I had cookies for breakfast. There, I’ve said it and it’s out there and I can’t take it back! Not just any cookies by the way. These bad boys were hand crafted by yours truly.

What is the saying about telling the truth? It will set me free… well I am hoping it will set me free of the remaining eight cookies still in my kitchen because that is pretty much all that I am thinking about. Does any of this sound familiar to anybody out there? If you are a human being, I am guessing you are nodding your head and perhaps wiping the crumbs off your own mouth at this very moment. If you are a dog or a cat and can read this, please call me and we’ll be rich!

My challenge for you is to look at what really causes you to give up on eating balanced and moving your body. Is it the occasional binge? Is it the 3 days in a row that you have chosen not to move your body? Is it the week where every member of your household, including the hamster, was sick with some strange virus that turned your house into a petri dish?
Or… are you using the guilt that follows closely on the heels of these interruptions, these slip-ups to further indulge a sweet tooth or lazy backside???  Guilt is a dangerous sack of broken glass to carry on one’s back. It is a feeling that we can easily use to stay stuck in the mud or mired in chocolate. Pseudo guilt or guilt created by human beings as a society only leads to self-slander which then leads to zero self-worth, which then segues nicely back to poor choices. A crazy vicious cyclone of cookie dough.

God’s Holy Spirit is not ignorant in the ways of the human being, as we all know. So why should our nutrition and body movement issues be excluded from the realm of what we need to hand over? Are the binges too insignificant? Is the lack of energy to get up and enjoy God’s great outdoors too irrelevant? I would bet my last white chocolate peanut butter chip oatmeal raisin cookie that God does not find our self-loathing trash-talk to be of no consequence.

There are certain things in my life that I have immense difficulty handing over to Jesus and I need constant reminding that my perception of what is worthy of asking for help is completely out of whack. It ALL matters to Him and it is especially crucial if my guilt makes me forget how much I am worth in God’s heart.

So… if you should happen to fall into the cookie jar for a few days or find yourself choosing outfits on the basis that they match your couch then tell the truth, ask for help, pray, shed the guilt and give away those darn cookies and the couch if you have to!
And remember, the joy of eating a cookie (or 6 cookies) is temporary…the joy of a healthy body is unending.

Love and laughter,  Melanie Maure