but did you release any weight”? That’s a fair question since it is titled a “weight loss Bible study”. The answer is, “Yes”. Again, I was not new to renewing my mind when I started the study so I don’t know if the results would have been the same had I just been starting out. Although, I have read testimonials of newbies releasing weight. I know back in June I was breaking boundaries left and right… now, hardly at all. Part of that is because I tweaked my boundaries some (after going through those chapters in the book), but a large part is a result of God changing my thinking about food, boundaries, weight…etc.

I think the biggest change has been a sense of peace about my size. I’m not stressing out about what, when, how much I eat… I’m not stressing out (as much) about my appearance, what to wear, and what others might think of me. God’s peace really does surpass all understanding.

I’m still renewing my mind daily, but my focus is now shifting to a “procrastination project“. I’ll talk more about that later. This doesn’t mean I never have to address my food/weight issues anymore. What it means is, they aren’t my focus at the moment. Where dealing with my weight had been all I could handle, now I feel like I can branch out without totally going “wheels off” in the food department. When I do have a struggle with my boundaries, or I get a bad attitude about following those boundaries, sure, I’ll renew my mind in regard to the situation. I’m just over a week into the procrastination focus and the weight is still coming off despite the split in attention.

I’ve got about three weeks left of the procrastination project, and then I plan to go through Barb’s book, Freedom from Emotional Eating. Should be just in time for the Holiday season and my deceased son’s birthday. I’m already planning to start going through the “Holiday/Special Occasion” questions in I Deserve a Donut before the Holidays actually arrive, but I still want to go through that other study.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m learning a few cool things about procrastination that I hope to share soon. Until then, God Bless!

*Be sure to visit Barb’s website for more renewing of the mind information.