“Surprised by Grace” | Sabbath School Panel by 3ABN - Lesson 2 Q4 2025

Tool, Not a Trigger

 This week I was watching a random youtube video and I heard some great advice that I would like to share with you. The lady said: 

Use the scales as a tool, not a trigger. 

What great advice!! In the past I allowed the scales to be a trigger. A trigger as permission to eat more or a trigger to give up altogether. This week has been a week in which it could have been very easy to allow the scales to trigger me to give up. But thankfully I am a different person now. I don't allow set backs to deter me from where I am going and what I am doing. 

Last Friday at my official weigh in for the week - I was down a couple of pounds from the week before. Yay!! Then I had a higher sodium lunch and an even higher sodium supper (I had made a soup that used Tamari and it is HIGH in sodium- I didn't realize it at the time because it is something I had not used before) So the next morning when I did my daily weigh in I was up almost 4 pound. Boy, was I discouraged. Well, I just got back to doing what I know I need to be doing. By today - I was down a bit but still up since last Fridays weigh in. I could let it discourage me right into giving up but I did not. What I did is evaluated the week. It was a rough week. Because my numbness and tingling don't seem to be improving, in fact, it feels like it is getting worse. So the Chiropractor ordered an MRI. Well, our insurance denied it so I had to pay for it. That was awfully stressful. Then the stress of the MRI. I don't like to be in confined spaces. And when I got there not only did I find out that I would in fact be in the tube - I also found out that I had to take off ALL my clothes and wear scrubs. :( ugh...I have been having issues with sleeping too. It's probably due to menopause. So, I realized that there were reasons that the weight was up. And I just have to keep doing the best I can do.  

So the scales can be a good tool to keep track of what is going on. But we can't depend on it so heavily that we are thrown off course when things don't go our way. So what I weighed myself and my weight was up a bit - I said to myself - you didn't deserve that. And went on with my day like I normally would. The scales are a tool. I won't let them have the power to be a trigger any more. 

Number 15 "Resolving the Resistance" in the "Made for Health"

 Click HERE for "Resolving the Resistance" 

Number 14 "Physiological Forensics" in the "Made for Health" series

 Click HERE for video number 14 

Number 13 "More Than Muscle" in the "Made for Health" series

 Click HERE for "More Than Muscles" 

“Recipe for Success” | Sabbath School Panel by 3ABN - Lesson 1 Q4 2025

10th Month Check-in

I am 2 days late at getting this post written up and shared, but I am finally getting it done. The 22nd marked the anniversary of when I decided to stop allowing my flesh to rule my eating and to allow God to have the control instead. Ever since then I have found freedom from food! What a blessing! But just so there are no misunderstandings- it meant giving up the foods that cause toxic hunger. The foods that cause food noise, things like meat, dairy, refined carbs, refined sugars and a majority of the oil. I can't say I totally abstain from oil because I have 1 T in the batch of Ezekiel bread that I make that makes 3 loaves. 

So, what has the last month been like you might wonder. Well, I have continued to have the extra stuff in my life like the chiropractic appointment and such. So, it has still been busy. But thankfully this last month I have been more successful in the weight loss realm. 5 pounds was lost bring to total weight loss to 61 pounds!! I would really like to lose a total of 100 pounds, maybe a bit more. It depends on where I feel God is leading. Truth be told it is not like I will do that much different on what I eat or do once I arrive at my goal weight. 

I had a dream about a month or 2 ago and in the dream, there was a number that stood out to me. And if this number was what God wanted me to set my goal weight at - it will have me at the point of losing 111 pounds. But I am leaving that in God's hands. 

I am still so grateful! I had struggled with my weight and most of the time I was on the losing side. Not in losing weight but losing to my fleshes desires. I might have been able to eat all sorts of things that I have left behind. But I was not happy. Those things did not bring happiness. Allowing God to have to control and eating the foods that best nourish my body and seeing my body change has brought a lot more joy and happiness. Things in my life are not all roses and sunshine. But I am very happy to be following God's plan for my life. 

Not very many people in my life have really mentioned my weight loss. For a while I thought well maybe it just doesn't show up yet. But after 61 pounds - there is NO question about it - it is showing up. And God blessed me with one of the best compliments I have ever gotten this past week. I was at the part that I have been walking at for quite some time and a lady slightly older than me who runs/walks at the same park - even though she doesn't speak good English made it clear that she noticed I had lost quite a bit of weight. And the hand gestures she used to help me understand what she was trying to say - said it all. What a blessing!! 

"We all sit in cages with doors wide open." 

 I heard this quote on the radio one day this week on my way to my chiropractic appointment. And as I pondered it the rest of the drive there, I realized that for me the cage had been my diet. As long as I ate the standard American diet - I was sitting in that cage. The cage that kept me in the morbidly obese category. And let me tell you - seeing that be the way you are described is very hurtful. I can't remember if i mentioned this before but back in Feb when I went to my CPAP Dr I noticed that phrase on my chart. At that point I had already lost 22 -24 pounds, and it was one of the things that made me feel defeated even though I had been losing weight. What a slap in the face. So, eating the wrong foods were causing me to be a prisoner to my appetite and had me sitting in a cage. But with Jesus Christ leading the way I am free and able to choose the foods that my body needs for nourishment. So, there you have it - 10 months and still going with no plans of veering off course.  Be watching for about Nov 22 when I share about how month 11 goes. :O)