by Constance Brown-Riggs
The story of Jesus and the miracle of the loaves and fishes is a lesson that is just as applicable today as it was all those years ago.
You know the story. One day, up on a mountain, Jesus looked down to find some 5000 people eagerly waiting to hear or see something that fed their soul. The people were there for three days and Jesus didn’t want to send them away hungry. He asked his disciples where they could buy enough food to feed the crowd. The disciples couldn't imagine. Jesus then asked his disciples how many loaves of bread they had. The disciples only had seven loaves and a few small fish. Jesus took the bread and fish and prayed over it – giving thanks. He had his disciples to start passing out food – and keep passing out food until everyone was fed.
The whole point of this miracle was to show the power of faith. But it also demonstrated that there is more than one way to do a thing. In this case, there was the traditional way to feed a crowd – go to the market, buy up lots of food, and fire up the stove. And then there was the spiritual way: take what you have on hand, bless it, and do the best you can with it.
There’s more than one way to weight loss too. The traditional route – where you meet face-to-face for individual or group counseling, or the virtual route using online websites like Weight Watchers®, or the Qupio®program; or a phone application like Lose It!®.
God gives us choices and opportunities – every chance in the world to do the right thing. Often there is more than one path to what is “right” – so even if we make a wrong turn, by the Grace of God, we can often find our way around to where we need to be. This is as true when it comes to taking care of our physical bodies as it is for our spiritual bodies.
When we stray from the path or fall off the wagon, it’s easy to give up. “Oh forget it,” we say after another week of standing on a scale that won’t seem to budge. “This diet isn’t working.” When we give up, though, we aren’t exercising either our faith in God or our confidence in our God-given ability to “make a way out of no way” – both of which have been tested and proven over generations.
Instead of losing faith, we have to remember that there’s always more than one way to get a job done. If you don’t have time for group or individual counseling, maybe you need to try an online program. If you don’t want to be bothered counting points, maybe a phone app that counts calories will work better for you.
That’s the message I give to my patients – there is more than one way to get a job done. The challenge of course is finding the approach that’s right for you. Two of my favorites are the Qupio®program and the Lose It!® phone application.
Many of my patients don’t want to think about planning daily meals and prefer to work from a menu. For those individuals I recommend the Qupio®program. You can customize your own menu or use preplanned menus. And there are tons of great recipes created by a chef and all tested for deliciousness. Lose It!® doesn’t provide menus or recipes, but with a few clicks, you can track your food, and easily stay within your calorie allowance.
Remember, when it comes to taking care of any of our needs – for physical sustenance, for health, for spiritual growth – we must keep looking for the right way to get the job done.
About the Author: Constance Brown-Riggs, MSEd, Rd, CDE, CDN is the author of the African American Guide To Living Well with Diabetes (New Page Books 2010). Her work has appeared in books for health professionals and healthcare consumers. Constance is a nutrition consultant for Kao Health and Nutrition, owners of the Qupio® program. Visit her website at www.constancebrownriggs.com, follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/eatingsoulfully and like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/livingwellwithdiabetes.
