Lose Weight Fast!

Several weeks ago I ran across a blog posting to Relevant Magazine. The title begged me read, as does the question whenever I come across it: Tired of Dieting?

While I like my exercise, I also really like my food, so much that my weight has gone up and down the past six years more than an actual yo-yo. And quite honestly, I'm sick of it. I'm ready to slim down to a healthy weight, thereby eliminating weight as a risk factor for potential disease, and to have the discipline to carry on the lifestyle that can maintain that healthy weight. What words of wisdom could this college kid's pen have for me to help me achieve these goals?

The words of wisdom came in the relief I found in the Biblical truth Cameron cited -- that the Lord created man to live in and love the Earth, but also to work it. "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:15, NIV).

How many "quick fix" dieting programs can you name? Calorie restriction, Atkins, South Beach Diet, overexercising, purging, Hydroxycut, grapefruit diet, green tea diet, Alli -- the list goes on! As a ubiquitous consumer industry, I've been convinced time and time again that I can slim down 15 pounds in 4 weeks for that wedding, that I should lose 3 pounds a week for 4 months, that the quick solution will be the lasting one. It should come as no surprise that not once did one of my schemes to lose weight fast -- to take the easy road -- work. Instead, every time I was disappointed in myself, thinking myself a failure because I couldn't stick to my plan.

The truth that quick fix diets do not work should be so obvious, and yet in the thick of it, that truth is purposefully avoided. Why should we want to work hard? We want to get the greatest output with the least input.

Here's where I found my relief, though: God intends for us to work at our lives, to apply significant effort, and more than that, he knows this ethic will give us the most fulfillment and the most joy. Genesis 2:15 of course proceeds 3:17, when work became toil for man. Work was intended all along and, with the proper attitude, can continue to be a willing, rewarding service to God that acknowledges his reign over the Earth.

So for me, I can drop all my quick fix notions because I know when those plans fall short, I will only break my own heart with my disappointment. Instead, I can work faithfully at pursuing a healthy lifestyle, pushing through the obstacles and the temptations, knowing that hard work with reliance on the Lord is the only route to victory.

It seems so simple!

Yet how often do I, like so many others, apply the quick fix mentality to every other area of my life?

I expect to get the job in the location that for me is the most comfortable, i.e. won't force me to push boundaries.

I assume my students will search me out at the high schools when I haven't yet made an appearance in classes that week.

I think I should automatically feel connected to God without spending time with Him each day.

The list goes on.

American society often acts as if it's allergic to effort. It's too privileged to work. Or it relies on the American Dream, believing that all things are possible in the Land of the Free and that anyone can climb that ladder of success, whatever the means. What American Society ignores is that there rarely are any lasting shortcuts to success, and that climbing the ladder, so to speak, is not the end goal at all. Joy comes from working because work itself is the end goal, just as God has always intended.

Thank goodness for that. Knowing it, spinning class looks so much more enticing.