Here’s how I was able to make it work. This was my own plan, and yours will be different. It was conceived after prayer as described above. Hanging out with Jesus, as it were. Slowly becoming dissatisfied with the way I seemed to “lose it” around desserts and junk and larger servings and more servings. Enough is enough after awhile, right?

Years ago I had found, in a health club, what my “ideal” weight should be. You might want to check out such an exam, where they pinch this and test that, and ask you questions, and give you your perfect number (range). Maybe you already know, and you salivate over it every time it comes to mind. With Jesus, wishes become realities.

So I brought the number before the Lord, and began praying for grace. Much grace. More grace. “Dear God, I cannot do this! I do not WANT to do this! Help me want to do this!” And so on. It’s all about the “want-to.” Once you want to, you’ll do it.

One day I was just able to do it. I chose a bowl, a medium sized cereal bowl, and decided to fill it up 3 times a day with light healthy food. Period. I won’t go into all the details about what is “healthy.” That’s all available elsewhere, and you probably already know. I think all Americans know, they just choose to ignore…

As for the size of the bowl, yours may vary greatly from mine. The deal is, be sure that what you arte eating each meal is less than what you normally would eat, without starving yourself.

No snacks in between. Eat at 8, 12, 4. No more. Until the numbers start to come down.

And they did.

This was not really fun. Suddenly there were two “want-to’s” struggling inside . My body was saying, “How could you do this to me! What a stupid idea! You’re just a legalistic religionist! You’re under the law! You’re an idiot! You’re going to kill me! “ And more.

But “I”, the one in charge now, was saying, “Shut up, body. You're not going to die! And you’re not in charge any more. Thank you Lord. More grace. More grace. Help. I know You are happy with this. See me through to the end.” There’s the balance. Looking both ways. Grace from God, commands to the body!

I suppose that if there are not constantly two voices within us pulling us apart, we are not walking in and growing in the Spirit of God. For too long, Western Christians have been listening only to one voice in regards to diet, and the ultimate conclusion seems to have become, This is impossible! Forget it! Live and let live! Don’t hurt yourself! What’s the point? God loves me as I am! Christ has set me free from bondage!

And so on.