I found much to think about in this recent article printed in the New York Times on the failure of “The Biggest Loser” contestants to keep off the massive amounts of weight they lost while competing on the show in 2009.
Scientists watched and recorded the experience of The Biggest Loser contestants from the Season 8 show, and concluded, “…most of that season’s 16 contestants have regained much if not all the weight they lost so arduously. Some are even heavier now.”
The scientists concluded that the bodies of these people fought back against their weight loss and caused them to gain it all back again, if not more. And this is where Christian Science helped me understand what really went on.
One learns in Christian Science, that for real healing to occur, there needs to be a spiritual transformation for the better from the inside out. If one focuses only on changing the outside, for instance, on only losing pounds, there may be no genuine change in the makeup of that individual. What may appear to be positive change in the outer physical is going to revert to past status if thinking on the inside is still the same.
So, in truth, the bodies of these individuals are not fighting back at all from the loss of weight. The body does not have a mind of its own to do anything. It is a servant. It follows orders from the mind that governs it.
In truth, the mind governing the body that regains lost weight has not reformed. It is much the same as it was before the weight loss, and so what the scientists call, “the body fighting back,” is just them recording the body realigning to what the mind governing that body was holding in thought about the body all along. The inner had not changed.
The physiological summaries of the article itself are depressing because they make the reader feel like he is a helpless victim of his body. But thank goodness for spiritual truth which explains to the contrary.
Christian Science makes it clear that we are never victims of the body. Divine Mind rules man, not mindless chance, genes or the brain. And through spiritual understanding of one’s God-given dominion to express health and fitness, one can master the body and lose unnecessary weight permanently. With genuine spiritual reformation from within, weight-loss doesn’t have to be an on-going fight. It can be newfound peace.
“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come” I Timothy 4:8, NLT.
“The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to destroy the errors of mortal sense and to supply the truth of immortal sense. This understanding makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves, bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters” Science and Health, p. 216.
“After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight”
So very good. And I know from your lectures and articles that you have proven what you have written here.
This is very interesting. The outer covering cannot be “fixed” really unless the inner (thought) is transformed. Discipline and mindful eating and activity have to be anchored in our spiritual life first. Great blog, Evan, the explanation of true fitness as being “training for godliness”. (I Tim)
So Good, Evan – Thanks! I do a lot of physical exercise (jogging, bicycling, hiking, dancing, Yoga-ing) and I try and keep in my thought that I am joyeously expressing God, not trying to make the body leaner, trimmer, flexible, etc. It is Good to Move and Express God in Body, Mind and Spirit!!
It’s an inside job. Thanks Evan.
Why all the focus on weight and weight control? Here’s my analogy. What if everyone who smoked weed, all of a sudden had their skin turn bright orange. When they walked down the street, people would stare at them and some would whisper, “Dopehead!” or other demeaning terms. Next, out of nowhere there would be a $3 billion / year “Skin repair Industry”, followed by limitless, media commercials to use products to get skin to stop being ORANGE.
I know my analogy follows somewhat the article of today’s SpiritView, and I agree the thoughts have to be changed in order for the body to reflect the changes. But why is it so bad to be “overweight” in the first place. Are we part of the oriental culture, “Low nails must be pulled up and Tall nails must be pushed down so all nails are the same.?” Look at horses, no one says a Clydesdale needs a diet, and Shetlands don’t get a special diet to get taller. I was an Auto Tech for 35 years, a trade that evolved from the old Blacksmith trade. I could lift a complete 4 cylinder engine from the floor to the bench top without a hoist. What I’m saying, if you want light weight work to be done, get a svelte individual to do it. If you need to push a 6,000 lb Cadillac across a parking lot because it doesn’t run, come and get me, I can do it. To me God’s creation has infinite facets and sizes for infinite reasons. By the way, I’ll outlived many so-called fitness types, people who spent their lives serving the perfect body icon.
As a coach and an athlete, I am confronted with this issue all the time. But as you stated any real change in one’s growth is truly spiritual. Although in the high school system, I cannot teach that this is spiritual exactly, knowing that these changes to be permanent must approach the athlete on a substantive (spiritual) level. That is, from the inside out, beginning with mind. For me, my position is that I must see these changes as not only possible but included in who they are and starting with divine love (a selfless love for their progress). It rest upon the truth for all being that we all are the son and daughters of God and our true identity is capable and free from everything that would hold us back from the progress that is truly us. If self discipline is needed to make these changes, then that self discipline is available, infinite in supply. unrestrictive in form and supportive in experience.
Thank you Evan for your wonderful post and particularly this one which has so much meaning to me personally.
Excellent article Evan. T hank you.
Thank you, Evan. I read that article too and agree the physiological descriptions are depressing. I loved your response that this is where Christian Science helped me see what really went on. Thank you for establishing the importance of putting up our dukes with spiritual facts instead of being lulled into other suggestions. I agree with Scott, it is an inside job. I am so grateful you give us such insightful and joyful guidance to combat “worldly” beliefs. Your generosity is enormous.
Thanks so much, Evan, for your insights – just what I needed! And thanks also to Jim Moore for his comment. I liked his analogy of “Orange skin.”
One final thought. I liked what Jim had to say, and I agree with him. But Americans are the most obese. drugged, anxiety ridden, and indebted society on the face of the earth. I don’t think we are just talking about a little extra weight. The problem is a lot deeper.
This met me just where my thinking was headed this morning. Thanks for the boost.
To gain or lose weight come from within thought and not from without. The focus in this case is what God sees in his creation and not the physical which is based only on the material.
Thank you Evan! I am working on this issue right now, and have watched The Biggest Loser for years. I so hope for each of those folks on that show that they are successful in their journeys. One of the things that The Biggest Loser focus’ on with most of the contestants is “how or what was/is going on in your life (thinking) that got you here (at 350-500 lbs)?” They can’t mention that a spiritual approach to releasing the “lies” that each contestant believes could help (too bad), but I find each of the trainers show great compassion with those contestants that choose to share what things happened to them to cause them to massively overeat (parents passing on young, parents abandoning them as children, loss of children, loss of spouses, etc). The trainers in the last couple of years instead of beating on these poor folks try and help them discover their REAL worth as wonderful “children of God” (my terminology, not the Biggest Loser coaches). As this report proves, until you fix the “inner” thinking, no matter how you eat and how much you exercise, the weight will come back.
So many wonderful Truths to feast
upon! Good job!
It all comes from within. Everything filters through our thinking. I kept weight on until through meditation and prayer it came off. I need to lose a little more to be comfortable but I know that the health issue I am dealing with presently is asking for a change in consciousness and weight and other things will fall into place. Knowing the one Mind and not allowing mortal mind into my thoughts, going higher in my thinking is what needs to take place.
I thought as I saw those articles on The Biggest Loser, their consciousness just reset to where it was. I could never watch that show.
Your perspective gives me hope, dear Evan. Thank you for the mental paradigm shift.