Like many overweight people starting 2011, I've set a goal to lose some weight this year. I know that sounds lame. Many of us start the year and end the year the same weight, no matter how much we'd like to shed the weight. I've had three successful weight-loss experiences in the past, and I know how to lose the weight. My problem is, I need to be disciplined in keeping the weight off by not allowing circumstances to interrupt my weight-loss success.
When I evaluate my trip-ups, one of them is that I'm a foodie. I love reading about food, studying recipes, looking at restaurant menus, watching cooking shows, and creating my own recipes. Vacations involve fine dining. Stress means comfort food. Holidays and celebrations beg for special recipes. Nostalgic trips down memory lane have me remembering certain dishes my loved ones made with love.
I need to find a way to "have my cake and eat it too," or in this case, "enjoy food but lose weight too." Enter Chantel Hobbs. I'm reading her book, Love Food & Live Well. Finally a book that understands my dilemma. Interesting, with the popularity of Eat. Pray. Love. to find a Christ-centered book by an author who understands that the love of food isn't wrong with the proper focus. In excess, it's gluttony. That's wrong. But enjoying the sense of taste and savoring mealtime is not sinful.
I appreciate Chantel's take on weight-loss. She lost 200 pounds before becoming an expert on the subject. Love Food & Live Well provides wise and empathetic words from "just" another gal further along in the discipline of weight-loss and maintenance. She doesn't expect impractical goals—doesn't come across as condescending or judgmental. Reading between the lines of her books I hear the assurance, "I understand and I support you." With God's help, and Chantel's books, I'm determined to end 2011 weighing less, MUCH less, than I started the year.
(by Kathy Carlton Willis, 2011)
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