My Weight Loss Adventure Day 26

In the Biblical book of Philippians, in a letter written by the apostle Paul to the people of Philippi, Paul writes, “Finally, Brethren, whatever is things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Philippians 4: 8)

Some of my readers may see that this is a part of the Bible and wonder how this got in here. Look hard at the words, true, noble, lovely, good report, virtue and praise worthy and realize that the word meditate simply means to think about. Doesn’t this remind you of a song?

Let me give you a hint. “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things.”

And the songs bridge, “When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad, I simple remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so bad.”

Paul’s advice and the songs are the same. Think good thoughts. Wrestling with your mind is probably more than half the battle in changing a life style. Sure, your mind made the decision but then it has a clever way of undermining whatever you do to get moving of the decision. You had a bad day, your mind takes you to the Ice Cream Parlor for a double fudge chocolate chip Sunday. You say to yourself, “NO, I won’t go there.” But your mind keeps coming back to it and you begin to salivate and you can almost taste the vanilla ice cream and the warm fudge sauce. You have nothing in your arsenal to replace the picture of the ice cream with, so you find yourself in the car and heading to the local Dairy Queen.

Paul is advising us what to think about when things like this or any other bad thing happens. The song gives us a list of things that may work. I find myself singing this song when I am low as it is a reminder of the fact that there are good things out there. Things that don’t have to be something I can put in my mouth, things that I can replace the tempting thoughts or the bad thoughts with. The secret is not trying to stop the bad thoughts; the secret is replacing the bad thoughts with good ones. When you do that you will have victory over yourself.

Today I have two suggestions. Write down a list of your favorite things and memorize it. When the struggle with your mind begins, fill your mind with pictures of those things and do that until you win. Remember to that fighting a battle like this will be a struggle, your emotions will follow your mind, but they take some time to catch up. Keep at it until you win. If you find that hard, go to YouTube and watch the song “My Favorite Things” performed by the cast of The Sound of Music, or watch one of the original videos that shows a picture of all the things being sung about. Get you mind off the things that will hurt you and on to the things that can and will give you joy.

One last thought. When Peter Pan was teaching Wendy John and Michael how to fly, he told them the first step was to think of wonderful things. This is true of us also, when we think of good things, we can fly above the temptations that trouble us and toward good health.

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