When we are procrastinating we are just making excuses for why we aren’t doing what we know we should be doing but are avoiding. To procrastinate is to delay or put off doing something. An excuse is coming up with a reason to put off doing something. Basically, it’s the same thing.
I have heard many different reasons (or excuses) for why someone would procrastinate about losing weight. One big one is I need to take care of my family or others. It’s the caregiver excuse. They put off taking care of themselves because they haven’t been successful with that so they take care of others or do things for others. Why? Because there is an instant gratification in doing that.
I Don’t Have Time to Work on Me
If that’s you, you may have said things like, “I don’t have time to work on myself,” “I would rather spend time with others than work on myself,” “I’m not important enough to work on me” or “I’ll just fail so let me do something I can do.”
If we aren’t taking care of ourselves, we aren’t loving ourselves. So that means if we are trying to love others like we love ourselves, which Mark 12:31 tell us, we aren’t doing a very good job of that either.
It’s really an excuse for not doing what we know God wants us to do. When I weighed 430 pounds, before I began my transformation journey, I had my time filled to the brim doing volunteer work, being on boards, teaching classes, joining groups. I had something to do all the time.
Filling My Emptiness
Why was I doing that instead of working on my obvious problem? Because I had been on every diet trying to lose weight on my own. I would lose weight and then when I got to goal weight, I’d celebrate by eating something sugary and decadent and would gain the weight back again plus more. Doing that, diets were only making me gain instead of lose.
So I helped where I could doing what I could. I knew I was trying to force myself to do things for God that were good works. The problem was, even though they were good things none of them were my passions. I knew that but I felt I had stepped out of my passion of writing when the Christian newspaper I was publishing folded.
Maybe I was trying to find something to fill that hole, but nothing was working because I was in big-time procrastination mode from doing what I knew down deep inside God wanted me to do. That was to find out how to lose weight and keep it off.
Looking Good to God
Still, any time that subject came up in my mind I put it aside and said like the famous procrastinator Scarlett O’Hara. “I’ll not think about that today. I’ll think about that tomorrow.” And of course, tomorrow never seemed to come. By the way, for all you young’uns out there. That’s from the famous movie Gone With the Wind.
One might think running around keeping busy was good for me and would keep me from overeating but just the opposite was true. I was stressed to the max doing things I thought were good things but were not the main thing God wanted for me.
In reality, I was doing all these things to look good to God and others when all God wanted was for me to begin to take care of myself. I needed desperately to take care of myself. I weighed 430 pounds, had congestive heart failure, diabetes, high blood pressure and could barely walk.
I Am A Sugar Addict
Somewhere along in here I went to a meeting and heard my mentor say these life-changing words. “Alcohol is one molecule away from sugar. Alcohol is liquid sugar.” Alcohol was never my problem. My paternal grandfather was an alcoholic and my dad drilled it into me that I should never drink.
I had never equated what I was doing with overeating especially desserts and any foods made with sugar and flour as being an addiction. But that day, God clearly revealed to me that I was a sugar addict.
I didn’t even know if sugar addiction was a thing but I knew if no one else in the world was one, I was. If sugar addiction was in the dictionary my picture would be right there to describe it.
Can This Battle Be Won?
Recently I got an email from a woman who shared with me that she feels like her food addiction is keeping here in a daily prison. She said that the battle she is in is consuming me and destroying her life. She added, “Can this battle ever be won?”
My answer to her and to those of you who feel the same way is yes, but not in your own strength. We need to apply Phil. 4:13 NLT: “I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.” The battle with food can only be broken by surrendering completely to Jesus and letting Him lead you on your journey.
What I learned is that transformation is a process of surrender, changing our habits, learning how to really listen to and follow what God wants us to do and giving up our excuses.
What Excuse Is In Your Way?
Why is it that we resist the things we know will help us get what we want? We want to be healthy and live the best life for God. So why are we putting off doing something about it?
We have the God of the universe on our sides. Our excuses and us are the only ones standing in our way. It’s time to get to work and do what God is calling us to do. Procrastination has to go. Take the next right step.
For more on this subject, listen to Sweet Grace for Your Journey podcast 136: Procrastination by Excuse. https://teresashieldsparker.com/podcast/.
Her books include: "Sweet Grace: How I Lost 250 Pounds and Stopped Trying to Earn God's Favor"; "Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds"; "Sweet Journey to Transformation: Practical Steps to Lose Weight and Live Healthy"; "Sweet Freedom: Losing Weight and Keeping It Off With God's Help": "Sweet Change: True Stories of Transformation"; and "Sweet Hunger: Developing an Appetite for God".
She also offers Overcomers Christian Weight Loss Academy and VIP one-on-one coaching program, more information on both is available under the weight loss tab. Don't miss her weekly podcast, Sweet Grace for Your Journey, where she shares tips from her personal journey of losing weight and discovering healthy living. Find that under the podcast tab and anywhere you find podcasts.