{"id":9698,"date":"2018-02-02T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=9698"},"modified":"2018-01-30T06:53:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T11:53:12","slug":"ready-lose-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/02\/ready-lose-weight.html","title":{"rendered":"Are You Ready to Lose Weight?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9918\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2018\/01\/weight-loss-2036969_1280-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"weight-loss-2036969_1280\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/>Most of you reading this have been on so many diets in the past, you could write best-sellers about your experiences! I understand as I have heard your stories about diets and failures through the years.<\/p>\n<p>You are probably wondering if this time will be any different from your past efforts to lose weight. You may be thinking, \u201cCan I really lose weight for life?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When answering such a question, you need to weigh the pros and cons of embarking on such a journey. If you really desire in your heart to do this, God will empower you along the way. But you have to commit to the process. This means you have to be willing to make lifestyle changes.<\/p>\n<p>Read through this list of questions and answer each question honestly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do I have realistic expectations? Am I willing to lose weight steadily, slowly and sensibly? Am I willing to examine other areas of my life that may need to change in order to support weight loss?<\/li>\n<li>Will I change the focus of my efforts to health and lifestyle and not diet and weight?<\/li>\n<li>Am I willing to cut back on unhealthy eating habits and develop new ones?<\/li>\n<li>Am I willing to increase exercise and movement?<\/li>\n<li>Am I willing to resolve emotional issues related to food and eating?<\/li>\n<li>Will I monitor my progress and deal with health issues?<\/li>\n<li>Will I go deeper in my spiritual life, renewing my mind daily and allowing God to give me a heart of flesh for a heart of stone?<\/li>\n<li>Will I eat at regular times and give my body a chance to maximize its metabolism?<\/li>\n<li>Will I build community and support, both necessary for long term maintenance of gains?<\/li>\n<li>Will I develop a lifestyle of balance and moderation?<\/li>\n<li>Will I accept the grace of God and lose the shame and humiliation associated with weight loss efforts and past defeats?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you can answer, \u201cYes\u201d to these questions, you are ready to begin. If not, reassess why you answered, \u201cNo\u201d and work on changing your attitude and surrendering more to God and His good plan for your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most of you reading this have been on so many diets in the past, you could write best-sellers about your experiences! I understand as I have heard your stories about diets and failures through the years. You are probably wondering if this time will be any different from your past efforts to lose weight. You&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[918],"tags":[29,32,82,30],"class_list":["post-9698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-relationship-to-food","tag-dieting","tag-lose-weight","tag-weight","tag-weight-loss"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are You Ready to Lose Weight?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/02\/ready-lose-weight.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are You Ready to Lose Weight?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most of you reading this have been on so many diets in the past, you could write best-sellers about your experiences! I understand as I have heard your stories about diets and failures through the years. You are probably wondering if this time will be any different from your past efforts to lose weight. 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I understand as I have heard your stories about diets and failures through the years. You are probably wondering if this time will be any different from your past efforts to lose weight. 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Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9919,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698\/revisions\/9919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}