I think that what probably helps me more than anything is the principle of abstinence, a very Christian principle.
This may be different for everyone. For me, it means only drinking two sugar sodas a day instead of six. (Today will not be an abstinent day, as it is the 4th of July.)
For others, abstinence may mean no sodas at all, or diet sodas only.
Also, for me, abstinence means a workout at the gym. (Because of my foot and my knee, I am not able to walk more than a few blocks, so I am limited to swimming or the elliptical machine. Unfortunately, I don’t have either an elliptical machine or a pool in my home, so I must go to the gym to work out.)
When I first joined the Catholic Church, I lost about 30 pounds because for the first time in my life, I said “No” to various foods and “Yes” to a regular workout. I practiced this “abstinence” as a spiritual discipline, something that was quite new to me.
The idea of "spiritual disciplines"is really difficult for evangelicals, who have a hard time accepting that these are not “works-based salvation.” Evangelicals are very wary of anything that looks like we are trying to “work” to earn salvation or sanctity. It’s GOD’S job to make us holy, not ours! If you try to “add works” to what Jesus has done for us, you insult His finished work on the cross and demonstrate a lack of faith in His ability to completely save and sanctify us.
Yes, evangelicals accept that Christians will be holy. But where do you draw the line between good works that come from Jesus, and good works that you do in your own strength?! It’s a tricky call for them.
(This is one of the things I love about Catholicism, BTW! We are free to do good works! No “lines” exist–we are working out our salvation with Jesus beside us–He actually likes it when we try to “add” to the treasury of merit! He doesn’t consider it a “lack of faith” to try to be good.)
A lot of evangelicals avoid things that “defile the temple of God,” e.g., alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, drugs of any kind other than for prescribed medical purposes (I know Christians who won’t take aspirin for a headache), etc.
But food–ah, that’s a different story! I have a fun book that has a whole chapter devoted to the Lutheran “hot dish suppers.”
The problem is that everyone’s body handles food differently. Some ladies can devour large slices of the “Pig Pickin’ Cake” and drink cup after cup of lemonade at the Annual Evangelical Women’s Summer Tea Party," and they’re still skinny as sticks! Meanwhile other women walk into the banquet hall and look at the Pig Pickin’ Cake and lemonade and gain five pounds!
That’s what makes it so hard for people to be abstinent! It is really, REALLY hard to sit and munch on broccoli (not carrot sticks–they have a high glycemic index!), while your skinny pals are chowing down chips and dips!
Same for exercise. Some people work out for six weeks and look like the Terminator, while others work out for six months and lose less than an inch!
At least one person mentioned in this thread that a lot of obese people eat very healthy foods in normal sized portions. I would agree with this. I eat one of the healthiest diets in my workplace and I’m fat. Meanwhile the thinnest lady in our department eats donuts and coffee for breakfast and a diet that is almost all carbohyrdrates, no fresh fruit or vegetables (the only vege she likes is corn, which technically isn’t a vegetable), and very little protein.
Yes, she’s thin, but I KNOW that even with my hundred pounds of extra weight, I’m healthier than she is. A few months ago, at my annual physical, my lab tests were all normal, in spite of my fat. OTOH, this poor lady was rushed to the emergency room a year ago and spent a week in the hospital–diagnosis–congestive heart failure.
So thin isn’t always healthy.
My feeling is that obesity is one of those things that God asks some of us to “suffer” so that we can offer this up to Him. He wants us to work throughout our lives towards abstinences and detachment from food and sloth, and to glorify God in our bodies. It will not be easy for us and we will have to struggle not only with the fat, but with envy against our thin friends who seem to have no trouble remaining thin. Iit’s like St. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” The Lord leaves the obesity struggle with us so that we will rely on HIM, not ourselves. Our weakness is made perfect by HIS strength.
I think Catholics have to be careful not to adapt the “health and wealth gospel” that states that Christians have a right to “have it all,” including a beautiful, healthy, thin body on this earth. Like I said, we should glorify God in our bodies, but that doesn’t mean that they have to look a certain way. Remember John Paul II near the end of his life–his body was a wreck, but his soul was strong and beautiful.
