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Weight Loss and the Controlling Spirit

One of our members in our Haven  program shared today that she has finally reached her goal weight – yaaaaaay 🙂 but is experiencing a lot of anxiety as a result- boooo- 🙁 .

Nicole went on to share that her anxiety is stemming the fact that she has never reached her goal weight  before and is afraid that she will not be able to sustain it.

This is a very common feeling and I truly believe its what keeps most of us from ever reaching our goal weight. Understanding the physiological and spiritual  aspects of losing weight, will help us to better understand why it’s so difficult for many of us to lose weight and why so many of us are stuck in the never-ending cycle of losing and gaining weight over and over again.

Thanks to the prayer, support and introspection given in the Healthy by Design programs, Nicole is  learning the impact her controlling spirit has on a variety of areas in her life.  You may think that this has nothing to do with losing weight but it is often at the core of the problem.

A controlling spirit, (like the people-pleasing spirit) is an identity that some of us have developed over time to help us cope with life. These identities are who we believe we have to be in order to be loved and accepted but they are not who God originally created us to be.

Losing weight is difficult for people like Nicole because they want to do things their way and ironically feel very out of control when they are finally able to control their weight (stay with me here). Being over-weight is familiar and people’s controlling spirits know they can easily maintain that lifestyle that has led to their current weight.  In order to successfully lose the weight, they have to go, and stay, outside of their known habits and routine.  This gives them a fear of being out of control because they haven’t yet developed the life skills, habits and mindsets that maintaining that healthy weight requires.  For this reason, their controlling spirit works against their conscious desire to lose weight.  It seeks to keep you stuck in what it knows it can control, instead of going to a place where it’s feels out of control.

And although Nicole sincerely wants to maintain her goal weight, the discomfort of being out of her comfort zone is so anxiety producing that she and many people like her will revert back to the familiar. Reaching her goal weight is contradicting her identity (controlling spirit).

Even though her (false) identity is not God’s intention for her (and you) , it’s what we know and it’s what we’re comfortable with so change will not come easily which most of us are experiencing first hand.

So what’s next for Nicole? As she begins to understand that a controlling spirit is rooted in her feelings of powerlessness, she will begin to take back her God-given power and authority. (I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.~Luke 10:19 NIV) This begins with a process of renewing your mind, and learning new healthy habits to slowly and consistently replace the old habits.

The journey to reclaiming your God-given identity is not a short and quick one like many of us hope for, but I promise you it’s well worth the journey.

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Do you have a controlling spirit? If so, please share how this affects your health and your weight?

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One Comment

  1. I never thought of that before & I guess when I think about it that does make sense. Thanks for sharing!

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