Shake it off
There's a moment in the delightful movie 'Sing', which most children have watched on average 683 times, where the tired, overworked mommy pig strips off her pastel mommy blouse and turns into a ravishing she-pig. She then groves down to Taylor Swift's 'Shake it off.'
First of all, I am that pig. The urban legend that 'you lose weight when breastfeeding' is a myth. Specially when your philosophy towards breastfeeding is - 'Right, I've just eaten a huge supper. But I'm breastfeeding so... best I eat several rusks just before bedtime... you know... milk supply and all that.' Your tiny baby with her tiny stomach then wakes up for one feed during the night, she drinks her measly 100mls and then goes back to sleep. In the meantime those rusks discover that there is a lot of room of late in the stomach area of your body and so you start growing your next baby, a food baby. And this causes havoc for people who don't know if you've given birth to your actual baby yet.
Spurred on by the weigh loss of a friend who is also breastfeeding I started a diet two weeks ago. Stephen did too because 'he has never been so fat in his life before'. Let's just say that our versions of 'fat' are grossly different.
So I've dropped a dress size in two weeks and I am now only in my first trimester of my food baby pregnancy. It has taken a tremendous amount of discipline and self control not to go back to old habits but I've got Stephen in my corner and that has made all the difference.
I have also not scrolled through my Facebook feed in several weeks. I literally only see the story at the top of my page, I check my notifications and then I'm done. I cannot begin to describe how much better my psyche is. I am no longer agonizing over some depressing post written by that girl I met once at a frat party 12 years ago in Amherst when we shared a brief conversation about beer pong. And I know that if there is news that I actually need to know and that is actually going to impact my life in some way then I am bound to hear about it.
The other thing about clearing space in both my body and my brain is that it allows me to listen to Someone far more important.
So I've always found it interesting that one of the fruits of the spirit is self-control. The others - love, gentleness, generosity, peace etc all make sense to me. They have to do with our relationship with others. They show us how to treat each other. They make us better people to be around.
But self-control? To me this one has always seemed a bit self indulgent and negative. It makes me think of being punished. But maybe that's because I'm an instant gratification kind of girl.
I realize now, as I am making steps to become an all-round healthier person that self-control is essential in understanding the heart of God.
We often have conversations about God where we accuse Him of being absent. Where is He? I can't hear him. He doesn't love me. Feeling abandoned by God is the loneliest you'll ever be. The thing is that we cannot approach a relationship with God when we are constantly falling prey to our own lack of discipline.
I sound a bit like the guy from Full Metal Jacket but hear me out.
The most magnanimous gift God could give human kind is free will. We get to choose to be in relationship with Him. But a precursor to a relationship with God is to be mindful of our sinful natures. Although we will never be perfect we need to be constantly striving to live within His grace. And part of living within that grace is about choosing the path that He has designed for us. With some other religions if you tick the various boxes that show an outward appearance of spiritually then your inward spiritual journey is considered as healthy. Ours is all about a relationship with God first and foremost, or at least it should be. And we cannot be in relationship with Him if we fall prey to a lack of self-control and surrender to the negative.
The other day I found myself in a situation where I was surrounded by incredibly negative people. They literally couldn't say anything nice about anyone. And despite the fact that I agreed with them on several points I also realized that allowing myself to be cynical and critical was actually just going to put me in a bad mood and make me feel kak - which is hard for me because I love a good gossip session. In choosing to remain silent I chose not wash myself in bad vibes.
And it does nothing for our relationship with God because we are all imperfect. And if we spent our time pointing out the faults in others then we would literally never get anything done.
Obviously since then I have definitely bitched and moaned about someone because I am definitely not perfect but I am aware that this lack of self-control is only bad for me.
So like my sexy she-pig I'm going to shake the ill-discipline and weight off. If what goes into my mouth and comes out of my mouth is going to make me like myself less then it's not worth the moment of satisfaction. After all short term pleasure leads to long term pain.
And so perhaps self-control is an important fruit after all because if you can't take care of yourself how are you going to take care of others?
First of all, I am that pig. The urban legend that 'you lose weight when breastfeeding' is a myth. Specially when your philosophy towards breastfeeding is - 'Right, I've just eaten a huge supper. But I'm breastfeeding so... best I eat several rusks just before bedtime... you know... milk supply and all that.' Your tiny baby with her tiny stomach then wakes up for one feed during the night, she drinks her measly 100mls and then goes back to sleep. In the meantime those rusks discover that there is a lot of room of late in the stomach area of your body and so you start growing your next baby, a food baby. And this causes havoc for people who don't know if you've given birth to your actual baby yet.
Spurred on by the weigh loss of a friend who is also breastfeeding I started a diet two weeks ago. Stephen did too because 'he has never been so fat in his life before'. Let's just say that our versions of 'fat' are grossly different.
So I've dropped a dress size in two weeks and I am now only in my first trimester of my food baby pregnancy. It has taken a tremendous amount of discipline and self control not to go back to old habits but I've got Stephen in my corner and that has made all the difference.
I have also not scrolled through my Facebook feed in several weeks. I literally only see the story at the top of my page, I check my notifications and then I'm done. I cannot begin to describe how much better my psyche is. I am no longer agonizing over some depressing post written by that girl I met once at a frat party 12 years ago in Amherst when we shared a brief conversation about beer pong. And I know that if there is news that I actually need to know and that is actually going to impact my life in some way then I am bound to hear about it.
The other thing about clearing space in both my body and my brain is that it allows me to listen to Someone far more important.
So I've always found it interesting that one of the fruits of the spirit is self-control. The others - love, gentleness, generosity, peace etc all make sense to me. They have to do with our relationship with others. They show us how to treat each other. They make us better people to be around.
But self-control? To me this one has always seemed a bit self indulgent and negative. It makes me think of being punished. But maybe that's because I'm an instant gratification kind of girl.
I realize now, as I am making steps to become an all-round healthier person that self-control is essential in understanding the heart of God.
We often have conversations about God where we accuse Him of being absent. Where is He? I can't hear him. He doesn't love me. Feeling abandoned by God is the loneliest you'll ever be. The thing is that we cannot approach a relationship with God when we are constantly falling prey to our own lack of discipline.
I sound a bit like the guy from Full Metal Jacket but hear me out.
The most magnanimous gift God could give human kind is free will. We get to choose to be in relationship with Him. But a precursor to a relationship with God is to be mindful of our sinful natures. Although we will never be perfect we need to be constantly striving to live within His grace. And part of living within that grace is about choosing the path that He has designed for us. With some other religions if you tick the various boxes that show an outward appearance of spiritually then your inward spiritual journey is considered as healthy. Ours is all about a relationship with God first and foremost, or at least it should be. And we cannot be in relationship with Him if we fall prey to a lack of self-control and surrender to the negative.
The other day I found myself in a situation where I was surrounded by incredibly negative people. They literally couldn't say anything nice about anyone. And despite the fact that I agreed with them on several points I also realized that allowing myself to be cynical and critical was actually just going to put me in a bad mood and make me feel kak - which is hard for me because I love a good gossip session. In choosing to remain silent I chose not wash myself in bad vibes.
- As my mom is want to say being toxic about someone else is like drinking poison and hoping that it kills the other person.
And it does nothing for our relationship with God because we are all imperfect. And if we spent our time pointing out the faults in others then we would literally never get anything done.
Obviously since then I have definitely bitched and moaned about someone because I am definitely not perfect but I am aware that this lack of self-control is only bad for me.
So like my sexy she-pig I'm going to shake the ill-discipline and weight off. If what goes into my mouth and comes out of my mouth is going to make me like myself less then it's not worth the moment of satisfaction. After all short term pleasure leads to long term pain.
And so perhaps self-control is an important fruit after all because if you can't take care of yourself how are you going to take care of others?
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