Manna Issue 22
Leviticus 19:35 "`Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. 36 Use honest scales and honest weights."
Proverbs 11:1 "The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight."
Micah 6:11 "Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?"
Can you see with these three verses today the possibility of a good food sermon on its way? We see that the Lord abhors dishonest measurements, weights and scales. Just think about that for a moment and grimace with me as we explore the subject as dieters who face these issues daily. The markets in third world countries are very colorful and full of noisy and animated people. A place where there is always a lot of arguing and haggling over price. Part of the reason for the haggling is that often there are no set standards. No scale to weigh things on. With no standards everybody insists they are right and who can argue with that? Our lives are full of a variety of standards. We use them every day. From the scale in the bathroom or the measuring cup in the kitchen, to the ruler you take to school. These are common standards we use to measure. A mile, a quart, a ton, or a gallon, each is a common term of measure. We regulate our life with these standards, we communicate using these common standards. We don't argue or hassle on these points. Why? Because we agree on a standard. But as dieters we do haggle the following points, and I am sure we have all been guilty in one form or another. The most obvious is our Driver License weight. How accurate is yours? It's almost a given that you are actually heavier than the weight you have listed. I know that my weight has stayed the same for over fifteen years on my license. Kind of a vanity thing with me as my weight crept up to 80 pounds heavier than what was listed. The birthdate, eye color and height stayed the same, so as they asked me if there were any changes it just became simple to say no. Dishonest? Sure it was. Did I feel guilt? Of course not, well maybe a twinge or two. But this is merely an illustration of one of the ways we readily will lower our standard and the Biblical one set for us without batting an eye.
Now we explore further the bathroom scale and our weekly weigh-in. Anyone that has been reading Manna for awhile knows that our food sermons are almost always uplifting and positive thoughts. So it appears that it would be an appropriate time right now to shed a little humor on this subject with a joke first. Two youngsters were closely examining bathroom scales on display at the department store. "Have you ever seen one of these before?" one asked. "Yeah, my mom and dad have one," the other replied. "What's it for?" asked the first boy. "I don't know," the second boy answered. "I think you stand on it and it makes you mad." Out of the mouths of babes, right? That is the dreaded metal monster which plays head games with us, and we in return learn how to retaliate! I prefer to call the bathroom scale the devil's tool because it sure brings out the unlovely in us at times. How often do we stand on the scale maybe 4, 5, or even 6 times in a row, on and off, on and off, trying to get a better reading for our weekly weigh-in? We just don't want to accept that first reading if it wasn't the kind of news we were hoping to see. Or how about peeling off a garment and weighing in again, hoping perhaps that our shirt actually weighed an extra pound of weight. I do believe at times, if I thought clipping my fingernails and toenails would have helped, I would have done that also.
Many of us obsess so much that we weigh daily, rather than the recommended weekly as if we had a good on day with dieting the results would show up immediately on the scale. And I have had a few tell me that they weigh 3 or 4 times a day before a meal, after a meal, drinking a glass of water, running to the bathroom, early in the day or late, they are letting the metal monster lie to them. We know that the weight fluctuates up to 4-5 pounds daily and all we do when we try to make the scale reward us is to drive ourselves batty. We are trying to get a dishonest scale measurement to cheer us up momentarily.
I am enclosing the best article that I have ever read on weighing in. It is called, "Why The Scales Lie" After reading this, I am sure you will be convinced as I was to only weigh in once a week and to quit trying to position the body a 1/2 dozen ways to get a better reading. By Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer "We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale. Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water. Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners. Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum. Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale. Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it. Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle. This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue. Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current. If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale."
Dear dieters, there you have the scoop on the scale and why it does us absolutely no good to try to jiggle our way to a better reading. Which now brings us up to the last way that we are dishonest with measurements. I do hope that as dieters you do measure your portions and that at the very least a set of measuring spoons and a measuring cup is standard tableware for you, if not a diet scale also. Portion control is how we lose weight, and the way we measure or do not measure will certainly spell our success or absence of success. A totally honest moment here. If you do not use a measuring cup, and you put on your plate an estimated 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes or an estimated 1/2 cup of carrots and peas, which portion do you think is likely to be more? I am amazed when I measure out 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes how very small that portion actually is. When I measure peas and carrots it sure looks like a 1/2 cups worth to me. So you see by letting our eye guide us (or taste bud preference), we are not accurately measuring portions, and over the long-run it truly makes a difference.
One of the key ways to maintain a healthy weight is to control your portion sizes. Research has shown that Americans often underestimate how many calories they are consuming each day by as much as 25% simply because we do not accurately measure portions. When I was dieting I was permitted to have a 4 oz. serving of poultry, meat or fish. What I did not realize though that this was the pre-cooked weight, not after cooking weight. It was an honest mistake until I discovered what a 4 oz portion was, however that meant at least an extra ounce of meat that I should not have been eating. So here is a little chart on typical serving sizes for you. According the USDA, 1 serving equals: 1 slice of whole-grain bread 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes 3-4 small crackers 1 small pancake or waffle 2 medium-sized cookies 1/2 cup cooked or raw vegetables 1 cup (4 leaves) lettuce 1 small baked potato 3/4 cup vegetable juice 1 medium apple 1/2 grapefruit or mango 1/2 cup berries 1 cup yogurt or milk 1 1/2 ounces of cheddar cheese 1 chicken breast 1 medium pork chop 1/4 pound hamburger patty Vegetables or fruit is about the size of your fist Pasta is about the size of one scoop of ice cream Meat, fish or poultry is the size of a deck of cards or the size of your palm (minus the fingers). Snacks such as pretzels and chips is about the size of a cupped handful Apple is the size of a baseball Potato is the size of a computer mouse Bagel is the size of a hockey puck Pancake is the size of a compact disc Steamed rice is the size of a cupcake wrapper Cheese is the size of a pair of dice or the size of your whole thumb (from the tip to the base)
Who has ever eaten a pancake that was the size of a compact disc? And I'll bet you can't just eat one. So when we see we can have one serving of something our serving size may not necessarily be the size that we are allowed to have. Yet, if we don't take the time to measure, we are only cheating ourselves and undermining our dieting efforts. Too add to that burden now, we know that the Lord abhors dishonest scales and measurements. The Song Of Solomon speaks of the little foxes that spoil the vine. Today's food sermon speaks of perhaps these little foxes that spoil our dieting efforts.
In closing for today, I will leave off with a poem by an unknown author. It is called The Man In The Glass. "When you get what you want in your struggle for self, And the world makes you king for a day, Just go to a mirror and look at yourself, And see what that man has to say. For it isn't your father or mother or wife Whose judgment upon you must pass, The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life Is the one staring back from the glass. Some people might think you're a straight-shootin' guy, And call you a wonderful guy. But the man in the glass says you're only a bum, If you can't look him straight in the eye. He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest, For he's with you clear to the end. And you've passed your most dangerous test, If the guy in the glass is your friend. You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years, And get pats on the back as you pass, But your final reward will be heartache and tears, If you've cheated the man in the glass."
Don't cheat on your diet, so that when you look at the man or woman in the glass you will know that you did all the right things with your dieting this week. Prayer: Lord God, help me to be honest. I do not want to sneak food or portions or to undermine my dieting efforts. I also want to please You in all I do. I pray that You will continue to help and guide me and to strengthen me to do the right things before You as I face that person in the glass that You love and expect a higher standard from. Thank You for teaching me about weight loss and instructing me on how to lose it for good. In Jesus' name. Amen
I'm sorry, I just can't resist today. Perhaps it's pun withdrawal?
I've had to weigh my thoughts carefully before I respond to your post today. I like that illustration within the text where you have some light paragraphs and lengthy (heavy) ones all in the same sermon. It's a good word illustration to the topic at hand. Very nicely done!
Honestly, I do believe that I need to be like the patient who experiences temporary use of his/her legs and needs to learn to walk again. It would be a benefit for me, I'm certain, to go back to weighing and measuring things so I can relearn what proper portion control for me is. I've not been successful relying on my self to listen to the Holy Spirit because too often I'm too busy and distracted and don't take time to listen.
The bottom line is it's not the scale's fault that I am overweight, it's mine! The reason I am overweight is because I eat too much, exercise too little, drink less water than my body needs and most importantly, don't take the time to ask or listen to the Lord! I know that to him who knows what is right to do and doesn't do it, is sin. It's sin!