Weight loss can be frustrating. When I first started trying to get healthy, I often prayed and asked God to help me lose weight. One day a thought occurred to me: is my weight something I should pray about? With all the lost souls and suffering in the world, does God care how much I weigh? That question is more loaded than a baked potato with a pound of bacon. I believe the answer is a resounding paradoxical both NO and YES at the same time. Today we’re going to look at the NO side of the answer. Next week we’ll look at the YES.
No: God doesn’t care how much you weigh. He doesn’t worry about how tall or short you are, how pretty or plain you are, or how your butt looks in those jeans. God makes it very clear in the Bible that he’s concerned with who you are inside, not outside.
Jesus was not handsome; he “had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him” (Isaiah 53:2). King David’s brothers were handsome enough to make you drool, but God chose David because “people look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees for worrying about appearances but not being concerned about their wicked hearts (Matthew 23:25-28). Peter encouraged Christian women to worry more about pleasing God with their attitude and actions than about their hair, clothes, or jewelry (1 Peter 3:3-4). God doesn’t care how much I weigh. He wants me to use Jesus Christ, not a scale, to measure my life and my worth.
Besides, when we get to Heaven, God is going to give us new bodies that will live forever. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) The bodies we have now are temporary, so relax! God doesn’t love you more if you’re skinny and less if you’re fat. He loves you as you are right now, no matter weight…I mean what. He won’t love you more if you lose weight and he won’t love you less if you gain. Let that sink in for a minute.
Does God care how much I weigh? NO. Is it okay to pray about my weight? Yes, because God cares about it too. Don’t let that part sink in: paradoxes will mess with your mind.
Are there any verses that have encouraged you with your own weight loss journey? Please share them in the comments below.
“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable.” 1 Corinthians 15:42
Your heart contracts (or pumps) rhythmically every second of every day of every year of your life. The force of the contraction (labor flashback! Anybody else grimace when they read that phrase?) pushes the blood through the arteries beginning with the big ones near the heart and ending with the teeny tiny itsy bitsy yellow polka dot bikini capillaries in your toes, organs, eyeballs, and everywhere in between.
HeartDOT makes sure that traffic keeps moving. Blood delivers oxygen, nutrients, medical personnel (white blood cells), hormones, repair crews, and a host of other goods and services to the body. It also transports the body’s junk (dead viruses, bacteria, toxins, etc) to the Kidney Export Service for permanent removal from the body. HeartDOT doesn’t make the goods or the trash, it just keeps the flow moving.
Now imagine that transportation around Venice is not shut down, but travel has slowed. Storms have washed silt into the waterways, making them narrower. A tanker sank in the lagoon and traffic bottlenecks as vessels go around it. Priority is given to those carrying food and oxygen, but repair crews are delayed and trash removal is minimal.
Muscle: It’s this stuff that gives me energy. I store it until I need it. I’ve been dying to use it, man, but Brain’s been keeping me on the bench.
Katie: So if Body had exercised when she was insulin resistant, then you, Muscle, could have lowered her blood glucose level without insulin?
Kidney 1: Hi, Katie. Hello, Pancreas. You certainly keep us busy.
Pancreas: You’re not the only ones.
Katie: Ladies, can we agree that you all look exhausted and move on from there? Thank you. Now, what would happen if you all took a day off? What’s so bad about the blood glucose levels being high for a while?
Kidney 2: The nerves become damaged. It’s called neuropathy. Sometimes neuropathy causes pain or tingling and sometimes it causes numbness.
The Tsimane people of Bolivia have the healthiest hearts in the world. You can 
Why does this matter? There are many factors preventing us from living like the Tsimane: winter weather, for example, or the fear of giant jungle tarantulas. But it gives us confidence that when we exercise and when we eat plants, our hearts are benefiting. Today we can walk an extra ten minutes, climb the stairs, and turn to fruits and vegetables to fill our plates and be our snacks. We might not have the healthiest hearts in the world, but we can still make our doctors proud.
Right or left? Chicken or fish? Stairs or elevator? Sneak a piece of chocolate now when your kids might catch you and you’ll have to share or later when they’re asleep but you’ll probably end up eating the whole bag?
The scientists put the snails into uncomfortably shallow water, “forcing” the shell-haulers to walk around the tank looking for deeper digs. Then they put the snails on dry land to see how long it takes them to make a decision (right or left? stairs or elevator?) and act on it. Apparently, snails who have been walking for a couple hours decide faster than snails who’ve been been soaking in deep water for hours. Why study Speedy Gon-mullusks? Their nervous systems are simple and straightforward so scientists can draw conclusions quickly.
The thought of snails with sweatbands and Spandex shell coverings is funny, but do you have a better reason than that for bringing this up, Katie? Barely. I mean, yes! And here it is: if exercise can improve the mental capacity of a snail, then imagine what it can do for us! Exercise-even walking at a snail’s pace-not only strengthens bones and muscles, helps fight heart disease and a host of other medical woes, improves sleep, and boosts energy, it also increases blood flow to the brain which helps the brain work better and-as the snails will testify-faster. Some of us feel like snails when we exercise, but this escargot study is showing that it’s not the speed that counts, it’s the fact that you’re moving. If you don’t want to exercise for your body, do it for your neurons.
I learned about this snail study on a radio show called The Strong Road (think Car Talk but about the Bible). I was a guest on the show on Sunday September 18th (you’ll need to know this when you look up my interview in their archives). The snail story was part of their (tongue in cheek) Biggest News Story of the Week. You can listen to the show anytime on the 
Sex, Soup, and Two Fisted Eating: Hilarious Weight Loss for Wives officially releases today! Here’s the back cover:
The ebook has color illustrations and recipe photos and is available at the following locations: 
Sex, Soup, and 2 Fisted Eating 