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One of the most effective tools to aid weight loss, improve sleep, digestion and overall well-being is to stop eating three hours before bedtime. If your body is still digesting food while you sleep, you're not getting the rest you need to fully recover and firm up the lean muscle you're building by working out and eating the right foods. You also don't have much of an opportunity to burn off those calories you ate, so guess where they go? Ummm-the Fat Fairy makes it all go away? Nooooo. How about your hips and thighs?
If you're like me, you may have been able to eat a good, healthy diet during the day but heard the refrigerator "calling your name" at night. Have you ever stood in front of the refrigerator and just stared? I'd wake up half a gallon of something later and wonder how I got there.
Night-time Food Cravings
Late night eating is a common problem and a major cause of weight gain. Studies show that overweight people tend to eat most of their calories later in the day, while people at their normal weight tend to eat more calories earlier in the day.
"Fueling the Furnace" (eating smaller amounts every three to four hours) and eating a good breakfast so you won't overeat later on in the day are two physical things you can do now to take control over late night eating. What about when those cravings hit? What else can you do? Remembering this is your "Body And Soul In Christ" plan, let's consider:
Sowing to the Spirit
"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life" (Galatians 6:8).
When is your toughest time? After 7:00 p.m.? After 9:00 p.m.? All day? No matter what time is hardest for you, I'd like you to take a 30-60 minute period during that tricky time and sow a seed of discipline to the Spirit.
What does that mean? You can choose to operate in the fruit of the Spirit within you at any time. As the phrase implies, the fruit of the Spirit is of the Spirit; it's a gift from God and not something we have to drum up ourselves. One way to strengthen and cultivate the development of the fruit of self-control, for example, is to choose to accomplish something that requires you to exercise self-control. You yield to the Holy Spirit within you and His ability to operate in self-control. It's His fruit after all, so He knows how to use it. By choosing to do this activity "as unto the Lord," you are sowing a seed to the Spirit, and as we've just read: "he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."
The more seeds of self-control you sow to the Spirit and the more you yield to the ability of the Holy Spirit within you, the stronger the fruit of self-control becomes. By choosing to yield to the other eight fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness), you will walk more and more in the Spirit "and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
Why is the fruit of self-control so important? Self-control, also known as restraint or temperance, protects you from the enemy like the thick walls of a city protected it from invasion. "Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control" (Proverbs 25:28 NIV). A life without restraints is not freedom; it's bondage to every whim of the flesh and temptation of the enemy. Like the inhabitants of a fortified city, there is peace in the hearts of those whose lives are fortified by the fruit of self-control.
Here's the Plan:
If your biggest temptation time is after 7:00 p.m., would you be willing to sow a seed of discipline and self-control from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.? If you've already had your dinner, all I'm asking you to do is not to eat from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. We'll start there. Commit this time to the Lord and let Him know you want to develop the fruit of self-control during this time. It would also be helpful for you to choose to operate in the fruit of patience (or patient endurance) and faithfulness-show up and refuse to give up!
Whatever activity you choose, do it "as unto the Lord." The benefits? Supernatural! "Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ" (Colossians 3: 23-24). That thrills me! You will receive the reward of the inheritance from the Lord! When you sow a seed of the fruit of self-control to the Spirit, you will reap life to that seed from the Spirit. What you sow, you shall reap. When you plant seeds of self-control you will have strength in areas where you had little or no control before. Determine to sow in faith to the Spirit and you shall reap (that means absolutely, definitely, and positively!). Remember that your success is not in some diet, but in the development of the fruit of the Spirit that becomes part of your sanctified lifestyle.
In faith, you can plant seeds of self-control, faithfulness and patient endurance to the Lord and you will be rewarded with increase in that area. And while fruit doesn't ripen overnight, it does develop and mature.
When a farmer plants seeds and waters them, what does he harvest? Seeds? No! Crops-big, beautiful, abundant crops from the teeny-tiny little seeds he planted. So what can you expect to reap from these good seeds you sow? That's right-the good fruit of the seeds you've planted. God is faithful.
Christian Fitness Expert Laurette Willis is the Director of PraiseMoves Fitness Ministry, offering DVDs and training for those interested in a Christian alternative to yoga, at http://praisemoves.com. To follow Laurette on Twitter visit http://twitter.com/Fit4Christ and on FaceBook: http://facebook.com/praisemoves. For the new "Power PraiseMoves" DVD trailer, the free "Fit Favorites Devotional" and PraiseMoves FitNews, visit http://praisemoves.com.
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© Laurette Willis 2010
