Outside In or Inside Out?

I have a question for you today.  Are you losing weight from the outside in or from the inside out?  How you answer this question may ultimately be the determining factor in whether this is just another diet or the program that will permanently put you on a healthy path.  

If we only lose weight on the outside and don't deal with our internal weight, we're likely to stay in an oscillating pattern of gain-lose-gain.  I don't know about you, but that's not what I want to do for the rest of my life!

I talk about internal weight because I'm guessing that many of us showed up on our first day of this program with a fair amount of emotional baggage.  I was an emotional eater and became an expert in burying my feelings under plates of food.  I did a pretty good job hiding the emotional pain I experienced due to my morbid obesity; in fact, my closest friends and even some of my family members were flabbergasted when I finally began to share how awful I felt for so many years.  I guess I should have been nominated for an Academy Award, because I gave a pretty good performance, acting like my weight was no big deal and didn't impede me in the slightest.  Of course, inside I was miserable and spent over two decades feeling pretty disgusted with myself and so very defeated.

Dealing with that pain, and then going even deeper and dealing with the things that happened in my life that caused me to escape into food initially caused more pain.  I'd made the decision to stay on plan, so turning to food to numb myself emotionally was no longer an option.  But as I allowed God to gently begin to peel back the pain, one layer at a time, healing finally began to happen.  That healing has made all the difference in not only enabling me to get to my goal, but to continue to maintain in my goal range for over 4 years.

So, are you losing weight from the inside out today?  It's not an easy process, but it happens one day and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)