Need to Lose?  Focus on the Gain

Losing weight can be such a mind game. It’s the new year and I know what you’re thinking—I need to get serious about my health and lose this extra weight! 

As the holidays come to an end, we say goodbye to the old and hello to the new. 

• How about we start afresh with a new way of thinking about how to reach our health goals? 
• What if we focus on what we need to gain instead of what we need to lose? 

During the past year I challenged myself with a new approach. Instead of focusing on the weight I needed to lose, I decided to focus on something I needed to gain to help me lose. 

Not long ago I needed to gain strength. I set a personal goal to increase my strength training intensity. I also needed to gain more muscle mass. One of the benefits of strength training is an increase in metabolism, which will help to decrease body fat.

Reframing our health goals brings a freshness and a new hope that this will be the year it happens! 

Let’s review these scriptures from Galatians 5:22-24 ESV:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its 

passions and desires.”

Could it be that the fruit from the Holy Spirit is what we need to GAIN to reach a healthy

weight?

Let’s reframe our weight loss goals and choose to be encouraged at the start of this year:

• I need to gain space in my schedule. – faith that God can help me with priorities.

• I need to gain self-discipline.  – self-control not to overfeed my body.

• I need to gain strength in my body.  – patience, it will take time to convert body fat to lean body mass.

• I need to gain forgiveness for past failures. – kindness toward yourself.

• I need to gain vision to see what can be if I am consistent.  – joy for the future.

• I need to gain capacity. – self-control not to over schedule my life.

• I need to gain the ability to deal with my family. – love to grow beyond what I have.

• I need to gain good sleep. – peace to rest well knowing God is in control.

God has promised to give us everything we need for life and godliness through the power of His Holy Spirit.

Question:  Review the bullet points above.  In which area/s do you most need to see a “gain” in your life?  What is one step you will take to begin moving forward in reaching your health goals this year?