Your Fit-Tracker- Help or Hinder? Why Your Smart Watch May be Preventing Your Weight Loss

I've felt convicted to share this for a while, I struggle with this daily. Using my stupid watch to measure my progress, when it legit has zero to do with who I actually am as a person. Same goes for you sis. 

Ask yourself if you're basing your calorie intake on what your watch says you've burned, because if you are, you're doing yourself a disservice and you will not lose weight that way. I eat 2200-2400 calories a day and when my watch says I've burned 2000 or 1600 on rest days it can easily distract me from what God has called me to, which is to stop giving food so much power in my life. 

Do you need to do the same? Do you need to fast from your fit tracker? Or your scale? Why do the numbers matter anyway? They're simply a tool, not a determiner of your worth or progress. 

Lay it down, you don't need it. Set a boundary with yourself or pray for strength to seek what God says instead of your watch. 

I'd love to connect with you on insta if you need help or prayer! Come see me @her_weightlossmindset I can't wait to meet you!

Are you sick of trying diet after diet and NOT losing weight?

Hey there friend, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach. I gained 100 pounds in my late twenties and struggled for years to get it off. Seven years ago, I found a basic system that worked and has helped me lose 90 of those pounds. I’ve been working with women in online fitness and nutrition ever since to break chains of diet culture, embrace their bodies and fueling instead of dieting.

In this podcast, I'll teach you how to:

• • Lose Weight in a Way that honors God without obsessing about the scale
  • Meal Plan and Prep for Your Family
  • Follow a MACRO based plan that allows you to eat the foods you love.
  • Recognize and pray through triggers keeping you stuck.
  • I’ll help you Plan your week and schedule your self-care time.
  • Cultivate a spirit of self-discipline in your workouts you actually enjoy.
  
  It's time to give God your health journey and watch Him make you new, from the inside, OUT.

Join The Biblical Weight Loss Framework: https://www.herweightlossmindset.com/framework

Join my FREE Community: https://bit.ly/JoinTheChristianWeightLossCommunity

Join my Insiders List with weekly tips for weight loss for Christian women: http://herweightlossmindset.com/herweightlossmindsetinsiders

Transcript

I have felt convicted to share this message for a long time.

Father, forgive me for procrastinating yet again.

New health isn't a size, it's being in sound mind and a healthy body focused on God's plan and purpose.

And I fear that many of us wear an idol every single day that we let dictate our food choices, and it's maybe led to actually doing the opposite of what we've hoped for.

So let's chat about our fit tracker and see where it's really leading us.

Are you ready?

Are you sick of trying diet after diet and not losing weight?

Are you tired of doubting your ability to actually lose weight in a healthy way?

Do you wish you could find a laid out for you plan that will help you stay accountable to your goals?

Hey friends, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach.

I gained 100 pounds in my late 20s and struggled for years to get it off.

So grab your pre-workout and let's chat.

Did you know that I have a free community of women just like you who want to take a biblical approach to weight loss?

It's true.

If you go to herweightlossmindset.com, you can join the Insiders List and every week, I send out biblical tips for weight loss and encouragement.

And there's also a link to join my free community.

So you can sign up in the show notes below at herweightlossmindset.com.

That's herweightlossmindset.com.

So I cannot tell you how many times a day I check my calorie burn on my garment.

Like it's almost irritating to me.

The other night, I was rocking Adley and I double tapped my wrist just to like look and see where I was at with my steps.

And I had already taken my watch off because God told me to.

I see, Father.

Continue to lead me.

Here's what I know about our fit trackers, our smart scales, and the conviction that I have felt to use them just as a tool, not the end-all be-all.

So I want you to ask yourself a couple of questions and let's see if maybe you need to fast from your weight loss technology.

So how many times a day are you checking your watch?

How many times a day are you checking your steps?

How many times a day are you checking your calorie burn?

Are you determining what you eat based on that calorie burn?

Because if you are, you're not going to lose your weight.

So I've talked to you before, I eat about anywhere from 22 to 2400 calories a day.

In a lot of days, I'll burn about 2000 calories.

So if I'm basing it off of that, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, calories in versus calories out.

Yeah, the formula.

But the Fit Tracker does not account for so many other things.

Our Fit Trackers are a tool, but they do not account for our sleep, for our water intake, for the quality of our water.

Listen, I know this is hard.

Even if you wear your watch 24-7, like that probably shows that it's maybe become an idol in your life.

It's definitely taking up more space in your head and your heart than it should be.

They don't account for your period, how solidly you slept.

Like there's so many factors that it cannot quantify.

It can't account for who you are as a person or the foods that you eat or the stress that you encounter.

I know my Smart Scale and my Fitness Tracker, like they track all of these things.

Like yours probably do too.

But still my point is that if you're relying on those tools to measure your progress, you're not giving yourself grace you deserve.

And if you're using the calorie burned and avoiding the foods that you need, definitely need to take it to God.

I think it's great that we have these tools that can at times like need us, but when they become the end all be all of our success, or we're checking our watch 47 times a day to see if our rings closed or if we hit our goal, we have to ask ourselves if this is what God has intended.

Are we to be slaves to a fit tracker?

I love my garment.

I'm not going to say that I don't.

I do.

I love that it gives me an idea of my work for the day.

But when I see on rest day that I burned 1600 calories, but I'm still eating 23 to 24, it can make me question or doubt, and it distracts me from what God actually needs for me to focus on, which is Him.

So what would you do if I asked you to not wear your watch for a week or step on the scale for a month?

How would that make you feel?

Do you instantly have like a moment of panic, like, I can't go without my watch?

Or does it not bother you at all?

Maybe take it to God and see what He says.

We've talked recently about discipline and teachability.

Are you willing to lean into this seemingly small little tool that you wear all the time that has maybe become a part of you?

Like, it's the first thing I do when I get up in the morning, is I put on my watch.

There are times where He specifically says to me, pick the thing off and put it away.

I know that this is a hard message.

You're like, this isn't what a big deal.

So I read the Lisa Terker's Made to Crave devotional.

It's a 60-day devotional.

You can buy it on Amazon for like 10 looks.

If you've not read that, I've never read the actual full version of it, but the devotional, I literally read it 11 times over and over.

I think I spent probably two years just reading over that.

And she has a series of questions that she asks when she does her, I can't remember how often she weighs in, but before she gets on the scale, she'll ask herself like five questions.

Like, did I honor God with my food choices?

Did I use food before going to God?

Did I use workouts before I went to God?

Like, this amazing list of questions to ask before she steps on the scale.

Because the scale will never measure our worth.

Our worth and identity is strictly in the fact that Christ loves us, he died for us, he lives in us.

Before God said, let there be light, he knew who you would be, he knew the struggles that you would face.

He knew that food or your weight could be a struggle in your life.

But when Eve ate that stupid apple off that stupid tree, sin entered in.

And so many times we run to our fit trackers, we run to food, we run to caffeine, we run to exercise, we run to shopping.

Before we even know it, all of these things are idols in our lives.

We've talked, read the Old Testament millions of times to see all of these big old idols that people build on a hill.

What are idols we carry around with us on our wrist?

We scroll on them every single day.

Your phone is an idol.

Exercise and weight loss can become idols.

You have to pray those away constantly.

Lord, remove this idol in my life.

Let me do it.

Let me exercise as a way to glorify you in the body you gave me.

Let me eat to nourish my soul and nourish my spirit.

Not for taste buds, not even for my macro plan, Lord, but simply because you have led me here.

I would love to know the struggle of the idols that you face.

Do you want to connect with me on Instagram?

I would love to hear from you.

If you're on Instagram or Facebook, Her Weight Loss Mindset, on Insta, it's her underscore weight loss mindset.

You can search Lindy Schlabach.

I would love to connect you with you.

I would love to help you figure out what the idols are in your life, join the Biblical Weight Loss Framework, hop in my free community.

Let's talk about these things.

They can be so seemingly small.

But anything that distracts us from connecting with God first is an idol.

And this is never something that you're gonna like pray about it, repent for it, and then just move on from.

Like it's a constant choice every day.

But he sees our effort, he sees our willingness to be disciplined and teachable.

And then he honors us.

Like when we walk in Holy Spirit obedience, the weight comes off regardless of our stupid fit tracker or stupid scale.

He changes us from the inside out.

That's why I created the Biblical Weight Loss Framework.

We heal our insides.

We recognize triggers.

We pray through those things.

We pray through unforgiveness.

We literally walk through all the people in your life that you need to forgive and pray over them and assign a Bible verse from the lie that they said to replace it with God's truth.

Like there is intentional work in the framework.

We have to heal our minds.

And then we work to heal our bodies through nutrition, fitness, prep, and those kinds of things.

So that in our final step of the framework, step five, you can walk out that God given purpose intentionally, but it comes with removing these idols and praying through them, having the strength and courage of conviction to not just pray over them, recognize them, remove them.

That's not saying that you can't wear your watch anymore, but maybe you need to take a break from it.

Get another watch, put a bracelet on.

These are hard truths.

All the things I share with you guys are things that I struggle with.

I never want you to think I have it all together because trust me, I don't.

I literally struggle every day with food, body dysmorphia, the thoughts I think about my body.

It is a legit struggle.

But God is there to remind me.

We read in 2 Corinthians 10.5, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

I take those thoughts to him and say, Lord, this is the lie I'm telling myself.

Please remove it from my brain and replace it with your truth.

Lord, give me what I need.

That has been a constant theme in my student community for years.

Because what we actually need from him is very different than what we want.

But when it comes from him, it's always better.

And then we get to glorify him in the process, which is the entire point.

And then our light shines through to other people.

They see us changed and then they want to know why we're changed.

And it's not because of our stupid fit tracker or stupid skill.

It's because of the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you.

It's how people are changed.

That is how we walk out the Great Commission.

That is the entire point of your existence.

Removing self, focus on self, and vanity so that we can walk out the Great Commission.

That's the point.

You will always struggle.

Every single day you will struggle.

You are not alone in that.

Anyone who tells you that they don't struggle with idols in their life is telling you a big fat lie.

When we do this work, when we heal, God changes us and we glorify him in the process.

It is a beautiful full circle moment.

I pray that you will lean in to this prayer and conviction.

God bless.