I have some new stuff for all of you. After much prayer over our short break I decided it was time that JOY went in a slightly new direction. It's not much different than what we have been doing but I decided that we needed to have a unified goal in mind. My desire for JOY has always been to increase the fellowship of the women at church all while getting healthy. Well we have certainly went above and beyond on the fellowship aspect. I've gotten to know all of you so much better and I feel so much closer to my church sisters! Praise the Lord for that! Now I feel it is time for us to work on achieving our health goals as well. So I felt that it was the right thing to do to give JOY an actual diet plan. I realize that the word diet has some negative connotations associated with it but for most of us learning to eat healthy takes the restrictions of a diet. Diet is not a negative thing unless you make it a negative thing. A healthy diet is a just a way of living and eating for life. It is something you can do and say "yes, I can follow this for the rest of my life." A good diet will teach you important things like moderation, portion control, self control, and it can encourage you to harness your will-power! As long as a diet is teaching you these things without negative effects on your body then there is nothing wrong with that. I never even realized what was wrongt with my eating habits until I followed a popular diet plan a few years ago. I knew I was overweight and needed to get healthy but I had no idea what to change or where to start. I eventually went on to lose 90 pounds but I realized I couldn't live the rest of my life that way. What I did learn however is what to eat, how much to eat and what works for my own body. I think we can all be in agreement on the fact that you cannot live the rest of your life restricting certain foods or eating strange foods and food combinations. You have to learn to do what's best for your own body to keep it healthy!
I decided that the best diet for this group to be following, given the fact we are a Christian group, is one based on the bible. You can't get any simpler than the basics right there in the bible. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, and non-processed foods are the best way to live along with moderation! Yes you can eat what you want, just keep it in moderation and enjoy as much natural food as you can! We will be counting calorie on this diet which is important to teaching portion control and moderation. No you do not have to count calories for the rest of your life but for those of us who struggle with food issues, counting calories is a way to open your eyes and say "I realize I didn't need all of that food after all." Sometimes you just have to retrain yourself to do what's natural to your body especially after spending so many years doing what's unnatural (i.e. gluttony and over-indulgence). Imagine the person who is in a car wreck and has to learn to walk all over again. They're not going to tell the person to take off running. They are going to take them step by step every single day until they can learn to walk with the aid of a crutch or cane and then it may take years to learn to walk without the aid of that crutch or cane. You have already taken your first small steps by deciding to get healthy now consider counting calories your crutch. Until you can learn to "eat normally" on your own then you must start over from the beginning and learn to eat as God intended. We all need to go back to basics and learn to eat the foods God designed for our bodies, and in the portions needed just to fuel our bodies. We should eat to live and not live to eat.
I am tired of this world telling us what we can and cannot eat. If God did not want you to eat carbs then why would He send bread from heaven [John 6:31], or give us carb loaded potatoes and vegetables? The bible even refers to eating whole eggs, not just the whites [Job 6:6]. This means they - people in biblical times - did not worry about cholesterol. For those of you worrying about your cholesterol I wouldn't worry about it in eggs because I'm sure your cholesterol worries are coming from sources far worse than an egg! Even beef was eaten in moderation, just consider the prodigal son and his homecoming meal. God has a plan for everything in life, including diet, and with everything in God's plan all you have to do is read and follow! Mark 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
With that said here is our new diet plan - Print this off and hang it on your fridge - These are also posted under the weight loss tools on the right hand side:
The Joy Diet Plan
I've also made a chart showing foods listed in the bible:
Foods in the Bible
(If you notice any foods missing from the list feel free to contact me.)
God bless everyone and joyful dieting.
P.S. I've already lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks of following this plan. God's ways always work over the ways of men!
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