The Vice-Busting Diet

Reading a new book The Vice-Busting Diet by Julia Griggs Havey

Introduction:

"Deprivation is not living without certain foods but living with them and being depreived of your true health and happiness."

"I simply looked at my life and decided to change one negative habit (sin) at a time. I didn't do anything too drastic and I didn't do anything that I couldn't stick with for the rest of my life. And I gave up the fairy tale that simply losing weight would solve all my problems and give me everything I wanted. Instead, I focused on taking steps to do what I could do today--because today, right now, was (and is) all we have."

Definition of a Diet Vice: any habitual action that is keeping you from reaching and maintaing a healthy weight. (i.e., specific foods, portions, activity choices)

Chapter 3:

"For any of your goals to become a reality, you must focus on all the benefits of beign fit and living a healthy lifestyle before you begin to take action. Doing so on a regular basis will provide more strength, motivation, and desire to succeed."

"When you take the time to do one thing at a time, you will improve the quality of each task.  You can achieve a major goal by looking at the smallest achievable goals that you can accomplish."

"Actions are the daily tasks you can complete while workign toward your ultimate goal. You can't change your weight today without first changing what you do."

"You may think the scale is a way to keep score--it's not! Okay, it may be a way to note your progress, but it is the least important way. If the scale were the best way to keep track of your progress, you could fool everyone and use unhealthy and dangerous ways to lose weight."

"Think about only working on developing positive habits. And there are two parts to that: positive, which means it must be healthy; and habits, which means you want your actions to become permanent."

"Putting your focus on only your actions, not your weight, and only on one action at a time is one of the aspects of this program that differentiates it from any other diet plan."

"The key to getting over the hump is persistence and patience. You can't speed up time, and you also must be persistent with your intial actions. That means not letting excuses get in the way of doing what you need to do."

"The key to success isn't a matter of following the right eating plan; it is a matter of getting rid of the wrong eating plan."

This is an interesting book. Her premise is simple and it caught my eye because it deals with changing habits and making longterm lifestyle changes. She isn't touting a quick-fix or a formula that involves secrets or key ingredients. She tells you to look at what you do right now and change it. I love the biblical concept behind her method that you put off the old (sinful) self and put on the new (redeemed) man. You do this by identifying the vice (or sin) and replacing it with the virtue that will bring about the actions and results that honor the Lord. She doesn't present it this way in the book. I haven't yet read any mention of faith or the Lord. But, the underlying principle is there and it convinces me that this "method" of weight loss works because it's based on that truth.  As the last quote above shows, our righteousness is not about following a list of rules but living in the grace the Lord has granted. We allow him to purge us of the wrong plans in our lives (sin) and replace them with His grace and power to make those choices that bear fruit.  This applies to all areas of our lives, including how we care for our bodies.

I'm going to give this the 21 day commitment she suggests and see where it leads. Along with her suggestions for the gradual, simple changes to my physical body, I'd like to add in a simple change for the area in my life that the Lord is also dealing heavily with me; my marriage. From the inside out, I want to see the Lord shine His healing into my life.

One aspect of this program is speaking daily affirmations to yourself. The affirmation she lists seems harmless enough, but I can't help thinking how much more effective it will be to speak God's truth to myself daily instead. I'm going to pray and hunt for the right words to keep me properly focused on His truths and their power to change me.

Tomorrow I'll begin with her Day 1, listing my actions and whatever notes and insights I gain from that day's and each subsequent day's reading.