Day 44
Determine Your Ideal Weight
Scripture to Memorize
She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
Proverbs 31:22–23
Passage to Read
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Genesis 3:6–7
Guided Prayer
Dear Lord, I have to confess: I can’t cast the first stone at Eve. Although you’ve filled this world with wonderful food like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, I’m continually tempted to eat all the wrong things. When I see food that looks good, even though it’s not good, I fall for the deception. Like Eve, I take and eat it. I’ve also been guilty of giving deceptive food to my husband and children. It looks so good! It tastes so good!
Holy Spirit, open my eyes to see the truth. Enlighten my mind to understand just how deceptive food can be and give me wisdom to understand my eating habits. I know there are spiritual and emotional issues involved. Eating is not just a physical thing.
I also need to confess that, because I’ve failed to exercise self-control in the area of food, I’m just like Adam and Eve: I need new outfits! Forgive me for all the money I’ve spent buying more and more clothes, filling my closet with different sizes, simply because I was unwilling to exercise self-control concerning food.
Sometimes, I just feel so powerless in the face of the unrelenting onslaught of food that looks good and tastes good, even though it isn’t good for me. I need your help. Heal those places in my soul that drive me to reach for food, rather than you, for comfort. Forgive me and heal me. Amen.
Personal
The Proverbs 31 woman was clothed in fine linen and purple. She wore the most expensive clothing available at the time. One way to position yourself to be able to afford better quality clothing is to limit yourself to buying one size only. If you have to spend money purchasing multiple wardrobes in multiple sizes, your wardrobe dollar is stretched to the limit. One of the best-dressed women I know is in her sixties. She’s had some quality outfits in her closet for decades because they are well made, so they last forever; but more important, she has been wearing the same size for decades. If her clothing starts to get tight, as it does from time to time, she knows it’s time to eat less and exercise more. It’s not time to go out and buy clothing a size bigger.
An absolute essential for making the most of your wardrobe is having a one-size wardrobe. But what size is the right size? That’s an important question that every woman who cares about her personal appearance needs to answer. As a chronic yo-yo dieter, I’ve thought a lot about my ideal weight. You can consult the Body Mass Index (BMI) chart at the end of this section for general guidelines concerning what’s healthy and what’s not. As long as you’re within the healthy range, I believe: Your ideal weight is the healthiest weight you can maintain while leading a sustainable lifestyle.
Reread that: Your ideal weight is the healthiest weight you can maintain while leading a sustainable lifestyle. For example, if I live on nothing but egg whites and lemon water, I can get down to 120 pounds and wear a size 6. But that is not a sustainable lifestyle. Therefore, even though I would love to weigh 120 pounds and look fabulous in a size 6 (like I did when I was in my twenties and during the tail end of my forty-day fast in 2005), 120 pounds really isn’t the ideal weight for me.
Unfortunately, when I begin eating for emotional reasons (like I did after the death of my father in June 2006), I can zoom up to the low 150s. I have photographic proof that this is not my ideal weight either. Besides, I can only sustain it by living on coffee and junk food while watching television and feeling sorry for myself. What’s the answer? Somewhere in the middle.
If I am reasonably smart about my eating and perform moderate exercise three to four times a week, I hover around the low 130s and wear a size 8. That’s a lifestyle I should maintain, and therefore, even though it doesn’t enable me to look like a supermodel, size 8 is my ideal dress size and the low 130s is my ideal weight. My wardrobe, then, should consist almost entirely of size 8 clothing. When those clothes become too tight, I shouldn’t go out and buy the next size clothing. That’s poor stewardship of my clothing budget, not to mention poor stewardship of my body.
Please be realistic, not idealistic, when trying to determine your ideal weight. Factor in your height, your frame, your body type, and so on. Is it really worth tormenting yourself over those last ten pounds? It’s ironic that many women who should be concerned about losing weight, because they are dangerously out of shape, aren’t willing to put forth the effort it takes to reach a healthy size. And women who really look pretty good (age and other factors considered) live in absolute torment because they don’t look like the women on the cover of the magazines.
Not only was the Proverbs 31 woman clothed in fine linen and purple, she was clothed with strength and dignity. We don’t have to be supermodel thin but we shouldn’t be flabby and sloppy either. Our physical appearance should convey strength and dignity. Again, be well-balanced. The devil is always looking for someone to devour, and his target is the person who is out of balance. Discover and commit to a healthy weight for life; then you can build your very best one-size wardrobe and enjoy top-quality clothing for years to come.
Practical
Determine your ideal weight and develop a plan to get to it and stick to it. The average weight loss on the 90-Day Renewal (as set forth in Becoming the Woman I Want to Be) is twenty pounds. You might consider undertaking the 90-Day Renewal after you have finished this 90-Day Jumpstart. For now, put away any clothes that don’t fit.
It’s okay to dream of returning to your ideal size. Just don’t distract yourself by keeping clothes in your closet that don’t fit. Put them away for now. Note the date you stow this bin on the list in your Personal Notebook. If you are not back down to that size within one year, then you must give away, sell, or consign all those cherished items. Meanwhile, let the impending deadline serve as your incentive to get back to your ideal size.
This exercise alone should go a long way toward de-cluttering your closet and simplifying your life. There’s no point standing in your closet staring at clothes you can’t wear. It’s an emotional drain.
Notebook: Note the bin number and date you stowed your dream clothes. If you are not back into the clothes one year from now, you must get rid of them no matter how much you love them or how much money you paid for them!
Body Mass Index1
To use the table, find the appropriate height in the left-hand column. Move across the row to the given weight. The number at the top of the column is the BMI for that height and weight.
| BMI | |
| 18.5 or less | underweight |
| 18.5–24.9 | normal |
| 25.0–29.9 | overweight |
| 30.0–39.9 | obese |
| 40 or greater | extremely obese |