A whole lifetime could be spent making excuses, giving in, feeling guilty, resolving to do better, mentally beating myself up for not sticking to my resolve, feeling like a failure, and then resigning myself to the fact that things can't change.

It is easier to make excuses than changes.

Let this unexpected happening point to your strength, not your weakness. Maybe you've been entrusted with this. Not cursed with it.

Walk confidently in the fact that our all-sufficient God did not make you insufficient or broken.

every great success story has elements of failure.

I'm going to get into a funk, because that's what I do. I will feel put off, and then I will put on that ratty robe of rejection and wear it all day long. But I don't want to keep being a slave to my runaway emotions and assumptions. I don't want my days to be dictated by the moods of other people. And I really don't want the rejections of my past feeding my propensity to feel rejected today.

Yes, I am fully loved, fully accepted, and fully empowered to say no to my flesh. Speak that truth in the power He's given you. Believe that truth in the power He's given you. Live that truth in the power He's given you. That's how you tell your flesh no. That's how you live fully prepared in the fullness of God.

It's impossible to hold up the banners of victim and victory at the same time. With

I needed a go-to script for this situation. So, I lowered my head and prayed, "God, I am at the end of my strength here. This is the moment I've got to sense Your strength stepping in. The Bible says Your power is made perfect in weakness. This would be a really good time for that truth to be my reality. Help me see something else besides this temptation looming so large in front of me it seems impossible to escape.

I want the flowers but not the work. Isn't that the way it is with many things in life—we want the results but have no desire to put in the work required?

God, I recognize I am made for more than the vicious cycle of being ruled by food. I need to eat to live, not live to eat. So, I keep asking for Your wisdom to know what to eat and Your indwelling power to walk

Don't buy into what the scale says or doesn't say. Trust the effort you are putting into getting healthy. And keep going! Not only are there changes going on in your body that you can't see, there are changes going on in your spirit—with your discipline, your courage, and your willpower. Keep going!