Renewed Mind. Transformed Life.
HABIT:
An acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary; a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition; the prevailing disposition of character of a person’s thoughts and feelings, their mental makeup.
When working with clients, one of the foundational questions we have to address is: How can involuntary behaviors and prevailing thoughts/feelings be transformed? The definition of habit reveals much:
acquired
repetition
disposition of character
The first step in authentic and sustainable transformation is to recognize unhealthy habits, then disconnect from our prevailing thoughts and feelings. This disconnection is accomplished not only through the consistent repetition of healthy habits that are introduced slowly and progressively, but through allowing Christ to take every thought captive. During the process, our prevailing thoughts change as our hearts soften and our minds are renewed. Through Christ, our life transforms.
“Renewed Mind. Transformed Life.”
Unfortunately, transformation is not easy or quick. Lifelong practiced habits become “nearly or completely involuntary.” We do what we do. Compounding this, is the near constant bombardment of the diet culture confusing what we believe about food and dictating how we should feel about our bodies to increase their profits. We no longer know what to believe, but we know our body does not measure up to the world’s standards. Confused and unhappy with how we feel and look creates an increased desire to do whatever we are told that will change our body the fastest. This is the Everest of the false idol of diet culture. Why? Because the greatest lie propagated by the diet culture is selling superficial change as sustainable transformation:
Do what we do and Get lean effortlessly.
Eat what we eat and Lose weight fast.
Eat this, not that and melt your belly fat.
Eat in this window and restrict this ONE thing to Burn fat.
It's not a diet. It's a lifestyle.
Changing what we do by adopting someone else’s habits is quite easy (their meal plan, these macros, this food/not that food) for a short time. For the limited time that we are able to adopt someone else's habits and overhaul everything about the way we live through eagerness and willpower, superficial changes DO occur. No wonder it is easy to sell change! All the diet culture needs to do is feed off our desperation by fueling our enthusiasm. In fact, it is so easy to sell immediate, superficial change that the diet culture (changing that to vultures) effortlessly alters what we believe we should and should not eat the moment we discover the promised change doesn’t last. We give the diet vultures a huge marketing assist by never saying their diet didn’t work. We still tell everyone how great it was and excuse our failure to authentically transform by explaining that we lacked willpower, fell off the wagon, or got off track because our life didn’t fit their lifestyle. Worse, we grow silent wrapped in false guilt and shame because of our inability to just DO WHAT THEY TELL US TO DO forever. In both cases, one thing is certain: we will either adopt a new, improved diet or repeat one that we still believe works. Why?
We are now a culture that chronically, cyclically diets. We are now enslaved to the false idol of health & wellness.
We live in the space between deprivation and binge. We remain imprisoned by their promise of superficial change because it's packaged as the authentic transformation we desperately and are hardwired to desire.
However, the ugly truth that their diets and lifestyles don’t work never gains momentum. Why? Diet vultures have authentically transformed us: the only habit their lifestyles have created through repetition; the only sustainable habit that imprisons our thoughts and feelings so that it has become “nearly or completely involuntary”:
DIETING.
Deep down we all know that simply changing what, when or how much we eat without investing the time to transform our relationship with food and self isn’t sustainable. We know it because we keep having to repeat diets and adopt new, improved lifestyles. Substitutions and modifications will never lead to transformation because they only change the surface and not the substance.
CHANGE:
To make different; alter, to replace with another or to undergo a modification.
TRANSFORM:
To change completely in composition or structure; to change character or condition.
We must be willing to do the work to get beneath the surface. We must accept that only slow, incremental changes consistently practiced will lead to new habits. We must die to our old self and be alive in Christ. We must surrender willpower to Spirit empowerment so that we experience the fruit of self-control in our choices. When we allow Christ to take our every thought captive (yes with food and body image), then our “nearly or completely involuntary” choices become Christ-like.
Authentic transformation is a willingness to renew your mind. Only a renewed mind will change your relationship with food and self image.