Scales are for fish.

Raise your hand if you have a scale in your bathroom at home.  (Of course I can't see if you are raising it, but I appreciate your participation in my game anyways...). I think the presence of a scale in a bathroom is pretty standard nowadays.  We all get up in the morning, step on the scale and watch to see our fate.  Did the scale catch the extra slice of pizza we ate yesterday?  Did it catch the extra hour at the gym? Wait... surely that must be water weight, the scale can't be right today.  We have all expressed these thoughts as we step on the scale.
Scales are a measurement tool.  Scales are also terrifying.  It can dictate many things if you let it: your self-worth, your will power, your attitude for the day, your confidence, your mood. 
On the flip side, scales do serve a purpose. Scales keep us in check.  When we are on an extreme of over-indulgence, it reminds us of our excessive habits.  Scales help us when we are pregnant to ensure healthy growth of the little human growing inside of us. When we are trying to lose weight it allows us to do so safely by making sure the weight loss will maintain.  For many, unfortunately, scales have more negative effects than purpose.  Consumed so much by the numbers, scales trap people within two or three digits. To someone with an eating disorder, scales can be crippling.  To someone with an eating disorder, no matter the number, that amount is too much. There is no way to release the power the scale has until you step off of it.  For good.
As I am on my journey to recovery, I want so badly to step on a scale and let it prove that it was a bad idea for me to stop my toxic habits.  With each meal that I eat, I want to hop on the scale, show the number to everyone and go back to my old ways.  I am eating too many calories, I argue to myself.  The calories are sticky.  My body absorbs them like a sponge, forever glued to my stomach.  I am in some distorted way convinced that I am expanding with every bite.  I secretly wish to have not entered recovery until after my goal weight.  Lose 20 more pounds and then I'll hop on the recovery train.
But here I stop.  I know from the inmost parts of my being that this path is destructive.  While still trapped by a number on a scale and an image in my head, I know that freedom WILL indeed come.  It will involve scales, but not the scale telling me a number that defines how I get to feel about myself. I must stay off of those.  Rather I will have the scales removed from my eyes, the scales that have blinded me from seeing the beautiful handiwork of God that stares at me from the mirror.  The scales that have caused me to forget that I am an image bearer of God and I have been created to carry His image exactly in the way he designed all of me to bear, with my body, mind and soul. 

Lose the scales from our bathrooms, from our eyes.

"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27

Annoying Orange vs. All of the Other Annoying Breakfast foods

   
Alarm goes off. Time to get up and start the day. Take a shower, get dressed, brush your teeth, then oh yeah... eat. What is your breakfast routine? Is it your biggest meal, hot and fresh from the stove? Is it a quick granola bar and a shake as you run out the door to that meeting you are late to? Is it an Egg McMuffin that you stop to buy on your way? Or is it that first annoyance of the morning, that first battle to scare away any calorie that might chose to stay on your body forever? Do you skip it and stave off the hunger, filling your stomach with calorie free liquids? Do you eat just enough veggies to make the growling go away? Or do you eat "normally" and hope that you aren't hungry for a very long time and map out the exercises for the rest of the day that are going to insure those calories don't take permanent residency on your thigh?
Without a healthy relationship with food, meal times can seem annoying. Hunger pangs are a nuisance. The shakes you get from hour 3 of a workout when you have not nearly reached that amount of calories in your daily intake are obnoxious. A goal to rid the body of every trace of food that has travelled its digestive path overwhelms the brain. As I write these thoughts down, they may seem surprising to readers. These ideas however, I write anyways because I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am not the only one in the world who resonates with them.
I do not end there, however. While the annoyance of food clamors loudly in my brain, I simultaneously carry the knowledge of food's purpose. God created food. God created the animals that roam the land and the plants that cover the ground for our consumption. Food sustains us and permits us to carry out our purpose on this Earth with full strength.
God wasn't just about sustaining us but also blessing us. We could have just lived on manna from the sky but he permitted food to be a delight. Food comes in many forms as God creatively designed the textures, the vibrant colors, the varying tastes and wealth nutrients. God in his mercy allowed each edible thing to play a different note on our tongue creating a magnificent orchestra that energizes our body to dance and move in accordance. Salty, bitter, savory, sweet blessings of God nourish us for His work and plan for our life.
While the lies of food as the enemy are loud in my head, I cling to the reminder of what food is and how it benefits me. I turn the volume up on God's truth until it drowns out the lies that ensnare me and leave me defenseless for His purpose in my life. Day by day, I will learn to honor the gift of food and thank God the sustainer for His provision to carry out His plan for my life. I will learn how to restore the relationship I have with food. I will graciously allow the English muffin with jam into my system and praise God for my body, my temple and the mere fact that I may live another day.

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31