[Thighs Be Gone]

I have PROOF that I am healthier at my lower weight. I had blood work done. I have a hard time believing I am healthier with higher blood pressure and LDL. I also have a hard time believing I am healthier when my legs ache (due to extra weight) when I get out of bed in the morning. Even if stats could prove it, I would rather feel great for a shorter amount of time than to have ever remained obese.

[moonkissed]

This is a really interested thread. I think it can be difficult to get the entire picture when it comes to health and fitness because everyone is very different and there are so many factors that come into play.

Originally Posted by Kelli

There are MANY studies that have proven that women who weigh in the first category "Normal" are less healthy and die younger, than those in the "overweight" category.

I also think all types of research on it are difficult to take for their full worth. I mean how are we judging healthy? If we are considering deaths between skinnier vs overweight people I think we would need to take into consideration how they all died. I mean if one person gets hit by a car vs one having a heart attack that is a big difference lol

I read this link on the most common deaths:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/womens-health/WO00014

It says heart disease and some prevention including are smoking and stress and alcohol. You can be skinny eat perfectly and be fit and then smoke a pack a day, be a lush and completely stressed out. There are just alot of pieces to the puzzle is all I guess.

Both my grandmothers passed away. One was very skinny & in great health her entire life. Very active & ate well. She died of lung cancer even though she didn't smoke. My other grandmother lived longer she was very overweight smoked her entire life, had cancer, was diabetic, and was on oxygen and could barely walk. While my first grandmother had a great happy active life up until she passed my other grandmother was miserable in and out of hospitals and in pain for decades.

Originally Posted by Kelli

AAARRRGG! I feel like I have wasted so many years trying to fit into the "Ideal weight" When I am the ideal HEALTHY weight!!! Not Hollywood ideal! AND.. Of course the government and powers that be (Pharisees) are in their Pharmaceuticals and the Weight loss industry pockets so they jump on the bandwagon, with no thought for the safety of billions of people they are supposed to protect!

I do agree that going for an ideal that someone else sets is not a good idea. But I do not think that means going to opposite either. there is nothing wrong with being skinny or wanting to be skinny or fit or into the ideal range. It is just that we each need to evaluate ourselves and decide what OUR OWN ideal is that fits just us.

Originally Posted by Kelli

I concluded that when you don't limit a certain type of food, you don't crave it. i.e. if I tell you that you can't have water for 8 hours, the first thing you want is a big glass of water! Same thing happens with me, if I tell myself I can't have any chocolate or candy, that's what I want. The Bible even speaks of this being part of our nature.

I think we are all different and that doesn't work for all of us. There were weeks that went by that all I drank was pop and could have cared less about any water lol. I could also be quite content eating nothing but pasta and pizza and still crave it every day lol


I think in the end being healthy isn't about weight or diets. I don't consider my path a diet but a new brandnew healthy lifestyle. Making real change of habits (I hope lol). That is my focus and goal. I want to be fit and really healthy. But I also want a sexy rocking body

I am not a christian (to each their own ) But I think no matter what spiritual path you have you should ofcourse match your ideals with how you live your life and within all your goals. And using it to find inner strength, wisdom, guidance is great.

I am a pagan and I believe my body is my temple and sacred and beautiful. And that I should be conscious of what I put in it and how I treat it. yet I lived my life mistreating it and poisoning myself basically. So definitely finding this new path and trying to become healthier has given me a new outlook through my spiritual path and it often helps me find guidance when things are a struggle. Though my path I believe highly in personal responsibilities. I make my own choices and when I screw up its only on me lol but hopefully I can learn from it and get better and stronger.

I do love the prayer though that says:
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

What I eat, if I get up and exercise my weight goals all are things I can control and change. I might not be able to control going to a family outing and everyone serving yummy horrible unhealthy food but I can control how much I eat and what options I choose kindof thing.

[CloudySky]

Some people have drug this post annoyingly off topic and nitpicked every comment made to death, but it's very interesting nonetheless. Kelli, I get exactly what you are saying. I have had these aha moments as well and I also believe that our government has in MANY ways led us to unhealthy lifestyles for the sake of putting money in someone's pocket. It goes way beyond just this BMI thing. You don't have to waste your life learning how to read and analyze research properly to get to the truth. It is not that convoluted as some may suggest. In fact, the truth is usually nested right inside a little bit of common sense. Convincing others is where the research comes in handy. I would love to see women empowered to stop trying to reach those unreasonably low BMI's, weights, and sizes, and just stop where they feel healthy.

[WannaBeLoserAgain]

I had the Awww...Haaaaa moment in the grocery story the other day. I looked around at all the foods around me. Lots of fast convenient foods (high calorie, snacking foods) every where! Sodas! Look around, you will be shocked!

There are some isles in the grocery store that I do not even go down.

No wonder we are over weight! Oh! And, these foods are cheap also! Yea! I want to eat healthy.

[Kelli]

Some people have drug this post annoyingly off topic and nitpicked every comment made to death, but it's very interesting nonetheless. Kelli, I get exactly what you are saying.

Thank you CloudySky, thank you!!! This is why I left this post, people were misquoting me left and right, and no matter how I said it, I just could not get across that YES, "being morbidly obese is unhealthy, (I said unhealthy not unbeautiful or unwomanly!) but being in the "overweight" BMI (25–29.9) category, is healthy (people in this category live longer and are protected from many diseases) than those who are in the so called "Normal" BMI category (18.5–24.9).

Being underweight is just as unhealthy as being morbidly obese. The media, pharmaceuticals, and diet industry all would have me believe that If I chart life spans of those BMI classifications, I would have an arrow starting with those who are 5 to 20 pounds underweight, as having the longest life span, and those who are obese having the shortest. That is not correct, The chart would look more like an upside down "U" with those who are in the "Overweight" BMI 25–29.9 being the ones with the longest life spans.

Those who are as little as 5 pounds underweight are in just as much danger as those who are morbidly obese of dying from weight related reasons.

To sum it up, that would mean that at 5"7" my ideal (healthiest) weight will be between 160-191 Pounds.

For years I could not understand why I had such a hard time losing weight. I was praying constantly and As far as running to God with my weakness, I felt like I was doing everything right! I had studied many years to try to find the answer to why I couldn't get to the "normal" weight. I finally realize that God did answer my prayers to be healthy. I kept telling Him "I just want to be healthy!"

I don't need to listen to the pharisees of this age that have their dietary laws, and commerce in my temple. They have sold me enough pigeons and what they consider "clean" sacrifices (Matt 21:12)... I am done with that. I will go to my Lord instead and have Him clean my temple the way He wants it cleaned.

Also... I would sure appreciate it if when somebody says I (or anyone else) said something that they would copy and paste the quote and put the quotation marks around it

Like this

Also if someone says that I said something and it doesn't have a direct quote around it, I would sure appreciate it if you who are reading the quote wouldn't believe that I said it.

We should be careful about that... I wonder if that might be called "Bearing false witness??? LOL, No I'm sure it was just a mistake.

Love Kelli

[LovelyLeah]

I just want to put out there that correlations are the weakest form of all research types and should not be assumed to be fact. Correlations are often what makes the base for a hypothesis that would later be researched in full but is not able to stand on its own. There are often many, many different variables that are at play and to pick one variable, in this case BMI, and state that that is the reason why some are healthier than others is pure ignorance. Even well conducted and thorough research can be misrepresented.

And as a Christian, I must say that, spiritually, red flags are popping up for me with Scripture being taken out of context. May I just warn against using Scripture to win a point, it loses its purity.

[Kelli]

Thank you Linda, but can I ask that you be more specific? I really, really, don't want to take scripture out of context, and I promise I will go to God about it.

I have had a couple of people tell me that I have taken Scripture out of context and this worries me so much, but I need specifics or I can't fix it. Please, I really am sincerely asking help from a sister. It is so important to me.

Love, Kelli

[LovelyLeah]

It wasn't just you. I don't have much time to go back through the posts to find them all but the one that stood out to me (and I don't think it was you who posted it) was 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

I often hear this one misrepresented for legalistic purposes. The most common example I've heard this used is with tattoos or piercings but there are plenty of other uses I hear that are outside of the context.

The true context of this is sexual immorality.

12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”[b] 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.[c]
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

It is easy to read clips and pieces of verse and associate it with something in our lives. Why do you think newspaper horoscopes are so popular? But what's more difficult is then to look at the full chapter or paragraph and see if it still works. That is why I believe so many Christians have gone astray. They don't like what the full context says so the pick and choose. I am incredibly guilty of this as well so please don't think I'm being hypocritical. I'm learning just like everyone else and I certainly sin often enough to be classified as human. What God has really been teaching me lately is to not bring Scripture into any argument or even discussion if my motives are wrong.

Actually I had posted something like this on facebook a couple nights ago because it was really on my heart. Keep in mind that this is off topic for here and I do realize that. I just thought since I had already brought it up I might as well post it.

I am guilty of what I'm about to rant about so I'm not trying to be a hypocrite. It really irks me when Christians use scripture to prove their point in an argument. I'm talking more in the way of tearing each other down, not building each other up because there is a major difference between the two. I feel like it goes from the pure Word of God to the word of man plagiarized from God and smeared with self-righteous pride. And again, I am guilty of this. I'm learning to read the full context of the Scripture before using it and not just relying on the context I've heard it used in sermons. I'm also trying to learn, which I think is the hardest part, to check my motives. More often than not my motives are all wrong and I think that may be the reason Christianity has a bad rep.

[Kelli]