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[Guest guest]

How wonderful about your breakthrough. I had been listening to my body and was learning to hear it and then something happened and now I am back to eating just for the hell of it. I need to get my head back in the deal. I know I can do it but getting my head around it is half the battle. I also wanted to share an article I saw on Yahoo. It is nice to see more articles about this. I hope everyone starts to catch on to IE especially young girls. I don't want any young girl to go through what I had to go through as a child and young adult. Fighting Fat With Faith Posted by on Thu, Jan 04, 2007, 1:46 am PST Post a Comment Earlier this week, I wrote about how The Principles can help with a common New Year's resolution - weight loss. One principle I didn't discuss in that post was faith. For those of you new to The Principles, I differentiate between the idea of spiritual faith and organized religion. But regardless of whether you go to church or just feel a sense of wonder when you look out at the ocean, I believe faith can help you develop a healthier body in 2007.Those of us who have experienced nagging problems in areas such as love, marriage, parenting, and work are well aware of the despair and shame that can wash over us when yet another self-improvement program fails. If you've ever fought the battle of the bulge, you know the familiar cycle of willing yourself to diet, succumbing to temptation, and

then gaining even more weight. Many weight loss efforts, especially those started after the emotionally draining holiday season, are doomed to fail. Why? Because these plans are based on the idea that we can miraculously go from destructive behavior to healthy behavior on the basis of our willpower. If only this idea were true, there would be very few unhappy people in the world and we would all have achieved our weight goals long ago.Rather than willpower, I prefer to have faith that there is something out there bigger and more powerful than me that has a plan for my life and put me on this earth to be happy. Whether I call that presence God or a Higher Power or an angel, the idea boils down to the belief that, when I get out of my own way, the universe will help me move toward a better life. This belief system has served me well in addressing everyday problems in work and love, as well as much more serious,

life-threatening situations. But all of this sounds awfully general, especially in the context of something as practical as losing 10 or 20 pounds. And I don't mean to imply that you can pray those pounds away. You will need to utilize all The Principles discussed in my previous post - surrendering to the fact that your health situation is serious, taking responsibility for your eating habits, being honest about how much pain being overweight causes you, and helping others in order to get out of the house (as well as out of self-obsession).And then, in addition, I would suggest you pray. After all, you've tried to lose weight many times. You've cried in frustration at your failures. What could it possibly hurt to say a little prayer to your God, or a loved one who has passed away, or just the beautiful night sky? "Dear God, you gave me this body to enjoy my life and to

help others. I ask you to help me eat healthy, exercise, and respect my body. Please guide and inspire me to take the actions I need to take to lose weight." I know that sounds corny and many of you probably believe that willpower is the only way to solve this or any other problem. But that's why this Principle is called faith - you have to take a leap of faith to believe that this could help when everything else has failed. I challenge you to try it. If it doesn't work, what have you lost? If it does, you might lose a lot...maybe even 10 pounds. Michele CR: The Last Juror by Grisham __________________________________________________