Real Clear Truth

Three years ago, I bought my first ever vanity license plate for my car. It reads: “SET FREE”.

Set free from what you ask? Well, primarily set free from being obese, but also set free from credit card debt. Basically, in June of 2003 I weighed in at about 390 pounds. Two years later, eating a largely low-carb diet, I made it all the way down to 175 pounds. Amazing yes, but unfortunately maintaining that weight has been a lot harder than losing it. Over the last three years, I’ve gradually gained back about sixty pounds.

So, now I must refocus once again and lose some of those pounds. Fortunately, besides knowing how to do it, I now know it is possible — and that is a BIG deal! I’d like to elaborate a little on that, but first here are my before and after pictures. The “after” picture was taken just a month ago, while I was in Hawaii, so it is how I look now…

One of the biggest issues on losing weight is the issue of self-control. And believe me, I know how hard self-control can be when it comes to eating!

Eating too much is a little like using a credit card for occasional splurges, even though you know you can’t pay off the bill each month. When you have lots of debt, it can be depressing, and you may desperately want to do something about it, but isn’t it easy to use that credit card over and over again? It’s easy because each use of it seems so small and inconsequential. What’s one more small purchase? After all, why deprive yourself? And you tell yourself, I’ll get disciplined right *after* this last purchase. Yeah, right!

Worse, each time you do the thing you know you shouldn’t, the easier it makes it to do it again, and again, and again. In fact, doing it one day, causes you to *expect* to do it again the next time.

If I eat a treat one day, then the next day, my body will demand that same “treat” again! It remembers how nice it was to get that treat, so naturally it wants it again — and again — and again. It can take quite some time to get our bodies used to eating a certain way. It can take weeks. And then in ten minutes we can undo all the progress we’ve made in getting our bodies not to expect something.

So, we must realize just how bad a “little” treat is, or eating a “little” extra. Doing that not only piles onto our “debt” of fat we’ve accumulated, it also tells our body to expect the same thing again the next day.

For me, I have to see that I am a new person, that I simply no longer live like I used to, that I’m not that person any more. I am now a person determined to pay down that debt I accumulated and *not* add onto it. I am a person that no longer *ever* touches certain foods. I am a person that has found a set of foods I can live with and enjoy eating, but I will do what it takes to not overdo them. I am a person who will weigh out my portions before I begin eating — if that is the only way I can make sure I’m not cheating.

I’ve discovered I don’t *have* to be in debt, nor do I *have* to be fat. I really can control my life. I really can be happy with the portions that are all my body needs.

Do I want to be a person who feels good over indulging a little here and there, or do I want a be a person who can live life like I deeply want to? Do I want the pleasure of whatever looks and tastes good, or do I want the pleasure of enjoying food where I control it and it no longer imprisons me?

Who is the smart person — the one who eats whatever looks good, or the person who is in control of what they eat? Who is the wise person — the one who charges a little here and there on his credit card, or the one who controls his spending and makes many things possible in his life?

The question is — who do we want to be? Really?

Then let’s look at ourselves that way. We are *not* people controlled by our impulses. We are *smart* and *wise* people who have thrown off the chains that we’ve wrapped ourselves with and we say NO MORE! We are the *wise* people who say we live a *better* way! We live a way of real freedom, and real life! Not the bondage and prison of over-indulged pleasures!!

We *have* to see ourselves as new people — brighter, wiser, smarter than we’ve been in the past. Every time we are tempted, we need to realize we are no longer that old person, we are no longer going to live like a slave or submit ourselves willingly to the shackles that imprison us and ruin our lives.

We *are* new people set free to live. Set free to enjoy life. Set free to be who God made us to be. Set free to really live. Set free to truly be happy.

We may desire to indulge ourselves. We may feel the urge to give in a little. But do we really want to add another chain to our life? Or do we want to keep those chains off?! Do we want to be set free, or do we want to remain in our prisons? Do we want to live, or do we want to slowly kill ourselves little by little? Do we want to be a new person or not?

The good news is that we really *can* do this! We really *can* be set free! We really *can* live and enjoy life!

We simply have to recognize that some things that seem good at the moment are really more like a poison, and while that poison may taste good, it still kills us just the same.

So the next time you are tempted, ask yourself, do I really want to take that poison, do I really want to lock myself in that prison, do I really want to pile on the debt? Or do I want to be SET FREE and live my life as God wanted me to?!

In the end, this is not a matter of self-control. This is a matter of being the person God made you to be who happens to be a person who is in control. That is who you are. That is who God made you to be. That is what life is. That is what freedom is. This is you.

No matter what anybody else thinks. No matter what you are tempted with. No matter how minor the indulgence is. No matter how great the cravings are. No matter what other people are doing. No matter how many other people are locked into their own prisons. No matter anything.

You are not them. You are who God made you to be. You have broken free of the prison.

Do not focus on what you can’t have. Focus on what you *do* have. You have good things. You have freedom. You have life. You have what you were meant to be. You have respect — especially for yourself.

Don’t let other people tell you what you should do, what you should eat, or who you should be.

God did not create you to let other people put you in prison. He created you to be SET FREE to live and to truly, deeply enjoy life.

Push that prison door open. It’s time to become a new person. It’s time to truly live. It’s time to be free. Really free.

Or as I like to say — set free to live.

For more details on how I actually lost the weight, check out my “success” story here.