Weigh Down Works

A spiritual awakening to losing
weight permanently!
Welcome, Weigh Downers! Let’s Get Started!

Original Material Copyright © 1981
Weigh Down Works Copyright © 2018 by Gwen Shamblin Lara
and Weigh Down
The Weigh Down name and logo are registered trademarks.

Weigh Down Works name and logo are trademarks.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system,
transmitted, or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to photocopy,
photograph, magnetic or other record, without the prior agreement and written
permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America

Remnant Publishing
Weigh Down®
Brentwood, Tennessee
1-800-844-5208
www.WeighDown.com
ISBN # 1-892729-36-9
“Then you will
know the truth, and the
truth will set you free.”
~ Jesus Christ
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome to Weigh Down! 8
1 The Weigh Down Approach 11
What does God have to do with this anyway? 12
The problem and the solution 13
God’s Eating Plan…Wait For True Stomach Hunger 17
How To Approach The Food 18
Volume Of Food 20
The Exodus Symbolism 21
New Daily Routine 23
How To Feed The Stomach 26
2 The Story of Weigh Down 29
3 Help! I Feel Hungry All the Time 45
How To Wake Up Internal Senses 47
Wake Up Internal Control 48
Imitate Self-Control 50
Eating Situations 51
4 How To Stop When You Are Full 55
Recognize The Pain of Overeating 56
Pain Of The Esophagus 57
Lower Stomach Pain 57
Pain Of The Small Intestine 58
The Pain Of Lethargy 59
The Pain Of Guilt 60
The Joy Of The Transfer 62
Tips For Slowing Down 64
5 Weigh Down Works for Women & Families 69
Feeding Your Family 69
Overweight Children 70
Pregnancy And Nursing Mothers 70
What To Feed Your Pets 71
6 Health Considerations 75
Medical Considerations 75
What To Do If You Cannot Find Hunger 76
Headaches And Light-Headedness 77
Effects Of Illness On Hunger 78
Medications To Be Taken With Food 79
Pre-Existing Medical Conditions 80
Hypoglycemics And Diabetics 80
Hypothyroidism 82
Metabolism 83
7 Why Diets Don’t Work 85
How to Be Free 94
8 Transfer Your Relationship from Food to God 101
Turning To God From Idols 101
The Transfer 102
Pleasing God Or Self 104
A New Focus By Training The Senses 107
You Fall In Love With What You Focus On 109
Motivation 111
9 Overcoming eating disorders 115
Ideal Body Weight 118
How To Approach The Scales 120
Exercise 120
Anorexia And Bulimia 122
Tips To Stop Bingeing/Purging 122
Break the Eating Disorder Cycle 125
10 Learning To Sense Internal Controls 129
Seek Righteousness Not Nutrients 131
Biological Feedback 136
Type II Diabetes 144
How Do We Get The Nutrients We Need? 144
11 How To Have A Balanced Meal 147
Good Health And Righteous Living 150
Organic Foods 152
Food Allergies 153
Irregularity 153
Vitamins 154
Artificial Sugars 155
How To Eat Potato Chips And Chocolate 158
Chocoholics 160
Celebration Meals 161
Additional Topics 162
12 Ways Of Escape 165
13 how to handle Temptations 169
Dealing With Temptations 172
14 intervention from the Heavens 175
You Are Worth More Than Sparrows 175
Rewards/Jewels For Obedience 181
15 Love The Lord Your God With All Your Heart 189
A Passionate Heart 190
Seeing The Passion 192
Exposing The False Gods 193
From A Heart Of Stone To Flesh 195
16 How To Get The Spirit Of God 201
Self-Control 202
How To Get Answered Prayers 204
Why Does God Want Us To Obey? 207
Outside Versus Inside Forces 208
Diet Laws—The Outside Force 210
God’s Power Versus Willpower 210
Control Versus Discipline 211
17 The spiritual battle 215
Spiritual Warfare 215
Suffering For The Will Of God 216
Battle Tools 218
Who You Obey Is Your God 220
Battle Scriptures 223
18 Why does god allow Suffering 227
The Last 10 Pounds 228
Accepting God’s Decisions 230
Consider It Pure Joy 232
Change Yourself First 233
Jesus Also Suffered 233
Life Comes From Death 234
19 Free From Unwanted Behaviors And Substances 236
Two Types Of Sins 242
Dead-End Path One—We Should Not Feel Guilt 243
Dead-End Path Two—Projection/Anger/Depression 247
The First Recorded Projection 247
Things That Can No Longer Be Excuses 249
Dysfunctional 249
Family History 249
Unforgiveness 251
Turning Guilt And Depression Around 252
The Allure Of Sympathy 253
Do Not Blame Circumstances 254
Dead-End Path Three—Deeper Self-Focus/Deeper Depression 255
Demon Possession 255
Results Of Continuing In Sin 259
Outward Physical Manifestations 259
Emotional Manifestations 260
Dead-End Path Four—Passion Seekers/Lust/Theft 263
Sexual Lust 264
Stealing/Theft 267
When You Feel Like Giving Up 268
Repent And Replace 269
20 Alcohol, Tobacco And Drug Abuse 275
Alcohol 275
Tobacco 279
Illicit Drugs 280
Overcoming 283
Screen For Overdrinking 284
Weigh Down Dependencies Worksheet 285
21 Projection Versus Introspection 289
The Stronghold Of Control 292
22 The Narrow Door 297
Step One—Make A Choice 297
Step Two—Turn Around 298
Step Three—Put On The New Life 300
Step Four—Persevere 301
Parable Of The Four Soils 302
23 The Essential, Imminent Requirement 307
The Warning 311
Does God Give Up On Us? 314
The Truth Will Set You Free 317
24 All Or Nothing 323
Partial Obedience 324
You Cannot Serve Two Masters 326
25 A Whole New Life 333
Walk In The Spirit 337
Walk In The Steps Of Christ 340
Walk In Love 340
Walk In The Light 343
In Conclusion 349
Appendix 354
Additional Resources 354
A Note From Gwen 358
About Gwen 358
General Medical Information 364
A Special Note On Medications 365
Giving Back! 366
Weigh Down Weight Record 367
Weigh Down Food Schedule Chart 368
Weigh Down Prayer Chart 370
Rewards/Answered Prayers/Jewels Page 372
Weigh Down Ways Of Escape Page 373
Gwen with just a few of the thousands of success stories resulting from Weigh Down Basics!
WELCOME TO WEIGH DOWN!
the pioneer of faith-based weight loss
Hi, I’m Gwen Shamblin Lara!

Three decades ago, I wrote The
Weigh Down Diet. It quickly became
a national bestseller, and thousands of
people lost weight.
For years, people have told me,
“I have tried every diet on the plan-
et, and Weigh Down is the only
program that ever worked.”
With Weigh Down Works, you
too can learn the secret to perma-
nent weight loss. Diets focus on the
food, and they tell you what you can
and what you cannot eat. The results are temporary, and you are left feel-
ing like a failure. I am here to tell you that you are NOT a failure. You are
SO dearly loved by God. This book will teach you how to turn to God with
your anxious or hurting heart.
Weigh Down offers HOPE...You will never have to diet again. You
can eat your favorite foods for the rest of your life and still lose weight!
Permanently. Thousands of people have done it! YOU can too!
By reading this new book, we can start together on your successful
journey of becoming a thin eater and losing all your weight permanent-
ly, which will result in a life of peace and hope! You CAN do this!
Through much devotion to our True God, the Lord Almighty,
PREFACE
Gwen with long-time Weigh Down Staff Member Jennifer Martin,

who has gone through five healthy pregnancies and has always returned
to her pre-pregnancy weight. 9
Gwen hosting the You Can Overcome show, Season 14, Episode 5, “How to be Debt Free,”
filmed October 10, 2018.
Gwen with two long-time Weigh Down Basics success testimonies at the 2018 Desert Oasis—Lisa
Peters (down 20 pounds since 1998) and Therese Marie Jost (down 25 pounds since 1998)! Therese
and Lisa first met Gwen at a Weigh Down event in California in 2001!
1
THE WEIGH DOWN APPROACH
Welcome to a new life! Welcome to Weigh Down! This weight
loss method has been highly tested with thousands who have lost weight
years ago and have kept it off. Weigh Down gives you so much hope be-
cause it helps you wake up self-control from within. It is the opposite of
all the diet programs you have tried that place too much emphasis on
changing the content of the food and counting the calories in the food.
In Weigh Down, the emphasis is changing the content of yourself, which
is why this is a permanent approach.
Over the last 30 years, Weigh Down has freed thousands from excess
weight without dieting or over-exercising. I have seen countless people
set free not only from the pain of overweight, but also from eating dis-
orders and other addictions. You are no exception, and you can experi-
ence the rapid results of Weigh Down also. This is exciting because you
will see that you can be permanently done with the unwanted pounds!
Weigh Down Basics is taught in two major ways: interactive class
format or self-paced format, both using video, audio, workbooks, and
books. These materials are offered in hard copies or online where all you
need is a smartphone. There are no gimmicks or hidden costs. Weigh
Down never sells you foods or supplements, but rather it offers you
truths that set you free, leading you to desire less food, which means no
more overeating, so the volume of regular food you eat will decrease. As
you watch, listen or read, you will gain inspiration, and by turning to the
Heavens for help, you are on your way to permanent weight loss. The
book you are now holding, Weigh Down Works, gives you an introduc-
tion to the major concepts of what is being taught in video and audio
form in Weigh Down Basics seminars all over the world.
If you like a more interactive approach utilizing personal Weigh
Down Coaches, Weigh Down classes are available online 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, with thousands of participants in online chatrooms
and Facebook groups. In-home classes are also held in hundreds of loca-
tions throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia,
China, Japan and more!
Over the last century, people across the world are only growing larg-
er and are hurting, drained physically and financially from dieting and
the resulting health issues that come with being overweight, but there
is a way to turn this around. Weigh Down is showing people on a daily
basis how our God can transform their hearts and minds so that they
can rise above the magnetic pull of the refrigerator. Instead of emphasiz-
ing caloric content of food, Weigh Down teaches you how to focus on
your natural, internal hunger control. But more importantly, your focus
will be trained to turn toward the will of God as it relates to food, result-
ing in stronger willpower than you thought possible!
While the world has been gaining, those who have used Weigh Down
Basics principles have lost weight quickly and kept their weight off. I per-
sonally lost my weight long ago and have kept it off for over 30 years!
It is time to join this amazing journey toward freedom. I am looking
forward to meeting you and seeing how God will set you free so that
you lose all your unwanted weight. Weigh Down works, and you can
do this!
What does God have to do with this anyway?

With God’s help you can learn to stop in the middle of a meal and
have no desire to eat the second half if your stomach is satisfied! God
did not put chocolate or lasagna or real blue cheese dressing on earth
to torture us, but rather for our enjoyment. However, He wants us to
learn how to rise above the magnetic pull of the refrigerator so that
food does not consume our lives![1]
1 Please read “General Medical Information” on page 364 before getting started.
12
The problem and the solution

We have all been created with two empty, needing-to-be-fed
holes in our body. One is the stomach, and the other is the heart.
The stomach is a literal hole in our body, which is to be fed with
the proper amount of food. As for the heart, I am speaking figura-
tively of our deep-down feelings—your passion and soul. To satisfy
these God-given longings, deep-down feelings, needs, or desires of
the heart, we may often turn to food and overload our stomach with
more than it needs.
We have been trying to feed our

hurting, longing hearts with physical
food and substances, but only God
can truly fill our hearts.
Trying to feed a hurting, needy heart with food or anything on
this Earth—alcohol, tobacco, antidepressants, sexual lusts, wealth,
overshopping, the praise of other people, etc.—is a common error.
These lifestyle choices or desperate copings really are no alternative,
because they bring harm to the body one way or another. The person
who attempts to feed a longing heart with food will stay on the path
to overweight. Those who pursue an overindulgence of alcohol or
tobacco or power will also reap the consequences of those pursuits.
Overeating is the single most related factor to the following condi-
tions: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, lethargy, inactivity, stroke, in-
fertility, osteoarthritis, disability, social isolation, depression and
non-disease-induced breathing apnea, and it is the major contributor
of complications to joint and bone problems, slow healing, muscle
stress, fatty liver, poor circulation and resulting edema, kidney com-
plications, back and spine pain, headaches, poor immune system, etc.
There is absolutely no end to the curses that result from the choice of
overeating, which is a form of slow suicide.
13
There is nothing inherently evil about food, alcohol, tobacco, cur-
rency, credit cards, etc. In Mark 7, Jesus pronounced all foods clean.[2]
However, it is wrong to become a slave to any of these things or
to let them master you. Another way to put this error: it is wrong to
be greedy for too much—for more than what the Lord has allotted
for each of us concerning food, prosperity, marriage, position, etc.
Historically, the church referred to these sins as vices, and overeating
was one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” and is also known as “gluttony.”
After counseling for 30 years, it was easy to see that these cravings
were related to sensual indulgence as talked about in Ephesians 4:17-
19. Alcohol—you are looking for a feeling. Binge eating—you are
looking for a feeling. Gossip, slander—Proverbs says it goes down
like choice morsels.[3] Tobacco, drugs—you are looking for a feeling.
Religion is simply what we adore

or worship—what makes our
pulse rate go up.
Power, control, money, praise of man, pride—you are looking for a
feeling of superiority and justification. It is sensual indulgence or head
hunger, desire eating, or desire bingeing, or just lust of the eye, lust of
the flesh, the pride of life as referenced in I John 2:16. “Head hunger”
2 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and
understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him.
Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’” After he had left the
crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so
dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can
make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then
out of his body.” In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.” He went on: “What
comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts,
come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make
a man ‘unclean.’” Mark 7:14-23
3 Proverbs 18:8
14
is chewing just because the food calls your name—

i.e., it looks good, it smells good, it tastes good, which
would be mouth indulgence.
As you can see from the picture, we have been try-
ing to feed our hurting, longing hearts with physical
food and substances. We have also learned to crave
sensual indulgence. But God provides for a way out…
1. Relearn how to put all of your eating, drinking,
talking, shopping, and lusts back into the bound-
aries that the Lord God Almighty has established.
2. Relearn how to feed or nourish the longing human God created two
empty places in
soul with a relationship with the Father instead of each of us.
turning to substance abuse or emotional, sensual,
controlling strongholds or indulgences. This will affect every area
of your life!
3. Relearn how to stop responding to sensual indulgences (for ex-
ample, the urge to eat when the body is not calling for food) and
instead be sensitive to what the body is calling for, because this is
how our Savior wants us to eat, and how He made our bodies and
provides optimum health.
Your major concern will be “How can this work for me?” because:
1. “I am not particularly religious anymore,” and “I feel a distance
between me and God because I have been told this is a chronic
disease or genetic and I see no cure.”
2. “I have tried every diet 10 times, every diet pill and exercise, and
failed miserably—so how can this work?”
What we are really asking is…“Am I a failure, or has God forgot-

ten me or is He sabotaging me?” Well, you are not a failure, it is not
genetic, and the Heavenly Father is not sabotaging you, and everyone
is religious in that we are all bowing down to something or someone.
“Religion” is simply what you adore, and we all adore something or
15
someone. It is a problem if this adoration is above the adoration of
the Spirit. The basis of True Religion is to have no idols before The
Almighty God and our Creator. Exodus 20:2-6 says:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land
of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for
yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or wor-
ship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the
children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of
those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those
who love me and keep my commandments.
We should worship the Lord God Almighty alone and above all.
Our nature is being a slave to one thing or another—the essence
of religion. Religion is simply what we adore or worship—what
makes our pulse rate go up when we think about it, whether it be
food, alcohol, tobacco, sports, computer games, TV, lusts, hobbies,
the pursuit of fortune, etc. We are giving our heart and soul over to
people or praise of man. Mankind tends—without intervention—to
make the huge mistake of running after the created over the Creator.
You realize the severity of this mistake once you see that God adores
us more than you can think or imagine. Exodus 34 says:
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger,
abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and for-
giving wickedness, rebellion and sin… I am making a covenant with you.
Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in
all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work
that I, the Lord, will do for you… Do not worship any other god, for the
Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Exodus 34:6-7, 10, 14
So the Father is jealous for our devotion. He is the Genius and
loving Creator of all life and matter. If someone created you—you
need to show some appreciation and love them first. Please! We
16
should be a servant to our Creator…to His righteousness. Being

righteous glorifies Him, but it helps us even more.
God’s Eating Plan…Wait For True Stomach Hunger
The lesson is to relearn how
to feed the stomach only when
it is hungry. To relearn how to
feed the stomach, you first need
to wait—wait for true stomach
hunger. Waiting for stomach hun-
ger will be like waiting for the “E”
or empty on an automobile fuel
gauge.[4]
The stomach is a pouch made
out of three layers of muscles,
and it is located right below your
sternum bone or chest bone. The
top of the stomach lies against
the diaphragm, and lying behind the stomach is the pancreas. This
feeling of true stomach signals we are looking for is a small, burn-
ing, empty, hollow sensation that occurs several hours after the last
meal. If you have just binged, then it may be as much as a day later.
When you are obese or more than 25 percent over your ideal body
weight, then the feeling is not very strong. Your body does not want
much food when you are overweight; the body will guide you to eat
very small amounts each day until you have lost all the weight. When
using emptiness and fullness, the body is breaking down the stored
fat and using it for fuel. Praise God! You are losing unwanted fat cells
every time you are waiting and pushing away from food until your
stomach growls. If you are not sure that the sensation that you are
4 For more on this subject, see the You Can Overcome TV show website
WeighDown.com/Weigh-Down-tv
17
feeling is the body’s signal to eat, just wait a little longer. Change your
focus off the food and on to God’s purpose for the day while waiting
for hunger, and you will feel light and happy while waiting!
How To Approach The Food
We suggest that you drink only non-caloric drinks, such as water,
diet sodas, and artificially sweetened tea while you are learning how
to sense the body’s needs. If you drink sugared tea or sodas, milk,
fruit juice, or sports drinks throughout the day, the glucose or the
sugar from them will keep your blood sugars up, the result being
somewhat like an IV bag in the hospital. If the blood sugar levels stay
elevated, then the stomach will not growl or feel hungry. Continu-
ally popping mints or hard candy, chewing sugared gum, and putting
cream in your coffee will have the same effect on your blood sugar.
Do not let your mind wander to food at

all until…your stomach is growling.
Drinking sugared and naturally-sweetened drinks such as juice is
the number one reason that children are reluctant to eat solid foods.
This, more often than not, results in the child becoming anemic. There-
fore, limit sweet drinks and start using non-caloric drinks or water.
It takes approximately three weeks for your taste buds to switch
over from regular soda to non-caloric soda. It is easy after the third
day if you do not go back and forth. You can train your taste buds
to like anything! The Heavenly Father programs us to naturally like
what we get used to. Variety is good for the body, up to a point.
Many diet programs push additional drinking, but overdrinking
is going against what the body calls for and, like overeating, is a health
risk. Overconsumption of liquids and water upsets the pH balance
and causes hyponatremia, meaning too little salt in the bloodstream.
Symptoms include dizziness and nausea. Learn today that anything
in excess—beyond what the body is calling for—is not good for you,
18
including something as seemingly harmless as water. More is not bet-

ter. Use your perfectly engineered thirst mechanism—it keeps you
precisely balanced. Eliminate opening canned drinks all day long,
carrying around extra large glasses, or carrying drinks around with
you everywhere.
Now, reason with me…most humans trust their breathing mech-
anism—a subconscious response—but if you panic and think you do
not have enough oxygen, you might hyperventilate. Just like force-
feeding beyond what the body calls for, this is “force-breathing,” and
your body is made so well that it will prevent you from hyperven-
If you lose the passion for food, the

result will be that you eat less food and
therefore lose weight permanently.
tilating by causing you to pass out, and then the perfectly designed
subconscious will resume breathing (appropriate oxygen intake) on
its own. People have been known to binge-eat to the point of uncon-
sciousness. Humans can make wrong choices if we are not in tune to
the body. The Genius Biochemist designed the body in such a bril-
liant way! God programs your sleep needs for each year of your life,
so we are not to fight it but heed it. We must pay attention like never
before to all the internal cues and especially the hunger mechanism,
since ignoring this is related to all major diseases and death. Ignoring
hunger and fullness is the single most related factor to premature or
early death. It is so harmful to ignore it one way or the other—either
too little or too much—that it affects your life span. God has made
our bodies to work perfectly and give us maximum life span if we
listen, pay attention, heed, and concentrate. We should be like all the
animals who go to bed each night at the hour the Creator gives them,
who wake up each day with the lead of God, and who look to the
Creator for each meal. You cannot help but observe how happy and
cheerful and peaceful all of creation is! By following this lead closely
19
and not allowing yourself to feel pressured to eat from any other
source, you will have more energy and more time than you have ever
had while you are waiting for the body to call for food.
When your blood sugar drops, this is normal; the stomach walls
produce hydrochloric acid, which makes the stomach growl or twist
or feel empty. This is your signal! This is your one and only signal to
eat. When you feel a growl, a Thin Eater[5] would then think about
food. Do not let your mind wander to food at all…until your stom-
ach is growling. It is healthy to empty out or not to eat until true
appetite. Medical conditions are addressed in a later chapter,[6] but
I know you are weary, tired, and hurting. It is

time to return to the Creator, to stop trying
to do this on your own and come home to
where you belong, to your Heavenly Father
with His Heaven-sent plan for your life,
which is intended to guide His people
back to His heart.
remember, losing weight is the number one thing that you can do
for good health and longevity, so do not fear waiting for the stomach
growl. Waiting for hunger is the healthiest thing you can possibly do
if you want to live a long and healthy life.
Volume Of Food
Once you stop going to the lust of the eye or the lust of the flesh
or pride for sensual indulgence, escape, spacing out, a tranquilizing
effect, comfort, and so on, and stay within the Lord’s boundaries, you
will be denying yourself.
For overeaters, once you start swallowing regular foods only
when your stomach growls, you will eat just one-half to one-third of
5 Definition is in Chapter 3
6 See Chapter 6, “Health Considerations”
20
what you used to swallow. The desire eating goes away. That means
you will lose weight! You will be able to do this; it happens natural-
ly. You will not have to measure the food or count the grams—your
stomach will guide you. The volume of food decreases as you focus
on and obey the stomach’s signals. Thousands of ex-dieters are doing
this within 24 hours of starting Weigh Down.
The typical weight-loss program suggests losing weight through
diet (large volumes of low-calorie foods) and exercise. We suggest
that if you lose the passion for food, the result will be that you eat
less food and therefore lose weight permanently. The typical 1950s-
2010s approach tried to fix the body or the food but did not address
the passion. The Weigh Down approach fixes the heart first, and the
body follows. The volume of food is the problem—not what you are
eating, but how much.
This book, along with Weigh Down Basics classes, will instruct
and support you on how God can bring us to peace with food—never
to return to the nightmare of endless overweight, yo-yo dieting, and
“have-to” exercise regimens, but rather to a calm, non-magnetized
approach to regular foods with the ability to approach foods such as
rich entrees and desserts without losing control. Exercise need no
longer be connected to burning calories; instead, it can be an enjoy-
able activity.[7] You will be free!
The Exodus Symbolism
We liken the journey you are about to take—from the slavery
of diet programs (fat gram and calorie counting) and overweight to
being a normal eater—to the journey the children of Israel took from
the slavery of Egypt, through the Desert of Testing, and finally to the
Promised Land.
The Biblical book of Exodus in the Old Testament is the age-old
story of the Exodus of God’s children from Egyptian bondage. Do
7 See Chapter 9 for more on exercise and weight loss

21
you remember the story of how God parted the Red Sea? The Lord
sent Moses to lead the Israelites and to let them know that He was de-
livering them from bondage. God sent plagues upon the Egyptians
to make pharaoh let His people go. After ten horrible plagues, pha-
raoh let the Israelites pack their bags and go. Pharaoh regretted his
edict and tried to recapture the Israelites, but God parted the Red Sea
with a mighty east wind. Once the Israelites were safely on the other
side, pharaoh’s mightiest warriors and finest chariots and horses were
buried by the sea as the Lord God Almighty put the water back into
its place. The Israelites had witnessed God’s mighty deliverance of
them from the clutching hands of pharaoh.
But before the Almighty Savior could let His children inherit
the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, He took them on
a journey through the Desert of Testing. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 says:
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these
forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in
your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled
you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which nei-
ther you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live
on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Just like the Israelites, you will experience a deliverance from di-
eting and the bondage of food and diet programs that treat you like
children. This book will explain to you how thousands have handled
the Desert of Testing. Finally, you will be shown how to follow in the
footsteps of God’s children who entered the Promised Land of milk
and honey. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
The Promised Land is a place out of the hot Desert of Testing, where
you no longer feel tempted to eat when your stomach is not hungry.
No matter what your age, no matter what your size, no matter
what your means of control—whether it be dieting, exercising to
keep the weight off, bulimia, anorexia, or just giving up self-control,
the Promised Land is for you.
22
New Daily Routine

Replace your old daily diet routine with your new daily routine…
1. Praise And Prayer: You are on an Exodus with the children of
God away from the slavery of food, through the Desert of Test-
ing, and to the Promised Land. The Promised Land is a place
where you have a relationship with God more than a relationship
with food—a relationship with the Creator of the Universe over
created things. Learn to start your day off with praise to your
Heavenly Father for giving you another day, followed by prayer
for help to lead you not into temptation but to deliver you from
any evil—which would include a craving for food. We have been
commanded to take care of our bodies and not destroy them.
Overeating makes you sick and damages the body. Start the day
off right, and get used to praying all throughout the day.
2. Hunger And Fullness: You now get to wait for stomach hun-
ger, which is a growl. If you cannot get to food at that point,
do not worry. The acid will go away in about 10 minutes and
come back around in
about an hour. Just
wait. Once you get
hungry again, eat small
amounts. How? Serve
yourself regular foods
on a small saucer or
cut the foods in half.
Rate your foods and
eat your favorite foods
first. You may have
very small units of
chocolate or sweets at
the end of your meal.
Make sure you eat the
Sherri Lomas down 150 pounds since 1997!
23
desserts very slowly—sipping between bites. Stop when you are
full and get the food out of sight—by putting it in a carryout,
covering it with a napkin, or storing it away.
3. Less Is More: Remember…there will be no end to desire, and
more is not better. No more binge eating—the body cannot taste
the food during a binge anyway. There is a whole life out there
beyond the food! If you are having trouble with going beyond
full, slow the eating down and sip between bites. Put your fork
down for a few minutes. Sit back, try looking up more, and enjoy
the conversation with the people around you. It is good to limit
alcohol because it can give you a false sense of appetite, and it also
can relax your determination to wait for the growl. But drinking
something hot (coffee or hot tea) can make you feel satiated or
full. It takes 20 minutes for the food that you have eaten to hit the
bloodstream so that you feel the satisfied feeling.
4. Pray When Tempted: Pray when you are tempted to eat but you
are not hungry. Run to the Lord, His Word, the Weigh Down
workbook and audios. All other temptations to eat, including
head hunger, mouth hunger, TV eating, party or social eating, the
lust or desire to eat, the food luring you because it is hot, “escape
eating” or “mindless eating” excuses—cannot be a reason to eat
anymore. The temptation to eat will pass in about 10 minutes if
you get away from the food and turn to God for help! He will not
let you be tempted past what you can bear.[8][9]
5. The Transfer To God Is Blessed: If you really want to get out of
the slavery of overeating and binge-eating…then change what you
8 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is
faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you
are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” I
Corinthians 10:13
9 To order your workbook and audios, contact our office at 800-844-5208 or
info@weighdown.com. See Additional Resources in Appendix for more information,
or visit our website, www.WeighDown.com
24
focus on and what you listen to. If you redirect your focus, you
will modify your desires forever! The transfer from being enslaved
to food over to worshiping the Lord is life-changing and amazing!
The blessings are countless! It is awesome to use food only for en-
ergy—not indulgence—eating only between hunger and fullness.
The number of times, amounts, and portions of food you eat per
day will be less, so you will feel better and have much more energy
to get other needed things done. You will have hope again! In-
stead of eating, run to your Creator, your Heavenly Father, to fill
and fulfill your mind, time, and life. He can do so much better than
a binge of food. This book will help you transfer this desire to eat
over to a relationship with God. This will open up a whole new and
blessed life. Temptations and spiritual warfare are real—so just
stay focused and determined and these times will pass. The clouds
will go away and the sunshine will come back out. This is just a
part of the test from the Heavens to see if you adore the Creator
more than created things. This is life—and the results are wonder-
ful. Hang in there and the results will be better health, a happier
outlook, and a more fruitful and blessed life, full of love and joy!
TRUTH TIP
Only feed stomach hunger. Overweight is a volume problem.
Turn to God for head hunger.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
25
How To Feed The Stomach
1. Wait anywhere from 1 to 36 hours on your first hunger, and then it will
come approximately 1 to 3 times a day. Do not fear—you will love the
energy you feel from this and the delight from being able to wait.
2. Hunger is a polite burning sensation, the feeling of a knot inside your
stomach. If you have to bypass hunger due to work or social conflicts,
the sensation will come back around in 45 minutes to an hour . While
it is normal to skip hunger once in a while, do not make it a habit. If you
have not felt hunger within 36 hours, eat a small meal and wait for hunger
again. You should feel it soon. After your first attempt, do not keep wait-
ing 36 hours. Continue to decrease your food intake daily until you feel
stomach hunger. Do not be legalistic. We are working on reducing food
intakes to normal amounts for your body.
3. Enjoy your family during meal time. If you are hungry before dinner, just
bypass hunger. If you are full at normal mealtime because of an irregular
eating schedule or because you tasted all your cooking—several times—
then just drink a glass of non-caloric tea and talk to the family.
4. Drink non-caloric beverages to help the sugar levels drop normally so
that you can feel the hunger signal. Continual intake of sugar through
drinks prevents you from sensing hunger.
5. Sip your drink between bites. Stop eating when you are satisfied.
6. Rate your foods. Decide which foods you like best and eat those first, sav-
ing the least favorite until the end. Generally, leave desserts until last.
7. Wrap up the leftovers. You can have them the next time you are hungry.
8. Use carryouts when eating out. Restaurants serve such large portions.
Some foods, especially pastas, taste better the next day. However, other
leftovers will just turn green in the fridge, and then you can easily throw
them away without being tempted!
9. Do not serve yourself a five-course meal just because a medication must
be taken with food. Food needed with pills can be small amounts like one
to three crackers. You do not need a banquet unless the physician orders
that.
10. When using these godly principles, expect your food consumption to de-
crease to one-half or one-third of what you were eating as an overeater.
As you progress, you may expect your desire eating, or desire for food, to
decrease over time.
Weigh Down Copyright © 1997 by Gwen Shamblin Lara and Weigh Down. www.WeighDown.com
26
TESTIMONY
Rhonna Rickman, down 130 pounds since 2007.
In 2006, I saw Gwen on the Today Show sharing about Weigh
Down. I had done Weigh Down in the 90s and knew it was the only
thing that had worked for me, so I knew I had to try it again. As I
began the Weigh Down Basics class I quickly began to lose weight
just by cutting my food in half and praying and reaching out to God
to help me. As the weight started falling off, I became happy, more
in love with my husband, a much more gentle mom to my four chil-
dren…my entire life began to change for the better!
I have lost 130 pounds of weight, but the pride, anger, jealousy
and judgmental attitude I have lost truly outweigh the pounds lost.
There was a time in my life that from the outside looking in, you might
have thought I had everything—a loving and hardworking husband,
four beautiful children, a lovely home, etc., but the inside of me was
full of hate and anger and so much jealousy for all of those around
me who had peace and love. Through Weigh Down, I learned how to
find that peace and joy and happiness and feel younger than ever! An
added bonus was that as I began to put Weigh Down into practice,
my entire family began to notice and my husband even gave it a try!
Dr. Otis Rickman, down 55 pounds since 2009.
In 2004, at the age of 32, I had just finished a residency in Inter-
nal Medicine and Fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine. My new job
required me to take a physical prior to starting employment. At that
examination I was found to be obese (5’11” and 247 pounds), have
high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gastroesophageal reflux and a
fatty liver. Needless to say I felt like a hypocrite starting a job as a new
doctor and giving advice on how to stay healthy!
So I started on a low carbohydrate diet and lost 50 pounds in a
few months. I also lost much of my lean muscle mass. Unfortunately,
as is seen with so many of the restrictive diets, when I stopped adher-
ing to the plan, I immediately started gaining. By 2006, I had gained
all of the weight back. I still had high blood pressure, high choles-
terol, reflux and a fatty liver. In addition, I was now on antidepressant
27
medications, tired all the time and pretty sure I had developed sleep
apnea.
Intellectually, I could completely relate to the concepts of Weigh
Down. It made sense both medically and physiologically to me. As
opposed to other diets, it was healthy and more durable because it did
not restrict access to certain foods. I started applying the principles
and lost a total of 55 pounds! I also gave up the chewing tobacco and
have not used since 2008. I no longer have gastroesophageal reflux,
depression, hyperlipidemia, fatty liver, sleep apnea or hypertension.
This is NOT just a weight loss program for women. I am a healthy
and happy man thanks to Weigh Down Basics!
28
2
THE STORY OF WEIGH DOWN
I was a thin eater growing up. I can remember my father saying
that my eyes were bigger than my stomach as I selected more food in
the cafeteria line than I could eat. This was possibly more of a good
stewardship lesson than a health lesson on my father’s part, since
there were four children to feed. At that point in my life, the pain of
overeating made more of an impact on my eating than the pleasure of
indulging the taste buds. Nevertheless, it revealed the beginnings of
a tiny seed of greed for food. Had the seed of greed been redirected,
it could have saved me years of grief.
My mother was a member of the clean-your-plate club, as were
all good American mothers who came out of the Great Depression.
We were highly indoctrinated to good foods and bad foods. Fruits
and vegetables were righteous items in our household. This combi-
nation of approaches to foods was backed up in schools as gospel,
and the Basic Four food groups were memorized as national govern-
ment teachings. I can remember getting stars if I “cleaned” my plate
at school in third grade. This combination of teaching, that is still
taught today—as right as it may seem—has helped to unplug the
God-programmed internal hunger and internal ability to select foods
(a natural biological feedback to cue the body to a variety of foods).
As I entered the teen years, the pain of overstuffing lessened. My
father had been correct at one time about my eyes being bigger than
my stomach—but by now, after years of strengthening the stomach
and freely feeding my head hunger, my stomach could easily accom-
modate my eyes! Besides the increasing greed, fear was already a part
of my life. There were four children in our family, and if I did not “get
mine,” there might not be any left. I felt that I had to look out for my-
self. I was older and freer to make my own food selections, and I had
not been trained even to consider true stomach hunger and fullness.
I quickly crept up five to ten pounds. The problem with even five ex-
cess pounds on my body type is that it all went to my waist and not
to the area of my body that was in dire need of some extra meat—my
legs! Since my body would not cooperate with me by evenly distrib-
uting my weight, even five pounds overweight really distracted me,
since most clothing stores did not make things to fit potatoes with
toothpick legs.
Thank goodness I loved cheerleading. The inner drive to be a
good cheerleader kept me jumping around for years. Apparently, I
was overeating approximately the amount of energy I was expending.
In other words, my exercise was disguising or at least compensating
for my overeating. Once cheerleading ended and college began, my
overeating was unveiled in the form of extra pounds.
Moreover, the University of Tennessee sold what I called “magic
cards” that allowed students to go to the cafeteria of the generous
state university from 7 o’clock in the morning to 7 o’clock in the eve-
ning. At any time of day, we could serve ourselves milkshakes, soft
drinks, ice cream and shelves of desserts. Breakfast overlapped lunch,
which overlapped supper. The foods were fantastic, and all you need-
ed to enter this massive all-you-can eat cafeteria was the magic card.
It was magic because we paid a one-time fee at the beginning of the
semester, which gave us unlimited privileges.
After 7:00 p.m., when the megacafeteria closed, the campus
delicatessens came alive. The smell of the steamed fresh sandwiches
with melted cheese called my name every night. Well, the result of
the combination of no more cheerleading and increased exposure to
volumes of foods (without my mother around to correct me) was
another ten pounds.
30
I was now ranging from ten to twenty pounds over my pre-col-

lege weight, and all of the fat was around my waist. I was becoming
desperate. But my mere physical twenty pounds overweight did not
reveal how deeply food-focused I was. I knew no end to fullness, and
I tried throwing up my food after a binge but was not coordinated
enough. The endless cycle of diets/exercise and weight loss/weight
gain was deeply entrenched by now. I loved to eat and eat and eat.
Although it felt good to stuff myself, I felt enslaved. As lightly or as
humorously as I might describe this out-of-control situation, in real-
ity, it was a very insecure time for me.
The undergraduate degree I was working on was in dietetics, and
my graduate study was nutrition science. Unfortunately, these de-
grees only increased my wayward focus on food and self. I wondered
if I had every malnutrition-related disease that the books covered. I
tried the exchange diets the nutrition books recommended, and after
a few years of failure, I started trying everything in the back of the
book that was listed as “unreliable weight loss methods,” such as the
low carbohydrate diets that put the body into ketosis (a self-inflicted,
temporary diabetic state). At the university, I enrolled in aerobics
classes that used unsuccessful, questionable techniques to motivate
college students to lose weight. One class actually had us contract
to lose weight for a grade. I was in a cocky mood and contracted or
agreed to lose fifteen pounds for an “A.” I made a “C” in that class,
which meant not even the highly valued grades could make me lose
weight. I could not get this stuff off my body!
The most common diet regimen I used looked something like
this: morning was starvation; noon was lettuce, Italian dressing, and
a diet soda; and in the evening I allowed myself a few exchanges. I
would then try to jog on the tracks at night. I could tolerate this regi-
men until Thursday night, but the thought of the fun planned for the
weekend would always tempt me into “letting go.” Once I was “off ”
of my diet—watch out. I would mix up a batch of cookie dough and
eat much of the raw batter as well as the baked. I never had a lot of
31
confidence that exchange lists would work for me because I was so
good at cheating. For instance, usually by Tuesday I had borrowed all
the fats and carbohydrates for the entire week, and by Thursday I had
eaten most of the optional calories allowed for the month!
The whole situation seemed hopeless, especially during evening
temptations. At 9 o’clock at night when everyone else was eating a
Shelbourne Towers famous kielbasa deli sandwich with smoked
cheddar cheese, Claussen pickle, chips, and a diet soda, I would look
on my sheet of paper and see that all I had left was a fruit exchange.
I did not want fruit! Proponents of exchange lists would always say,
“All you have to do is move the exchanges over, and when you are
done for the day, you are through!” Wrong! That is when the problem
begins. Temptations such as these seemed to make me graze through
the whole kitchen for anything but fruit.
The ever-vigilant scales always told the truth of my wasted ef-
forts. I had netted no weight loss. I was getting nowhere! But I re-
fused to acknowledge defeat and would use my own strength to start
over again on Monday morning on the same regime with hopes that
I could pull it off this time. It was baffling me, since I seemed to be
fairly successful at other things in my life. Why couldn’t I do this? I
started to feel that something was wrong with me. I started to feel like
a failure for the first time in my life, and that started affecting other
areas of my life.
Somehow, in my degree studies, I saw that virtually none of the
experts mentioned our Creator. This made me suspicious of some
of the theories that were being offered in dietetics. I just did not buy
the idea that all overweight was a result of genetics or was inherited.
Making the food behave by dieting did not add up, either. It never
explained how my grandparents were at their right weight while eat-
ing bacon and eggs every day. In fact, they had never heard of light
cream cheese and skim milk. They had the best of the best coco-
nut cakes, homemade ice cream, and pecan pies. Fried chicken and
bread and butter were not condemned. Food was enjoyed, and diets
32
and exercise were never a part of the conversation. We had delight-

ful “real” foods at my grandmother’s house and great grandparents’
houses, and all were at their ideal weights—all except me, the highly
educated dietetics student and professional dieter.
My studies kept me up-to-date on efforts to change the food
content and on the dangers of too much fat and too much sugar. We
touched the edge of behavioral approaches to weight loss, and I felt
as if that was much closer to the answer than the study of food con-
tent. However, parking my car in a more distant parking lot and put-
ting my fork down between bites did not stop the desire in my heart
to continue chewing through the refrigerator and pantry contents at
10 o’clock at night when no one was looking. Behavior modification
techniques were not the answer, either!
A friend who lived in the apartment next to me was thin. I de-
cided to interview her. Why have thin-from-birth people not been a
resource for overweight people over the years?
There are several reasons. Thin people have learned to avoid
threatening conversations that start off asking, “How come you are
so skinny?” or “How can you eat chocolate pie and not gain weight?”
Thin-from-birth people are well aware of their unpopular position in
life. They are also aware that they are doomed no matter what answer
they give. If they have bought the genetic or inherited theories and
answer, “I guess God just made me this way,” that would insinuate
that God just made the fat person fat! That answer is likely to cost
them a friendship. If they say, “Well, I don’t know. I guess I eat less
food than you do,” they have again threatened the friendship. So they
politely answer, “I don’t know, and I never see you eat anything.” And
then they quickly change the subject.
Therefore, since I knew that I would get nowhere by asking any
questions, I asked my thin friend if I could just watch her and write
down what she ate in the next 48 hours.
Well, I took her to McDonald’s and watched her eat. I could
not believe that she could stop in the middle of a Quarter Pounder
33
(medium-sized hamburger) and half of her small French fries. Be-
fore she was done with half of her burger, I had eaten all of my Big
Mac, large French fries with lots of ketchup, and a milkshake. I was
still not full in my head, for I was eyeing her leftovers, and there were
times that I looked back at the menu and wanted more. If someone
offered me his or her extra fries, I accepted. Oh, I forgot to tell you
that she did not ever eat breakfast, yet I never wanted to skip break-
fast. I really knew no end to eating because I was lusting after food
all week and not listening to my stuffed stomach at all. I interviewed
my friend and asked her why she did not eat the second half of the
hamburger, but she had no answers other than…“I do not want it.”
But I knew that I “did want” it. Why did she not want the food? Why
did I want the food? Her desire was normal, and mine was sort of a
worship, because I never wanted to waste food, leave food behind, or
let food spoil. The food was more important than I was.
At this time I had finished my undergraduate degree in dietetics
and I was also working on my Master’s in Nutrition Science, and all
God is the Creator, the Chef behind all

tasty recipes, and He made your taste
buds to enjoy the flavors He created!
current research was pushing the theories that obesity was from ge-
netics, and they most certainly by now believed it was the food’s fault.
There was much research on fat substitutes, sugar substitutes, and ar-
tificial indigestible foods. Yet I just did not buy this, nor the concept
that “you are what you eat,” even as much as it was being taught, for I
was looking to God and His creation, and robins ate worms but were
robins, cows ate grass but turned into cows and made milk without
eating cheese. I kept most of this to myself at the time. I felt like God
was showing me amazing things.
One of our assignments was to use the graduate school’s res-
pirometer. A respirometer is a device used to measure the rate of
34
respiration of a living organism by measuring its rate of exchange

of oxygen and/or carbon dioxide. At a resting rate, I needed much
less oxygen than my taller roommate. Caloric needs are mainly de-
termined by muscle mass. Muscle is the most metabolically active
tissue. In other words, it takes more calories to keep a muscle cell
active than a brain cell. Your body will accurately call for the needed
amounts of oxygen and calories; therefore, I needed less food.
As I learned that there was a one-to-one ratio of oxygen needed
for every calorie, I could not understand why science was not put-
ting what I saw together…Americans were eating more than they
needed! The human body is efficient, and I did not need as many
God is near and He is interactive, lavish,

and He sanctions the foods that He
programmed your taste buds to enjoy.
calories as the books were suggesting. If this was true for me, how
many other people could have been expecting to eat more?
I noticed that Thin Eaters think they are eating a lot, yet over-
weight people think they are eating too little. Thin Eaters do not re-
alize that they eat much less volume than overweight people. Thin
Eaters eat regular foods, but the smaller volume overall was more
strategic for less calories than manipulating the type of food.
Now, I had to admit that I was very sad about all these revela-
tions… Skinny people ate smaller amounts + I personally did not
need hardly any calories with the amount of muscle mass that I had
= less eating for me.
This was going to be a challenge, but by going to God for help and
staying in the Word of God, I started to eat less. The message of self-
denial was beginning to surface. With more observance, I noted that
Thin Eaters did not think about food at all between hungers, perhaps
because they ate regular foods.
35
Meanwhile, in
the graduate classes,
there was current
research being at-
tempted to genetical-
ly explain obesity or
the stimulus for eat-
ing. But when I was
back in the Scrip-
tures at night, now
the word “greed”
was beginning to
surface. There was
much to meditate
and contemplate—
Concept realized in 1979, materials written in early but enough was stir-
1980s; the business incorporated, copyright 1989
ring in my brain that
this was the beginning of the end of my overweight condition and
overeating. Within a short period of time, I was able to incorporate
the behaviors, verbalize and teach them, and penned these facts in
the format of The Weigh Down Workshop. By the early to mid 1980s, I
had reconnected God to self-control and unwanted excesses in food,
tobacco, alcohol, and much more, but left it very vague in my writ-
ings, following the examples of the “professionals.” But by the late
1980s to 1990, I was boldly incorporating the teachings of Christ. It
was revolutionary, and it was the beginning of bringing good health
back to the church where it belonged. Jesus healed many; Christ was
the answer.
The questions were deep but the answers were clear. Why in the
world would we ever want more than we need? What is this phe-
nomenon called greed? Eating is one of the sensual pleasures in life.
It is fine if it is within the green light and red light of hunger and full-
ness of what the body calls for. Why would we ever try to override
36
Gwen Shamblin Lara featured on CNN’s Larry King Live show.
Weigh Down became a phenomenal movement sweeping the country in the 1990s, a revolutionary
weight loss method featured on many major media outlets. For video clips and news articles, visit
WeighDown.com.
37
our body’s controls on the amount of food we eat? Again, it is greed.
Why would someone become excessively self-indulgent?
1. Greed is the result of a lack of faith in God. The hurting
faithless feel as if they need to take care of themselves because no
one else in this world will care. People do not really know God’s
personality. We eat as if there is no tomorrow, thinking we had bet-
ter “get while the getting is good,” and live it up. Unfortunately, the
statistics show that there is a higher percentage of overweight people
who attend church than those who do not.
2. We think God is very distant and impersonal. These people
reason that everything they would want is the opposite of what He
wants and that He is not a caring Father-Creator who is sympathetic
to our desires, but rather opposed to everything we as humans long
for. Those with this attitude are unaware that God programs our de-
sires. This attitude causes people to wrongly suspect that there is not
an interactive, personal God who provides food each day. Man-made
rules of dieting have led the majority of people to believe that God is
opposed to eating the delicious foods we like, such as cheesecake, bur-
rito supreme with extra sour cream, blue cheese dressing, pizza, butter,
and chocolate. But that is man’s rule and man’s slander of God. The
Truth is…God is the Creator, the Chef behind all tasty recipes, and
He made your taste buds to enjoy the flavors He created! God is the
genius behind Rotel cheese dip and Fritos. God made chocolate and
blue cheese dressing. God makes the species and then makes their taste
buds…watch every puppy dog wag his tail at dinnertime; every mock-
ingbird, not just a few, seeks out grasshoppers; and all robins, not just
a few, consider the worm delectable. God wants us to taste and enjoy
all kinds of foods, including desserts, because it lets you know just how
giving and delightful He really is. Delightful foods should have shown
you who God is! However, modern medicine and harsh, tasteless diet-
ing rules make God out to be a legalistic torturer who wants you to live
an austere life. What a crime against the Creator of all good things and
enjoyable times. The Scriptures say He made wine to cheer the heart
38
of man.[1] He is, in fact, the opposite of austere and distant…God is

near and He is interactive, lavish, and He sanctions the foods that He
programmed your taste buds to enjoy.
This rigid doctrine is a crime against God. It has kept people from
pursuing a close relationship with Him. This guilt-ridden training flows
over into every area of your life, for example, shopping or dressing. The
puritanical teaching promotes a god who does not want you to buy the
clothes you adore, so therefore you do not pray or take Him with you
as a consultant shopping. Yet the Truth is…your Heavenly Father is
the topmost clothing authority. I pray daily, and He brings combina-
tions of clothes to mind, and it saves so much time.
Since dieting has convinced you that God does not want you to
eat chips and dip, He is not invited as a guest at the table. But the
Truth is…God is a good dresser, shopper, chef, athlete, teacher, doc-
tor, contractor, architect, auto mechanic, and entrepreneur. There is
nothing He cannot help with and solve for you.
3. We are scared that God will not provide enough for us…
Yet, we pamper ourselves so much that we do not even give God a
chance. He would like us to wait for emptiness so He can delight us
with the new Mexican restaurant for supper—but He cannot because
we decided to eat through the whole bag of stale chips this afternoon.
We decided on our indulgence and grabbed it and swallowed it in
such a hurry that we could not enjoy it—all because we felt guilt and
had fear that someone would see us. You have come to believe the
lie that if no one sees you eat the food that it does not count, or even
that God cannot see it. In fact, secret eating allows you to eat more.[2]
God got squeezed out of our lives as we were afraid to wait on Him or
1 “He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate—bringing
forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face
shine, and bread that sustains his heart.” Psalm 104:14-15
2 “Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!” Proverbs 9:17, “‘Can
anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do not I fill
heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 23:24
39
look to Him because we were afraid that He was opposed to our nat-
ural likes and dislikes, so we became the private eater and we became
the controller of the times we eat. We try to provide for ourselves; we
are on our own and bad decision makers.
Think about it this way…do you not delight in your children?
And what is more fun than introducing a delicious food and watch-
ing their faces light up? How much more does the Heavenly Father
wish to match your taste buds to His fabulous recipes? He knows
where all the best bites are on the plate. When you are shopping,
God knows where the best prices are, and when you learn to look to
Him, pray and wait on Him for something—sometimes within days
of obeying and waiting for God, the object appears as a gift. These
experiences bring you to a comprehension of a personal God, and all
of your concerns start to diminish. Faith and peace will rush back
into your life.
4. We want to be our own god. God created many things to
delight mankind; however, when man grabs for more—thinking that
if a little bit is good, then more is better—he totally misses the point
of it all. Grasping for more is appalling because it says, “there is no
God” or “I do not want a God.” It is so much better to have a small
amount than grab for more and feel guilt. The guilty conscience,
buyer’s remorse, is an empty, dreadful feeling.
I believe this lack of faith, which has led to greed and control, has
blossomed in this country. I have sympathy, and I do believe it is
because we have not been taught correctly. This fearful need to take
care of yourself, that God has forgotten you, is not new; the Israel-
ites did the same thing when they grew impatient for Moses to bring
God’s laws to them.
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the
mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said: “Come, make us gods
who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of
Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Aaron answered them,
40
“Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters
are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their ear-
rings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and
made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.
Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of
Egypt.” Exodus 32:1-4
The Israelites, despite seeing all the ways God had provided for
them, made for themselves a false god to turn to—the golden calf.[3]
Controlling your life is being a god. Being our own god and provid-
ing for ourselves cuts off a relationship with God. There is nothing to
praise Him for, because we took care of everything ourselves! When
you want to indulge yourself when you want it and how you want it,
without praying and waiting on God, it is called greed, and Ephesians 5
says that greed is idolatry. “For of this you can be sure: No immoral, im-
pure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Ephesians 5:5 God is looking for
people who need Him, who trust and depend on Him. When we live
as if we do not need God, we wind up glorifying ourselves, praising
ourselves, depending on our own understanding. You might get the
praise of man, but you will not get the favor of God. I would die right
now if my children told me that they did not need me anymore. I ap-
preciate being needed, and so you know God, the Creator of all, loves
it even more. It robs God of His purpose of mankind—a connection
with Him forever. The irony is that we are much more needy than we
think. Our skin is thin, our blood vessels are thin—we are mortals.
God gave us life and breath, and we need Him for life and breath—
indeed, this connection with God is essential for our existence, for life
and eternal life. How foolish to cut off a relationship with the God of
all things—the ultimate Provider, Banker, Physician, Professor, De-
fender, and Comforter!
3 To read more on this, see Chapter 10 of Rise Above. See the Appendix for how to
get your copy.
41
So in conclusion, why does it seem hard to stop eating? It is
because without the Truth that God adores you and wants a relation-
ship with you and is generous…you become a god—and we are bad
gods. We just do not know when to stop. When people are over-
eating, overdrinking, whatever it is, they think they can just “handle
it”—later in life you find out that you cannot “handle it.” When we
are trying to be our own gods and making decisions for ourselves, we
just think that we are entitled at 4 o’clock to come home and indulge
ourselves in any and every way that we have chosen. Where in the
world did we come up with that concept? Perhaps we think everyone
else is doing it—we saw our parents take ownership of this “happy
hour” of 4 o’clock to bedtime. We do not deserve anything and we
owe our allegiance to the Creator.
God is using this message to help you reconnect with Him. God
gives three or more growls a day, which means we are looking to Him
every day, several times a day—and that is just our eating. We will
find that we need Him every hour of the day and night! He is a great
Shepherd who longs to feed His sheep physically and spiritually—
the Good Shepherd who tirelessly looks for the green pastures. If
you let go of control and turn to God to lead you and obey Him, you
will no longer panic that you are not going to be taken care of. You
will not worry that you will never have fun or taste good food or get
to eat certain foods again. You will relax and do better each day. Start
now with depending on the Ultimate, Perfect Provider.
TRUTH TIP
Our God is a good God. You can eat regular foods within
hunger and fullness!
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
42
TESTIMONY
Tedd and Candace Anger, down 110 pounds
together.
Candace: When I was in my late 20s, a beacon of hope came into my
life in the form of the original Weigh Down Diet book. I had lost faith that
I could ever lose weight and keep it off. I was always on a diet, or think-
ing about a diet, or wanting to lose weight or trying to get thin.. forever...
that’s all I remember. I was always pulled to food. It was a love/hate rela-
tionship. I began reading the book, not knowing this would be my single
most life-changing experience ever. I lost 55 pounds, and now, almost 17
years later (since 2001), I still have the weight off thanks to this program.
Weigh Down Basics had answers and told me the Truth—I was eating
too much, but then it told me what to do when I wanted to eat and I
was not hungry. That was the key for me. And then I had to walk it out.
Humbly, I will never slip back to my old way of life because the Godly
perspective really changed me on the inside. I thank God every day for
this program. I feel like I won the lottery!
Tedd: I discovered Weigh Down through my wife. She started read-
ing the book and her life was changing dramatically. She was losing
weight eating the same foods I was eating. At first, I was skeptical, think-
ing food rules were what it takes to lose weight. I was thin, but gained 40
pounds in college, and my weight fluctuated throughout my 20s using
low-carb diets, fat-free diets and exercising, but I was never able to per-
manently lose weight. I
actually put on 15 pounds
during this time! I de-
cided to try Weigh Down,
and the results were in-
credible! I lost 55 pounds
in 6 months and have
had the weight off for 17
years (since 2001)! These
principles have literally
changed every aspect of
my life for the better.
Down 110 pounds total.
43
There is nothing like having the
support of Weigh Down experts who
have lost their weight permanently
and kept it off for 10 to 20 years! Call
this number or visit us online to get
your questions answered and sign
up for a class today!
1-800-844-5208
• You will receive incredible support
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• This class, which comes with 6

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Plus, save $20 off your class

using the coupon code:
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WeighDown.com
Gwen Shamblin Lara

3
HELP! I FEEL HUNGRY
ALL THE TIME
There are many behaviors that most people consider “out of con-
trol.” However, we are called to be in control in all areas of our life.
You can apply these principles of God’s to any and every dependen-
cy by substituting your personal compulsion or dependence. Many
times we do not know if we are doing something wrong or not. Look
at the list on the following page for the various manifestations of a
troubled heart.
Through Christ, you can become a whole new person! It is so
exciting to be born again by following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ
of self-denial.
Again, we will use food as an example. First off, remember…
do not let your mind wander to food at all…until your stomach is
growling. If it is alcohol or tobacco, get your mind onto The Lord,
His Word and His will, and help a Saint—a righteous person who
represents Him and lives for Him.[1] We must give our minds to God
and take every thought captive. In II Corinthians 10:5b it says, “we
take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Please keep a
journal at first and record how many times a day that you long for the
food or something else on Earth.
1 “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to

those who belong to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:10
List Of Strongholds
Substance Abuse Strongholds • Malice/Revenge
• Food • Excessive Exercise
• Tobacco • Overbooked Calendar
• Alcohol • Anorexia/Bulimia
• Drugs • Love Of Money
• Prescriptions/Antidepressants • Overspending
• Diet Pills • Praise Of Men
Emotional Strongholds • Lying/Deceit
• Depression • Theft
• Self-Focused Fears • Social Status
• Hate • Careers
• Jealousy • Children (Excessive Focus)
• Unworthiness/Insecurity • Materialism
• Self-Focus/Self-Pity • Disrespect For Authority
• Hypochondriac • Slander
• Protective/Defensive • Mocking
Sexual Strongholds • Projection
• Pornography • Selfish Ambition/Sabotage
• Lewdness • Miserliness/Stinginess
• Sexual Lust Strongholds of Escape
• Promiscuity • Workaholism
• Adultery • Laziness
• Homosexuality • Procrastination
Marital Strongholds • Television
• Lack Of Submission • Computers
• Misplaced Loyalty • Soap Operas/Reality TV
• Marital Discord • Sports
• Selfishness • Hobbies
• Manipulation • Video Games
Controlling Strongholds • Social Media
• Anger • Thrill Seeking
• Pride/Boasting • Magazines
• Credit Cards/Shopping Diagnosed Strongholds
• Nagging • Hypochondria
• Power/Control • Anxiety
• Gambling • Phobias/Paranoia
• Greed • Personality Disorders
• Gossip • Panic Attacks
46
HELP! I FEEL HUNGRY ALL THE TIME
How To Wake Up Internal Senses

Start now, not Monday, to wait for stomach hunger. You will feel
better than you have in a long time. The body appreciates it when you
do not force food down the esophagus. The amazing extra energy is
going to astound you! Write down how you feel.[2]
Look for a small, empty feeling or growl. Some people have had
to wait three hours; some have had to wait a day and a half. The more
pounds you have to lose or the bigger the last binge was, the longer
the wait for your first hunger. After your first hunger, it may come
around one to four times per day, depending on how soon you stop
eating or how small each eating occasion is.
If you get a headache, it is probably from the strain of a new focus
on resisting the temptation to eat. Just take something for the head-
ache, and pray for strength. The tension will end. Ask your Father
for a clear signal of hunger. Make sure you drink only water or artifi-
cially sweetened drinks while waiting. Do not make a habit of chew-
ing sugared gum, hard candy, or your nails, or constantly drinking
volumes of coffee, diet drinks, or water.
Turn to God each time you are anxious

or having a hard time waiting for
hunger, and watch Him fill you up.
We suggest that you go ahead and eat a small amount of food at
the end of 36 hours of waiting, whether you have felt hunger or not,
and then start the process over. Hunger should come soon thereafter.
If you are really not “tuned in” to hunger, you could have passed
it without realizing it. Usually the stomach will growl again within
45 minutes to an hour if you miss a growl. If you are overweight and
go for extended periods, the body needs this wait—however, you
2 See Weigh Down Basics Workbook Week One, page 36

47
may experience a weak feeling or a headache for a few minutes—but
nothing that sitting down for a few minutes will not fix. Tune in to
your thirst—you could be thirsty. You will be fine if you just wait for
a clear signal. It will come.
Again, the point is to ask your Savior to help you end all yearn-
ings for food or anything else to be close to Him. We cannot live a
complete and abundant life without your Creator, who is the Source
of all good things. Turn to the Heavenly Father each time you are
anxious or having a hard time waiting for hunger, and watch Him fill
you up and answer your prayers. Make a list of good things to do for
family and friends to fill up this time. Once hunger comes, praise
your God who gives you strength! You made it!
Wake Up Internal Control
Let’s review… How are we going to approach the food once we
do get the green light or feel this hunger? The first thing you do is
you think and pray and start looking for answers from within. Ask
yourself, “What do I really want to eat?” Put an end to dieting by
making sure you are eating regular foods so that you can end head
hunger (dreaming about and planning out the food).
And then as you select regular foods, use a small saucer/plate—
or put these smaller half-size amounts on a normal plate. In Weigh
Down, you must learn to slow down your eating for two reasons:
1. You will be able to taste each bite instead of inhaling it; you can
savor the quality instead of quantity.
2. You remain in much better control and can detect fullness better
when you eat more slowly.
The body processes food more slowly than the mouth chews it
and swallows it. Therefore, it is important to eat slowly enough that
your brain can signal your mouth that your stomach is satisfied! This
is your red light, and do not run a red light! Stop! In a few minutes
you will feel even more sated, as it takes 20 minutes for the food that
48
you have eaten to hit the bloodstream so that you feel the satisfied
feeling.[3] If you do not stop, you will feel stuffed in a few minutes.
Avoid any uncomfortable feelings after eating. When you sit at a
meal, feel your way through. It is good to stop, put your fork down,
and talk in the middle of the meal to give time for the food to get into
the bloodstream.
However, once you have adjusted to the smaller amounts that
your body is calling for, it is much easier to stop. You must use all
of these suggestions with the good judgment that God gave you and
your body. The results will be smaller amounts of food consumed
and a smaller you, and you will desire less food, which is the goal.
Put an end to dieting by making sure you

are eating regular foods so that you can
end head hunger.
Now, approach the food like a normal Thin Eater—someone not
greedy or fearful. Start by serving yourself half of what you used to
eat or by cutting the food in half.
Next, rate your foods. Taste each item. Eat the tastiest morsels
first. Leave behind the least favorite, dry, messy-looking bites. Eat
smaller bites and savor each one. Sip your drink between bites to
wash the palate off so you can start over and taste the next bite.
Stop when your stomach feels politely full—this volume will
vary between individuals. In its relaxed state, the stomach is about
the size of your fist. Please note that American serving sizes are any-
where from 3 to 10 times larger than what individuals eat in other
parts of the world. Wrap up the leftovers and save them for later or
ask for a carryout. Keep telling yourself that you can eat the next
time you get hungry.
3 See Weigh Down Basics Week One

49
Imitate Self-Control
The best way to enhance your lifestyle is to watch and imitate the
right behavior. If your issue is alcoholism, watch a person who is not
a drinking buddy but rather one in control who barely sips their wine
and stops after one glass. If your issue is lust, watch a righteous man
who would never look to the right or the left, who is perfectly faith-
ful and in love with his wife. If you have avarice for money, watch a
generous person. If you are an overeater with food as your passion, it
might be hard to find a Thin Eater (people who have been thin from
birth) to imitate, since close to 70 percent of the population is either
overweight or obese.[4] And you must be careful…even if someone
is thin, it does not mean that they are a Thin Eater. A Thin Eater is
someone who has never had a preoccupation with food. Food is not
their “thing”…they do not get pulled off by the sweets or the chips
and the dip, and they do not grow up dreaming of eating ice cream
or raiding the pantry. They are not anorexics or bulimics or people
who are exercise-a-holics… They are FREE from the passion of food.
In order to truly imitate and get in contact with someone free
from gluttony, call the main Weigh Down office for your Regional
Representative, and call and even visit your Weigh Down Regional
Representative—take them to lunch.[5] Another thing you can do
is visit the Weigh Down Ministry Staff in Brentwood, Tennessee.
There, you will find plenty of Thin Eaters to choose from, to visit,
and to pray with. You can also visit the members of the Remnant Fel-
lowship Church in Brentwood, Tennessee who support and run this
worldwide ministry.[6] It is exciting to see so many people, young and
old, men and women, all races and backgrounds, who have lost 5, 10,
4 See Chapter 10, “Learning To Sense Internal Controls” for more information on
self-control
5 Visit the Weigh Down website for more information on “Regional
Representatives”
6 See the Appendix for more information on Remnant Fellowship Churches
50
50, 100, 150 pounds or more! What is even more exciting is to hear
their testimonies of how they have kept it off for 3, 5, 10, 15 years or
more! I have kept my own weight off for over 30 years now and have
no fear of ever being overweight again.
Your body knows that you are overweight and, therefore, will
only ask for a small amount of food. Observing a Thin Eater who
is in control over a 24-hour period is so helpful. Sometimes, in the
There are people who have real

problems with bingeing at night; if
this is the case, turn yourself into
an “a.m. person” and shut the kitchen
down after supper.
course of one day, you will eat all of that during one meal. Some-
times you will eat such small amounts that hunger will occur as many
as four times a day. Basically, the smaller the amount of food you
eat at each hunger, the more times your body will ask for food over
the course of the day. Just obey the body—it knows what you need.
Also, do not worry about making a mistake. You can always start over
by just waiting for the next hunger.
Eating Situations
Many times, questions arise concerning the way to handle specific
eating situations when you are trying to lose weight. The wonderful
truth about losing weight the Weigh Down way is that there are
no special food rules to follow that include weighing, measuring,
counting, or restricting food selections. All foods are to be enjoyed
with thanksgiving between the boundaries of hunger and fullness.
The only rule is no more cravings, so get your HEART right with
God—the BODY will follow. Listed here are some typical eating
occasions and how to handle them within the boundaries of Weigh
Down and hunger and fullness.
51
• It is your lunch hour and you are not hungry. Answer:
Do not eat. Your body is not calling for food, and if you do eat, it
will only be added to what needs to be burned (your stored fat).
If you get hungry before the next meal, you can eat a small snack
of some kind to satisfy your hunger until mealtime—or you can
choose to make that your mealtime. The number of meals you
eat in one day might decrease.
• You are hungry, but mealtime is still an hour away. Answer:
Do not panic. Just drink an ounce or two of juice or drink a diet
drink. This will satisfy or dilute your hunger enough to allow
you to make it to mealtime. And even if you are not able to eat a
snack, just remember that this hunger will not hurt you. In fact,
the gnawing sensation will usually go away after a few minutes
and will not come around again for a while, maybe an hour. Just
do not use the premature hunger as an excuse to eat two meals!
• You have only 10 minutes to eat. Answer: You can eat in 10 minutes
but still eat between hunger and fullness and with self-control.
• You are not hungry for breakfast but have a growl for evening
snacks. Answer: No problem—as long as you are responding
to hunger and fullness. You could be a “p.m. person” who sleeps
later and stays up later. These people usually start their day
without hunger and prefer most of their food later in the day.
Eating late at night is not wrong as long as you are hungry. And
it stands to reason that if you eat late, you will probably not wake
up hungry. The reverse is the “a.m. person” who rises early, ready
to eat. These people often prefer heavier food early in the day,
dwindling to lighter and less food at night. Either one is okay as
long as you are using your hunger/fullness mechanism as your
signal to eat. However, there are people who have real problems
with bingeing at night; if this is the case, turn yourself into an
“a.m. person” and shut the kitchen down after supper.
• You are satisfied, but there is still food on your plate. Answer:
If you are at home, you can cover it and save it for later, or you
52
can throw it away or give it to the pets! If you are eating in a

restaurant, you can leave it on your plate, or you can ask for a
carryout and take it home. We have the misconception that it is
wrong to leave food on the plate, but the real problem is greed—
whether it is helping yourself to a larger amount than you need or
eating too much. If you serve yourself and later realize that “your
eyes were bigger than your stomach,” learn to serve yourself
smaller portions. If someone else prepares your plate, whether
it is at home or in a restaurant, they have no idea how much you
are hungry for and may bring you too much. You do not have
to eat food just because it is there. Eat until you are satisfied,
and either save or dispose of the rest—or you could give it away.
Remember, Christ said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Acts 20:35b It is better to give—and watch yourself get thinner!
• You are invited to eat at a restaurant, but do not want to
overeat. Answer: Pray and get prepared, for eating out can be
tempting. In the past, you used to order too much and eat it all.
This will be different for the rest of your life. Now you will go
and be in control for the glory of God—you will order less and
eat less and have a carryout or share your food. The good news is
that everything is cheaper for the rest of your life, so you will save
cash…and be permanently thin!
Do not eat prior to eating out so that you are truly hungry when
you arrive. Pick the restaurant and choose and order the foods
your body seems to want, and now you may eat hamburgers and
French fries, etc. But beware, Americans are served very large
volumes of food; therefore, cut all the food in half or smaller.
Sometimes half of a slider will do! Ask the server for a carryout
at the beginning of the meal and put half in the carryout as soon
as you receive your order so you can get it out of sight.
Our experience is that you may feel the full feeling even before you
finish the first half. Assure the server that the food was wonderful, or
53
he may worry that you were not pleased and therefore worry about
the tip. Take the carryout home. If you can, eat it the next time you
feel hungry, or you can give it to a family member.
Keep reminding yourself that the restaurant will be there for the
rest of your life, the food is not going to disappear, and that your next
hunger will come before long.
TRUTH TIP
The body processes food more slowly than the mouth chews it and
swallows it. Therefore, it is important to eat slowly enough that your brain
can signal your mouth that your stomach is satisfied! This is your red light,
and do not run a red light! Stop! In a few minutes
you will feel even more sated as the food hits your bloodstream.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
54
4
HOW TO STOP WHEN
YOU ARE FULL
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It
teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait
for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and
to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is
good. Titus 2:11-14
To start with, what is the definition of full? I used to know no end
to cravings. It seemed as if I could eat all day and not get full. I knew
that “slightly full” meant that I had to take off my belt, “moderately
full” meant change into stretch clothes, and “painfully full” meant
that the only position I could get in was horizontal. Those are the full
sensations, right? Well, not anymore!
Full is a very polite feeling that leaves you bursting with energy.
Now you are going to be a new creation—made in the image of
the Creator and following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The new
definition of full is “just satisfied,” but the stomach is not extended,
nor even slightly uncomfortable. You feel energetic when you finish
breakfast and lunch. Yes, you might feel less active in the evening,
but that is more due to a long day of work. It is appropriate to let the
body digest the evening meal, but you will no longer eat so much that
you pass out on the sofa after dinner. This new life will leave you with
much more energy.
The way God made the human to eat can be seen in the children.
They are ready to run and play after a small amount of food. Full is
the feeling that has taken away the growling, empty feeling but it is
back to how you felt as a child—a high-energy experience.
Recognize The Pain of Overeating
It does not take binge eaters long to learn that the faster they eat,
the more food they can get down before it is too painful. But what
they forget is how bad they feel in an hour and for the rest of the
night. It is a painful, miserable, guilty, hopeless feeling that gives you
bad dreams and restless nights and a depressing morning—not to
mention that you cannot find anything to wear which makes you late
with the kids, late to work—and self-conscious all day. The best ad-
vice is to take notes on how badly you have felt over the years, and
to slow down and search for this comfortable, high-energy stopping
point. With practice, you will no longer want to feel sluggish, ex-
perience heartburn or indigestion that comes from overeating, nor
deal with any of the uncomfortable consequences that come from
this incorrect indulgence. You are now back in touch with the pain
of overeating. Likewise, you are now concentrating on your incred-
ibly delightful, painless, no-guilt, high-energy life and the blessings
that come with it. When you take note of the contrast, it gives you
the impetus you need for ending this binge eating. Overeating is the
source of most diseases, and it does cause premature death. This new
way of eating will give you optimum health; this is in contrast to the
adverse effects that your past gluttony and speed-eating have had on
your health.
Let’s just follow food through the digestive tract and see what
happens when we eat very quickly.
56
HOW TO STOP WHEN YOU ARE FULL
Pain Of The Esophagus

First, the food goes down your esophagus. As you swallow, two
sets of muscles will push the food downward (peristalsis). This looks
similar to the waves you see when a snake eats. At the base of the
esophagus and stomach are sphincters. A sphincter is a circular ring of
muscles that stays tightly closed. The esophageal sphincter regulates
the passage of food through the upper digestive tract. It all works per-
fectly if amounts are small, chewed correctly and swallowed slowly;
however, you will cause choking, heartburn, hiatal hernias, stomach
ulcers, and peptic ulcers if you overeat.
Any overeating harms the digestive tract. What happens first
when you stuff the stomach? You get indigestion or heartburn or the
acid refluxes into the esophagus. Under normal conditions, food re-
mains in the stomach until the acidity reaches a pH of 1.5. This is
very acidic—much like battery acid. Once the acidity level reaches
1.5, the stomach will start to empty into the small intestine in small
amounts but is immediately neutralized as the small intestine releas-
es a base.
Lower Stomach Pain
When you overload the
stomach with food, it causes Esophageal sphincter
acid to reflux into the esoph-
agus, which is very painful.
Most medications are simply
household “baking soda”—a
base that neutralizes the acid
and reduces the pain. It is not
just overeating that can cause
this reflux. Alcohol, wine, or beer exacerbates the reflux. Alcohol
is a chemical that relaxes the muscles at the base of the esophagus
(esophageal sphincter) that normally stay tightly closed. If relaxed,
57
the acid juices will be more likely to reflux into the esophagus. The
way to reverse this is to eat this new way…eat small amounts just
until satisfied, and stop alcohol and beer for a few nights. That way,
you do not have to take medica-
tions that can have harmful side
Duodenum
effects. If you need to, take one
teaspoon of baking soda in a half
cup of water after a meal until
you have lost your weight.
Because the stomach is
stuffed, abnormally large
amounts of chime (digested
stomach food) are released at
the base of the stomach. Ulcers
can occur at the entrance of the
small intestine (the duodenum) if you overstuff, because your body
is unable to manufacture enough neutralizing base to offset the extra
acidic food being pushed through. That is why overeaters frequently
get ulcers in the duodenum and heartburn in the esophagus. In addi-
tion, when you overeat, it is common to develop spastic colon where
the body speeds up the movement of the colon or slows it way down.
This is very uncomfortable and a result of overeating.
Pain Of The Small Intestine
Digestion and absorption, when eating small amounts, is an
amazing process, and God made it where the body protects you
from many harmful things! The way this works is that the acid on the
stomach kills many harmful bacteria or substances, then once it is
broken down by the acid, the now watered-down and broken-down
food chains are reduced to molecular size by enzymes. These food
molecules move through the cellular wall of the intestines and are
picked up by a separate circulating system that goes directly to the
liver first.
58
The liver is a chemical factory that is capable of turning these mol-

ecules that you absorbed into the glucose or other nutrients that your
body needs. In addition, your amazing liver traps harmful substances
that got past the protective intestinal wall, preventing them from en-
tering your normal bloodstream. Your liver passes on the usable food
particles to the heart, where they will be pumped and distributed to
every cell in the body.
Once the food particles enter the regular bloodstream, your feel-
ing is one of satisfaction. Your stomach may feel sated five minutes
after a quick meal, but that truly satisfied feeling, which comes from
nutrients hitting the normal bloodstream, may take another 10 min-
utes.
The Pain Of Lethargy
If you eat quickly, you will bypass the polite full feeling. It takes
approximately 20 minutes for the brain to detect the replenished
blood sugar or “satisfied” feeling. Skilled Thin Eaters will notice that
the body is trying to get you to stop eating when the stomach pouch
is slightly satisfied because they remember if they continue to eat that
they will feel stuffed in 30 minutes. Thin Eaters and children dread
the overfull feeling. Thin Eaters are so sensitive that they notice the
decreased sensitivity to the flavor of the food—another mechanism
God created to turn off the desire to eat.
Slow down and search for this

comfortable, high-energy stopping point.
Children digest food much faster than adults and feel like play-
ing right after a meal. However, when adults eat too much, they feel
lethargic because so much blood and fluids rush to the stomach to
digest the huge amount of food, taking the energy and blood away
from the muscles.
59
If you have overeaten, so much is needed that it leaves less blood
for the brain and other parts of the body, so the body compensates by
making the person sleepy. The digestion of huge meals is very energy
expensive, especially after overindulgence, since the food has to be
converted to fats and shipped to the hips. Proverbs 23:20-21 says,
“Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat,
for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in
rags.”
Once you eat the small amounts the body is calling for, the pain
and ulcers are eradicated. No more “baking soda medications” or
other spastic colon medications are needed once you regularly and
constantly eat and drink smaller amounts. It saves your body, your
time, and your pocketbook. It is wrong to keep making the wrong
choices.
Overeating is the source of most

diseases, and it does cause
premature death.
Remember to make the list of your pains. Then make a list of
how good you feel physically and spiritually when you do it right.
Read this frequently. Keep it on your phone. Notice how it affects
work, relationships, finances, time, joy, your outlook, and your chil-
dren. If you will eat what the body calls for (ultimately what God
programmed), you will not have all of these problems. You will have
less heartburn, fewer ulcers, more energy, and a stronger connection
to your Creator—thanking Him rather than blaming Him. You are
taking the personal responsibility that you were made to take. You
are becoming a new creation, and it is amazing!
The Pain Of Guilt
Once you begin to wait for true physiological hunger, you dis-
cover that there is another feeling of hunger. It is your own “I am not
60
hungry, but I want it anyway” will. We will call this head hunger, sen-
sual desires, or greed. This desire is beyond what the Heavenly Father
wants for you, and it is a fixation on a sensation of “it tastes good.”
Many drives can feed this behavior over the years. It seems to fill up
time and end boredom. It is the learned habit that popcorn must go
with a movie—even if you are not hungry.
The more we control when we eat, what we feed ourselves, and
please our own desires, the stronger the desire eating is. The reverse
is also true…the more we wait on God, look to God, please God—
the less we will please ourselves, and the head hunger will die! But
for most who thought they needed to diet, desire eating has grown so
over the years that it might even have turned into a ravenous, head-
strong, willful, and self-loving monster. It feels like a magnetic force
to the refrigerator that controls you rather than you controlling it.
The book of James talks about our own desires:
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot
be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted
when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after
desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown,
gives birth to death. James 1:13-15
We have been deceived into believing that we adore food, we
worship the taste, we love the feeling of control. We long for a secret
rendezvous with food. We plan to put our children to bed and have
no one present to tell us what to do or to judge us. We long to fulfill
the desire-eating binge at 10 p.m. when no one is looking…eating
foods we have been secretly dreaming of all day long.
Why do we do this? Head hunger—this desire for indulgence
and the sensation of eating salt and sweet—can override the physi-
cal pain of overeating, such as the overstretched stomach pouch, the
pain of the dumping syndrome of diarrhea, the pain of gastric reflux
in the esophagus, and the exhaustion. Again, we have ignored the
chronic pain of the overweight condition—clothes too tight, joints
61
that hurt, and fatigue. We have not associated this pain with eating—
we have not associated the guilt that leads to depression.
When we binge or graze without having any physiological hun-
ger, we are looking for a feeling. Looking for a feeling is not wrong.
God is the Creator of you and the Creator of feelings—therefore,
it is okay to indulge—but it is God giving you this indulgence. The
Lord provided hunger and marriage and finances—but it all must be
in His boundaries with His guiding hand. If you go to the physical
world or anything in or on this world for the feeling of comfort, ful-
fillment, love, or control, you may get it temporarily. But eventually
it will disappear and leave you with an even larger gnawing, longing,
wanton need than you had before.
The world cannot satisfy. This is true if you go after the intoxi-
cated feeling, the antidepressant feeling, the feeling of sexual lust, the
tobacco feeling, the materialistic feeling, or the craving of the praise
of people feeling. I just wish America would wake up and realize that
we are overdoing it—we expect sensual indulgence at every meal
while most of the world gets rice for breakfast, lunch and supper.
Humility is expecting nothing from anyone or anything. We need to
practice humility.
The Joy Of The Transfer
After you taste the world and its pleasures, you are empty and you
are left in need again. You become even more out of control and des-
perate. But this is when you should “transfer”[1]…when you feed your
longing soul with a search for your Creator, His will, and His person-
ality instead of your sensual desires—and when you experiment with
talking to Him, doing things His way, getting your prayers answered
because you did things His way, trusting Him, and liking Him—then
you finally fall in love with Him. Love for the Lord God Almighty
fills your heart, and the old empty feeling leaves permanently!
1 See Chapter 8 for more about “The Transfer”

62
You start to feel satiated, fulfilled, not so “hungry” anymore.

Panic disorders disappear and anger dissipates. Your “making it hap-
pen” goals are not needed as you simply look to God to make it hap-
pen. He answers prayers.
What transpires in this transfer is that the ravenous desire eating
starts to fade and the true stomach hunger starts to emerge. True
stomach hunger is much easier to distinguish as this “desire to just
feed yourself ” fades.
One of the most practical things you can do with the desire eating
feeling is to walk away from it and into a private room to talk to God.
(Of course, you can talk to Him in your car or in a room filled with
people—the location does not stop communication.) I have taught
many people just to open up the Word and start reading wherever
their eyes fall. God can coordinate personal communication with us.
I remember the story of one person who took my advice, and she just
cried out to God and asked if He even cared. She opened her Bible,
and her eyes fell to this passage from Psalm 81:4-10:
…this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. He estab-
lished it as a statute for Joseph when he went out against Egypt… He
says, “I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free
from the basket. In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered
you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, O
my people, and I will warn you—if you would but listen to me, O Israel!
You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an
alien god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
“Open wide your mouth and I will fill it,” says the Lord. She start-
ed crying because God was personally communicating to her. At that
moment a relationship started that has grown more and more.
“For God does speak—now one way, now another—though man
may not perceive it.” Job 33:14 In my personal life, I cling to my Bible
63
as I used to cling to my chocolate! I keep my eyes open, looking for
the Father’s guidance everywhere.
Another practical thing to do with desire eating is to talk to the
food and tell it that you are not going to answer to it anymore. You
will not obey it when it calls your name from the kitchen cabinets or
refrigerator!
Do not be afraid of running to God. He is your Father! And He
has the finest personality. I could not describe to you a richer, more
powerful, just, and moral Being. You were placed on Earth to have a
relationship with the God of the Universe. I could not live without
this companionship with the Father. I crave it more than food.
I am really excited for what is ahead for you! One day, after your
normal lunchtime, you will suddenly realize that you have not even
thought about food because your stomach has not signaled you to
eat. Congratulations! Stomach hunger, rather than head hunger (or
desire eating), is beginning to control your eating! And you will also
discover that you are beginning to feel closer to your Father. The
transfer is underway!
In the past, you chose physical, earthly food when what you really
needed was spiritual food, a relationship with the Heavenly Father.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide
your mouth and I will fill it.”[2]
Open yourself to Him right now, and He will fill your heart. De-
sire eating will soon disappear if you run to the Bible or to prayer
every time you feel this urge to eat when the stomach is not calling
for food.
Tips For Slowing Down
1. Always pray for God to help you slow down, and watch what hap-
pens. It will amaze you!
2 Psalm 81:10
64
2. Stop in the middle of your meal for one to two minutes. Give the
food time to hit the bloodstream and really satisfy your hunger.
3. Try drinking two ounces of orange juice or another sweet bever-
age before you start. If you feel ravenous and too hungry, you
may be afraid that you will never stop! By drinking a couple of
ounces of juice before eating, you will quickly bring the blood
sugar up enough to give you a calming effect that will allow you
to approach the food with more control. This has helped some
people.
4. Look up from food; do not stare at your plate. Enjoy the com-
pany. Have you ever been at a dinner where all you saw was the
top of people’s heads as they had their faces buried in their plates?
It shows a lot of love and affection for that plate of food. Do not
worship the plate of food! Sit up, talk to the people you are with,
carry on some polite dinner conversation, and ask the kids how
their day was at school. That is the very essence of the family din-
ner, to have the opportunity to spend time together interacting.
5. Use a fork or utensil, and cut up the food between each bite. It is
a lot neater, and you will be able to make the bites smaller. That
will slow you down.
6. Sip between bites. This will give you time between each bite and
keep you from packing the next bite in on top of the one you have
not finished savoring.
7. Take smaller bites. This will slow you down, and the pie will not
be gone in four bites. Again, as we mentioned before with the
forks, it will allow you to savor the food longer. One of the easiest
ways to take smaller bites is to break up the food. For example,
you can break chips or cookies into smaller bites rather than pop-
ping a whole one in your mouth. Again, try cutting up sandwich-
es and pizza.
8. Get the food out of your sight when you even suspect you are
comfortably satisfied. Cover up the plate with your napkin, push
the plate an arm’s length away, or better yet, leave the table and go
65
into another room and pray for God to remove the desire to eat
another bite. Give Him a few minutes, and He will answer the
prayer. Sometimes He will answer before you finish your prayer.
He is able to rescue you.
Slowing down could help to prevent your stomach from getting
stuffed. The food entering the bloodstream will signal the hypothala-
mus to turn off hunger signals. Salivation decreases, as does stomach
acid production, the sense of smell, and taste bud acuity. Proverbs
27:7 says, “He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is
bitter tastes sweet.”
This reflects the law of diminishing returns. When you are very
hungry, God makes the tongue delight in the taste of the food. As
you approach the point that the body is getting enough food, the
Lord makes your taste buds lose interest in the taste of the food, even
sweet foods! The purpose is to help turn off the eating behavior. If
you keep practicing, you will get better at knowing the difference be-
tween overstuffed and comfortably full.
In the event that you are still fighting the battle of “but my mouth
still wants some more,” you should try to be creative. For example,
you are eating lunch—say, a submarine sandwich on a hoagie bun
with sesame seeds on top. You feel the sensation that you are close
to full, but your desire is to keep eating. Always pray first but then
remember it is a perfect time to rate your foods even more. Start dis-
secting the sandwich. Pull out small pinches of the meat you like the
best, or the cheese you like the best, or the tasty pepper or olive. Eat-
ing slowly and small amounts, along with sipping between bites, you
can sense the stopping point. Turn your focus to God. This act of
dissection—picking your food apart to get the good parts—makes it
very easy for you to throw away what is left over!
If you are having dessert, do the same thing. Just barely skim the
edge of the lemon meringue pie onto your fork and savor the smallest
amount. Nibble on the edges of your favorite cookie. Let paper-thin
slices of chocolate melt in your mouth.
66
If you are eating out, you can always ask the server to bring a car-
ryout container at the beginning of the meal. When your meal ar-
rives, you can immediately put half of it in the container. This way,
you are putting the temptation out of your sight.
Additional situations: You are at home and having family dinner.
You are halfway through your serving of casserole when that feeling
hits you that you are no longer hungry. Sometimes it will occur to
you when you have only a bite or two left. Do not pop those last cou-
ple of bites into your mouth. Try this instead…get up and walk away
from the table for a few minutes. See if anyone else wants something
to drink. This break gives you some time for your “full” to register
clearly. It will now be easier to give those leftovers to someone else
or to the animals or to discard them.
In conclusion, Thin Eaters are highly aware of the pain and also
highly aware of the reward from eating the exact volume the body is
calling for. The body knows what it needs down to the exact number
of calories each day, and that is why Thin Eaters stay exactly the same
weight day in and day out. This chapter has not even begun to list all
the physical complications from overeating, including cancer, heart
disease, diabetes, and headaches. The stress and the strain are actu-
ally killing your body prematurely. Do not let a day go by that you do
not keep this in mind, and pray for healing as you are now committed
to doing what is right.
TRUTH TIP
Stopping at full feels great! Full is a very polite,
high-energy feeling that sets you free!
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
67
TESTIMONY
Jaime Field, down 111 pounds since 2008.
My weight gain began in high school as eating became a social
event. Throughout those years, my weight went increasingly up even
while I was dancing on the pom squad three hours a day. After high
school, I became very depressed and I turned to food for comfort. I
would zone out and just eat and eat while watching TV. By age 23, I
weighed 238 pounds!
Then I got engaged and the desire to lose weight was even greater.
While planning my wedding, I took pills to lose weight quick and
my heart would race so fast I thought I was going to die. I got to 199
pounds for my wedding in September 2002. However, by that De-
cember, the weight was back on. I started praying and this time seek-
ing God for answers.
In July 2007 my friend gave me a Weigh Down audio to listen to,
and I had hope and excitement for the first time. On Christmas Eve
2007, I started my first Weigh Down Basics class. Weigh Down gave
me the “how-to” with my eat-
ing and pointed me to run to
God instead of food. I quick-
ly learned God gives back
WAY more than food. What
is taught by Gwen through
Weigh Down has touched ev-
erything in my life.
Having a willing heart and
choosing to stop eating when
I was full because of my love
for God was what finally set
me free. I lost a total of 111
pounds and went from size 20
to 2!
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5
WEIGH DOWN WORKS FOR
WOMEN & FAMILIES
Feeding Your Family
First of all, your family is going to love this. Regular foods for-
ever! You may worry that if every family member eats on demand,
you will become a short-order cook. What is more, you may be con-
cerned that family members might never eat together again. Do not
worry—they will!
One fact you need to know to manage this is that you can, quite
simply, skip hunger and wait for the next hunger signal. Unlike what
the world thinks, this is not painful. The empty sensation will last
only ten minutes and will come back again in 45 minutes to an hour.
Your body realizes that you cannot get to food, so it just mobilizes a
snack off your hips and feeds your body cells with your stored fat!
So if you feel hungry in the afternoon and do not want to ruin your
evening meal, feel free to drink a non-caloric beverage and wait for
dinner.
What should you do if you ate a meal during a late afternoon
business luncheon and you are not hungry when it is time for dinner
with your family that night? Just sit down with the family and drink
your artificially-sweetened beverage. More than likely, no one will
even notice that you are not eating! You will be able to spend more
time enjoying your family.
Overweight Children
Start by teaching children to get in touch with their own hunger
cues and cravings just like adults do. They can be taught that all food
is okay to eat, but they need to learn to eat according to what their
bodies are calling for. By saying that, you can let go of the man-made
rules and trying to control your children’s eating at the dinner table.
Your job should be to serve a variety of foods so that they will not
overeat—whatever they choose to eat on their plate is okay. There-
fore, they can choose what they are hungry for within the context of
you being the parent who is still in control of what is for dinner. As
children adjust to the lack of power struggle over food, they will start
allowing their bodies to guide what they eat. It is best to limit their
sweetened drinks to small quantities at meal or snack times so they
do not get the bulk of their calories from drinks rather than the food,
and provide water or unsweetened drinks in between meals. Also,
it is best if dessert is not set up as a reward for eating dinner. I have
heard from parents who include dessert as part of the meal and had
very positive results from this as the power struggle subsided. I per-
sonally did not associate dessert with mealtime, but offered it as an
option if they were hungry later in the evening. Please check out the
video/audio/booklet set Feeding Children Physically and Spiritually
for more insight![1]
Pregnancy And Nursing Mothers
Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Lord! Eat-
ing in the parameters of hunger and fullness and eating a variety of
foods is the natural, God-given design for the body—therefore, you
and your baby will receive the necessary fuel the body is calling for.
You may find that you are hungry and thirsty more often. Be sure to
1 For more on this topic, see the Appendix for additional resources. Please see the
Special Note in the Appendix if you have any concerns about medications for children
70
WEIGH DOWN WORKS FOR WOMEN & FAMILIES
eat what you are craving, and therefore get a variety of foods. Be sen-
sitive to what the body needs. For instance, for nausea, some women
find that eating three to four crackers or the equivalent to that will
settle the stomach and not interfere with your natural hunger signals.
And finally, focus all your attention on our Wonderful Creator!
Some women who have weight to lose will lose some weight with-
in the first trimester, but then into the second and third trimesters
they maintain and eventually gain. But if you start out with weight
to lose, do not expect to gain much during your pregnancy, because
your body is already supplied with the excess weight that it needs.
Nursing mothers do great in Weigh Down! Again, by eating
according to what your body is calling for, you will desire a variety of
foods and God will provide for all your needs and your baby’s needs
through this way of eating. Most women will experience increased
thirst because drinking fluids is so important for the production of
milk. It will be important to listen to your body to cue you to meet
this need.
You will not have to worry about not losing your weight after
your child is born. Just start now eating within the boundaries of
hunger and fullness, and trust that God’s plan when creating your
body was sufficient to take care of you and your baby’s needs.[2] We
have many testimonies of women who followed the Weigh Down
principles during pregnancy and had healthy, blue-ribbon babies and
then returned to their pre-pregnancy weight afterwards.
If you have any other questions, feel free to call us at 1-800-844-
5208. We offer several resources specifically about pregnancy and
raising godly children.
What To Feed Your Pets
God designed animals with internal guidelines for their perfect
health. Cats are not really picky eaters. They just need variety and
2 Psalm 139:13-16
71
will refuse food when it becomes monotonous—it is biological feed-
back. Feeding your pets food scraps from the table is perfect variety
and could even be considered Biblical—“even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from their masters’ table.” Matthew 15:27
God made dogs to love humans’ leftovers, the cats eat the small-
er crumbs, and He even made ants to clean up the rest after a pic-
nic, perhaps so that we would not have so much garbage. I have the
healthiest animals from this money-saving tip. The dogs and cats
love it. By giving even the animals the foods they want, it keeps them
from being overweight and food focused! Our animals have always
been the right weight with normal scraps from the table mixed with
regular dog food. If your dog is food-focused, just give him or her af-
fection instead of food every time he or she wants more food than is
needed. By doing so, the dog will lose interest in the food—the same
principle as for people, and it works better than diet dog food!
TRUTH TIP
Your body desperately wants to shed its excess weight,
so wait for your stomach to be empty before you refuel.
Food is simply energy to do His will.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
72
WEIGH DOWN WORKS FOR WOMEN & FAMILIES
TESTIMONY
Leda Kubiak, down 35 pounds since 2003.
When I was a child, I was always seeking God and desired to have a rela-
tionship with Him, but the older I got, the emptier I felt and started constantly
worrying about myself. I was full of pain but tried to hide it. This pain led to in-
creased worry about my body, food, dieting and exercise to lose weight. When
my mother found Weigh Down Basics, I watched as she lost over 60 pounds
with Weigh Down, but more importantly she became full of love and a passion
for God. By putting the Weigh Down principles into practice even as a young
teenager, I learned how to look inward at my actions and transfer my self-focus,
worry, pain and greed for food to a deep love and passion for God and doing His
will day in and day out. I was set FREE from the daily pain and worry that en-
slaved me my entire life. I am a completely different person both outwardly, but
more importantly, in my heart. I lost 35 pounds and was delivered from pride,
worry, anxiety, excessive exercise, dieting, control and overeating. My heart is full
of love, joy and peace that can only be from God. Through Weigh Down Basics
I have kept my weight off and have now gone through three pregnancies! With
each baby, I returned to my pre-pregnancy weight without relying on exercise or
any form of dieting. Weigh Down works! I have the joy of being active and having
fun playing with my kids, but do not focus on exercise to control my looks or lose
weight. Instead I get to spend time passing down my relationship with God to my
children, and it is the most beautiful life with total peace in our home!
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WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
THE SOLUTION TO PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS
Eat Like A Thin Eater
1 PRAY to eat only when physically hungry,

selecting regular foods.
2
Use a small plate or cut your meal in half. Rate
your food, eating the best bites first. Enjoy the
food & the time with your companions.
3
Eat slowly. Less is more. Put your fork down
between bites & sip non-caloric drinks. Small
units of sweets are okay.
4
Stop eating when politely full. Get your focus
off of the food & put it out of sight. Don’t over-
eat. WAIT for your next hunger signal. PRAY.
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6
HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS
Medical Considerations
Before starting this program, we recommend that you receive a
medical checkup. Consulting your physician is especially vital if you
have a medical condition that is impacted by food(s).
You are preparing to move into the realm of “regular foods” from
the grocery store, including things with salt and fat and sugar. How-
ever, your volume of foods is going to be drastically reduced, and your
body loves this! God made us sensitive to what and how much our
bodies need, and you have to resurrect this system.
If you have pre-existing health conditions such as food allergies,
diverticulitis, cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, bowel
resections, chronic ulcers, kidney disease, ulcerative colitis, chronic
constipation, etc., make sure that you are under your physician’s care
and guidelines for foods and medication. For example, if you have
chronic constipation, you must keep eating your fiber. If you have
ulcers, take your medicine and do not eat the foods that upset your
stomach.
However, there are a few pre-existing physical conditions that
may be alleviated when you lose weight and start eating regular foods
in smaller amounts.[1] For example, if you have high cholesterol or
triglycerides, losing weight permanently could possibly alleviate this
1 International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders: Beneficial

Health Effects of Modest Weight Loss, 1992
problem. Again, stay in touch with your physician. Spastic colon
and ulcers could slowly improve as you eat the volume of food that
your body calls for. PMS symptoms are often less intense as you lose
weight. Joint and muscle problems are improved in some cases.
You are not going to believe how much energy and life you are
going to enjoy, as well as how much emotional improvement you will
experience![2]
What To Do If You Cannot Find Hunger
Within 1 to 36 hours, most new Weigh Down participants find
hunger. The more pounds you have to lose or the bigger the last binge
was, the longer the wait for your first hunger. After your first hunger, it
may come around one to four times per day, depending on how small
each eating occasion is. Ask God for a clear signal of hunger. Make
sure you drink only water or artificially sweetened drinks while wait-
ing.
If you have not found hunger by the end of 36 hours, we suggest
that you go ahead and eat a small amount of food and then start the
process over. Hunger should come soon thereafter. Keep praying for
God to show you. The point is not the legalism of hunger and full-
Waiting for hunger is the healthiest

thing you can possibly do if you want to
live a long and healthy life.
ness—the point is to ask God to help you be less greedy for food and
to come to Him instead. You will get the hang of this.
One reason some people cannot find hunger is that they are not al-
lowing themselves to get hungry. They wait part of the day for hunger,
but finally give in and eat before the stomach signals hunger. Many times
2 For any questions on special food restrictions or dietary concerns, please contact
our office at 1-800-844-5208 or info@weighdown.com
76
when this happens, they eat too much and go past full. If they overeat
enough, it could very well take another twenty-four hours to empty out.
To remedy this problem, you should keep the amounts you eat small
enough that the blood sugar level does not take a whole day to drop
down again. More importantly, learn to wait—run to God’s Word and
ask Him to fill up your time and mind instead of going to the food.
Another explanation for an inability to get a hunger signal can
be attributed to the amount of weight a person needs to lose to start
with. There is a physiological reason why very overweight people
might not sense hunger in the early days of this program. The body
so desperately wants to shed the excess fat that every time the blood
sugar drops, the body will dump fuel from the energy reserves into the
bloodstream. The blood sugar goes back up, and the brain does not
send any signals or messages to make the stomach growl. Incredibly,
as we have said before, the body is getting breakfast from one hip and
lunch from the other, so to speak. This confirms how well designed
the body is and how desperately it actually desires to burn the stored
fuel! This delay will not last—regular hungers will start coming.
Headaches And Light-Headedness
Physiological hunger is the signal God gave us to tell us when
to eat, and this hunger can be satisfied only with food. We refer to
physiological hunger as “stomach hunger.” It is an empty, hollow,
burning sensation in the stomach—located above the waistline, just
under the rib cage—which may be followed by a growl. The range
of signals that indicate hunger can be different. However, the bottom
line is that any of the symptoms that you would experience are the
result of a drop in your blood sugar. That drop in blood sugar is nor-
mal. It signals the brain that your body needs more fuel (or food).
This need to refuel will be sensed by your brain. The brain will send
other signals to different parts of your body to make you aware of the
need. For example, you could experience weakness, mild shakiness,
slight light-headedness, or slight headaches. Some may have a feeling
77
of burning or an empty, hollow feeling up high in the esophagus or
below the belt if the stomach pouch has stretched. It is perfectly fine
for you to eat when you experience these symptoms because they
could be telling you that your blood sugar has dropped.
Some people have had to wait three hours for their first hunger;
some have had to wait a day and a half. The more pounds you have
to lose or the bigger your last binge was, the longer the wait for your
first hunger. After your first hunger, it may come around one to four
times per day, depending on how soon you stop eating, how small
each eating occasion is, and your activity level. If you get a head-
ache, it is probably from the strain of a new focus on resisting the
temptation to eat. Just take something for the headache, and pray for
strength. The tension will soon end.
Ultimately, you will know that you are getting to the “E” or
“empty” for your body if you are losing weight. If your stomach has
not burned or growled, and you eat every time you get a headache—
and gain weight—you need to keep searching for your true physi-
ological hunger signals and treat the headaches with pain relievers.
Effects Of Illness On Hunger
One of the amazing systems God created in the human body is
the circulatory system, which includes the heart and blood vessels.
Your body can direct more or less blood to different parts of the body
as needed, depending on the activity or situation. For example, if
you are studying or taking a test, your body needs a little extra of
your blood to supply oxygen and fuel to the brain. The blood vessels
in your brain dilate or get bigger, and some of the rest of the blood
vessels in your body constrict or get smaller. This allows the blood to
go to the area with the greatest need. When you exercise, the blood
goes to your muscles. When you eat, it goes to your gut to digest the
food. That is why you sometimes feel sleepy after eating—there is
not as much blood in your brain! The more you eat, the sleepier you
become.
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When you become sick or injured, the blood will go to the area
affected by the attacking virus or injury. That is why wounds swell
and become red. As a result of the body’s attempts to send blood
to the sick area, the body will not send a lot of blood to your gut.
Likewise, your body balances competing needs for energy. Fighting
a virus expends energy, as does digesting food. Therefore, your body
will not call for very much food during the time of illness or injury. It
does not want to take the precious blood or energy from the area that
needs it the most. So naturally, you can expect that you will not be
as hungry as you normally are. By understanding that, you can relax
and not try to “feed” the fever, illness, or injury. Learn to follow the
body’s cues. Pay attention to your fluid intake (thirst), and you will
heal faster. Feeding the body when it is not asking to be fed is gen-
erally not good. However, for some rare conditions, eating despite
a lack of hunger may be indicated. For example, the chemicals ad-
ministered during certain cancer treatments may throw the body off
balance. Check with your physician and dietitian if you are unsure.
Medications To Be Taken With Food
Very few medications make a significant impact on appetite and
digestion. Even the strongly accused steroid or cortisone is not
enough to keep you from being able to lose weight on this program.
True physiological hunger can still be sensed and distinguished from
side effects of medications. Usually, telling people, “This might make
your appetite go up or make you gain weight,” gives them an open
invitation to binge. What would have been a justifiable half-pound
weight gain because of the medication becomes a 15-pound weight
gain because of an inordinate focus on the food, with the blame going
to the medication.
If the medication needs to be taken with food, then there are a
couple of things you can do. Wait and take the medication when you
become hungry, or if it is a timed medication that has to be taken at
10 a.m., then just have one to three crackers with it. The typical need
79
for food with a pill is to help alleviate the possibility of some irrita-
tion to the lining of the stomach. A small amount of food will usually
do—you do not need a banquet. As always, if you are unsure, check
with your physician.
Pre-Existing Medical Conditions
Over the years, I have seen many people lose weight despite their
physical conditions, including individuals diagnosed with lupus or
kidney disease who were taking heavy doses of cortisone, men and
women diagnosed with cancer, insulin-dependent diabetics, and
people confined to wheelchairs. There is hope, my friends. There is
great hope for you.
Hypoglycemics And Diabetics
All diabetics who decide to apply Weigh Down principles to their
eating should consult their physicians. The most common form of
diabetes found today is adult-onset diabetes, usually the direct result
of overeating. In this condition, the body is overburdened by the in-
gestion of too much food. The pancreas is simply unable to produce
enough insulin to handle the excess food. Insulin acts as a “gatekeep-
er” to the cells—it enables food to enter the cells. When too little in-
sulin is produced to accommodate this process, food remains in the
bloodstream in the form of glucose (blood sugar or blood food), and
the result is an elevated blood sugar level. And when it is elevated, it
can spill over into the urine—something that only happens when the
kidneys are stressed.
It is a false rumor that sugar is bad for you. The sugar that is in
the blood that is causing the capillaries to harden in a diabetic is glu-
cose.[3]. Everything you eat has to go by the liver. The liver then turns
anything that you ate into the glucose unit, which is the food for each
3 See Chapter 4 for more information on this process.

80
and every cell in your body. In an adult-onset diabetic, you are simply
eating more food than the body needs, so there is not enough insu-
lin to remove it from the bloodstream, so it continues circulating,
which is going to harden your arteries. A thin eater stops when they
are full, so their blood sugar levels ranges from 80 to 120 milligrams
per hundred deciliters of blood. It is wrong to say that table sugar or
powdered sugar or honey is what is floating around in your blood. It
is not. Even those foods are broken down into a smaller unit called
glucose. It is only a theory that eating table sugar versus a cracker or
a piece of bread would cause your blood sugar levels to rise more
quickly. Even if that were true, what is the problem with that? You
have to have this sugar to live. The problem is eating beyond full. The
body always maintains 80 to 120 mg/dl. It growls when it hits 80
because it does not like to be too low. When you eat between hunger
and fullness, your blood sugar levels will maintain in that range of 80
to 120 mg/dl. That is the safe zone; that is sugar in your blood, but
that amount does not harden the arteries.
It follows that simply reducing the intake of food will help get the
insulin-to-food intake ratio closer. The key is to eat only the amount
the body is calling for and not to eat too much food before the blood-
stream is ready for more! A few good rules of thumb for adult-onset
diabetics just starting out in this program are:
1. Do not start off by fasting.
2. Begin each day following the customary eating pattern rec-
ommended by your doctor. Then, in the late afternoon or
evening, after you know you have stabilized your blood sugar,
start looking for hunger. Fight desire eating in the evening
hours, the time when most overeating occurs. It will not hurt
you at all to cut back—in fact it will help you.
3. Enjoy a variety of foods at all eating occasions.
4. Diabetics who have come through the program have some-
times been able to regulate their insulin level and eliminate
81
medication by simply reducing their intake of food, which
gets the insulin/food ratio closer.
5. Occasionally, low blood sugar and hunger do not coincide. If
blood sugar levels drop, do not panic! Usually, small amounts
of food taken within a few minutes will make you feel better.
This is not an open invitation to binge.
Juvenile-onset diabetics can also adopt the Weigh Down ap-

proach and do well. Type I diabetics need to know how to check
their glucose levels regularly and to adjust insulin intake accordingly
as the volume of food decreases. They must eat when their blood
sugar is too low and when they feel hunger. All diabetics must make
sure that they stay under their physician’s care.
Hypoglycemics respond wonderfully to this way of eating. We
counsel them to respond to hunger and fullness with sensitivity. By
doing that, they will no longer go past hunger and risk the severe
drops in sugar levels that they experienced in the past. Blood sugar
levels then become regulated and there are no more extremes.
Hypothyroidism
Let me begin by reassuring you that we have testimonies from
women who have a severely under-active thyroid and have still lost
all their weight. The truth is that when you truly obey hunger and
fullness cues, you end up eating a small amount of food each day, and
it is physically impossible not to lose weight this way. The normal
size of your stomach is about the size of your fist, and the body will
typically only call for about three to four saucer-sized plates at most
per day. Hypothyroidism does not modify the size of your stomach.
If you do not give your body more than it needs, then your body
will have no excess to store up, and you will melt down to your God-
apportioned size. It is as simple and basic as that. God created our
bodies to take care of this all without us focusing on it. Just focus on
Him and relax. He will walk you through this. He wants your heart
82
and mind, so give Him all your concerns and trust that He will lead
you in the right path.
Metabolism
Some people have been told that if they have been on a lot of
diets, taken diet pills, or been on liquid fasts that their metabolism
may be altered and their bodies will be resistant to losing weight. To
the contrary, we have seen that the minute people start eating less
food they lose weight.
Think about it—how could food companies put the calorie count
on the side of a package if everyone had a skewed metabolism? Me-
tabolism refers to the amount of energy (or calories) that your body
traps from food. Everyone traps 80 calories from a slice of bread—
even though some of you feel like you trap 160 calories just by smell-
ing it, while your thin friends can eat 5 slices of bread and trap only
10 calories! It is true that different people need different amounts
of food, but this is actually related to how much muscle mass they
have. Muscle is the most metabolically active tissue. In other words,
it takes more calories to keep a muscle cell active than a brain cell.
Your body will accurately call for the needed amounts of oxygen and
calories that you personally need.
TRUTH TIP
Losing weight is the number one thing that you can do for good
health and longevity. Waiting for hunger is the healthiest thing
you can possibly do if you want to live a long and healthy life.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
83
TESTIMONY
Beth Smiley, down 105 pounds since 2008.
My journey started in 1997 when I was given the Weigh Down Diet
book by a family member who saw that I needed help. I had been over-
weight my entire life, and my pain was compounded by depression. I
was at a breaking point.
Weigh Down Basics saved my life. I dropped 60 pounds over 2
sessions of the Weigh Down classes. I had never felt so free, hopeful,
and close to God. My prayers were answered amazingly and the black
cloud over my life lifted.
However, in time, I drifted away, and I stopped putting the Weigh
Down principles into practice. By 2005, I had gained most of the weight
back and the depression returned. God was shaking me. I knew Weigh
Down was the only thing that ever worked, so I returned to classes and
the weight started coming back off! I put the principles fully into prac-
tice…and my life now is SO different. I finally went “all in!”
In total, I have lost 105 pounds and kept it off ever since. Weigh
Down also set me free from depression, anger, workaholism, smoking,
over-drinking and being
an angry wife and mother.
Now my marriage and all
relationships are amazing!
My husband and I are truly
in love and closer than
ever—best friends! I have
even had another child
later in life and quickly re-
turned to my pre-pregnan-
cy weight.
The best thing I learned
in Weigh Down is to hold
onto God and look for His
lead in everything. I can
really see what Gwen says
about “rising above!” It is
possible!
84
7
WHY DIETS DON’T
WORK
There are many reading this book whose dependency or unwant-
ed habit is a substance other than food. There are sins of the flesh and
sins of the disposition, referring back to the prodigal son—sins of the
flesh—and the older brother who did not rejoice when his brother
returned—sins of the disposition.[1] But if you will notice, somehow,
someway, the dark lord of this world has worked in man-made reg-
ulations for cures in every generation that range from bloodletting
using leeches to inversion therapy—hanging upside down. Man has
had many a godless remedy for centuries. They will never stop…
patch on the arm for nicotine, rehab units for alcoholics and anorex-
ics, support groups, acupuncture, hypnosis, medications, replacing
your stronghold with another one, etc. In this book, we will spend
the bulk of our time on diet rules that do not work because it is an
easy analogy, but it can be easily extrapolated for any condition. Just
identify your indulgence and the man-made rules you have tried in
the past to stop, and then read the following.
You have tried diets all your life, and they have not worked. What
does this tell you? In fact, you are anything but free from the desire to
eat tonight, and this is from years of dieting. Indeed, had you never
dieted, I wonder if you would still have this issue with food. Why are
diets so bad? Man-made diet rules are the number one prescribed
1 For more on this topic, see Chapter 19, “Free From Unwanted Behaviors And
Substances” and “Two Types Of Sins”
remedy for obesity for the last 50 to 60 years. Yet, diets have cost us
much—billions each year—and have only exacerbated the problem
of overeating in this country more than any protocol ever advised—
indeed, this country is now at 70 percent overweight or obese. The
community is starting to recognize that diets do not work, but they
do not have an answer. Baffled, the scientists call it an epidemic. A
malady is called an epidemic when it is a widespread problem with
no solution. Though the scientific world cannot see the answer, there
is an explanation and a solution when you humble yourself and turn
to the Master Mind who masterminded our complex bodies.
The temptation is strong for the U.S. diet industry to push spe-
cial foods since that is the bulk of their sales; and for other weight
loss programs, new diet drugs, exercise regimens, and surgeries, the
income is in services. The industry brings in north of 60 billion dol-
lars per year[2]—some of this spending going toward not only diet
foods but diet sodas—and their celebrity supporters are paid mil-
lions. People follow the crowds, and the majority of adults in the
U.S. are dieting. According to a recent weight loss survey,[3] it was
determined that 108 million people are on diets in the U.S. and that
dieters typically make 4 or 5 attempts per year to start over. Women
share their weight loss methods with each other, and since 85 per-
cent of the consumers are female, it follows that this is a hot topic—
selling foods, ads, magazines, driving internet sales and health club
memberships.
Diets have been the answer for decades—increase your energy
expenditure and decrease your caloric intake. With so much spend-
ing, so much effort, so much science, and so much medicine behind
this worldwide approved man-made rule, how in the world could
this be wrong…these regulations have an appearance of wisdom,
2 US News and World Report: The Heavy Price of Losing Weight, 2013
3 ABCNews.com: 100 Million Dieters, $20 Billion: The Weight-Loss Industry by
the Numbers
86
WHY DIETS DON’T WORK
with their harsh treatment of the body, but they have no value. There
are several reasons that are pointed out by the Apostle Paul in a letter
he wrote to the church in Colosse.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with
regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however,
is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and
the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into
great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him
up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom
the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews,
grows as God causes it to grow. Since you died with Christ to the basic
principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you
submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These
are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human com-
mands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of
wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their
harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual
indulgence. Colossians 2:16-23
1. Diets or man-made rules have “an appearance of wisdom,”
but in actuality are not wise. Since the beginning of time, godless
men have made up godless regulations—simply guessing at the solu-
tions for problems but not consulting God, who actually is the Wis-
dom of the Ages. The Battle of the Ages is satan against God, but it is
also man versus God. This is discussed in more detail in The Treasure
Series.[4] This is fact… Man is wise only if they are connected to the
Mainframe Computer. We must be plugged in[5] to the assistance
of God rather than trying to compete with God or bypass God—it
4 Please see the Appendix for how to get your copy of The Legend to The Treasure
Series.
5 See History of the One True God Volume I, Chapter 1
87
is imprudent. Mankind must turn to God. Many medically trained
individuals are still personally devoted to God, but as a whole, over
the last 50 years I have watched as the American Medical Association
(AMA) has been more impressed by and therefore dependent on
man’s scientific “discoveries” than impressed by and dependent on
THE ONE who created it all. God has had the answers all along, and
our modern, advanced science is simply “discovering” what God has
created. There are light years between the two sources. There is an
appearance of wisdom in man-made rules, but it is simply that…an
appearance. There is no wisdom in them. How do you know? Look
at the fruit—America has never been larger, nor more unhealthy.
2. “These are all destined to perish with use, because they are
based on human commands and teachings.” Diets are man’s regu-
lations telling you what to eat and drink and swallow. Hunger and
fullness, on the other hand, are inside of you, guiding you into the
unique, individual decisions you need for your specific body. One
is humans commanding humans, and one is the loving God and His
lovely, Holy Spirit guiding you from within. One makes you feel
childish and one makes you feel mature. All animals eat according to
the amount and the variety that God prescribes through hunger and
fullness—man should follow suit. Man’s rules perish because it is
inevitable that you eventually go back to the regular foods that your
body is programmed to need and want. God’s way works perma-
nently, and diets do not. We were not put on Earth to find man and
follow man, but rather to find God and follow God’s guiding hand.
Diets are so naturally repulsive to your body that the inward con-
trols will reject the abnormal concoctions of foods as surely as every-
thing within you would reject you holding your breath. Diets are des-
tined to fail with use. God’s ways or biological feedback are natural,
God’s laws are natural—meaning they are in compliance with God’s
internal sub-conscious and conscious controls He has already pro-
grammed inside you.
88
3. Man-made rules…“lack any value in restraining sensual

indulgence…” Diets do not get to the root problem—sensual de-
sires. There is something about chewing and swallowing, chewing
and swallowing; notice that overeaters often keep drinks beside
them for sucking and swallowing or gum in their mouths. The fact
is, man-made rules increase sensual desires, whether this be for food,
alcoholism, tobacco, depression, theft, praise of man, materialism, or
children’s out-of-control behaviors. This is the dilemma: pills, liquid
fasts, appetite suppressants, and counting fat grams change your en-
vironment temporarily, but do not change your sensual desires. They
impose a harsh treatment on the body that works temporarily; how-
ever, you cannot keep up man-made rules. Colossians 2 above points
out that the regulations that men impose are strict and harsh on the
body (plastic sweat suits, liquid concoctions, metabolism pills, etc.)
and they make God look legalistic and unfeeling. Likewise, liposuc-
tion and body contouring surgeries do not help to stop your indul-
gence, so they are a waste of funds. So many times people who even
survive the gastric-bypass surgery wind up gaining their weight back
because it did nothing to check their sensual indulgence. However,
We were not put on Earth to find man

and follow man, but rather to find God
and follow God’s guiding hand.
this verse is also about the uselessness of man-made rules over God’s
rules. Primarily, they will have no value in restraining the root prob-
lem…overindulgence.
Now, another reason diets do not work is because diets force
you to focus on food. On both counts, diets exacerbate the problem
of greed, not solve it. Diets let you chew larger amounts of food.
Then, after years of dieting, it becomes deeper than just about larger
amounts. Diets breed an emotional attachment. At this point, even
if you stop the diet, you may not lose the weight. The root problem is
89
a sensual desire that is learned, and it is called greed. Greed is idola-
try. “For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—
such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ
and of God.” Ephesians 5:5
This is huge…greed is idolatry. No greedy person can enter the
Kingdom of God. According to the Scriptures, there is no greed or
gluttony, drugs, alcohol, materialism, gambling, or pornography in
Heaven.
4. “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”… Man-made
rules teach us to project rather than to look inward; to make the food
change rather than the human changing. Why would companies be
motivated to impose such rules? It is a money maker. Diet compa-
nies impose new rules on “bad foods” and introduce their “righteous
foods” under their food brand. This has been a lucrative business;
however, the diet companies are only giving the people what they
want…mankind will try to alter everything and everyone around
them before they improve themselves.
When we have taken out the sugar and replaced it with an arti-
ficial sugar, thrown out the fat and replaced it with an artificial fat,
thrown out the calories and replaced them with non-caloric fluff or
indigestible hay, we have made the food behave. We have not ad-
vanced our own behavior. We do not have to modify how much food
we chew and swallow because the food itself has re-adapted to larger
volumes of low-calorie content. One serving of food that used to
contain 115 calories now contains only 70 calories. Since the same
volume of food now contains fewer calories, you can eat a larger vol-
ume. Never mind that it is tasteless and unpalatable. You do not have
to take fewer bites of food to lose weight on a diet; you can even take
more bites. So how did you lose 10 and gain 15 back? The diet did
not decrease the volume of food or limit the chewing and swallow-
ing; in fact, it increased it.
How do you reverse it… Again, you fall in love with what you
focus on. The root of indulgence come from the love of the idol; the
90
love of the idol comes from the focus—eyes and ears—listening to,
looking at, longing for, and obeying the idol. Diets exacerbate the
problem rather than alleviate it, because they encourage you to do all
the wrong things. Diets require attention to foods and recipes.
Let us start off looking at the typical dieter getting up in the
morning. Once you decide on a diet, you have to check that par-
ticular diet’s list and select the right foods. At work, you talk about
diets, which means foods. By the time you get home, you have been
planning the foods that you can eat and the foods that you cannot
eat, and this has set you up for grazing foods all evening. You will
have two groups of foods: one that you can eat and one that you can-
not. You have to cook two different types of meals—one for you and
one for your family. Food is omnipresent. This only increases the
focus on the food. The more you focus on planning, buying, talking
about, preparing, cooking, serving, and eating the food, the stronger
the magnetic pull is to the refrigerator. If you keep a record of all of
this, you will see that food is the obsession of your life. Dieting pro-
vides the perfect setup to accelerate your love for food. Dieting and
exchange lists taught you to read a sheet of paper for the amount you
should eat. They taught you to follow an exchange list. They helped
you exchange “bad food” for “good food.” And they started calling
them “lifestyle changes.” Yet the only alteration you made is that you
walked down a different grocery store aisle—the diet aisle—and
therefore have a more expensive grocery bill and have to go to the big
and tall section for larger clothes each year. Exercising for hours each
day, eating diet industry foods or foods you do not crave is not the
born again lifestyle enhancement you need. You need to be freed up!
Now you can see why dieting, counting calories, diet pills, and
diet foods has to stop, because by the time you have gone to bed you
have planned a binge to go back to the foods that you really want to
eat. This restriction, caused by man’s rules, has only quickened your
senses to food. It has not helped you to lay down sensual indulgence
91
at all. Overindulgence was never addressed—sensitivity to hunger
and fullness was not the core teaching.
5. Man-made rules lead to “self-imposed worship.” Man-made
rules from medicine, religion, science, philosophy, psychology, etc.
do not work because they intuitively get you to focus on yourself—
your favorite subject. People love the weekly counsel sessions where
you pay someone to ask you questions about yourself and pay them
to let you talk about yourself without changing the subject for one to
two hours. Man-made rules enforce a worship of self. Now, if you are
thinking about what you want for self—you tend to want more and
more. “More is better.” This self-focus has increased our expecta-
tions of amounts of food. Every year your expectation gets higher,
It is tempting to diet, for instinctively

you know that you still do not have to
surrender to the internal guiding
hand of God—SELF can rule.
and that is why you weigh more and more each year. You have come
a long way from the amount you thought you wanted or deserved as
a child. Americans as a population have become more and more ac-
customed to larger amounts of food over the years, especially since
the Great Depression. Diets by nature are based on large volumes of
low-calorie foods and “free foods,” so you get to give yourself more,
and where a soda used to be 200 calories, now it is zero so you can
drink more. More and more. Until we turn to God, this is all going
to continue to be a puzzling “mystery epidemic.”
A worship of self is sick and leads to many disposition problems
in the end. Self-worship leads to allowing more and more wrong de-
cisions that serve self—overeating, overtalking, greed for fortune.
When the world centers around you instead of God, it causes mental
disorders. Yet people uncontrolled by self-focus or worship of self
are free!
92
It is tempting to diet because you instinctively know that SELF

can control your day instead of God. It is tempting to diet, for in-
stinctively you know that you still do not have to surrender to the
internal guiding hand of God—SELF can rule. There are people
who, after hearing the truth, return to self-rule because you can chew
when you want, and with low calorie foods, you can chew even more.
Man’s guidance perishes with use—it is not helpful; God’s rules and
the man who lives by them live forever…[6]
Diets do not and will not ever work, no matter how many times
you try them. On top of that, the more you employ them as the rem-
edy for your overeating, the more you are going to eat at the end of
them and the larger the clothes you will need.
People not attached to man-made food rules that force your mind
onto food and self are free! They have not thought about food almost
all day long. God never asked anyone to diet. When man asks you to
do something not from God, and you follow it, you are simply devel-
oping a trust and a relationship and worship and adoration of man or
man’s medicine or man’s science. We are here on Earth to find God
and to trust God. In addition, dieting has no value in helping you to lay
down your selfish desires for more food than your body is calling for.
This principle is true with all idols. Man-made solutions usually
do not address the root problem, so the smoking, the gambling, the
sexual sins, etc. are never deterred. In the end, the separate food regi-
mens and have-to exercising regulations are demoralizing, whereas
the God-guided internal control builds godly self-esteem. In the end,
man-made rules are like Adam and Eve’s experience in the Garden—
they make you more aware of yourself, more aware of your body, and
more aware of your comfort level.
6 “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives
forever.” I John 2:17
93
How to Be Free
We have just learned that man-made rules fertilize worldly lusts
but God’s rules put an end to lusts.
What is God’s rule? God says for you to put your lust to death.
Stop it. God helps you get out of this mess by telling you the truth…
put to death—discontinue, prevent, and impede—whatever belongs
to your earthly nature. The worldly religions will tell you that it is
impossible, for your unwanted behaviors are all a disease, an inborn
error of metabolism, a chemical misfire, a genetic flaw, or the fault of
your circumstances. Yet, these are all action verbs and actions that
man is capable of by choice. It is why Jesus would tell mankind to
repent and go and sin no more.[7]
Colossians 2 taught us that man-made rules do not work, and the
following passage from Colossians 3 teaches us what God’s rules are
and then backs up how quickly we can choose to stop indulging. I
recommend—and I have seen it work wonders—to read this chapter
every day until you have it memorized in your heart:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things
above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds
on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now
hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then
you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever
belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil de-
sires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is
coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now
you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice,
slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since
you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the
new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian,
7 “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:11b

94
Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s
chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and for-
give whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the
Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them
all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:1-13
Colossians 3 is filled with action verbs…set your hearts, set your
minds, put to death, clothe yourself. Overeating is a misplaced desire,
and it is sensual indulgence in that it stimulates your senses. You could
see how someone who is delighted with a taste, using misdirected
thinking, might say, “If one serving was good, then more is better.”
The way to reverse this sensual desire is to ignore it and then redirect
your desires onto things above—on being with Jesus Christ in Heaven,
thinking of forever and ever with God and the Angels and the Saints.
You are not a failure—no one can maintain man-made rules for
any length of time because they run against the body’s natural eat-
ing, and underneath they are increasing the self-focus and greed. It is
inevitable that you will eat more and gain more in the end! Failing at
man-made rules takes the wind out of you, and you feel like you can-
not stop this lust, but you can and must put greed to death.
Only God’s rules can have truly permanent results: permanent be-
cause they get you off of self and selfish desires, and they teach you
denial, self-sacrifice, selflessness, and give you God’s Spirit, which is
self-control. Notice that Weigh Down, which promotes God’s rules,
has the most genuine and successful statistics of permanent weight
loss. The results have been so far beyond the man-made diet results
that they do not even come close—it is phenomenal! It is God’s rules
and the truth, which Christ lived and taught. You have felt like a failure
on your diets, but you had no idea that diets—much like false church-
es—were feeding the root problem of obesity and other indulgences,
while slowly but surely making you estranged from God. Now you
know. The longer you diet, the harder it is to transfer this love of food
95
over to a love for God. But by constant choice, calling to God, through
the Name of Christ, it can be done! You can overcome.!
You CAN Change
Now that you know you can change, how do you change? Grace
from God to be reborn, knowing that we are capable of complete
transformation and knowing that we are expected to be new cre-
ations, will do it!
The answer has been in the Scriptures all along. The whole con-
cept of True Religion is denying yourself for the sake of a relationship
with God. It is pushing back from the table. It is saying “no” to greed,
“no” to more. Just saying “no” to worldly passions and living a self-
controlled life is mere Christianity. Weigh Down is mere Christian-
ity put in a way that you can understand it in this day and time. We
The message of Christ is…to transfer

wrong passions to right passions.
must make the transformation away from the old life. But instead of
transferring from bad foods to good foods, this transfer is from bad
actions to good actions in your life and in your heart. The message of
Christ is…to transfer wrong passions to right passions. We are mak-
ing an exchange—we are laying down the old actions and behavior.
Look again at Titus 2:11-12, which says that grace teaches us to
say, “No” to any worldly passions:
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It
teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.
Again, stop projecting, for we ourselves are in need of reforma-
tion. We are not making the food, spouse, or boss change—we are
making ourselves change. You can do it, and you can start right now.
You can completely rebuild your behavior with the help of God. You
96
can choose today to walk out of the prison of your old life and com-
pletely be born again by turning to God!
Turning to God means that you are letting go of your control.
In the past, you decided what you were going to eat and when you
were going to eat it and when you were going to shop and what you
were going to buy—and when you were going to say something and
whatever it was you wanted to say, and you did not care about what
anyone thought.
When you come to True Christianity, you turn your focus and
devotion up to God first and foremost every hour of the day. You
are not just coming to Him and saying a prayer when you are eight
years old and then running along and living the rest of your life with-
out Him. We are talking about turning to God with a permanent,
minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour dependency. Your whole head
position changes. Your knees bend. You are crying out to God for
direction on when to eat and when not to eat. There is an internal
control. Then you are crying out to God when you are shopping, or
when you need the right words to say. You are crying out to God dur-
ing the tests that He gives, which are frequent. This is a relationship
that delights in “holy fear,” the respect of the living God—where, like
Christ, we say…“not my will but Thine be done.”[8] It is submitting to
the authority over you. In this country, this idea is upside down, and
those above do not realize it, but they are cowering to those below
them—the boss is afraid of the employee suing him, the husband
does not want to upset his wife, the parents do not want to run the
children off, the youngest siblings get their way over the older ones
because we do not want them to throw a tantrum, etc.
If you are under authority with God or His God-given leaders,
you do not know where or when your authority will have you go, or
when or what you are going to eat, but the peace that comes from
8 Luke 22:42
97
connecting to your God, to your authority, is wonderful! You are
walking in the Spirit.
Most people have been taught to not trust authorities. However,
observe all the naturally Thin Eaters and the naturally thin children,
and even all the animals in the wild. None of them have extra weight
on them. There is nothing to fear about God’s way.
TRUTH TIP
Using hunger and fullness is fast enough to lose your excess
weight. Following man-made diets and exercise programs only
leaves you more focused on the food and yourself!
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
Jill Snapp lost 166 lbs with Weigh Down and was featured on NBC’s Today Show in 2007.
98
TESTIMONY
Jill Snapp, down 166 pounds since 2005.
I was always overweight, even as a young child. By the time I was 20, I
weighed over 200 pounds and rapidly reached over 300 pounds. After try-
ing every diet imaginable, a friend gave me The Weigh Down Diet book and
signed me up for her Weigh Down Basics class. The food tips and princi-
ples completely revolutionized both my eating patterns and the foods I ate
because I stopped eating diet foods and began eating regular foods. From
the very first lesson, Gwen Shamblin Lara taught me how to enjoy a ham-
burger and French fries and not overeat. Throughout my weight loss jour-
ney, Gwen taught me ways to overcome mindless eating when I was emo-
tional or bored; Weigh Down materials helped me know what to do with
my time at 10 o’clock at night when the house was quiet and I wanted to
binge. The classes taught me how to stop overeating forever!! I quickly lost
weight and was able lose over 166 pounds
and keep it off for well over a decade
now—since 2005!
This program works!
There is nothing else
like it!
99
Gwen speaking at Remnant Fellowship Church
in Brentwood, Tennessee.
8
TRANSFER YOUR RELATIONSHIP
FROM FOOD TO GOD
And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought
you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods
before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything
in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall
not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a
jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third
and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thou-
sand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Exodus 20:1-6
And so you became a model to all the believers… they tell how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from
the coming wrath. I Thessalonians 1:7, 9b-10
Turning To God From Idols
Anyone who has ever spoken on behalf of God turns people from
idols.[1] True religion necessitates that we turn heart, soul, mind, and
strength away from Egypt, idols, and the love of the world, and
surrender them over to developing a personal, obedient relation-
ship with God. You are transferring a bond with the food over to a
1 Jeremiah 23
connection with God. He loves it when you find self-denial for His
sake. God rewards you when you exchange your own selfish desires
for His will. The Bible warns us that our own desires are evil and self-
destructive,[2] and yet God’s perfect and guiding will gives us nour-
ishment, life, long life and eternal life.
Did you wake up the senses inside you this week? Did you find
the internal controls that are led by God? If your stronghold was
smoking, did you feel more self-control when you got your mind off
the tobacco and turned it toward God?[3] Did you find your rewards,
your ways of escape?
Did you wait and find hunger this week? Did you notice how the
food tastes so much better when you are hungry? It is fun to wait and
feel victorious over the food! When you are full, God designed the
taste buds to “turn off.” You will be unable to taste the full flavor. It is
one of God’s ways to encourage you to stop eating at that point.
The past few weeks were probably a new experience for you—
you had no idea how much of your mind and your time had been
devoted to food. But as you have begun to wait for hunger, God is
showing you just how much of your heart has been devoted to this
passion rather than to Him. Did you find God when you ran to Him
and His Word when you had head hunger but you knew you were
not hungry?
The Transfer
Here is how it all works. We must transfer this relationship with
our idol (food, lusts, materialism, drugs, etc.) over to a relationship
with God. You have to learn that every time your mind goes to your
idol, you need to get it off and concentrate on higher callings.
2 “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap
destruction…” Galatians 6:8a
3 See “Weigh Down Dependencies Worksheet” on page 284
102
TRANSFER YOUR RELATIONSHIP FROM FOOD TO GOD
Your idol is not your friend. Let us take extra food, for example,
because all idols are alike…an idol is entertaining, it fills up time,
and it is basically like having a relationship with another person. If
you have ever had a crush on someone, then you know how this feels.
You feel your emotions rise and your pulse rate go up when you think
about the food. In a relationship with the food, you are now dressing
for it—you are putting on your stretch clothes or PJs to make sure
that nothing stops you from binge eating. You listen for its voice.
You think about it in the morning, and you think about it at noon.
You start reading about it and preparing for it, and the next thing you
know, you have got this affair going on by the time it is 10 o’clock at
night when no one is there and no one is looking, and you can se-
cretly be with that food.
But this food is not a friend! Food is an enemy, a thief, a parasitic
leech slowly sucking the life out of you. First, it robs you of your spiri-
tual relationship with God. Then it robs you of your health, your en-
ergy, your sleep. It robs you of your time, your mind. And it robs you
of your finances because it is expensive. It robs you of your relation-
ships…it puts a wedge between you and other people; it puts a wedge
between you and your spouse, and then it keeps you from playing with
your children. It keeps you from cleaning up the house because you are
too tired. You constantly have to go to the doctor, and you are trying
to figure out what is wrong with you. And you just cannot remember
when you were not either angry or depressed. So food is not a friend.
It is a false comfort, it is a false help, it is a false god.
But there is hope! You can reverse that old relationship with the
all-day-long food lust to an all-day-long dependence on God—where
you are listening to God, you are dressing for Him, and you are going
to Him for your relationships and your finances. You are going to
Him for everything! God’s will and His laws are better than a binge.
The Heavenly Father is the True Friend, the True God, because you
have your mind back, your time back, your energy back, your fi-
nances under control, your relationships returned, and on and on.
103
To transfer means to figure out how much money you were spending
and how much time you were spending on planning, lusting, pre-
paring, eating, bingeing, dressing for the food, dreaming of the food,
and reading the recipe book, and then to take all that focus, time,
energy, love, and passion and turn it toward the ONE TRUE GOD
AND HIS KINGDOM. This is the transfer away from the antago-
nist and back to the true friend. You will then be giving all to a True
God who is rich and does not need nor take anything from you. God
takes what you give Him, multiplies it, and then He gives it all back
to you. The false god takes because it is not an actual resource. The
True God needs nothing and owns all things so He does not take,
rob, steal, fleece, or drain you, but rather gives to you, lavishes bless-
ings, and fills you up.
We are going to be motivated to transfer a lifetime of planning
our mind, heart, soul, and day around eating, over to focusing our
mind, heart, soul, and day around God.[4]
Pleasing God Or Self
The Bible talks about the earthly nature versus the heavenly nature,
the fleshly desires versus the heavenly desires, and pleasing God or self:
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap
destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will
reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8
We must live to please God, not ourselves—but the incredible,
divinely designed paradox is…if you please God, you are blessed; if you
please your flesh, you are ironically destroying yourself. Go figure! I am
continually in bewilderment at His brilliance.
You also learn that it is scary to play around with this request, for
you will be so cursed. God uses this behavior modification to get us
4 For more information, read History of the One True God Volume I
104
to choose right living. But we are such babies and easily discouraged
with discipline instead of correctly interpreting His punishment as
love. Hebrews 12:5b-11 says:
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart
when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he
punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God
is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you
are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are il-
legitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human
fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more
should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disci-
plined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for
our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant
at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righ-
teousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
A harvest of righteousness versus a harvest of head hunger. I hate
the “out-of-control” feeling! When you give in to your desires, your
greed grows with each passing year, and it will continue to grow as
long as you “feed” it—until you are given over. It could be the lust
of the eye, the pride of life, or the lust of the flesh. If you have not
been in a true Cross-centered church, you probably have not learned
self-denial, and you may find yourself in a prison of pleasing self.[5][6]
Cross-centered self-denial is mere Christianity—the essence of
True Religion. After you become convicted in Weigh Down, you
5 See page 221 on “the Great Delusion”

6 See Ephesians 4:17-19 on continual lust for more: “So I tell you this, and insist
on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their
thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having
lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in
every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”
105
need to stay on your knees. When you leave one idol or behavior,
you must fill it with a new behavior that is focused on God.
In John 4:34, Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of the Father and
to finish His work.” Your new food is God’s will and finding God’s will
by reading His Words and His Laws, and searching for the Spirit of
God, which is a sense inside of you. It says in Psalm 19:10, talking
about God’s Words, “They are more precious than gold, than much pure
gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.” Psalm
119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey
to my mouth.”
Cross-centered self-denial is mere

Christianity—the essence of
True Religion.
Now the transfer is everything. This old relationship with food
or idols is over, and a new relationship with Him will take its place.
Food was the impetus to get out of bed in the past, and then it was
your morning, noon, and night. Yet, it is a false god and will only
rob you of health, relationships, time, fortune, and energy. Food
is not your friend. It is not your comfort, but rather the thing that
depresses you each morning when you hit the scales. It is time to
end your relationship with food, sweets, the pantry or refrigerator,
the fast food drive-thru’s, and the drawer of chocolate in your desk
at work. These secret hiding spots for food and comfort need to be
cleared out and replaced with Scripture and truth. Eating had filled
your day—now watch God fill you up and repair your health, energy,
friendships, relationships, marriage, and watch how it will affect your
children’s behavior when you obey God. Simply put, reversing your
focus and heart, your soul and mind off the food and onto God will
completely transform every aspect of your life.
Food is not a good source of entertainment or a good escape from
your problems or a good thing to fill up time—it is not a good thing
106
to use to escape the fear of being bored, nor a good friend to take the
place of relationships. How do you know? You have backaches, joint
pains, and a closet full of clothes that are too small. It is the cause
of your poor oxygen intake and sleeping complications, snoring, etc.
That is why you have headaches, stomachaches, and generally feel
exhausted all the time. Overeating puts a tremendous strain on any
relationship—especially your spouse—and you cannot play with
your children. The feeling of hopelessness…“What is the use” keeps
crossing your mind. Overweight is perhaps the number one cause
of depression. Weigh Down has thousands of testimonies where
people walk free from depression each day. Watch and record your
emotions this week in your workbook.[7] Notice how you will have
more energy and more joy and more exhilaration this week than you
have had in years if you continue with the transfer of this relationship
from bowing down to the pan of brownies over to bowing down to
the most loving Heavenly Father and His precious Son, Jesus Christ.
A New Focus By Training The Senses
Imagine being free of worrying about lusts, wealth, pride, praise
of man—free of tobacco, alcohol, food, man-made food rules, and
their impossible procedures. You are free to be devoted to Him,
while enjoying His wonderful foods when your body is hungry…to
eat like you did when you were a child—eating only when you were
hungry, eating regular foods, and not thinking about food unless you
were hungry. Remember back to the time when you would rather
play than eat!
There are two senses used for either weight loss or weight gain.
The senses are so influential to your life that they could either take
you down the right path or the wrong path. If you go down the right
path, you will be like a child again—focused on God and dependent
on Him—free from your own devices.
7 See Weigh Down Basics Workbook, page 36

107
Sense 1: The Physical EYES or Mental “FOCUS.” What is
meant by “eyes” or “focus” is what you see physically or mentally.
What your eyes focus on fills your mind and your heart and eventu-
ally your life.
We pass our idols, or what we adore, down to our children. You
could have simply focused on what your parents focused on. You
are not born this way. It grows over the years until a person be-
comes focused primarily on food when they enter a room, a house,
their workplace, or even their car—they have their own secret food
stashes. Overeaters hide the food in secret places—the bedroom,
the closet, and their purse. People who are food focused eventually
dream about it at night. I have known of sleepwalkers who wake up
and have chicken bones on their chest.
Sense 2: The Physical EARS or Spiritual Voices. Think about
your senses…do you find yourself being in tune to the popcorn pop-
ping or the bacon sizzling? The ears of the idolater are tuned to its
idol—if cigarettes, then the smell and sound of the package of to-
bacco, the TV commercials that advertise electronic cigarettes, the
cigarette machines, etc. If it is food, they are tuned into pictures of
food, magazines with new diets, restaurants, and food shows. Their
ears perk up to conversations on food and dieting.
But they are also in tune to another voice in their heads. Over-
weight people are LISTENING to the food call their name. They
hear the pan of brownies from the pantry calling out, “Come eat me!”
When they drive down the street, they listen to the “#2 Combo” of
hamburger and French fries calling their name—and more times
than not, they obey and wind up pulling into the fast food drive-thru
to order.
Has this physical and mental focus made us thinner? Has lis-
tening for the food and responding to the voice of the food calling
your name freed you of the desire for too much food? Has self-focus
or self-focused exercise made us thinner? No—rather, years of the
wrong focus has made you increasingly overweight and out of control.
108
You Fall In Love With What You Focus On

There is a truth that is profound that God gave me early in this
ministry, over 30 years ago. This one truth can set you free from all
vices… You fall in love with what you focus on. Do you hate your
evil desires? Then take your eyes off of the food or whatever it is and
set your mind on God, His Christ, and His righteous Kingdom, and
you will fall out of love with the food and into love with God.
Modern medicine and science as a whole fail to acknowledge an-
other aspect of the human being: They are needy and cannot func-
tion alone. Man was not made to be an island. We have a real need
to be connected to God. But if we plug into the wrong thing, we are
filled with death, decay, and despair. We plug into what we focus on
with our minds and eyes and ears.
Romans 8 makes this clear:
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what
that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have
their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death,
but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is
hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those
controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Romans 8:5-8
The answer is going to involve your own personal obligation,
using the two senses—the eyes and ears. The eyes and ears are the
feeling senses for your mind, which in turn create your desires or
what is in your heart. The person who “SETS” their mind on God
and what God wants—His Spirit—will do what is right. The person
who sets his mind on what he wants will automatically live accord-
ing to the sinful nature. This is both exciting and scary. We have an
incredible obligation to focus on the RIGHT THING and to teach
our children to focus on the RIGHT THING. What do you think
your children are focused on? What are you teaching them? What
lights up their eyes?
109
Again, you fall in love with what you focus on. What are you
focused on? God created this phenomenon in hopes that you would
find Him, not become dependent on idols, food, affluence, alcohol,
lusts, or praise of man.
Now, if you STOP the focus on the food and you stop listening to
the food and put this focus and attention on what the Spirit desires,
you will please God, and the desire or the heart’s love for the food
will fade away.
God knows we all need a whole new life, and it is exciting that
you can start over. You can change what you focus on and what you
listen to. This improves what is going into your mind, and then you
can modify your mind and therefore your desires or wants…an en-
tirely new mindset and therefore new life. It is time to take this seri-
ously and evaluate your entire life.
The best things to fill your time and mind with are selfless things.
Jesus Christ spent His life focusing on the will of God. All other pre-
occupations could send you right back into self and selfish desires.
You fall in love with what you focus on.

Jesus implied that He was not focused on physical food. “My food
is to do the will of the Father and to finish His work.”[8] To refocus is
the key to ending the head or heart hunger. Then it is practice, prac-
tice, and concentration to go back to eating only when the stomach
growls. The faster you change your focus and your eyes and ears off
the food and onto God—the faster you will lose the weight!
Do not think that this will be impossible for you because “you
like food so much.” It is NOT impossible for your heart to have a
makeover! The early Christians called it a “conversion.” It is simply
a choice of where you put your focus—that is what affects your heart.
As you focus less on food, it will become less interesting to you, and
8 John 4:34
110
God will become more and more interesting! The more time you
spend in the Bible and reading Weigh Down materials, instead of
opening the pantry or the refrigerator, the more you will crave learn-
ing more about God and Christ. Replace the hidden stashes of food
The faster you change your focus and

your eyes and ears off the food and
onto God—the faster you will
lose the weight!
with the truths you learn in Weigh Down and in the Word—write
them everywhere—on your phone, computer, mirrors, in the fridge,
etc.
The more you think about
God, sing to Him and praise Him,
the more you will feel passion
for Him. As God becomes your
highest interest in life, the love for
food will disappear! You can be
permanently thin, permanently
free of tobacco, permanently free
of the love of material posses-
sions, attention, alcohol, pornog-
raphy, and any idols on Earth!
Motivation
Let me talk you into wanting
God over food or other idols. I
have spent most of my life rea-
soning with people who think
they are going to miss the food,
and scared that they will be bored
or have the emptiest days ever.
111
Turning to God from idols should not even be a competition, and it
is not a contest. Do you not WANT to desire less food? Do you not
want to be someone who has self-control with the food? So then,
stop thinking about the food. Get your mind onto anything but food,
and especially think about the commands of God. If your heart only
knew that God was going to let you get hungry again and that He was
“My food is to do the will of the Father

and to finish His work.”
going to feed you again! He is a Great Shepherd who loves to feed
His sheep physically and spiritually. In fact, the picture of a shepherd
is of one who spends all day looking for a great place for the sheep to
feed. Look to Him for guidance on when to start eating and when to
stop. You have got to come to know how good He will be to you if
you seek Him.
But you are never going to lose ALL the weight until you finally
say, “I am not having a relationship with that food anymore!” Flee it!
Turn around and say “NO!” and make a decision to have a relation-
ship with God instead. God is begging you for a relationship. Do not
run back to the relationship with food.
Just going through the motions—cutting the food in half and
eating on small plates—will not reform your devotion to food. You
need to transfer your love to the God of the Universe who deserves
your love. You will not lose weight for yourself or your own health;
you will not be motivated to lose the weight for your children or your
spouse. The loving fear of God is the only motivation that is strong
enough to cause you to completely be converted. This transfer will
come from you understanding that God requires this love for Him.
God can help you get a new heart for Him. Just pray.
If you are tempted to go back to food, ask Him, “O God, can You
do better than a food binge, an alcohol binge, a shopping spree, a
gambling spree, etc.? Can You do better than these relationships I
112
have had?” Within minutes, watch Him answer that prayer! He will
come in with ways of escape and jewels that are far better! He is bet-
ter than that false friend called food! This is the motivation. You
will see that He is the Genius; He is beyond brilliant; He is beyond
personal. There is a relationship with God and an adoration of Jesus
Christ, His Son, and it is real, and it is far better being in tune with
the Creator who has more capital, more power, and better perks than
anything else out there! Redirect your want for food over to a want
for God and this new life.
THERE IS HOPE! Remember, whatever your main focus is—
that is what your heart falls in love with. Christ said that if we loved
him, we would obey him.[9] We love what we obey; we obey what we
love. Christ loved and obeyed God! You CAN change your focus
to God, to Jesus Christ, to His Kingdom, to His church, to the needs
of the Saints. Notice that none of the focus is on yourself but on
God and others. This is so important to God that He uses this to mi-
raculously and inexplicably transform you into a whole new creation.
You wake up one day and notice you have not thought about the food
for hours but you are praying all the time. It is called The Transfer.
TRUTH TIP
You can rise above the magnetic pull of the refrigerator and be
permanently free. The more you eat, the more you want. The less
you eat, the less you want.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
9 Jesus promises the Holy Spirit: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
John 14:15
113
114 Gwen in her dining room at
Ashlawn in Brentwood, Tennessee.
9
OVERCOMING EATING DISORDERS
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spir-
it lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for
God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. I Corinthians 3:16-17
It is essential to have the right focus. We can choose many things
in this world to focus on that will wind up corrupting the soul. One
such focus is an extreme focus on our bodies. We are simply not to
be body focused—comparing ourselves to others.
Yes, we are to take care of the body. Taking care of the body is abso-
lutely essential as a human being. We were made and given life, and it is
not our right to destroy it. The body and soul and mind that you have
been given are God’s and belong to God. In fact, another way to look
at it is you are renting this body out and it is not your right to destroy it.
God designed mankind in His image; however, He made us all
unique. What is the ideal body weight for one person is not the ideal
body weight for another. God designed our systems so efficiently that
when you eat according to hunger and fullness, your body will intuitively
go to a natural size and remain there. By observing all body types in the
world, you see that God made human bodies to appear on the slender
side. Your body knows when the extra reserves have all been used up
and you are down to the size and shape that God has assigned to you.[1]
But focused on taking care of the body and body focus are two
different things. There are many different degrees of body focus that
I have run into over the years of counseling. This obsession can lead
1 See page 118 for normal percentages of body fat for men and women
to many kinds of strongholds: narcissism, exercise-aholism, anorex-
ia, bulimia, chronic control. All these people have this in common:
their mind is on themselves in almost any and every circumstance.
Their world is centered on themselves.
Anorexia can start early in life, as young girls see the U.S. spin-
ning out of control when it comes to overweight and obesity. These
are the children of dieters, and since diets have not worked, they are
taking their weight into their own hands and self-denial into their
own hands. Self-denial should be God-led. People are not good at
making decisions for themselves. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the
Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
This does not say in “some” of your ways submit to Him, but rath-
er in all your ways submit to Him. We are not gods and we are not
good controllers. We are humans made to lean on God.
What is the etiology of this stronghold or sickness? There are
people who are overly competitive and are obsessed with having the
thinnest body. Many are blind and never seem to like the body God
has given them because they are focused on someone else’s. Again,
you like what you focus on, and the grass is always greener on the
other side of the fence.
Had we brought children up to appreciate life and health, perhaps
we would not have this outbreak of anorexia in this generation. An-
orexics are so consumed that they do not see that they have become
too thin. Anorexics ignore hunger and eat so little that they put their
health in harm’s way if they do not refocus to please God. The human
being must eat when they are hungry and they must stop when they
are full so that they are not overweight or underweight. The anorexic
must obey God and eat when the body is hungry. Eating God’s way,
with hunger and fullness, gives the perfect weight and freedom from
this destructive, heartbreaking, and often tragic body focus.
People focusing on their own looks often claim they hate their
body. But Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:28-29:
116
“In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own
body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church…”
So you do not hate yourself because you feed, take care of, and
worry about yourself, which means you love yourself. So it is not
about loving yourself too little, it is about a misplaced focus and ob-
session on self and loving God too little.
The Scriptures reinforce that focusing on your body is connected
with sin or just outright rebellion. After Adam and Eve defied what
God had clearly told them not to do, it says in Genesis 3:7, “Then the
eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they
We are not gods and we are not good

controllers. We are humans
made to lean on God.
sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Sin is simply
becoming your own god, and Adam and Eve let go of their childlike
hearts and took over. A young child has no awareness of their body or
looks—they simply love the authority or parent. The more innocent
you are, the more outward and upward you are; the more sinful you
are, the more inward and focused on earthly things you are.
The world may applaud outward beauty, but they are attracted
to righteous people who are a light in this dark world. Jesus had no
appearance that men would desire,[2] however, look at how the world
has flocked to him and his teachings. Jesus taught the love of God
first, and then love of man, in that order. It is not about how you look
but what you give back—your response to the love you have been
given. Tell me, whom do you like to be around? I am sure that the
2 “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance

that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2b
117
characteristics of the people you enjoy have nothing to do with their
looks. So why do you care about what you look like? Let it all go.
How do you rid yourself of that evil behavior? By focusing off of
the body and changing your focus onto pleasing God, you will turn
all of this around. Remember, when you are focused on the human
body, you will be out of control. If you start over and praise God for
life, for breath, another day to live and a chance to consider others
better than yourself, it will turn your world right-side up.
The key is to let go. You will find the control. Let go and obey. Let
go of your selfish desires. Lay it down. Let go of your looks. Trust me,
no one cares about what you look like. You were put here to please
God. People are too busy to pay attention to your looks. It is not about
what someone else has or looks like; it is not about what they are wear-
ing. People see your heart and are drawn to a heart of love.
We are to take care of our body, and it should not be abused. We
must do the best we can. Always be clean. We are to glorify God
with what we have been given just as all the animals do. However,
we are not to obsess over looks. Do your best, and then forget your
looks and show concern for others.
Remember that if your mind is caught up in self-focus, it is en-
slaved—caught up in your own desires. You are a slave to whatever
has mastered you.
If you go to I Corinthians 12, you learn that you are a part of a
greater body…the body of Christ. In this body, there are spiritual
gifts—one body and many parts. This, the church, the true body of
Saints, is what you need to love and focus on. Notice how you will
have no episodes of bingeing or purging if you transfer your concern
to the body of Christ.
Ideal Body Weight
The body is amazingly made; you are amazingly made. God de-
signed all of us in His image, but each body is quite unique. Again,
what the ideal body weight is for one person is not the ideal body
118
weight for another. But the percentage of fat is basically the same—
Men average 18 to 24 percent and women average 25 to 31 percent.
God designed our systems so efficiently that when you eat according
to hunger and fullness, your body will naturally go to a slender size
and remain there. Your body knows when its reserves have all been
used up, and your hunger sensation either will come more often or
will require more food before being satisfied. It is important not to
focus on a specific weight. It is also important not to repeatedly skip
hunger signs. Continually ignoring the signal that your body needs
to eat is as harmful as overeating. It can lead to anorexia and trying
to maintain a body weight that is too thin and not healthy. As long
as you are obedient to hunger and fullness, your body will reach and
maintain the weight that God intends for you.
The body is made of mainly water, and water can fluctuate. If
you have been obedient to hunger and fullness, you will lose weight.
Therefore, keep food records of hunger and fullness. Do not be sur-
prised if your weight goes up if you are disobedient to the stomach.
If you are a female, do not be surprised if your weight goes up when it
is time for your cycle. Do not get depressed if one week your weight
does not go down and you did everything right; you are being tested
to see if you will be obedient to God even without immediate reward.
It is helpful to pick a time of day to weigh, and then know that
if you have been obedient and you are finding hunger, there is no
reason to be upset if the scale does not go down. Instead, use that
energy to make sure that you are waiting for hunger and stopping
when you are satisfied. One week you may lose four pounds, and the
next week you may not lose anything. It may even go up a pound one
week. Just look at the pattern over a three-week period. If there is no
progress for three weeks, you are probably missing the boat and not
telling yourself the truth.
Just keep focused on what you are supposed to be doing—use
your conscience and talk to God; if the graph is not going down, then
run to God more and eat less food!
119
Get encouragement from the Weigh Down office and the Re-
gional Representatives, who are invaluable for success. The body of
Christ cannot do without each other; a foot cannot say to a hand, “I
have no need of you.”[3] We need the accountability, the prayers of
others who are putting this into practice, the fellowship, and the en-
couragement. The Weigh Down Facebook Group offers wonderful
help and encouragement as well![4]
How To Approach The Scales
You can depend on numbers on a scale to a fault. How sad to
think of the millions of people in this country focusing on the body
weight more than the weight of their heart. However, you cannot
throw the scales out, for they are the truth. You need to weigh no
more than once per day. You will want to record your weight.[5]
Exercise
Just as dieting does not help your heart desire less food, neither
does exercise. Appropriately motivated exercise can be a help for
physical training. There is no substitute for exercise when it comes to
muscle toning, cardiovascular conditioning, and bone strengthening. It
can also help with digestion and with healthy functioning of your organs.
“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things,
holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” I Timothy 4:8
However, exercise does not retrain your overchewing. Exercise
could even work against you in terms of weight loss. Our goal is getting
you to chew less food. But it is very tempting to continue to overeat
and then compensate by walking around the block. Do not misinter-
pret—we are all for exercise. However, our goal is to focus all of your
3 “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to
the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” I Corinthians 12:21
4 Go to www.facebook.com/groups/WeighDownMinistries/ and select “Join Group”
5 Space is provided on page 367
120
heart, soul, mind, and strength on eating less food. We are going to be
concentrating on the spiritual training. The only exercises we insist on
are getting down on your knees to pray and getting the muscle of your
will to surrender the extra food you have been eating. That is a whole
new exercise of the spiritual heart muscle that is valuable for this life
and the life to come. Many may be too large to get on their knees right
now. That is okay—just get on your knees in your heart.
Just know that no one who traveled this journey and lost weight
permanently had to increase their energy expenditure through exer-
cise. Not everyone can exercise. What about people with disabili-
ties? What about the person who loves to exercise but has been in-
jured? Are these people doomed to gain weight? Not at all. Weigh
Down has so many testimonies from people in wheel chairs and from
those who could not exercise due to physical restrictions.
Exercise will not increase the speed of your weight loss, because,
when using hunger and fullness, the body already knows how much
energy you spent and it will ask for more food. Notice in exercise,
your body needs more oxygen, so immediately and automatically,
you breathe harder. Exercise will also make you thirstier; the body
requires more water to satisfy its needs, so you will automatically
drink more water until those needs are met. Likewise, even though
hunger is deferred temporarily, within 24 hours, your body’s hunger
increases automatically to cover the body’s extra caloric needs. So if
you want to exercise, fine, but exercise will not help you to lose weight
faster. It will allow you to eat more food, just as it allows you to drink
more water. The goal of Weigh Down is to become accustomed to the
decreased volumes of food. If you are less active because of an inability
to exercise, your hunger will decrease to meet your fuel needs. You
never have to fear missing an aerobics class or workout again. If you
do choose to exercise, use this time to listen to your Weigh Down au-
dios. Also remember, be moderate in everything, including exercise,
and know that some of the best aerobics are cleaning the house and
121
doing yard work. Scrubbing, vacuuming, pulling weeds, and organiz-
ing closets benefits the whole family and still benefits you.
Anorexia And Bulimia
Weigh Down has helped many anorexics and bulimics to let go of
control and become at peace with their bodies. The anorexic person
who responds to physical hunger as taught through Weigh Down
will gain the appropriate weight their body needs for good health.
It is important for the anorexic not to skip hunger signs. Ignoring
the signal that your body needs to eat is as disobedient as overeating.
Bulimics will also learn to eat within hunger and fullness and learn to
end the cycle of bingeing and purging. As long as you are obedient
to hunger and fullness, your body will reach and maintain the weight
that God intends for you. By applying these principles, those with
eating disorders have improved their health and changed their focus
on food and their obsession for thinness, over to a focus on and
devotion to God. While individuals with anorexia or bulimia can
certainly benefit from this program, they should remain under the
care of their physicians.
Tips To Stop Bingeing/Purging
Many years of dieting can breed the “starve-binge-purge” cycle.
The purge is an attempt to eliminate from your system the calories
that you took in from the binge or food that you have been led to be-
lieve is “bad for you” or “too high in fat.” Purging takes many forms.
Some examples are vomiting (bulimia), fluid pills (diuretics), laxa-
tives, or exercise. Do you not see that all of these actions are the re-
sults of your trying to fix everything? Your path is destructive, and
with every step you take, you are forced to try to undo what you just
did. And what you just did was supposed to have been the solu-
tion—instead, every step made it worse!
So what is the root of the problem? It is what your heart is de-
pending on! And purging is not some disease or obsession. It is all
122
a consequence of your lust for food. From that perspective, here is

the cycle: You have a passion for food rather than God. That passion
for food leads to overeating. Overeating leads to overweight. Over-
weight leads to dieting. Dieting does not address your misplaced
passion, and deprivation while on this diet explodes in a binge. The
ensuing guilt can take you in two directions:
1. You can repent (turn back to God), ask for His help, and sim-
ply wait until your body empties again. You may feel too full,
and it may take a while before you feel hunger again, but do not
worry—you will be fine. You must practice being dependent on
God. If you call out to God, He can give you the peace you need
and the feeling of control you are looking for—with no guilt. In
other words, God can make you feel better than purging!
2. Or you can bypass God, try by your own power, and return to
your control method—which is actually extremely unhealthy—
and purge again. This second option is obviously scary and nev-
er-ending, because it does not address or uproot the lust for food,
so you need to imagine doing this until you have burned up your
esophagus and your teeth with the acid in your stomach. It is a
horrible decision and has severe consequences.
The way to end the entire nightmare cycle is to get to the root
problem—you have a desire to go against the will of God and it must
stop. The way to end this is to transfer your passion for food—or in
anorexia, for too thin of a body—to passion for God. What the diet
industry has done in this country has resulted in years and years of
deprivation and harsh treatment of the body from man-made rules.
The deprivation that I am referring to comes in two basic forms. It
is either a caloric deprivation—for example, counting calories every
day—or food category deprivation, for example, no sugars or fats.
Caloric deprivation causes you to starve off the fat until you just can-
not take it anymore. You then eat everything in sight. Americans
have been known to consume thousands of calories in binges.
123
The second area of deprivation is caused by the prolonged absti-
nence from certain food groups. Typically, the average weight-re-
duction diet eliminates breads or sweets or fats, and some eliminate
all sugars, flour, and so on. This constant refusal to give the body
a nutrient it is calling for will ultimately result in a binge and then
guilt-ridden secret rendezvous with this “bad” food—but the rules
you break are man’s, not God’s, so the resulting guilt is false guilt.
This was a result of following man’s rules, but do not get caught up in
feeling guilty. By following that diet that left out these nutrients, you
thought what you were doing was righteous, but it was man’s rules—
you feel guilty not following the diet and then you also feel guilty,
though, from a binge that is basically driven from the wrong kind of
self-denial. Self-denial must always be from God. For example, it is
wrong to punish yourself with a fast. A fast should be something you
feel God leading you to do for spiritual reasons. Over the centuries,
various religions would lay burdens on other people, trying to get
them to punish their body—but it was man-directed and not God-
directed.[6]
After years of purging, some people seem to automatically throw up
after a meal. This is reverse peristalsis. Your body is confused, but it will
return to normal forward-moving peristalsis as you reverse the focus.
Some of you have spent years in therapy and rehab units; these
rehabs only make you more self-focused. It is time to turn to God
through Jesus Christ who can help you through this.
Let me tell you right now that you can be set free from all of
that behavior. Let us not Band-Aid the symptom, though; let us go
6 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and
follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through
hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid
people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created
to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.” I
Timothy 4:1-3
124
straight to the root. The Weigh Down approach to eating is abso-

lutely the answer to it all.
Break the Eating Disorder Cycle
1. Stop the control and the panic/anxiety. Anorexia is a lie, and you
do not have to starve any more to be thin. Hunger and fullness is
God’s perfect design for good health and good looks.
2. Replace the intensive desire to eat with an intensive desire for
God, and the bingeing will end. Have faith that God will feed you
and take care of you. You do not have to be afraid of food or any-
thing. God loves you and wants a relationship with you. Binging
and purging only leaves you full of shame and guilt. God will heal
your heart and fill you with joy and peace.
By reintroducing yourself to regular foods, you will not only

learn to eat them with control, but the so-called “forbidden foods”
will lose their appeal after a while.
A certain sense of peace comes with knowing that whenever you
get hungry, you may have that food. Again, as we have stated before,
your body has incredible biological feedback for variety. Once you
have had enough of that one food, you will not want it again for a while.
Remember, you are not a failure. You have not overcome over-
eating because you have applied the wrong medicine to this condi-
tion. It is time to start over with new hope. You can change your
heart’s focus. And do not be afraid, because you should only fear
missing the guiding hand of God for what He wants.
Also remember, do not focus on what people think. Stop allowing
people to judge you when you are eating pecan pie or regular foods of
any kind. Every time you find yourself wondering what people think,
turn your attention straight upward to God and look only for His ap-
proval. Similarly, stop feeling self-righteous when you have pulled the
fat out of a recipe and made the food behave. It is time to relearn how
125
to be righteous—do things God’s way—by making your heart and
mind behave.
Understand that the behavior you are tackling is overindulgence.
Overindulgence leads a person to desire something on this Earth to
make him feel good. Our loving God will give you this feeling so that
you no longer have to look for it from things on this Earth.
It is time to direct that desire upward toward God to let Him fill
you, for blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting for righ-
teousness.[7]
TRUTH TIP
End the fear and shame of an eating disorder. God’s perfect plan
of hunger and fullness allows you to be thin while being healthy
physically and spiritually. End the panic and cry out to your
loving Creator for help.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
7 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Matthew 5:6
126
TESTIMONY
Miley Barcus, down 20 pounds and set free from
eating disorders since 2003.
Beginning in high school, I struggled with bulimia, anxiety and depres-
sion. In my twenties, I sought help from numerous sources—weight loss
plans, personal trainers, church pastors, 12-step programs…and even spent
8 months attending an outpatient treatment center for eating disorders.
I was told that my struggles were due to a disease and perhaps a tragic
event in my childhood that I simply couldn’t recall. Neither of these expla-
nations rang true to me and certainly did not provide the freedom I longed
for. Something in me questioned it all, and I refused to give in to the idea
that this was my lot in life. I believed if God was powerful enough to hang
stars in the sky, surely He was powerful enough to fix me—I just had not
landed on the answer yet.
I got on my knees and begged God to lead me to the answer. A couple
of days later, I met someone who worked at Weigh Down, and I immedi-
ately signed up for a Weigh Down Basics class. In the first video lesson,
the truth that Gwen spoke made complete sense to me. I did not have a
disease nor a forgotten tragic childhood event…I simply had been turn-
ing to food for comfort
instead of turning to
God! For the first time
in years, I began to eat
normal food. Through
the Weigh Down Ba-
sics classes, I lost 20
pounds and completely
overcame the eating dis-
order! But even more
importantly, I found a
very genuine relation-
ship with God.
Fifteen years later, I
have kept the weight off
and am totally free. I am
so grateful!
Miley pictured with her husband, BB, who lost 35 pounds through
Weigh Down Basics.
127
128 Gwen in the family room reading the Bible. Gwen says she
falls more in love with God every day.
10
LEARNING TO SENSE
INTERNAL CONTROLS
When you start the Weigh Down journey, it is not uncommon to
have no idea about what your internal senses are telling you. If you
have never looked for the Voice of God from within or from without,
you might not know what to look for. For those trying to learn what
to buy when you are shopping or trying to figure out when have you
spent enough, when your heart pounds, it is to warn you, or your
heart may pound when God wants you to speak up. Who would
have known that God uses different ways to wake you in the night?
Samuel was a young boy and yet he finally learned it was God calling
him in the night.[1]
For those trying to learn how to sense what the body is calling
for, you need to realize how much man-made rules block you from
sensing what you need. Why is it hard to select foods? As a child,
you ate what your mother cooked for you; when you went to school,
you ate what the public government schools prepared and demanded
that you eat; as you got older, you started dieting and ate what the lat-
est program or magazine told you to eat. In fact, have you ever sensed
what you wanted? If so, it was probably early in your life.
However, we can be re-taught at any age to find the Voice of
God—the earlier the better. It is right to teach children from birth
that their body has the answers. In Chapter One we learned the two
most important health tips: 1) Turn to God first. 2) Confess, turn
1 I Samuel 3:1-10
from sin, and live a righteous life. However, a part of living a righ-
teous life is to have respect for how God made the body. Listen to
the internal cues as all animals do. If you are thirsty, drink. If you
are hungry, eat. If you are sleepy, sleep. If you are sick or tired, rest
as the body cues you, and if your feet hurt, sit down. Listen and re-
spond to digestive tract movements. When I am really tired, I get
completely horizontal—no pillow—so my heart can rest. I learned
this from responding to what felt best for my body. If something is
painful, do not do it—like overexercising. Just work up the muscles
slowly. Avoid too much sun. It is wrong to inflict pain on your body.
Be wise and you will protect your bones and your body the rest of
your life. The answers are within. This fact helps a child to become
secure, mature, and dependent on God, and independent of man. In
general, people like to be told what to do so that they do not have the
responsibility of finding the leading of God for themselves. Dieters
as a rule no longer trust themselves and have the impression that they
will binge if given freedom.
Here is what you need to do…start with prayer—calling out to
God for His lead and His Spirit of “self-control,” for His wisdom from
within on what to eat, when to start and stop, when to spend resourc-
es and when to speak.
Let us use the example, once again, of eating, since we all have to
eat. What your body is calling for or what your body wants to eat is
innate; it is programmed into each person and each animal. Internal
control is buried and forgotten under years of other people trying to
control you. It has been suppressed because you have tried to please
other people and eat what they want you to eat. This internal control
is masked now under lustful desires, birthed from years of denial cre-
ated by man and fears that you will be malnourished—again, sugges-
tions made by man. It will take an education about God’s eating plan
to resurrect this internal control. By absorbing this truth, you can be
set free from years of man-made rules that have had no value in get-
ting the weight off nor helped your overall health. You can resurrect
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LEARNING TO SENSE INTERNAL CONTROLS
this buried, covered, and concealed biological feedback and rede-

velop this innate, God-given ability to sense what your body is really
calling for. This is truly the healthiest way to eat!
Seek Righteousness Not Nutrients
To wake up internal control, you must end the lies and believe the
truth. Remember, Colossians 2:22 says, “These are all destined to per-
ish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.”
There are man-made rules and there are God’s rules. Oh, how man
likes to make up rules and make other men go by them. But they do
not work, and it is your job to learn the difference. If you do it God’s
way, you will have immediate positive results. If it is man’s rules you
are following, you will never lose the weight and you will become
larger every year. My prayer is that this generation puts an end to
man-made rules of all kinds. You will not be undernourished if you
eat regular foods or what the body is calling for. God did not give
the animals a “food pyramid” to decode and interpret what foods to
eat, and yet they are beautiful and well-fed. It is simply not as com-
plicated as the nutrition world would have you believe. The foods we
eat from the grocery store are adequate if we eat a variety. The term
“regular foods” includes pizza, cheeseburgers, eggs and pancakes,
cereal and milk, ham and cheese sandwiches, chips with cheese dip
and chili, Chinese foods, rice and beans, taco pile-up with lettuce and
chopped tomatoes, peanut butter and jelly, and deli sandwiches—
and everyone gets in the mood for apples, grapes, and carrots or cel-
ery with ranch dressing…you get the picture—all from the grocery,
and they are America’s most popular foods. Too much of anything
can make you sick, such as too much fiber or high fiber foods that can
cause harm to the intestines. Plant sources of foods are wonderful
and will likely always be the major source of our calories; however, it
is not wrong to eat animal sources of food. You do not have to be a
vegetarian to live a longer life.
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As a rule, Americans are not missing vitamins. So many foods
are fortified or enriched with extra vitamins and minerals, and your
body can cue you to a variety so that you need not worry about what
you eat. If you listen to the body, it can sense high fat or high sugar
foods, and it will guide you to stop on small amounts of those foods.
The French eat small
amounts of rich 1960-2011 Life Expectancy for
foods and yet do not France & The United States
overeat them and
have a longer life ex-
pectancy than Amer-
icans. We blame the
fat and alcohol in the
U.S. but live a shorter
life than the French,
who eat more fats
and drink wine daily.
The French eat 4 times as much butter and 60 percent more
cheese and they consume much more saturated fat, because Amer-
icans consume a much larger proportion of fat in the form of veg-
etable oil, with most of that being soybean oil. Thin Eaters eat more
like the French, and thin people like the French live longer and have
fewer heart attacks. The common denominator of superior health is
not the type of fat, but rather the volume and the sensitivity to giving
the body the amount of food that it calls for (neither over nor under).
Another example…Omega-3 fatty acids are vital for normal me-
tabolism, but some of the potential health benefits of supplementa-
tion are controversial yet are marketed widely, in spite of inconclusive
evidence. Keep in mind, these large oil pills are putting more fat into
the body. If you are overeating, do not expect more calories from fat
to help you. The French population provided enough support to let
you know that it is not about the source of fat. The French eat less
fish and more pork than Americans. Longevity is the result of eating
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in the boundaries of hunger and fullness. The reason the French live
longer is because they are not overweight. Notice their serving sizes
are smaller than Americans; they consume less calories overall. Vol-
ume is the key to being thin and thin is the key to longevity.
It is fine to be educated about foods, but it is wrong to worry. In
fact, God commands us not to worry! Jesus said in Matthew 6:25,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or
drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important
than food, and the body more important than clothes?”
The information you need to know is that God has designed your
body in such an amazing way that you do not have to worry, for if you
just follow the internal, natural cues, the human body prompts you to
do the following…if you are sleepy, sleep…if you are thirsty, drink…
if you are hungry, eat…stop eating when you are full and do not eat
again until you are hungry…obey God and do not smoke, overdrink,
overeat, or have vices such as overtalking, lusting, overshopping, or
worrying. Then you will be truly healthy.
My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not
let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life
to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. Above all else,
guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth
free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look
straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to
the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the
right or the left; keep your foot from evil. Proverbs 4:20-27
Notice the pattern of instruction from Genesis to Revelation…
man should put all of their energy and focus into doing what God
says is right, and then everything else will be added unto you. We
look for health in so many places, but they are the wrong places, and
so this country is not any healthier. You have been overeating—you
are not healthy, your bones are hurting, and you are wearing out
every organ you have. It is exhausting just to move around.
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Strong, nourished bones are not just from the grocery store but are
also found in righteous upbringing and in living a righteous life before
God. God does not want us to worry that He is going to let us starve.
In addition, God does not want us to worry about the food’s content:
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone,
and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by
going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him
‘unclean.’” After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples
asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see
that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’?
For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his
body.” In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.” He went on: “What
comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of
men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adul-
tery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All
these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’” Mark 7:14-23
So Jesus taught us that it is not the food that defiles us, but rath-
er the attitudes and thoughts that we have in our hearts and in our
minds that will corrupt and destroy us. It is the greed in our hearts
that leads to overeating and overdrinking. Greed is idolatry, it says in
Ephesians 5:3-5:
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of
any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s
holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking,
which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be
sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—
has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Simply put…God wants us to work on our heart and soul being
pure and righteous, rather than working on making the food clean
and righteous and the environment pure. That is why so many
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people who start Weigh Down are no longer depressed.[2] God tells
us that we do not need to worry about the content of foods. Alcohol
in moderation is not evil, and wine has been proven to be healthy
in small amounts; overdrinking is wrong. Food is not bad…you have
to eat to live; overeating food is incredibly damaging to all organs
and the resulting fat crowds all the organs, including the lungs, the
liver, and the kidneys. Money is not the problem; it is the love of
money, wanting more, hoarding, being stingy or tight-fisted. It is
greed…greed is idolatry. More is not better. Therefore, we need to
be concerned about the content of the spiritual heart.
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands
I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations
on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you
obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the
country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land
and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs
of your flocks. Deuteronomy 28:1-4
Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people
and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. I will bring Judah
and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before.
I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and
will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. Then this city will bring
me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of
all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at
the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it. Jeremiah 33:6-9
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will
bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Proverbs 3:7-8
2 For more on depression, see Chapter 19, “Free From Unwanted Behaviors And
Substances”
135
My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let
them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to
those who find them and health to a man’s whole body. Proverbs 4:20-22
But the average human follows the direction of the world. They
want to hang onto believing that the food is at fault for their obesity
and poor health. They want to believe that they are “saved” and a
“Saint” while all the evil is outside of them—and if you listen to the
news, all the evil occurs outside this country. Evil is so far away that it
is on the other side of the world. People go from doctor to doctor to
try to figure out why they are unhappy and sick. People do not natu-
rally want to accept responsibility for their dismal life. The summary
of this is…we are to be focusing on the content of our hearts instead
of the contents of the food package.
Biological Feedback
There is also a scientific explanation. When you learn to eat regu-
lar foods in the correct amounts using hunger and fullness, you have
achieved 90 percent of sound and life-giving nutrition. How is this
possible? It is because calories are the main nutrient need, and you
can hardly make a mistake. Glucose is the chemical [C6H12O6] that
you need to run each cell in the body. All the food groups are simply
chemicals that can be converted to glucose by the liver, thus provid-
ing the needed fuel to run on. The last 10 percent is learning what
the body is calling for, and you can sense the need for fluids, calories,
and vitamins. For example, you may crave orange juice from time to
time or you might have a hankering for milk and cereal. You do not
want at lunch what your body asked for at breakfast, and you do not
crave for dinner what you ate at lunch. You have had sensations of
never wanting to eat a certain food again when you have overdone it.
This is all biological feedback that is programmed into the brilliantly
made body you have been given.
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The human body, over time, wants appropriate amounts of a vari-

ety of foods. Most of the world in all generations—and even among
the seven billion living today—do not know what the food pyramids
are. Notice the confusion from the so-called experts. None of the
experts even agree on anything, neither what foods to emphasize
nor the amounts from each food
group. From 1956 until 1992, the
United States Department of Ag-
riculture recommended its “Basic
Four” food groups, but it always
had its controversies. Then there
were almost 20 years of the con-
fusing pyramids used by the World
Health Organization (WHO) in
USDA Food Pyramid
conjunction with the Food and Ag-
riculture Organization (FAO) and picked up by the U.S. in 1992. In
a consumer survey, three of four Americans said there is too much
conflicting/confusing information about diet in these pyramids.[3]
Contributing to this confusion were several dietary pyramids
that have begun to compete for the public’s attention: The USDA
Food Guide Pyramid, the Mediterranean Pyramid, the Asian Pyra-
mid, and the Latin American Pyramid, among others. These pyra-
mids were in use in 25 countries, each with their own ideas. What
did these pyramids, all with seemingly different messages, mean for
anyone?
So they dropped the pyramid approach. Now “MyPlate” is the
current nutrition guide published by the United States Department
of Agriculture, depicting a place setting with a plate and glass divided
into five food groups. It replaced the USDA’s MyPyramid guide on
June 2, 2011, concluding 19 years of USDA food pyramid diagrams.
MyPlate simply reverts back to the simple food groups, except they
3 How are Americans Making Food Choices? ADA/IFIC, 1994

137
have separated fruits and vegetables into
separate groups—so there are five cat-
egories. They call fats “oils” now, and the
amounts are still very confusing, and each
organization and university has its own
opinion. There is absolutely no consensus.
Harvard wants milk off the list, saying it
contributes to heart disease, and some groups want the list to contain
all vegetarian foods. There is a complicated, long list from various
places on good and bad foods. The food industry has a strong lobby
in this “good foods” and “bad foods” indoctrination.
God never intended for eating to be such a confusing burden
nor a scare. Since the sale of foods is a big industry in this country,
false promotional information is rampant because it is hard to moni-
tor. There are a lot of words that are misunderstood—for example,
“organic” or “chemical.” Everything you eat is a chemical, primarily
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Organic simply means it
contains “carbon,” and almost all foods are made up of carbon, hy-
drogen, and oxygen.
Nutrition and dietetics are the studies of the chemicals that your
body manufactures for you or that you consume which run the Krebs
cycle to provide energy for each cell in your body. But we propose to
you that we are not exactly what we eat, because the body manufac-
tures many chemicals such as cholesterol, vitamin K, and vitamin D
that you need. You do not have to eat these or many other chemicals
for good health. For example, you do not have to eat bones to make
bones, collagen to make collagen, or cells to have cells. The body
makes most everything that is needed, and you supply the energy to
keep the body running. But just like a car that mainly needs gasoline
to run, it occasionally needs you to add motor oil or wiper fluid. For
example, you need small amounts of vitamins each day in proportion
to the food you eat, and yet these vitamins are found in the regular
138
foods we eat if you eat a variety. As a general rule, if you eat correctly,
you do not need to take vitamins.
Just as God programmed animals to like different foods, God has
programmed the human, and He miraculously coordinated hunger
and taste buds and fullness and thirst. The detail that He has gone to
should assure you. For example, some proteins do not have all the
amino acids that are needed by the body when building new cells.
However, God made protein complements where one food would
have ample amino acids of what the other protein food source was
missing. Peanuts and wheat are protein complements, which is just
a peanut butter sandwich. Also, rice and beans are protein comple-
ments, which is a typical Mexican dish. All milk, cheese, meat, and
egg sources are complete proteins, and you need surprisingly less
protein each day than you might expect once you are grown. God
has bigger, more eternal things He wants us to study and contem-
plate. The fear of missing a nutrient is counterproductive and has led
to many damaging excesses so that the average American is not living
longer than the previous generation. For the first time in many years,
the children are expected to live a shorter time than their parents.
Keep in mind, modern nutrition is a relatively young science, and
people have been living long lives without this modern obsession.
In a capitalistic country, sales gurus capitalize on people’s fears,
so it is to their advantage to keep the health fears going. The govern-
ment has been warning the lay consumer for years that health food
stores and the aisles that sell you health foods at the grocery store will
sell you food chemicals that your body already manufactures. One
common example of this is “lecithin,” a chemical that is part of the
makeup of your cells. You do not need to eat lecithin—it is produced
by your liver. You are eating useless calories and wasting wealth. Nei-
ther your grandparents nor any generation before you ever visited
the health food store—yet so many have lived out full lives never
worrying about the bacon and eggs they had for breakfast every day.
139
C NH
NH CO C NH CO
CO C
Protein Molecule Fragment
CHOH
CHOH CHOH
CHOH CHOH
CHOH
Water Molecule Glucose (Sugar) Molecule
CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2

CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 CO2H
CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2

CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2

Fat Molecule
Our bodies are wonderfully made, and the body instantly knows
when something is wrong, from something as small as a paper cut to
a broken bone, and it instantly goes to work to heal itself. How God,
from just two cells, can reproduce another human where brain, eyes,
ears, digestion and absorption, and communication all work is mind-
boggling. Each cell is so incredibly complex that scientists have not
been able to create life from scratch. The chemical reactions are so
complicated that, even though we can carry out each of those chemi-
cal reactions in a test tube, we cannot get them all to work in a syn-
thetically built cell. Even with all the wealth of information that we
have discovered, most of the processes of the body cannot be func-
tionally duplicated. This knowledge only represents a fraction of the
140
information. Indeed, the Creator is way beyond genius as we know

it. To be given life is so marvelous, and then to be allowed to have
children is even more wonderful. The study of just the two functions
of digestion and absorption is astounding! Spending hours with the
books brought me to one major conclusion: there is a Creator who is
beyond intelligent and worthy of praise and adoration!
Carrier loads molecular

food unit on outside of cell
Intestinal
Cell Wall
...and then releases

it on inside of cell.
Our bodies digest (break down) the food into tiny molecules or
units—primarily “glucose,” the sugar that is the food for each cell in
the body. A portion of these digested/broken-down molecular food
units can cross the intestinal cell wall if there is a specific carrier and
go through a separate circulating system. Simply put, your breakfast,
lunch, and supper are broken down and then sent to the liver. The
liver is a large, silent, and painless organ that converts your carbohy-
drates, proteins, and fats primarily into glucose for fuel, some protein
as needed, and into fats if you have overeaten. This fat (triglycerides)
is transported to storage spots in the body.
The food you eat is simply chemicals—primarily molecules of
carbohydrates, fats, and proteins—which are made up of carbons,
hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (see figure). After you swallow the
food, it is shredded and broken apart by the acid in the stomach. It
moves in small amounts to the small intestine, where digestive juic-
es—which are produced in the pancreas, gallbladder, and cell walls of
the small intestine—are used to break down the carbohydrates, fats,
141
and proteins into even smaller units. These units are moved across
the intestinal walls and to the liver—a process taking anywhere from
five to twenty minutes. Dietary fats (also called triglycerides) do not
go directly to the liver. After crossing the intestinal wall, they take a
longer trip, slowly moving between the body’s cells in a space called
the lymphatic system. Triglycerides will slowly drip into the regular
bloodstream through the various ducts connected to the watery cir-
culating system, and then finally circulate to the liver. This route can
take up to 13 hours. The slow entry keeps the blood sugar stabilized
as the liver slowly converts the fat into the usable glucose units. If you
eat a meal that is primarily carbohydrates, you will be hungry sooner.
If you add fats, it will help you go longer before you feel hungry again.
The liver is amazingly designed to take the broken-down food
units—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—and turn the largest per-
centage of these into glucose (the body’s fuel or energy source). So
you are not exactly what you eat. God has programmed cows to want
grass, and they do not turn into grass and they produce calcium-
rich milk. Do baby whales
eat plankton and turn
into plankton? Of course
not! They turn into giant
whales, make more whales,
and the mother whales pro-
duce milk without drinking
milk. Amazing! Cardinals
Liver are programmed to eat sun-
Stomach
flower seeds, but they turn
Pancreas
into cardinals. Robins eat
worms; mockingbirds eat
Intestines
grasshoppers. God can
make a cow’s digestive sys-
tem to break down grass,
and yet grass consumed by
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humans remains in the intestines and passes through as fiber. We do

not have the enzyme to break down the chemical bonds in grass.
The liver takes what you have eaten and, via chemical reaction,
reforms the units into the substances the human body needs. These
newly made substances are moved into the hepatic vein that bridges
the liver to the posterior vena cava to the right atrium (the heart). The
heart pumps this food (primarily glucose) to all the cells in the body.
The pancreas produces a hormone called “insulin,” and the num-
ber of glucose molecules determines the number of insulin molecules
needed. The insulin molecule “opens the door” or provides the pas-
sage of each glucose molecule into each cell.
Once the glucose food gets into the cell, each cell takes one oxy-
gen [O2] molecule plus one glucose
molecule[C6H12O6] and these two
molecules start a chain of chemical
reactions that release energy into each
of your cells. This chain of reactions is
called the Krebs Cycle, and 40 percent
of this energy is released as heat, which
keeps the body at 98.6 degrees. The
other 60 percent of energy is trapped
in the form of ATPs (stored chemi-
cal energy—high-energy phosphate
bonds) as fuel to run the cell. Each
person traps the same amount of energy or kilocalories from each
glucose molecule of food.
The end products of the Krebs Cycle are water [H2O] and car-
bon dioxide [CO2]. Your kidneys are used to excrete all end prod-
ucts, so the water is excreted and the lungs breathe out the CO2. The
amount of calories (glucose) you need is a one-to-one ratio to the
amount of oxygen you breathe. In other words, one O2 is needed for
each C6H12O6. Your height and muscle mass and activity level de-
termines the amount you need. The amount increases for when you
143
are growing or pregnant. So the amount you need will vary; however,
each person does trap the same amount of calories from each food, and
that is why they can put the calories on the side of the package. People
cannot claim they are overweight because their metabolism is messed
up. For example, they cannot claim that if they eat a bite of a donut
they will gain weight but that skinny people can eat a dozen and not
gain weight. Wrong—we all, no matter our age or size or race, receive
215 calories from a donut, 16 calories from 1 teaspoon of sugar, etc.
Type II Diabetes
Thin Eaters are healthy because the food they eat is needed for
fuel and then they do not refuel until the stomach growls, which keeps
just the right amount of sugar in the blood—not too much and not
too little. If you overeat for years, you have overworked every organ
and the pancreas is so taxed that it cannot supply enough insulin to
take in the food from the binge. This throws your body into a diabet-
ic state. Diabetes is elevated blood sugar (glucose circulating in the
blood that cannot get into the cells so it stays in the bloodstream).
Type II Diabetes is from overweight/obesity—all brought on one-
self by eating too much. Normally, people who get Type II Diabe-
tes are given “oral hypoglycemic agents” to stimulate the pancreas to
produce more insulin. If you continue on this path of overeating, the
next step will be for your doctor to put you on an insulin shot regimen.
But if you will lose weight and eat only when you are hungry, you can
correct this problem and come off of the medication gradually, under
the care of your doctor.
How Do We Get The Nutrients We Need?
All foods are composed of primarily water, proteins, carbohy-
drates, fats, and trace (tiny) amounts of vitamins and minerals. Pro-
teins, carbohydrates [CHO], and fats are made up of carbon, hydro-
gen, and oxygen. Proteins add nitrogen to their chemical structures.
144
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well

as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulate and
monitor pesticide use and residues in conventional foods.
The real question is: Will grocery store food harm you as some have
claimed?
Well, here is how it works… Our Heavenly Creator has made our
bodies to detect and rid themselves of harmful chemicals that are not
part of the normal dietary process. Hypothetically, let us say your
toddler accidently put dirt into his mouth. His stomach would be
the first place that could detect harmful bacteria or chemicals. The
stomach may throw it back up and out of the body. Most harmful bac-
teria would be destroyed in the very acidic [pH 1.5] stomach fluids.
If harmful substances get past the stomach and into the intestines,
then the body might trigger diarrhea (increased peristalsis) to rid the
body. Nothing can get into your bloodstream until it passes through
the intestinal wall. This “wall” is amazingly selective and specific for
what the body wants. It is almost impossible for a foreign or harm-
ful substance to make it past this barrier, because it does not have a
carrier (or a gate code to get through), so it stays in the intestines and
just passes. But let us say that something foreign or bad did make its
way in…then the liver acts as a super filter and traps it and breaks
the chemical apart, rendering it harmless. The now cleaned/filtered
blood goes through the hepatic vein and is then disseminated.
Just think—your child might have been watching a movie while all
of this was going on, oblivious to the safeguards at each level of entry.
So if you choose the more expensive foods—“organic” foods—
do not count on them being toxin-free. The best way to protect your-
self is to thoroughly rinse all raw foods (fruits and vegetables) under
running water. Once again, this all supports the fact that so much of
the worry is unnecessary because our bodies have already been safe-
guarded by God in this amazingly created human body.
With that said, do not be afraid to trust that your body can cue
you to what it needs, and since the need for protection and the
145
appropriate substances with the appropriate amounts is all taken
care of by our Genius Chemist, eat what your body is craving. For…
who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6.27
TRUTH TIP
God has pre-programmed us to crave a variety of foods. We do
not have to count calories, points or fat grams for good health.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
Gwen hosting the You Can Overcome Show, Season 13, Episode 11, “Weigh Down Around the
World,” filmed April 4, 2018.
146
11
HOW TO HAVE A BALANCED MEAL
The world’s diets do not leave you healthier; they only leave you
more focused on the food. From fat-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, low
carb, high-protein, no-dairy and such, no wonder dieting is totally
confusing! That is why diets fail because they leave you craving real
food versus tasteless food. For the most part, all the food groups con-
tain the six basic nutrients. For example, when you eat a piece of
bread, you think you are eating just a carbohydrate. No, it is largely
a carbohydrate, but it also contains proteins, fats, water [H2O], vita-
mins, and minerals.
What about a potato? It is made of carbohydrates, a trace of pro-
teins and fat, vitamins, minerals, and water. What about meat? It is
proteins, fat, and a trace of carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and
water. What about milk? Well, it is proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vita-
mins, minerals, and water, too. What about chocolate, cookies, cake,
or candy? They, too, are fats, carbohydrates, some proteins, and a
trace of vitamins, minerals, and water.
Simple carbohydrates are made of short chains of glucose (basi-
cally C6H12O6). Breads are made of long chains of glucose. Fruc-
tose (another arrangement of C6H12O6) is a simple carbohydrate
that God made to fit exactly in the taste bud, which in turn stimulates
a nerve ending to send a signal that the brain interprets as “delight-
fully sweet.” If you were to examine the bloodstream, you would not
be able to tell if you had eaten long chains or short chains. Glucose
is the sugar form that each of your cells uses for energy. We do not
have to eat it—the foods we eat are turned into glucose by the liver.
Likewise, your body does not know if it ate honey, unrefined sugar
from the sugar cane plant, refined table sugar, or bread, because all
the units are converted to glucose in the liver and then transported
into the bloodstream in the form of single unit glucose molecules
to be used by the body cells. Being overanxious about the source of
sugar is part of the bondage of food.
Table sugar comes from the sugar cane plant and is extracted in
the form of molasses. Molasses can crystallize, and this is what we
call dark brown sugar. If the syrup is washed off the crystals, you will
So do not worry or fret about your food

or health…rather seek the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and
all this will be added to you.
have light brown or table sugar, depending on the level of washing. If
table sugar is crushed into smaller pieces, it is then called powdered
sugar. All of these sugars are from one source with the same chemical
structure. The body cannot detect its source after bypassing the liver.
While we are talking about carbohydrates and breads, I want to
point out that it is sad to see that so many professional dieters have
gone against the body’s need for bread. All naturally born Thin Eaters
eat most of their calories from breads, which includes rice, potatoes,
and cereals, and they do not deny themselves sweets. The needed
“glucose” is most easily derived from breads and sugar. Much of the
non-dieting Third World countries get 80 percent of their calories
from breads. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”[1] That had meaning in
Jesus’ day and has meaning to most of the world today. Breads were
and still should be the staple. A large percentage of the calories that
Thin Eaters eat is from bread, which is just long chains of glucose—
the food is already in the chemical shape that is needed by each cell
1 John 6:35
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and is less taxing on the body, the liver, and the whole system. This
gives you more energy.
All foods have varying combinations of these six units: carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen, vitamins, minerals, and water. Your main need
is for energy or fuel to run the body. We have made selecting foods
(something intended by God to be enjoyable) into something com-
plicated and burdensome and worrisome. The food industry has
picked up on our fears and has capitalized on them. If the heart asso-
ciations have alerted you to be careful of too much whole milk due to
heart disease, then the dairy associations will alert you to be sure to
drink milk because of its possible association with preventing osteo-
porosis. The chicken industry has soared while the poor beef indus-
try continues to struggle because of the hype on fat sources and heart
disease. I personally love red meat, but I enjoy all foods in modera-
tion, and the body calls for modest amounts of meats. The more we
try to monitor and control our health, the unhealthier we become.
Let go and listen to what the body calls for, and watch young children
go after a variety if you give them choices. Sensitivity to volume is
the dietary habit of most 90-year-olds. You may know some over-
weight 60-year-olds. But how many overweight 90-year-olds do you
know? Amounts are the first priority, and then learn the sensitivity
to the “what” you eat.
Some of the foods you eat are already in the form that your body
calls for. The body just needs to break them down to smaller units.
Some of what you eat, such as whole wheat fiber and celery fiber,
never even get past the small intestine cell wall and so are excreted in
bodily waste.
Other nutrients you need, such as vitamins and minerals, are
widespread in various foods and are needed only in tiny, tiny amounts.
I have worked in the health department in a state that statistics say is
one of the poorest in the United States, and only once documented
malnourishment, and it resulted from negligent parents on drugs.
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So, the lack of a nutrient is highly overemphasized. The only
documented cases of true malnutrition (scurvy, beriberi, or pellagra)
occur when people are starving—when the food is limited so that
even though the human is craving the right foods, the food is unavail-
able. Examples of this occurred when people spent years in non-mo-
torized ships or during war times when trapped soldiers ran out of a
variety of foods. Once they were rescued, the symptoms went away.
Early civilization did not have these guidelines, and yet each gen-
eration for thousands of years has used God’s biological feedback
system, which guides all animals and humans to eat what their body
is calling for.
We need to re-examine old wives’ tales and new man-made sci-
entific rules. For example, as we discussed, we tell our children that
if they do not eat breakfast, their IQ will drop (never mind that they
ate two bowls of cereal before bed and they are simply not hungry).
The irony is that overeating makes you sleepy, and that is when intel-
lectual response rates really drop.
The best advice is to monitor how you feel—your energy level. No-
tice that less food, a variety, and small amounts of alcoholic beverages
(if any) makes you feel fantastic as long as you lay down the worry.
Good Health And Righteous Living
Good health and long life are obviously connected to righteous
living, and illnesses are clearly connected with sin. Deuteronomy
28:15-22 says:
However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully fol-
low all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curs-
es will come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city
and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be
cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land,
and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be
cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The Lord will send
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on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to,
until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you
have done in forsaking him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until
he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord
will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with
scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague
you until you perish.
James 5:14-16 says:
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over
him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of-
fered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.
If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each
other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a
righteous man is powerful and effective.
Matthew 6:25-33 says:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or
drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important
than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds
of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do
you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not
labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was
dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,
which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much
more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What
shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For
the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that
you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well.
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So do not worry or fret about your food or health…rather seek
the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added
to you.
Organic Foods
All foods are composed of just water, proteins, carbohydrates,
fats, and trace (tiny) amounts of vitamins and minerals. Proteins,
carbohydrates [CHO], and fats are made up of carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen. Proteins add nitrogen to their chemical structures.
These are organic molecules—organic just means that the mol-
ecule contains carbon. You do not have to go to the health food store
for good organic foods. They are displayed at every grocery store and
corner market.
If organic means chemical-free to you, think again. All foods are
chemicals. God made your body to detect and rid itself of harm-
ful chemicals that are part of the normal dietary process. Again, the
stomach would be the first place that could detect harmful bacteria
or chemicals. The stomach may throw it back up and out of the body.
Most harmful bacteria would be destroyed in the very acidic (pH 1.5)
stomach fluids. If harmful substances get past the stomach and into
the intestines, then the body might trigger diarrhea (increased peri-
stalsis) to rid the body of them. If they make their way through the
walls of the small intestine (it is very difficult for most foreign objects
or harmful substances to make it past this barrier) and then to the
liver, the liver will trap them, break them apart, and render them un-
available and incapable of harming the liver.
The liver is a chemical factory that is capable of turning what you
eat into the substances your body needs. If you happen to swallow a
trace amount of a chemical that the body does not like, such as a pes-
ticide, then the liver traps it and breaks it down, preventing it from
entering your normal bloodstream or damaging your liver. But the
usable food particles are passed on by your liver to the heart, where
they will be pumped all over the body.
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Your body is designed to take care of itself, and you do not have
to worry whether food is processed or not. Your body will break
down any chemicals in processed foods (most of which are usable
by the body, i.e. vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc.), and your liver will
filter any harmful substances. Keep in mind that the Israelites, God’s
people, ate processed foods. In Leviticus 2, they used the most finely
ground flour, fats, and salts to make bread, which is very similar to
our present-day Frito. The world will condemn fats; however, fats
were made by God to carry the aroma, and without them it would be
impossible to swallow foods. Fats are an essential nutrient for good
health.
Food Allergies
True food allergies should be respected. For instance, if you are
allergic to certain seafoods, then by all means, do not eat them. If
you know you have a milk sensitivity, listen to your body and limit
your milk intake. You will know your own sensitivities, hungers, and
nutritional needs. Use common sense. However, there are many
more incidents of simple food sensitivities that are not true allergies.
You might try tiny portions of these foods and see how your body
responds. Let your body tell you if it wants or needs or does not
want certain foods. By decreasing your portion sizes, you may dis-
cover that you will not experience reactions to foods like you did in
the past. Any severe conditions that persist need to be treated by a
physician.
Irregularity
As your volume of food goes down, so will the excretion level. It
is normal to go to the bathroom less frequently. Bran cereals in small
amounts with plenty of fluids help alleviate true constipation (hard,
dry stools). Contrary to what you have heard, roughage from veg-
etables has not proven to help with constipation and has been known
to cause discomfort.
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Vitamins
Personally, I do not take vitamins or dietary supplements of any
kind. When you are allowing your body to call for exactly what it
needs, then it does not need to be fed artificial forms of those nu-
trients. Basically, there is no need to worry about whether or not
you are getting vitamins. They are found everywhere—scattered all
through foods. Many people eat cereal, toast, and orange juice for
breakfast, and for a little insurance, they take a multipurpose vitamin
pill. Let us take a look at this breakfast.
A typical cereal meets the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance
(RDA) for vitamins and minerals. The U.S. RDA is a generous esti-
mate of the protein, carbohydrate, fat, and minerals needs of a large,
growing, teenage boy, who could possibly need 3,000 to 4,000 calo-
ries per day. In other words, these estimated needs would be way over
what a grown five-foot, two-inch woman needs. So to even meet 100
percent of the U.S. RDA is overkill for most of our population. God
made cows’ milk rich with nutrients. In addition, the government re-
quires that we fortify milk with vitamins A and D, and perhaps some
extra calcium, although milk happens to be rich in nutrients to start
with. The piece of toast is enriched with niacin, thiamin, riboflavin,
and iron. (Bread has been enriched this way since the 1930s.) These
nutrients are also in the cereal and milk. The orange juice is high
in vitamin C, as is the cereal, and nowadays it might have extra cal-
cium added to it. We now swallow a vitamin that meets the U.S. RDA
(again, the needs of a growing teenage boy) and that is breakfast! If
we are a five-foot, two-inch female, we might have met our personal
nutrient needs by 500 percent or more for some nutrients by 8 a.m.
Some people argue that vitamins (natural or synthetic) or herbs
are necessary for good health because the soil is depleted. This is not
true. When soil is depleted, it makes a smaller carrot than it would if it
were fertile. If you have two carrots—one from depleted soil and one
from fertile soil—the two carrots are the same chemically, and thus
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have the same nutrients. Fertile soil would produce larger and more
carrots. If the soil were totally depleted, a carrot could not be made. A
cow grazing in a less fertile field will make less milk. But milk is milk
all across the country. Primarily, fertilizing increases volume.
Some individuals have prescriptions for vitamins because they
have special conditions—usually malabsorption syndromes. Please
check with your physician. There is a need, however, to watch out for
overdosing on vitamins. Taking frequent, large doses of vitamins is
not natural, and since we are the first generation to do this, all of the
bad side effects are not yet known. I have had people that I counseled
who had peripheral numbness (of their hands and feet). The physi-
cians diagnosed it as 10 times the normal amount of vitamin B12 in
the bloodstream from taking prenatal vitamins for years. Overdosing
in small amounts over time could be very bad for you. My suggestion
is to slowly come back down off this overdosing under a physician’s
monitoring. You will feel so much better and save money as well.
Artificial Sugars
As you have noticed, we suggest diet sodas and artificially sweet-
ened tea. These non-caloric drinks may be used in place of sugared
beverages to help your blood sugar levels drop normally so that you
will be able to detect hunger. The artificial sweetener called aspar-
tame has come under fire in past years for allegedly causing side ef-
fects in some people.
Aspartame is among the most thoroughly tested and screened food
products on the market today. The U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
tion (FDA) has issued approval for aspartame 26 times. The American
Council on Science and Health unequivocally endorses its safety.[2]
Aspartame is made up of two amino acids. An amino acid is just
one of the smallest units of a protein molecule. Many different amino
2 American Council on Safety and Health: Aspartame Safety Confirmed—Again,

2006
155
acids in different combinations make up the proteins you eat. The
amino acids in aspartame—phenylalanine and aspartic acid—are
found naturally in many foods.[3] For example, if you eat a hamburger
patty, you will ingest much more aspartame than you would drink from
a two-liter bottle of diet soda. If you believe you get headaches from
diet sodas, and if the aspartame/headache theory is correct, then you
should get a migraine from one hamburger patty! However, research
has shown no such adverse effects, even after repeated double-blind,
placebo-controlled clinical trials. One test done at Duke University on
people who claimed they experienced aspartame-induced headaches
showed the group who took aspartame actually had fewer headaches
than the control group who took placebos.
A diet drink should not give you a headache because of a common
protein molecule it contains. Saccharin, on the other hand, is different
because it is a man-made substitute. It is not found naturally in any
foods and may have a slightly bitter aftertaste. The warning labels on
saccharin have recently been lifted, even though a Surgeon General’s
warning has been on the package since the 1970s—an artificially made
substance which causes cancer in all laboratory animals—and yet it is
now declared as safe for human consumption due to current research.
The latest sweeteners found on the market, Splenda and Stevia,
are generally recognized as safe for human consumption. Splenda
was discovered in 1976 in London and was approved by the U.S. in
1998. It has overtaken Equal, holding a 62 percent market share.[4]
Even though Splenda is legally labeled as “non-caloric,” the actual ca-
loric content of a serving is 3.36 calories—31 percent of the calories
of regular sugar. The FDA says that if a food item has less than five
calories per serving it can legally be labelled as having zero calories.[5]
Stevia is an herb from a sunflower plant and is widely grown for its
3 Journal of Pharmacology & Pharmacotherapeutics: Sugar Substitutes, 2011

4 New York Times: Makers of Artificial Sweeteners Go to Court, 2007
5 US Food and Drug Administration: Code of Federal Regulations Title 21
156
sweet leaves that are at least 200 times the sweetness of sugar cane
but have a negligible effect on blood sugar. Keep in mind that this is a
capitalistic society and sabotage is a reality when the numbers get this
big. In May 2008, Coca-Cola announced the availability of Truvia,
a consumer brand stevia sweetener. Shortly afterward, PepsiCo an-
nounced PureVia, their brand of stevia-based sweetener. Of course,
these companies have done their own promotions and research.
For these reasons, Weigh Down continues to endorse moderation
in one’s consumption of food or substance. One can overdose on or
overeat raw carrots and become ill or suffer ill side effects from even
this practice. Because our goal is to imitate Thin Eaters, you will find
that Thin Eaters naturally do not overindulge in any food or beverage
in order to avoid harming God’s holy temple, the body. Weigh Down
will continue to emphasize the careful handling of the human body
with a deep respect for the sensitivity to signals that God puts in the
body. As with any new lifestyle change, it is best to know your current
health status and make yourself aware of how this new lifestyle choice
will impact your health. We will not stop hearing of health warnings
and medical claims because the FDA requires the food and drug indus-
tries to write down any and all claims, whether scientifically possible
or not. One such example among the thousands is the warning against
consuming colas that contain phosphoric acid. But only a small frac-
tion of the phosphate in the American diet comes from soft drinks;
most comes from meat and dairy products, as phosphoric acid is found
naturally in meats, poultry, legumes, eggs, dairy products, etc. It is our
job as Christians to pray and seek wise counsel on the use of any sub-
stance before resorting to fears or ill-informed conclusions. But if you
want to know what I primarily use—I have no problem with aspar-
tame because it is in all protein-based foods, but primarily I use sugar
and honey—both endorsed in the Word of God.
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How To Eat Potato Chips And Chocolate
We are the salt of the Earth, according to Matthew 5:13. This
used to be a compliment to people. It meant that they added flavor
and enhanced the world around them. Now that salt has been on the
hit list for the last two decades, that Scripture has lost its meaning.
Well, I praise our good God for the spectacular creation of sodium
chloride—table salt. Cows go up to salt licks, and animals will use
the natural salt licks in the wild all summer long. I get in the mood
for a salt lick every once in a while.
You have to know what you are craving. If you are craving some
salt, please do not go through stacks of unsalted chips or piles of
slightly salted chips to find your salt. As long as you are eating when
you are hungry and stopping when you are full and you have healthy
kidneys (their job is to eliminate extra salt in the body), your blood
pressure will normally not be affected by table salt [NaCl]. The reason
health professionals had to pull out the sugar, salt, and fat from the
typical American diet was because of the ever-increasing volumes of
food we were eating. To satisfy Americans’ desire to swallow more
food without increasing their calories, the food manufacturers had
to pull out almost everything from the food but fiber and air. Now
that we are being reasonable in the volume we are swallowing, the
content selection can be rich and delectable!
What about sweets? Sweets are made by God for the enjoyment
of mankind. Proverbs 24:13 says, “Eat honey, my son, for it is good;
honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.” God made the sweet to
adorn the food—your bagel in the morning or icing on your cinna-
mon roll. Internal control will direct people toward high carbohy-
drates in the morning. However, these are digested quickly, so chil-
dren and those with active jobs need to eat eggs and bacon along
with their carbohydrates to keep them satisfied until lunch. The fact
is, rarely are you eating a sweet that is absent of a fat or protein or
something in it anyway. It is a mixture. Most people do not just take
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spoonfuls of honey out—they are putting it on bread and butter. If

you think about it, even people who say that they do not like sweets
like to drink a Coke with their meal or put sugar in their coffee.
Rarely is there someone who I interview who does not have sugar
in their diet. Bottom line, God made it—it was there for the enjoy-
ment of mankind. Babies always will like sweets. Make sure you go
back and really rate the sweets you are eating. To help you learn to
eat sweets again, we are going to start you off with chocolates in small
units. A good example of chocolate already in small units is M&Ms.
Now, instead of ripping off the top of the package and pouring all the
M&Ms down your throat, tear off the top corner of the package, stick
your finger into the package and eat one at a time, letting the choco-
late melt in your mouth, not in your stomach, because your stomach
cannot taste anything.
Most of the world offers dessert at the end of the meal. God
created man to like desserts, otherwise how would so many diverse
populations do the same thing? I have noticed my own cravings for
something sweet as I get toward the end of a meal. Dessert just indi-
cates the end of eating—it concludes the eating event. My servings
are small and I take small bites, savoring each one, and I drink be-
tween bites, stopping when I am politely full.
Watch the Europeans—small amounts at the end of the meals
occasionally. It is a treat. Small bites of something wonderful. It is
bad to binge on sweets. It really upsets the whole body—it makes
you feel sick, and it keeps you from eating a balanced meal. Remem-
ber back to when you were a child and sweets were a treat but you did
not eat them all the time.
One of the principles here is to make the transfer to God’s Words,
His Laws, the Spirit of God—this relationship with Him, getting
Him to help. King David said God’s Words are “more precious than
gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from
the comb.” Psalm 19:10
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Chocoholics
If you have had trouble with sweets all your life and you are still
bingeing out, it is because you are focused on them to a fault. God
made your taste buds. He made you, and He designed you to have
likes and dislikes. He knows what your preferences are, so do not
be afraid to have favorites, even if they sound as if they are fatten-
ing. Do you have a particular favorite food that you seem to have
struggled with more than others? What is it? Chocolate, doughnuts,
homemade bread? It is not unusual for a particular food to be one
that involves years of conflict. Maybe it is a food that you have more
passion about, maybe one that you have binged on before. You may
even find that you can wait for hunger before eating the chocolate,
but then stopping is harder. You want to eat it all! Let me reassure
you that you can indeed rise above this passion for food, too.[6]
You cannot force free-to-eat-anything populations into monoto-
nous diets because the body will cue them to desire and consume
a variety of foods. Thin Eaters in tune to the body will always eat a
variety and they do not binge on one food item.
There are, however, people who override not only the amount
of food that the body is calling for, but also the type of food, and go
after just chips or chocolate. These people can wait all day as long as
they can binge on their salts or sweets later in the day. It is similar
to the alcoholic who can avoid food all day just to wait to get all of
their calories from alcohol. Even though this makes them very sick
and ruins their liver—and in the case of “chocoholics,” it ruins their
health and digestive tract—their sensual desire is stronger than their
desire to serve or obey God. This unbalanced head desire is just an-
other form of sensual desire that you have to put to death. The body
is not calling for chocolate or sweets for breakfast, lunch, and supper.
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Furthermore, the all chips/junk food/chocolate diets eventually

throw people into further binges on other foods because the body
is so depleted of the variety that it needs or calls for. The craving is
overriding the natural biological feedback.
How do you rid yourself of this wrong craving? First, write down
all the bad health effects you receive from the habit. Include how
sick you feel after a binge on chocolate (or whatever binge it might
be—alcohol, tobacco, drugs, snacks, etc.). Compare these notes
with the list of how you feel when you fight and overcome the night-
time binge! Every time you feel the urge to binge on anything, run
to God, listen to Weigh Down class audios, and read the Bible—and
There is no food and no occasion that

should cause you to eat outside
of the context of hunger!
notice how you become more and more determined to end your
binges. If you really were listening to the cues of the body, you would
feel how nauseated you were from all the chocolate. Pay attention
to how awful “out-of-control” binges feel. Likewise, write down how
great the body feels eating a balanced meal inside hunger and full-
ness! There is no comparison.
But most of all, remember, this has got to stop today. This is very bad
for your health. God commands that you live an upright, self-controlled
life and take care of your body. Remember, grace teaches us to say “No.”
Fight with prayer and obedience to God. Keep reading—there
are many more tips to help you overcome chocolate binges.
Celebration Meals
Special occasions are a common concern for new Weigh Down
participants. What if it is Thanksgiving and you fear you will not
get this kind of food again for a whole year? That is simply not true.
Who says you cannot buy a turkey and cook it on a different day than
161
Thanksgiving? You can even cook one in July! Or, even better, go
to a cafeteria-style restaurant and order some. They serve chicken
and dressing or turkey and dressing all year long! What law states
that you have to eat wedding cake at a reception because you might
not get any for a long time? A bakery would be happy to bake a cake
for you to take home and eat a slice each time you are hungry! You
may become sick of it before it is all gone. What about your aunt’s
cherry salad on Christmas Day? Ask for the recipe. She will prob-
ably be flattered, and then you can make it as often as you like. There
is no food and no occasion that should cause you to eat outside of
the context of hunger! God knows your favorites. Be a little more
patient and let Him indulge you with them under His rules: hunger
and fullness. And do not be afraid that God’s watch is broken or that
He has forgotten about you. He is very attentive!
Additional Topics
For more information on topics not covered in this book, please
call the Weigh Down office at 1-800-844-5208. These topics include:
gluten free, low carbohydrate, essential oils, menopause/estrogen
replacement, chiropractors, vaccinations/flu vaccinations, hybrids/
genetically modified foods, bodybuilding/creatine supplements/
energy drinks, natural births, lactation vs. formula and sleeping pills.
TRUTH TIP
You fall in love with what you focus on. Worrying about the
content of the food only leaves you more food-focused and
more overweight.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
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TESTIMONY
Naomi Howell, down 50 pounds since 2008.
In February 2008 I took my first Weigh Down Basics Class. I did not
know at the time what an amazing and life-changing opportunity I was just
given! I think back to that time and how my life was the type that looked
good on paper. I was a “happy,” educated, single, well-traveled individual
who had friends all over the world and had lived in and experienced a lot
of different places. However, if one looked closely, my life was a mess. I
was an emotional rollercoaster, who manipulated every friend I had. I
was empty and felt everyone else was to blame. My weight also continually
crept up on the scale.
Through my mother’s prompting, I took a Weigh Down class…and the
Bible came alive to me for the first time! My eyes were open to see that I
that I didn’t have to count calories or rely on extreme exercise to lose weight.
When I applied the Weigh Down principles, I lost over 50 pounds and
have kept it off since 2008! Once I started changing, it was the coolest
thing; for the first time in my life my environment, my job and my friends
all stayed the same and yet I became happy and full of life…even when no
one was around!
I continue to change and grow more in love with God each year. What
an amazing life! I will be forever grateful for Weigh Down Basics and Gwen
Shamblin Lara
for pointing
me to the truth
that set me
free!
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Gwen at her home in Brentwood, Tennessee.
12
WAYS OF ESCAPE
God is so involved with your life that not only does He know the
number of hairs on your head, He also provides ways of escape from
temptations. A way of escape is based on I Corinthians 10:13 which says:
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God
is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But
when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can
stand up under it.
God will provide a way out from a temptation. Therefore, when
I know I am not hungry and just want to eat anyway, then one of the
ingeniously creative things God does is to provide me with an escape
route. My job is to be alert and take advantage of it! At first, you may
not even recognize that God just helped you until after the fact. But
you will become more skilled and more observant as time goes on.
The ways of escape almost seem to fall into four categories.
First, there are escapes that allow you to be distracted from the
food, like children needing you, phone calls that interrupt you, or
guests that drop in unexpectedly.
A second category is having something wrong with the food
as your way of escape—the “disgusting” category—it falls to the
ground, the cat licks it, you discover it is moldy, etc.
The third category is the food is just not available—the “dislocated”
category—the waitress brings out the wrong food or forgets your order.
The fourth category of escape is the fact that we sometimes cannot
get to the food—the “disabled” category. I can remember spending an
inordinate amount of time trying to open a jar of fudge ice cream top-
ping once. It had never been that hard to open a jar before!
Suddenly it occurred to me that this was my way of escape and
that I could wait a little longer to eat. Another example…the bag of
chips is empty when you reach for it—when you know you are not
hungry—or you open the bag and all the chips fall to the floor.
Think about it. You are exchanging 1

hour of indulgence for a 24-hour day
of fun! How fun to be thin! This far
outweighs the indulgence with food!
Some of the ways of escape that people share are humorous. But
I believe that God has a great sense of humor, and He enjoys these
creative quests as much as you do. God will go to great lengths to
help us on this journey, and it is humbling to realize that He cares so
much to provide us with these second, and sometimes third, chances
to obey. Unfortunately, we can be stubborn and determined to eat
anyway…that is when you heed the warnings that curses come for
those who stubbornly disobey.[1]
God is helping you get away from the food and run to Him in-
stead; He actually wants your devotion and is a Jealous God, so He
eliminates His competition.
We all have our “testing times” where we are tempted to eat for
emotional reasons—the pain of life, stressful situations, times of
boredom, times of sickness, and even times of celebration. You are
going to have to surrender those times of eating, knowing that the
end result will be SO much better!
Remember, everyone has tough days, but food can no longer be
your comfort or reward during these hard days. Here is the way to rea-
son with yourself during a “testing time” when your mind wants to go
1 See Chapter 17 for Battle Scriptures

166
WAYS OF ESCAPE
and eat food but your stomach is NOT calling for food yet: Remind
yourself that you will either suffer for 1 hour to pass the test and not
eat, or suffer misery for 24-72 hours if you fail and binge out. Remem-
ber: You are exchanging 1 hour of indulgence for a 24-hour day of fun!
How fun to be thin! This far outweighs the indulgence with food.
In summary, there is nothing more fulfilling in life than searching
for and discovering the personal love and attention of the Father. He is
waiting to show off His love and His character to us in totally fresh and
unique ways. He is such a genius. It would bore Him to be anything
but incredible and mysterious in all of His ways. In Weigh Down, the
rewards, the ways of escape, and the signs of His love are daily and as
numerous as the sands on the seashore. Please take the time to write
down the ways of escape that God personalized just for you, and read
and reread it often, for it will help you to see how loved you really are.
God is not too important and busy for the details of your life.
I pray about everything and continue to experiment with prayer, as
Christ said we would be able to move mountains.[2] You are more
special to the Heavens than you know.
TRUTH TIP
God will not tempt you beyond what you can bear. He will give
you a way of escape. God is helping you get away from the food
and run to Him instead; He actually wants a relationship with you!
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
2 “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to
this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible
for you.” Matthew 17:20
167
Gwen hosting a “You Can Overcome”
show on December 6, 2017.
13
HOW TO HANDLE TEMPTATIONS
Let’s walk through a typical daily battle. More than likely, you
are being tempted with food when you come home from work or
are home alone. There you are in your house, and there is no one
around…so the battle begins. The lies come in…
Lie #1: You have made it through a tough day at work; therefore, you
deserve to indulge.
Lie #2: When you are physically tired, the food, drug, or lust will
make you feel better.
Lie #3: You have so much weight to lose, or you have messed up
for so many years with your indulgence, what does it matter any-
more…you are never going to make it. The temptation comes
over you quickly. Satan wants to catch you off guard with an
overwhelmingly heavy feeling of greed to indulge yourself.
Seven Steps for Fighting Temptations:

1. The first strategic move is to get out of the location of tempta-
tion—someplace where you can be alone to gather your thoughts
in order to pass this test.
2. Note the time you begin this battle on your watch.
3. Immediately identify the lies of satan. Quote the truth versus the
lie. Remember, as Jesus was tempted by satan to eat something
God had not provided, he answered these temptations with truth,
“Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from
the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 The truth is that indulging is not
something we deserve to do. Food, drugs, alcohol, bizarre lusts,
and overspending all make us feel worse, not better. Tell satan
we are to obey the Lord our God. Many times the devil does not
even have to hang around. After all, he talked us into believing
these lies years ago when he started us out on our first so-called
“deserved overindulgence.”
4. Read strong Scriptures that have moved you in the past.[1] For
example: What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that
grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in
it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Romans 6:1-3
5. Get on your knees and pray to God that He provides a way of
escape and delivers you from this temptation. Ask Him to fill
you up better than that food can. Be specific. Ask Him if He can
make you feel better than lust, a binge, tobacco, gossip, shopping,
alcohol, etc. God will come in and make you feel better than any-
thing you can imagine.
6. Fill up your time with finding what God wants you to do, and then
put it into action. Or the Spirit may lead you to write or call a Saint
or godly friend to encourage them—or see how you can serve
others around you. Make plans on the calendar. Maybe the Spirit
will lead you to read more in the Word or maybe the Spirit will lead
you to worship of Him. I love to sing and dance before God. It is so
much more fulfilling to please Him than to be selfish.
7. Use your remaining strength to determine that you are going to
do exactly what the God who made you wants you to do—that
you are not going to indulge until it is inside God’s boundaries.
The problem with our battles is that we feel so confused and emo-
tional while we are fighting them. But if you follow these steps,
you will see that the layers of confusion disappear. You will then
start to feel your prayer being answered or the magnetic force of
worldly things ending, to the point that you do not even want to
1 See Chapter 17 for Battle Scriptures

170
eat. You cannot even imagine wanting to eat the food when you
are not hungry. God has heard your prayer and has taken the de-
sire for food away, and your heart starts feeling happy! Now, note
the time on your watch. You can expect your battles to become
less time-consuming as you become more practiced in submit-
ting your will. I know that my battles can last anywhere from 10
minutes to an hour, depending on how quickly I go through these
steps. Write these steps down on your bathroom mirror or on
your refrigerator and memorize them for life.
Remember, we are not going through something strange. In
I Peter 4:12-19 it says: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful
trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may
be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the
name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on
you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind
of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do
not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for
judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will
the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is
hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the
sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit
themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
TRUTH TIP
When tempted, remember God is better than a momentary
binge. He will reward you if you pass this test!
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
171
Dealing With Temptations
Situations Responses
1. It comes when you least expect it... so learn to expect it and pray the Lord's prayer
daily. (Lead me not into temptation, but
deliver me from the evil one.)
2. It comes when you are vulnerable... so try to keep rested. Flee the scene. Know
your temptation times and locations. Know
the"lies" that get you.
3. It comes when you have lost your purposeful so keep your mind off of yourself and getting
focus (on God and His will) and have your own needs met; rather, keep it on praising
replaced it with depression and self-pity... God for meeting your needs.
If you have wandered from the hour-to-hour, day-to-day seeking for and receiving
acceptance from the Father, you will be left vulnerable and strongly tempted.
(The neediness you feel is normal if you have wandered.)
Wake up, and be ready for the fork in the road.

You have two choices—one leads to life, and one leads to death.
Run to Food Run to God

Running to the world will only lead you Cry out to God. Look for your way of escape.
away from giving your heart to God. He will fill you up, and the desire eating will
leave. A word from the Bible (God) may make
your heart pound.
It will result in guilt-depression. You will have a pulse and a strong—and

Look for anger/desperation. growing stronger—heartbeat for the Lord.
Look for the scales to be going up. Look for your jewels.
The food will never fill up this need. Look for the scales to go down.
You will remain needy, because food Acceptance floods in, and the temptation is
cannot love you back. over for now.
172
TESTIMONY
Jayne Dubois, Ph.D., down 100 pounds since 1996.
In the mid-1990s, I participated in the original Weigh Down class held in
Memphis, Tennessee—I lost 100 pounds and have kept it off ever since! That’s
over 20 years of keeping the weight off, while also experiencing a healthy preg-
nancy and losing my baby weight using the Weigh Down principles!
Prior to Weigh Down Basics, my life was spent searching for the ‘next
best’ diet or fad which promised to take all my cares away! The result: I
wasted much time and money on diets, exercise programs, and pills only to
lose some weight but gain more back! I experienced no permanent results
from any of the fad diets and weight loss programs I tried. I had spent a
lifetime blaming everything and everyone for my depression, anger, obe-
sity and emptiness. ONLY in the revolutionary teachings found in Weigh
Down did I find REAL solutions, REAL freedom, REAL answers, REAL
joy, peace, contentment, and countless blessings and miracles…but best
of all, I found a REAL relationship with GOD Almighty and His Son Jesus
Christ!
173
TESTIMONY
Heather Sanchez, down 85 pounds since 1996.
Heather Sanchez, Weigh Down Basics

participant, featured in Good Housekeeping,
March 2008.
Heather appeared in Good

Housekeeping in March, 2008.
Since this issue appeared, Heath-
er has had another child and
quickly lost all of her pregnancy
weight. She has maintained her
85 pound weight loss for over
two decades. Sanchez family, 2018
174
14
INTERVENTION FROM THE
HEAVENS
You Are Worth More Than Sparrows
Every year I see more of the loving intervention of God in my
life through a respectful, obedient relationship with Him. If only we
would teach the children at the earliest of ages, how different their
lives would be.
Here is what we need to know…all of creation obeys Him, and
they are well taken care of and free from worry, strife, and needs.
Their children behave and are attentive and respectful to the parents
and learn well. I have watched the Father and His creation and how
He deals so sweetly with His animals. It tells me so much about the
loving Creator-Father. Notice that the birds love to sing, the squir-
rels love to play tag, the kittens are so curious and playful but affec-
tionate, the puppy dogs adore the master so much and are so excited
and happy that they always look like they are smiling or almost laugh-
ing. The personalities of little children are my delight. I have seven
grandchildren now and they light up my life. Each one is so priceless,
hilarious, and adorable—there is always laughter and love in their
presence. If one gets out of my lap, another jumps up, filling my days
with joy, delight, happiness, and love. My life was not blessed like
this before I found God’s laws of cause and effect of truly obeying the
Lord, found in Deuteronomy 28.
A fully obedient life is everything that the Lord promised it would
be in Deuteronomy 28:
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I
give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on
earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey
the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the
young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your
flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be
blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will grant
that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They
will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The Lord
will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to.
The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. The Lord will
establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the
commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples
on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will
fear you. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your
womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the
land he swore to your forefathers to give you. The Lord will open the heav-
ens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and
to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will
borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay
attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day
and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right
or to the left, following other gods and serving them. Deuteronomy 28:1-14
There are religious philosophies that come against the Almighty’s
laws of cause and effect: if you obey you are blessed, if you disobey you
are cursed. For example, deism is a loosely defined theology that was
developed during the 1500s to 1700s from 10 philosophers (includ-
ing John Locke and Voltaire), coming from England, Germany, and
176
INTERVENTION FROM THE HEAVENS
France. They differed in many ways, yet united in criticism of orga-

nized religion, particularly Christianity. They rejected the supernatural
element in Scriptures, stating that God never had a “chosen people”
nor is there a “revealed religion.” They did not believe in miracles, the
inerrancy of Scriptures, or the trinity (this one criticism I can appreci-
ate), and they united against authority, thinking that all clergy would
exploit the ignorant. They agreed that God is apart from the creation
which He brought into being and is unconcerned as to the details of
its working—having made nature, He allows it to run its own course
without interference on His part. In other words, they believed that
God did not intervene with the functioning of the natural world. But
what really worries me about this philosophy is that it eradicates “cause
and effect,” because it promotes an erroneous idea that is now widely
adopted, even in mainstream Christianity…that “curses are random
and the Creator is not involved”—implying that blessings are equally
as random…such a defeating, exhausting philosophy.
While, like Christ, we are all disgusted with damage done to the
church, God’s reputation, and to the lambs of God by bad, pharisaical
ecclesiastical authorities over the centuries who have abused their power,
I do not believe that one should conclude that there are zero good Shep-
herds who would lay their lives, time, resources, and future down for
others. I have sympathy for why people might develop a deist or atheist
philosophy when it is due to abusive hypocrites, but it is also due to the
doctrine that a human cannot lay down sin. Notice when someone gives
you an excuse, a way out of personal responsibility, the average human
accepts it and runs with it. So people begin believing that there is no
Source, or a distant, uninvolved Creator, since they never experimented
with full obedience that results in blessings. Without experimenting with
obedience and discovering the blessings that come from it, you would be
disobeying and receiving the curses and not know why.
In the twenty-first century, it makes sense that there is a resur-
gence of deism, because it parallels the revival of immorality. In the
last five decades, mainstream Christianity has abandoned the doctrine
177
of obedience and labeled it a “work.” Imagine a life without divine in-
tervention, due to disobedience—one would have no experience of
individualized, specific, answered prayers nor blessings! To cope with
this disconnected life, you would be forced to believe that all unfortu-
nate circumstances are acts of nature and that God is distant, for who
would want to be singled out to have bad luck? And if you felt God was
distant, you would become increasingly greedy and grabbing to take
care of self and to get ahead, and you can see how this life would birth
temptations to steal, to short the IRS, or to put others down so that you
can get ahead. As life went on, you would know nothing but clawing
and climbing over others to get what you wanted.
Again, deism is the religion of those who never found the connec-
tion of obedience and blessings. The animal world is in compliance
and the Lord’s laws are not burdensome. Man’s laws, however—and
especially religious man-made laws—are cruel. But unlike the deist
who throws out all organized religion (the baby with the bathwater),
I definitely know that a remnant of blessed obedience is still alive. I
believe that a remnant[1] of obedient believers will always remain…it
is our job to find them and to connect and glean from each other. My
experience with obedience and resulting answered prayers and bless-
ings has made me the opposite of a deist and is why I believe there is
a personal, interactive Heavenly Father.[2]
1 “Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit
above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of
survivors. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” II Kings 19:30-31
“A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.” Isaiah 10:21
“The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will speak no lies, nor will deceit be
found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid.”
Zephaniah 3:13
“‘I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So
too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.” Romans 11:4b-5
2 See page 204 on “How to Get Answered Prayers”
178
I will go a step further; I believe even the hairs on your head are
numbered by the Father. He knows every detail, down to the tiniest
DNA molecules that He put in your body. He is so much more om-
nipresent than we can comprehend.
One day I was outside sitting still, and some sparrows lined
up on a low roof edge.
The first sparrow
looked like he
just fell dead to
the ground but
he was just fast
and very much
alive. The rest of
the sparrows dropped
“Not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the
in the same fashion, one will of your Father.”
at a time.
I thought of the Scripture where Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows
sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the
will of your Father.” Matthew 10:29 I looked up to Heaven and asked,
“O God, I already know that this means that You are aware when
even a sparrow dies, but could it be that You are aware of even when
the sparrows are coming and going?” And I know now that it does,
because His computerized brain has billions of times more capacity
than the largest and fastest computer processors in the world. His
love and attention is infinitely more involved than the earthly parents
who want to know when their teenagers are coming and going.
Jesus went on to say, “And even the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. So don’t be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”
Matthew 10:30-31 In other words, do not be afraid. He loves you and
knows you so intimately that He has counted the hairs on your head.
He has a digit assigned to each hair. He knows when one falls out;
He knows you better than you know yourself.
179
I know this is true, nevertheless, to experience this does take an ef-
fort on the part of the created. Now when you first begin laying down
your idol of food or tobacco, etc., and running to God instead, take
note that on that day there will be more answered prayers, more bless-
ings, and even ways of escape for your testing. You will feel amazement
and wonder why this has never happened before! Obedience is the
key, and these answered prayers and blessings disappear with rebellion.
It is called God’s behavior modification for our own good.
Why do you think blessings and curses due to our own behavior are
strange? You respond the same way as the Heavenly Father. You are clos-
er to the children who obey you and distant from the rebellious. Notice
how your heart feels when you are spurned, disrespected, mocked—it
turns you off and breaks a connection between you and that person.
Experiment tomorrow with being more respectful and helpful to
your teachers at school or your authorities at work and see how they re-
spond. It is natural that employees who sincerely care for their employ-
er will be lifted up. Make sure you do not waste your time on guessing
what to obey or what not to obey—ask your teacher or husband or em-
ployer. If you try guessing and miss, it is disappointing to the authori-
ties because you wasted their time and finances and did not give them
what they needed. You have to be obedient to exactly what they want,
To glorify God simply means

“to reveal God’s true character.”
and finding out what your authorities want is essential. Expect this to
take time. Right now, keep the main thing the main thing… Lay down
idols and run to your Savior for all emotions and needs. If it is food…
eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full and run to God
for comfort. If alcohol…run to God for your problems and boredom.
This is what pleases your Heavenly Father. How can you be sure? You
are about to experience blessings like never before, as well as answered
prayers unlike you have ever experienced!
180
Rewards/Jewels For Obedience
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who

comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who
earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6
God rewards you when you wait on Him and depend on Him for
everything. It is all about depending on and waiting on God to sup-
ply your need. Isaiah 40:31 says, “but those who hope in the Lord will
renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and
not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
If you will wait on and obey God and not overindulge yourself—
which means you do not intentionally eat beyond full, you do not
gorge yourself or hoard the food—there will be a reward for you. We
call these rewards “happies” or jewels. God is that personal, and you
will know that it is from a personal God because only He knows your
individual and specific wishes. Again, recompense will always be
awaiting you if you are laying down an idol (stopping when you are
full). One of the most important assignments is to connect obedi-
ence and rewards—and then record them on the Jewels Page (page
372). Wait for the Reward and then Record!
Now, notice that the Scripture also said, “without faith it is impos-
sible to please God.”[3] Do not complain or crave more or cry for the
food like the Israelites did. Psalm 78:14-22 says:
He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. 
He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the
seas;  he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down
like rivers. But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert
against the Most High. They willfully put God to the test by demanding
the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a
table in the desert? When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams
3 Hebrews 11:6
181
flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his
people?” When the Lord heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out
against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel, for they did not believe in
God or trust in his deliverance.
Belief and Trust are huge compliments to God. They glorify
God. To glorify God simply means “to reveal God’s true character.”
The opposite of glorifying God is to slander His reputation.
Do you remember as a child letting your parents worry about the
finances, the rent, the electric bill, the food on the table, etc? Your job
was to wake up, be happy, and play outside…not to worry about when
or how you were going to get the food, the energy, the funding, the sleep,
the work done. A child who worries dis-glorifies the parent. Jesus said
that we could not enter the Kingdom of God if we did not become like a
little child.[4] Therefore, our life should reflect belief in God and trust of
His deliverance. All worries I give to God as I simply obey in all things.[5]
With faith, belief, and trust, the burdens of life are lifted off your shoul-
ders—you can be the child again. Why does God want this? Because it
builds an interactive relationship with the Heavens until He is all in all,
everywhere and in everything—His goal and our purpose.
And as far as personal goes…God knows things that only you
and He would know about—personal, secret, extremely special, pri-
vate things. God knows the things that personally get our attention
and that help us find Him and help us to see His involvement in our
lives. I am convinced that God does care about our smallest victories
over food, lusts, pride, etc.
As you can see, God rescued you out of Egypt, away from the hor-
rible taskmaster/slave master called food, then He took you to the aban-
doned desert where it was hot and dry. The definition of the Desert of
Testing is a place that provides nothing, meaning that you must look to
4 “And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little
children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” Matthew 18:3
5 See the Weigh Down App
182
God, trust in God…you need food, so He sends manna and quail from
Heaven; you need guidance, so He sends Moses and the cloud by day
and the fire by night; you need water, so He takes you to the Oasis. The
Desert of Testing is not a place of constant misery, but rather an adven-
ture with God, who has the best personality of all. Every day I still wake
up and think, “O God, what neat thing are you going to show me today?”
And I go to sleep thanking Him for another fun or fascinating day. A
journey with God will be a trip you will remember for the rest of your life.
Do you want to know what is even more incredible? You do not have to
wait until the end of the journey to feel God’s love and rewards. He is just
waiting for the chance to indulge and bless you. If you will obey, then He
will acknowledge that. How? With jewels or happies! Every time you
pass a test, you will get a jewel. Some jewels are subtle; it could be just the
peace of being in His will. Some are extravagant, like gifts of cash from an
unexpected source or an unexpected and long-awaited pregnancy. Jew-
els range from having more energy, wearing smaller clothes, and eating
regular foods, to experiencing freedom and a real spiritual awakening.
It says in Matthew 7:9-11, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will
give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then,
though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Begin today to look for your own personal, designed-by-God re-
wards for obedience!
TRUTH TIP
God rewards faith. Taste and see that the Lord is good.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
183
Stacy Sims and Amanda Baker, Weigh Down Class Coordinators, feeling light at Desert Oasis 2018.
Stacy Sims before she lost 65 pounds. Amanda Baker before she lost 25 pounds
and was set free from extreme food rules.
184
TESTIMONY
Heather Sims, down 35 pounds since 2002.
Heather was featured on the cover of Good

Housekeeping in March 2008.
Appearing on the You Can Overcome Heather has maintained her weight loss of 35 pounds
show with Gwen in 2018. for over 16 years through Weigh Down Basics, even
with having another baby!
Weigh Down Works!
Over 30 Years of Weight Loss Success!
TESTIMONY
Maxine Day, down 60 pounds since 2004.
My journey of trying to lose weight started when I was seven
years old. My mom and I were both overweight, and we tried to lose
weight together with various diets. I remember losing weight and
gaining it back right away.
I was also a very angry, envious, anxious, and fearful child, so shy
that it was almost debilitating. I used anger to control those around
me, especially my younger siblings, and I had very few friends. I was
on antidepressants and fought taking them, scared of having to take
medicine every day to live a normal life.
The summer after I turned 11, my mom found the Weigh Down
Diet book on our bookshelf and thought she would try one last diet
before resorting to admitting me into a hospital. We started taking a
Weigh Down Basics class that fall and it immediately started help-
ing us! I was very attracted to it because there were no special foods
or rules, no menus or restrictions, and it helped me connect to God,
something I had never been taught before. For the first time, I had
hope of living a normal life!
I was able to lose 60
pounds, and 14 years
later, have kept it off! I
have no fear of ever gain-
ing it back! These princi-
ples helped me in other
areas, too, and I no lon-
ger need medication to
be happy or calm. Weigh
Down gave me the tools
to find a true relation-
ship with God, which
gave me a purpose and a
direction. I will never go
back to my old, purpose-
less way of living!
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15
LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH
ALL YOUR HEART
The Greatest Commandment… One of the teachers of the law came
and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good an-
swer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most impor-
tant?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no
commandment greater than these.” “Well said, teacher,” the man replied.
“You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To
love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all
your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important
than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had an-
swered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Mark 12:28-34
Why did Jesus say, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”? It is
because just having the knowledge of what God is looking for is not
enough. The journey and the spiritual war start in the mind, as we
discussed in the last chapter. But you could have the knowledge of
God and not have a heart for Him at all.
God uses human relationships and marriages to teach what true
love is. If you have ever had a crush on someone, then you know
how this feels…it is emotional. You feel your emotions rise and your
pulse rate go up. You would know if your lover entered the room,
even if you did not see him or her, for your senses are alert to the
voice and presence of the one you love. Your mind thinks about your
lover every spare moment, including times that it should be concen-
trating on the job at hand. You clean up and dress for your love. You
look for opportunities to be in his or her presence. You look forward
to your times alone. You would do anything for this person and find
it no problem; providing aid would be a pleasure. Being separated
brings sadness. That is your heart. It is an emotional entity. It is
passion and feeling. This passion can be given to anything from the
Earth below to the Heavens above, but it belongs to God.
A Passionate Heart
I have not set an alarm clock in many years. God wakes me up
every day just at the right time. With gentle creativity, He chooses a
variety of waking methods, so my first thought is God and thanking
Him for waking me—and the earlier the better for me. I love getting
up in the night and working for Him or having Him teach me some-
thing new.
The rest of the day follows suit. The Bible says to “pray without
ceasing.”[1] Therefore, every hour is spent talking to Him, asking Him
to help with clothes, work, difficult situations, asking Him to rule my
day, asking Him to find my keys, thanking Him for something that
just happened, coming to Him for comfort from pain in the heart,
and looking to Him for His attention or approval and leading any way
I can get it.
When I find myself alone in a room or in the house, I sing to Him
my made-up, on-the-spot songs of adoration for His great personal-
ity, His mighty hand of justice, and His protection for the righteous.
I also listen to music and find Him speaking through it. His world is
beautiful and delightful. What great ideas are 24-hour days, sleep,
1 I Thessalonians 5:17
190
LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
and snuggling up in the covers with my pillow over my head while I

talk to Him. After all, He is the one who made covers and pillows and
the snuggly feeling. I praise Him for humor, for incredibly moving
music that He inspires, for happy-go-lucky children and puppy dogs,
for smiling faces, and for the genius of different types of food. I praise
Him for making weather different every single day so that the land,
the clouds, and the sky change colors. I praise Him for putting love
and peace in our hearts so there are not only smiles on our faces but
also empathy for others in our hearts. The great idea list is endless.
What a genius and yet powerful King we have an opportunity to
serve! He opens my eyes daily to new information from His Word or
from life that confirms that He is the source of everything. So I love
Him as a teacher, a comforter, a constant companion, a trustworthy
leader, a husband/defender when I am slandered or falsely accused,
an hour-by-hour boss, the source of life, and the love of my life to
whom I can confidently give my love and passion.
It means everything to have His love returned to me. Just one
sign sends a big smile to my face. It gives me the encouragement that
I needed. First Peter 1:8 describes my feelings…“Though you have
not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now,
you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”
I long to see His face.
The more you love God, the easier it is to love others with the
overflow of the heart. I can return love—even to others who have
hurt me—because I know He loves me. Others might hurt me, but
God’s opinion is so much higher on my list that it does not matter so
much anymore what others may do.
When I think about how involved He is in my life, I sometimes
want to cry. Obviously, there are hurting and sad times, too, but even
in the low points, my heart always runs to the Father and finds peace
only in Him. As you can see, I really cannot be silent about God. It is
not a good idea to get me started because I cannot quit!
191
Seeing The Passion
God describes Himself as passionate and jealous for us. It is right
to return what has been given.
No matter how unemotional some people have grown, at one
time they had a heart of flesh. We all have 100 percent of a heart—
but some people have given pieces of their heart to other things. The
passion is so divided and dissipated, and it now appears weak with no
energy to be passionate about any single thing!
Many people have idols in their lives and are not even aware of
what they are giving their devotion and energy to. “No one can serve
two masters.” Matthew 6:24 Why? Because you only have one heart.
It was made to be devoted. It will not be devoted to two things. It
cannot be. It is not possible.
There is only one way to find out if something is an idol in your
life: let it be taken away. Then, if you really mourn for it, you know
that your heart has been given over to an idol. For example, if God
took away your food, how would you react? God weighs the motives
of the heart.
Will you be drained if you give ALL of your heart to God? It is a
miracle—you will discover that you have even more time and energy
if you put God above all. However, if you worship something above
God (football and basketball, computers and cars, clothes and social
climbing, chocolate and desserts, children and careers) you will feel
drained, lethargic, worn out, emotionless, empty. You will not have
energy to love your spouse, children, or friends.
Everyone is religious and everyone adores something, but one
drains and one gives back. A false god can give nothing back. The
One True God owns it all and does not need your love or time or
energy, so He just gives it right back!
I used to sit in church as a child on Sunday evenings and watch
people listlessly drag themselves through the motions of their wor-
ship. These are the same people who will put on one blue shoe and
192
Some very good,

but not the best
activities
Social Media
Computer
Materialism 100% of You 100% of You
Control = =
Mind Mind
Worry Soul Soul
Heart Heart
Lust Strength Strength GOD
Time Time
Food Possessions Possessions
Passion Passion
Drugs Efforts Efforts
Control Control
Alcohol Devotion Devotion
Careers Discipline Discipline
Attention Attention
Television Love Love
Excessive Exercise
one white one, wave a blue and white pom-pom, and apply blue and
white paint on their faces to root for their favorite college teams.
They jump up after the worship service (which is a sad name for
what took place) and rush to basketball games. They may know the
name of every player and every statistic, and once at the game, they
scream, yell, and jump up and down for the players. But can these
same people tell you much about the heavenly team or any of its star
players—Jesus, Abraham, and David? So we do have a heart, and we
do know how to worship…it may just be misplaced.
If you have passion for God, it grows with the years. Statistics
show us that people in developed countries are becoming larger and
larger and more and more passionate for their food.
Exposing The False Gods
Let us start by exposing this master, this friend called food. Just
how good of a friend has excessive food been to us? (Note: Our daily
allotted food is not a false god—we are referring to excessive food.)
193
Does overeating help our finances? No, it robs us. It is expensive
to keep eating extra calories every day. Diet programs have emptied
our savings accounts as well. Does it help us with our clothing? No,
we tend to find less and less to wear as we find ourselves obeying
food more and more. Does it help us with our self-esteem? No, the
more the excessive food is a friend to us, the more it gathers on our
hips and in other locations of the body, and the more our self-esteem
drops. Does it help us with our relationships? No, it seems to put a
wedge between us and our family or spouse.
Again, extra food turns out to be a false friend and a parasitic
leech that robs us of our time, passion, finances, devotion, peace, and
self-esteem. It is a false master, a false friend, or a false god that leaves
us with increasing troubles, guilt, emotional deprivation, and physi-
cal ailments.
Look at the irony. We have been running to the refrigerator for
comfort. Look at the figure—there is a statue of a false god and a col-
umn that represents our True
God. We need to evaluate
ourselves this week and every
week from here on: what per-
centage of time have we been
running to God and what per-
centage have we been running
to the refrigerator or any false
god? Time is a great indica-
tor of what we give our heart
to.
Running to God for com-
fort and solutions makes
sense. Do you need a coun-
selor? He knows all truth, and
His Word is a light unto your
194
path.[2] Do you need a friend? He is the God of all comfort. Are you
low on cash, need your roof fixed or your car repaired? I have seen
some pretty incredible things happen through prayer. Are you looking
for excitement? His Kingdom is dynamic. There is nothing that He
cannot do. He sometimes uses people to solve the problem, and some-
times He does not. He is creative, and you will know it is from Him.
From A Heart Of Stone To Flesh
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove
from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will
put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to
keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36:26-27
How do you fall in love with God? (Notice the bolded words
below.) Well, how did we fall in love with food? What happened was
our hearts became enslaved to food by obeying the food. When the
potato chips called our name from the pantry and said, “Hey, come
eat me,” we found ourselves listening and obeying. When we drove
down the street and the #3 combo from the fast food restaurant called
our name, we found ourselves obeying by pulling into the drive-th-
ru…obedience. When we thought about a great steak dinner, we
felt our emotions rise—our pulse rate went up…passion. Our senses
were alert to the voice and presence of food (popcorn popping, steak
sizzling, corn boiling, and candy wrappers opening)…we listened.
Our mind thought about recipes and dinners every spare moment,
including times when it should have been concentrating on the job
at hand…focus. We found ourselves dressing for eating occasions,
preferring elastic outfits with no belts! We looked for opportunities
to be in the food’s presence. We looked forward to times alone for a
binge. We would do anything to get to food and find it no problem,
no burden. Cooking or working on the food was something that
2 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105
195
was always a pleasure. Being separated from food brought sadness.
Slowly but surely, this describes the state of your heart. Your heart is
an emotional, feeling entity made to adore.
We love the master that we obey. And we obey the master we
love. We cannot love both God and food. Either we will hate the one
and love the other or we will love the one and hate the other. Do not
kid yourself—you cannot be in love with God if you are in love with
food! And do not expect God to believe that you are in love with
Him at the same time you are in love with food. He knows better.
But, you can make the transfer. Even though the thought and smell of
food is what got me out of the bed in the morning years ago—now all my
senses are given over to God. I dress for Him. I can sense (even though I
do not see Him) when He is near. I can tell when He is calling me to read
His Word. All senses are alive for Him. One Weigh Down participant told
me that she does not call it “coincidence” anymore, but “God-incidence!”
Notice that there is nothing inherently wrong with alcohol, tobacco,
food, credit cards, or sexual desires. What is wrong is with our heart.
Tearing up the credit card is not going to keep our heart from material-
ism. Making the food have less fat is not going to make our heart less
greedy for food. Locking people up in a detoxification center to bring
them down off alcohol or substance abuse is not going to fix their heart.
We fell in love with the food by giving it our heart, soul, mind,
and strength, which is included in this one behavior called obedi-
ence. We obeyed it.
Food called us from the bed in the morning, and we used our
strength to prepare it. We also used our strength to force more of it
down into the body than the body called for. We gave it our mind
all day long by looking through recipe books and discussing the latest
diets with our friends, asking, “What do you get to eat on your diet?”
We gave our soul to foods that were on the menu, and we gave our
hearts to the 10 o’clock binge.
What we have to do now is clear: give heart, soul, mind, and
strength to God. Every time we obey God with regard to food or
196
with anything He is putting on our heart to work on, we will fall more
in love with Him. Partly, this is because “He rewards those who ear-
nestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 We are to earnestly, with a true heart,
seek Him—not His wealth or His power—but Him. And part of the
reason we fall in love through obedience, or keeping His commands,
is that He answers the prayers of those who obey Him. John 14:14
says, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves
me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him
and show myself to him.” John 14:21
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love
him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does
not love me will not obey my teaching.” John 14:23-24a
We love the master that we obey. And we

obey the master we love. We cannot love
both God and food.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed
my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my
joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:9-11
Many wayward hearts live to eat instead of eating to live. Food
should be nothing more than fuel—we should drop the passion for
food and eat simply just the amount to satisfy the hunger.
The world will argue which comes first, love or obedience, but I
say that obedience IS love. You obey the one you love—it is an out-
pouring of the heart and something you cannot impede. If you are
asking that question—how to fall in love with God—it lets you know
that your heart is given to something else. If your parents told you
that you had given your heart to marry someone who was not the
right choice and they gave you a superior choice that would bless you
the rest of your life, would you not use reason, to start with, to make
197
the transfer? It does start in your mind—you make the choice, and
the fruit of the superior choice will melt your heart into love.
So love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Honestly, even though I know I have felt a love for God since
childhood, I do not think that I can totally comprehend this subject
of love for God. I know it grows each year I live and I know I cry
much more at the thought of God and my love for Him because He is
so patient, kind, gentle and humble Himself. There are no words for
the beauty of God. I weep for the lack of love for God on this Earth.
To love God is the ultimate purpose of man. This chapter is just a
start on the fundamental importance of love in this journey. Each
succeeding chapter will fill in the puzzle pieces of love. Just how
important is this love for God? In the end, on the Great Judgment
Day, there will not be a lot of questions nor demonstrations of your
gifts…all your actions will be judged for the motive of love for God…
it will be the one question on Judgment Day…“Do you love Me—
THE CREATOR—more than anything else—the created—in this
world?” Your choices borne out through your actions will tell all.
TRUTH TIP
Food is simply food. Have passion for THE God, your
Creator…not the created.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
198
Gwen Shamblin Lara hosting the

You Can Overcome Show
Season 13, Episode 5, “Don’t Give Up,” filmed on February 7, 2018.
Season 13, Episode 19, “The Answer to Childhood Obesity,” filmed on June 27, 2018.
199
TESTIMONY
Jill Smith, down 90 pounds since 2001.
From 5th grade on, I always went up and down with my weight. In col-
lege, I went from bulimia to excessive exercise to the cabbage soup diet…
It was awful. Every diet failed…my clothes were growing bigger, my mar-
riage failing, and no hope…then I found Weigh Down Basics. At first,
I was skeptical. No diet? Eat regular
foods, hunger and fullness…real-
ly??? Yet, since putting Weigh Down
into practice full force in 2001, I lost
90 pounds in record time…all while
eating EVERYTHING considered
forbidden in other diets! My mind
was free from calorie plans and full of
love and freedom…my was weight
gone, finances healed and my mar-
riage restored.
Jill at Desert Oasis 2018 encouraging others
through their weight loss journey.
200
16
HOW TO GET THE SPIRIT OF GOD
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful
nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the
Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each
other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual
immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred,
discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and
envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that
those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions
and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16-25
This is about getting a whole new life—replacing your old spirit
(bad attitudes) with God’s wonderful Spirit (beautiful, loving per-
sonality). Those who find this transformation experience a restored
marriage, re-established relationships, a whole new positive attitude,
and diminished criticism and projection. The Spirit of God is the
personality and characteristics of God.
We have been made into His image, and it says in Ephesians that
we were created to be like God:
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of
him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old
self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the
attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:20-24
Put off the old. Put on the new. To get the new, you have to re-
pent. John the Baptist said to repent and make the crooked roads in
your heart straight to be able to receive Jesus Christ in your heart.[1]
What you are going to eat, your menu for the day, should transform
into a menu of God’s work. Start being concerned about God, His
business, His Church, His Kingdom, and the hereafter. It is a whole
new life that brings blessings and jewels and answered prayers. One
focus is on self and one is on God.
Self-Control
Now that we have turned our face from Egypt, some of you have
experienced rising above the pull of this world, the allure of Egypt,
the magnetic pull of the refrigerator, or the prison of food. You were
presented with the picture of the Thin Eater, or the person who feels
no magnetic pull to food. We studied the externals (their behavior),
but what in the world are they thinking…feeling? What is their train
of thought that they could turn down food? We have been told that
we need to turn away from the refrigerator, but just exactly how are we
supposed to accomplish this feat? Why are others able to go through
the buffet lines and remain in control while we feel like breaking the
lines and eating everything in sight? Why do we feel out of control
to the point that we avoid social events?
1 “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and
saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’ This is he who was spoken of
through the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for
the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’” Matthew 3:1-3
202
You will need self-control, which is part of the fruit of the Spirit
of God. Again, how do you get the Spirit of God? In Acts 5:32, it
says plainly…“God gives His Spirit to those who obey Him.”
You have just experienced this to be true. How did you, for
the first time in your life, the first week of Weigh Down, stop in the
middle of the meal from your favorite restaurant? You obeyed God.
You denied what you wanted to do and put God first, so God gave
you His Spirit of control.
This magnetic force toward food is a lot like the gravitational
force that we have toward Earth. With enough thrust and force,
you can fly above the pull of the food. Focusing and determining
and then obeying the will of God is the lift and the thrust to rise
above—to be liberated! Focusing and then obeying what God wants
is energizing spiritually and physically—you will find much more
energy if you do not focus on what the flesh or the earthly nature
wants. The focus on what the sensual desires want is devastating.
Philippians 3:17-21 says:
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those
who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told
you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of
the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach,
and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our
citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything
under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like
his glorious body.
Your daily and hourly practice will be to refocus off of your sen-
sual desires and onto your eternal destination. Every time your mind
wanders to food (head hunger), quickly take it off and ask God to
help you focus on Him or His will and long-term goals—not short-
term pleasures. Leave the kitchen, go to your room, and open God’s
203
Word. Eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full is
so easy when you focus on what God wants.
Now, this is going to take everything you have got to be born again.
You have had a relationship with food, as we have said before…you
answer when the brownies call, you bow down to it, you will obey
the urge even if it is very painful. This is a deep relationship that has
filled your day, and now you fear boredom. To modify your relation-
ship with food to a relationship with God, you must now focus and
listen all day to the Voice from Above that guides your every step!
How To Get Answered Prayers
Answered prayers are given to those whose hearts are “abiding”
in Jesus. In I John 3:21-22 it says, “Dear friends, if our hearts do not
condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him any-
thing we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” I
could write a whole book on examples of answered prayers; not that
every prayer results in people getting what they pray for, but there
is a definite correlation between answered prayer and wholehearted
obedience to God. Just as you seem to have more cooperation from
your spouse when you have put his or her needs first, it is true with
God also. It is just common sense.
One vocabulary word that you need to know is the word
“Triangle.” It is wrong to grab for things in your life, and it is right to
look to the Heavens for all things that you want. A common behavior
is…“I see it, I want it, I get it,” like a child grabbing a toy. Another ex-
ample…“I want my husband to help around the house, so I will nag
him until he does.” When someone does not know how to get an-
swered prayers and blessings due to obedience to God, they feel des-
perate and they feel the need to take care of themselves, so no won-
der you see desperate behaviors anywhere from tears to outbreaks
of controlling anger, boasting, bragging, theft, road rage, co-worker
sabotage, revenge, etc. But the Bible says that God does not want us
to grab or take revenge because “revenge is mine” says the Lord.
204
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it
is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the con-
trary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him some-
thing to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do
not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:19-21
God wants us to go to Him for all things—it is appropriate to pray
and wait on God. It is appropriate to thank God for all the things
He gives every day that we have no need to ask for (food, shelter,
etc.). We all need to talk less and pray more. God takes care of us, but
Christ told us that our job is to remain in the Vine. It says in John 15:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch
in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes
so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the
word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No
branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you
bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If
a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me
you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch
that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown
into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” John 15:1-7
To remain in the Vine is a concept that needs understanding. If
you are in Jesus, you obey Jesus. You accept his humble life unto God
and man…a life of self-denial and the cross. Jesus taught us to turn
the other cheek and look to God for everything.[2]
When you go in prayer to God, (see Triangle), in the name of Jesus
Christ, without fretting or manipulating anything to make it happen,
God will answer your prayer. Do not think this is necessarily slower.;
2 “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39
205
in fact, it could be faster. This builds your faith. When you go to God
and refuse to grab, you develop a relationship with and a dependence
on God. And you stop being the forceful person, the controlling per-
son, and you start seeing what a great God He is. He gives you the
desires of your heart. You can
The Triangle go to bed at night with no guilt
for overeating, overspending,
God overtalking, overdrinking, or
grabbing. You have no worries
and it is beautiful!
How do you get answered
prayers? You obey Him. Jesus
said in John 14:
You What You I tell you the truth, anyone who
Want has faith in me will do what I
Most people grab what they want but we should go to have been doing. He will do even
God to get what we want.
greater things than these, because
I am going to the Father. And I
will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory
to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
John 14:12-14
If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and
we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love
me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they
belong to the Father who sent me. John 14:23-24
Pray that you will not be led into temptation, but that you will be
delivered from evil desires. Jesus taught us to pray for that. So what
if you have to pray it 20 times a day!? Here is Jesus’ prayer that I para-
phrased from Matthew 6:9-13, and Luke 11:2-4:
206
Dear Heavenly Father:
Hallowed be your name.

(You are holy and to be revered above all.)
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

(We pray that Your Kingdom of the heart and Your will be done
on Earth just like it is in Heaven. We understand that Your will
can be done on Earth as it is in Heaven—may we obey Your will
today.)
Give us this day our daily bread.

(Give us this day the portion we need, not want.)
Lead us not into temptation.

(Guide us out of tempting situations.)
And deliver us from the evil one.

For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.
(All glory to You, You are Everything. You are all-powerful. You
are who we worship, admire, and adore.)
Always pray in Jesus’ name. Copy this prayer and keep it in your
heart. How different our lives would be if we prayed daily that God
would give us simply the portion of daily bread we need!
Why Does God Want Us To Obey?
When your children obey you, it makes you love to do things for
them in return. On the other hand, when your child has just rebelled
against you, talked back, and had no respect for you…you do not feel
like going out and buying them a car or rewarding them in any way.
Now multiply this, because God made you, your personality, your
eyes, your ears, your gifts and talents and brains, and has taken care
207
of you every minute since you have been born, and you then spurn
Him, pay Him little attention, and claim that you have been blessed
because of your own talent. This is even more painful to God. Obe-
dience with love and respect has the opposite effect. It is the glue
that brings the parent and the child together.
Pray about everything! You cannot have a relationship with God
without talking to Him. How many times have you prayed since you
started this program? You need to be praying all the time—without
ceasing.[3] I pray when I go to bed. I pray in the middle of the night,
and I pray the first thing when I get up because God is my morning,
noon, and night. Everything reminds me of God. I can remember
what it was like when everything reminded me of food. I thought
about food all the time. But once I turned my attention from food to
God wants us to go to Him for all

things—it is appropriate to pray and
wait on God.
God, my prayers were answered more and more. I search and look
and pray to find His lead when looking for truth, when needing help
with clothes, when walking down the steps, and before I speak. I pray
for relationships, and I ask God to move other people to find Him.
Outside Versus Inside Forces
An outside force is anything that surrounds us, influencing what
we are doing. It is natural that all of us depend on such a force at one
time or another, such as the highway patrol car sitting alongside the
road that makes our foot pull back from the accelerator. This is an
outside force.
This outside force is the law that God set up at the beginning of
time. But when the Word moves from outside to inside your mouth,
3 “…pray continually…” I Thessalonians 5:17

208
your heart, and is near you—then it is a beautiful inside force that

you should surrender to. It is the Spirit of God to guide you. The laws
are not bad. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law nor the Proph-
ets.[4] The laws are established (for example, the law of gravity), and
it is something we learn to abide by without debate or deliberation.
Other such laws are…justice, mercy, and love. In the atmosphere
of the Garden, Adam and Eve did not have an outside force making
them behave. What God found one evening when He was walking in
the Garden, unfortunately, was that the hearts of the free-will agents
He had created were missing the inside initiative to be pure in heart.
As time went by, God found a man who did have a pure trust and
love for Him. His name was Abraham.[5] This man was focused and
loved God and had such a strong faith. God was delighted to find a
man who had a heart for Him and trust in Him. God tested Abra-
ham’s motives and He found that Abraham was even willing to sacri-
fice his only son if God asked him to, because he believed God would
provide for him. God tested him with Isaac, and then God gave Isaac
back. This is the love and faith that God considers righteous. Abra-
ham had the inside force—faith and love.
God committed Himself to Abraham, and Abraham to the Father.

God promised to make a whole nation of “Abrahams.” In other words,
God was so pleased with Abraham’s heart of love that He decided to
make many Abraham clones, a group of people who had the same
heart as Abraham. This spiritual nation was not going to be small in
number; in fact, God said there would be as many hearts like Abra-
ham’s as there were stars in the sky. “He took him outside and said, ‘Look
up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then
he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” Genesis 15:5
4 The Law is the first five books of the Old Testament and the Prophets are the rest
of the Old Testament
5 Read Genesis Chapters 12-25
209
Diet Laws—The Outside Force
God started fulfilling the promise to Abraham by giving him a
child named Isaac. Isaac’s son was Jacob, later called Israel. Jacob
fathered Joseph, whom God sent to Egypt where he became second
in power only to pharaoh. Through circumstances under God’s con-
trol, the entire family later moved to Egypt, where this family of 12
brothers grew in number. After they had been there 430 years, God
realized that this large crowd of descendants of Abraham did not
have the same heart as Abraham. They had strayed away from the
pure heart of their forefathers. God said He would establish a law—
an outside force—that would serve until the inside force (Christ in
one’s heart) was established. If God had not imposed an outside
force, they might not have made it until Jesus came. The Apostle Paul
wrote, “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because
of transgressions until the Seed (meaning Christ) to whom the promise
referred had come.” Galatians 3:19a
Step by step, day by day, you must stop

using your own strength and outside
forces and begin to be driven by the
power of God.
The law was a guardian until Christ came and showed us all how
to receive the Holy Spirit of God. Likewise—you no longer have to
have an outside supervisor telling you everything to eat, drink, and
do. You can use your own conscience (the Holy Spirit) and your
own heart and hunger and fullness to guide you from within.
God’s Power Versus Willpower
Internal control is not willpower, but, rather, God-power. For
most of us, our willpower is long gone and was spent on trying im-
possible man-made rules that ran against our natural internal control
210
or instinct. Depending on God’s power is completely different be-

cause you are using your natural urges and instincts—hunger and
fullness. In addition, you know now that you must put your own de-
sires aside—they are submerged. The person who has surrendered
his will to God’s will, dead to his own wishes, can now follow the
Spirit of God and sense, feel, and follow His lead.
Control Versus Discipline
Many people—under the guise of righteous self-discipline—try
to run not only their lives but others’ lives as well, because they think
they can. These people try to mix Weigh Down and their diet and
call themselves “successful dieters,” but the fruit of this strained life
is barren. The family often suffers, because these controllers cannot
switch the plans. They are prisoners of control, and their family is
forced to be prisoners with them. If they have on their plan to go
home to eat, even if they get an invitation, no one can alter it, and one
had best not get in their way. As time goes on, they will begin to hate
their “have-to” regimens. The prophet Isaiah spoke God’s words:
You were wearied by all your ways, but you would not say, “It is hope-
less.” You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint. I
will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not bene-
fit you. When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you!
Isaiah 57:10,12-13a
People using their own strength eventually become exhausted.
The work of their hands does not bear fruit that will last, and they are
frustrated because they do not reach their goals. Their idols do not
save them, but ruin them in the end.
Step by step, day by day, you must stop using your own strength
and outside forces and begin to be driven by the power of God. It
simply takes a heart that is ready to stop controlling their day and is
ready to surrender to God’s day. With prayer and using the tempta-
tion tips, finally you are walking in the Spirit of God. “The kingdom
211
of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say,
‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”
Luke 17:20b-21
When you follow God’s lead, the house will be echoing with
songs of praise and thankfulness. The inside force is so much better!
Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look
to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you
were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you
birth. Isaiah 51:1-2a
Look to the rock—Abraham—and imitate his faith and heart for
God; you will join a number that is as many as the stars in the sky!
TRUTH TIP
To change your relationship with food to a relationship with God,
you must now focus and listen all day to the Voice from Above that
guides your every step!
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
212
Gwen Shamblin Lara being interviewed on the Tyra Banks show in 2007.
Gwen on the You Can Overcome Show, Season 14, Episode 1,

“Love is the Answer to Laying Down All Idols,” filmed on September 12, 2018.
213
TESTIMONY
Eldon and Sara Gormsen, both down 50 pounds
since 2002.
Sara: When Weigh Down came into my life, I was feeling miser-
able, and with each pregnancy, I continued to gain weight. I could
not lose weight no matter how many diets I tried. God heard my cry,
and in 1999 I started my very first Weigh Down Basics Class. It was
like LIGHT had come into my life! Gwen showed me through the
Bible that I was going to food—an idol—for comfort, and not to
God when my heart hurt or I wanted a feeling. Now, 19 years later
(since 2001), with 50 pounds of weight permanently gone, life con-
tinues to get better and better. Words cannot express how thankful I
am to God for leading us to this ministry.
Eldon: I have lost over 50 pounds and have kept if off since 2002.
Even more exciting is the amount of joy and peace that I have now in
my life. This was something that I always longed for but never thought
was possible. While the external body changed from losing weight,
the changes inside me and my heart are what I am most thankful for.
Anger, greed (for more food and money), pride, and lust are a few of
the things that I have been able to lay down through the principles in
God’s Word that Gwen so clearly explains in this book. I will never
go back to the
empty, painful
way my life was
before. If you put
the principles
into practice, you
will lose weight,
and most impor-
tantly, you will
find a relation-
ship with God
that leads to a
changed heart
and joy that
abounds! Eldon and Sara have lost over 100 pounds.
214
17
THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under
the control of the evil one. I John 5:19
Spiritual Warfare
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in
the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are
undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who
called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little
while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. I Peter 5:8-11
Growing up, I was not told of the spiritual realm and the dark forces
around us and after us. Spiritual warfare comes alive when you touch
on the edge of True Religion—giving your whole heart to God. If you
are unaware or forget about the spiritual war surrounding you, you can
feel as if the world is going crazy around you. Wake up, O sleeper!
Most people never talk about the spiritual warfare nor experience
it, because it is not realized when you claim to be a Christian but
are not truly born again—not changed, a new creation. However, it
becomes instantly a reality and more intense when you are choosing
to take personal responsibility—when you take the steps to do the will
of God over pleasing yourself. When you are trying to obey with the
food or you are trying to do what is right, there always seems to be
an antagonist or something that blocks you from getting to class or
to Weigh Down materials, or to your accountability partner. Now, on
the other hand, notice an open door and a freeway to the pantry, to
temptations, and to lustful conversations, and the distracting thought
processes that would put you in harm’s way.
Do not confuse God’s disciplining hand

with satan’s destructive hand.
God is trying to train you up and
make you stronger—satan is
trying to discourage you.
According to Ephesians 6, there are evil spiritual forces in the
Heavenly realms and in the earthly realm and even below us… When
you are approaching the food today without understanding the dy-
namics of what we are talking about, it is really like you walking into
a college classroom and not paying attention to what is going on. The
next thing you know, all the students around you are turning in their
exam papers and you did not even know there was an exam. Failing
the test is going to be inevitable.
If you keep your purpose before you at all times, you can weather
this raging dragon—the great antagonist to submission to God, to the
authority of God, to anyone obeying God or putting God first. Your pur-
pose is the same as Christ had when he was faced with the ultimate hard
crossroad in life…“Not my will but yours (God’s) be done.” Luke 22:42b
Suffering For The Will Of God
Suffering and spiritual warfare are linked, and it is for our ulti-
mate good, but the victory tells the world that God is Lord of All.
Do not confuse God’s disciplining hand with satan’s destructive
hand. God is trying to train you up and make you stronger—satan
is trying to discourage you. Spiritual warfare is real. It is indeed the
Battle of the Ages—the Ancient War of God versus satan. You are a
216
part of the war whether you know it or not. Your role is very impor-
tant, and it is the real purpose of your life and existence. You are a
prize to be won, so satan lies and tries to get you to go one way, while
God and His staff of Angels are fighting for you to go down the right
path. These attacks against you—tripping you up so that you can-
not find this invisible Kingdom—are all indistinguishable, obscure,
clandestine, and insidious, so you have to pay attention to everything
going on around you and interpret it spiritually. The war is invisible,
but satan can, however, enter people—even people in your family or
near to you. Evil spirits can use vessels, much like Mr. Smith in the
“Matrix.”[1] In II Corinthians 11:13-15a it says:
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as
apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an
angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as ser-
vants of righteousness.
So satan is not in a red suit, but rather works through nice look-
ing, even religious people, and his words are sympathetic to you as
he persuades you that you are a victim, and emphasizes the difficulty,
even the impossibility of God’s will for your life. Satan told Eve…
“Did God really say you cannot eat that food?”[2][3]
Satan tried to get Christ to save himself in the desert testing and
while he was on the cross. Satan is always trying to get us to save
ourselves and to avoid self-denial. Satan wants us to project and to
be the victim. But we are far from being a victim if we have life—
an extremely rare and expensive opportunity! We are blessed to be
chosen to have life and then a chance for eternal life. In other words,
you have been chosen to enter the one and only Universal Spiritual
Olympics.
1 “The Matrix.” Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. Warner Bros Pictures, 1999.
2 Genesis 3:1
3 See The History of the One True God Volume I, Chapter 3
217
When you become more aware, you can identify a pattern: there are
obstacles when you are determined to do God’s will…or…a cushy, easy,
enticing path when you feel sorry for yourself, feel victimized, etc. You
will learn to get ready for the battle. The truth is the key. Preparation for
all lies is the answer. Do what Christ did. He confronted satan with the
truth every time satan lied to him. He stayed focused and praised God.
Battle Tools
But there is more to learn…
In Ephesians 6, Paul said you need to put on your spiritual armor:
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the
devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against
the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore
put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you
may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to
stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,
with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted
with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all
this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flam-
ing arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occa-
sions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert
and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:11-18
So if God could just warn us and say, “Okay, my dear children,
you are going to be tested today by satan,” and give us the exact time
and the exact test and the answer to the lie, we would always have
victory. But in one sense, God has done this. Stay alert at all times.
Expect the roaring lion to be after you today and every day. Soldiers
dress for battle every day. Keep your eyes fixed on God at all times
so you are able to fight and resist the devil’s lies and your own fleshly
desires and temptations. When you sing songs and praise God, satan
218
will flee, because he cannot stand to hear a beautiful song toward

God. Praise sends satan and his demons fleeing.
We learned earlier that we are to put to death whatever is in our
earthly nature. However, what the average person does is spend a lot
of time thinking about it. They like to consider giving up the food, hear
other people talking about giving up their food, check them out to see
that they have not died doing it. It is the “drip, drip” method. We do not
like to rush into God ruling us. But delaying what God says to put to
You have been chosen to enter the one

and only Universal Spiritual Olympics.
death is a sin, and it will only cause you pain in the end. This society has
only reinforced catering to our own desires and what we think is best for
us. But what is best for us is the will of God. We have created a religious
system that likes to choralize, moralize, puppetize the will of God but not
DO the will of God. Big difference—and it is the difference that satan
introduces and lives to disseminate to the world. However, stay in the
Word of God—every book will be clear that we are to do the will of God.
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what
I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe
that—and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith
without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righ-
teous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see
that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was
made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says,
“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and
he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he
does and not by faith alone. James 2:18b-24
This is a spiritual war that we are in… In I Timothy 4:1, it says,
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and
follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”
219
Satan’s role is to keep us confused. When you do not die to your
own will, you usually do not diagnose yourself properly. You start
blaming anything and everything for your failures and unhappiness.
Then you become very depressed and even more deeply engrossed
in self and self-pity, which leads to more earthly desires or eating to
soothe yourself. It is a dark prison of lies, excuses, and invitations to
disobey the God of the Universe. God is not your God. You cannot
please God because you have been talked into pleasing yourself. Satan
can become your master, your lord, without you even knowing it.
Who You Obey Is Your God
Look at this curious dialogue between Jesus and the elite reli-
gious preachers/teachers of the day in John 8. Jesus starts by telling
them that God and Abraham were not their fathers…
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only father we have
is God Himself.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would
love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own;
but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are un-
able to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to
carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not
holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his
native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:41b-44
The point is that even religious leaders might be so deceived that
they do not know that satan is their lord, master, and father. The one
you obey is your god.
Any genuine seeker who wants to be modified, wants to be dif-
ferent, wants to be transformed into godliness, wants to be Christ-
like, as we have been asked to do, will hear the words of Christ and
God and will put them into practice. If your will is to love God with
all your heart, your soul, and your mind, then you will hear His voice.
However, beware…if your will is to halfway serve Him when it is
convenient, then you will not hear His voice. In addition, you will be
220
uncomfortable in the presence of someone who has submitted their

will. People who recognize that we have to put the Scriptures into
practice will be persecuted by the world. But notice that half-hearted
Christianity opens the doors to insidious delusions and lies that tell
you that you are okay not doing the will of God. Beware, because that
is indeed the Great Delusion spoken of in II Thessalonians 2:1-12.
You see, satan is the ruler of this world. That is why he was able to
offer Jesus the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.[4] He said, if
If your will is to love God with all your

heart, your soul, and your mind, then you
will hear His voice.
you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all of this. Notice
that the way Jesus had victory over temptation and battles and how
he eventually got rid of satan four times was by quoting Scriptures or
quoting the truth: quoting God’s Word or will. Do you not see that
we have been called to be soldiers in a battlefield? Your assignment
(if you decide to accept it) should be to fight your battles with the
truth. Fight the desire to put your will over God’s and to save yourself
from suffering. If God calls you to suffer, know that Jesus also had a
cross. But do not be deceived! The truth is that Jesus tells us, “Pick
up your cross daily and follow me.”[5]
This Powerful Delusion[6] that we are not expected to do the will of
God is the outrageous lie of lies that stops all unsuspecting souls short
of the goal. We are warned many times to be alert! I am convinced that
every one of us is supposed to have a raised consciousness. That is why
4 “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will
bow down and worship me.’” Matthew 4:8-9
5 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow me.” Luke 9:23b
6 II Thessalonians 2:11-12
221
our battles will be something different every day at different hours. We
are not going to have the same exams. Yet satan is good at making us be-
lieve that we are okay and that there are not any battles. Or on the other
end of the spectrum, he is described as the accuser of the brethren,[7] and
he makes us feel like failures and makes us want to give up. His tactics
are to remain in the background and chip away at us on either end and
have us lose the battle so subtly that we do not even know that we are in
a battle, much less losing them—like a boat slowly drifting out to sea.
So, put on your Battle Armor, the war is raging! It is frightening to
note that many people would never have thought that the very time
of day they finally let down their guard and relaxed…the very time
that they felt like they deserved to reward themselves with food (after
all, they had had such a hard day)…is the very time that they are to
be awake, alert, on call, in the watchtower, looking for the enemy,
and on their guard. The time that they have selected as an occasion
to celebrate with food because something wonderful has happened,
is the very time that they should be pensive and sober and on their
Fight the desire to put your will

over God’s and to save yourself from
suffering. If God calls you to suffer,
know that Jesus also had a cross.
guard. The time that they seemed bored with nothing to do and eat-
ing crosses their minds as a way to fill the day, is the time that they
must be most prepared with a plan of action, active and busy with
carrying out God’s will and resisting the desire to do their own will.
The time that they finally think everyone has gone to bed and no one
7 “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come the salvation and the
power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser
of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled
down.’” Revelation 12:10
222
is looking is when the room might be full of demons to lie to them

and secretly, skillfully tempt them. Yet wake up and see that God has
sent a great crowd of Heavenly Beings cheering you on to victory and
providing ways of escape. It is an invisible, daunting war that takes
more lives than any war ever experienced on Earth.
The pharisees did not have a clue. They were sure that they were
the children of the Heavenly Father, and they were convinced that the
laws and the attitudes and the principles that Jesus was laying down
were of the devil. See how far off we can get? Jesus describes them as
the brood of vipers, and they described Jesus as the devil.[8] So which
is it? Jesus had the truth. Obey God and put His will into practice.
That is the rock to build on so that when the storms of life and the lies
of satan come, you will stand through the Spiritual Warfare!
Battle Scriptures
The following Scriptures have done more to help the Saints overcome
temptations and win the Battle of the Ages—who rules, God or man…
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of
judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone
who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two
or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves
to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has
treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him,
and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? Hebrews 10:26-29
“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life
maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes
out.” Mark 9:43
8 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”
Matthew 23:33
223
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap
destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will
reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8
TRUTH TIP
Losing weight is a spiritual battle. You cannot be permanently
successful with your own willpower alone.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
TESTIMONY
Marc and Tish Dunn, down 105 pounds together
since 2001.
Weigh Down works! My wife and I have maintained our com-
bined weight loss of over 100 pounds for nearly 20 years! This all
began in 1996 when my wife, Tish, was introduced to Weigh Down
by way of a Weigh Down class in Germany while we were visiting
family overseas. Shortly thereafter, she joined a Weigh Down class,
bought The Weigh Down Diet book and quickly lost 35 pounds. She
also overcame a number of other strongholds, and I witnessed her
entire disposition and outlook change for the better. I became con-
victed by both her words and actions and began to listen to what she
was learning. Admittedly, my changes were not an immediate thing
as I was hard-headed and prideful. Then in 2000, Tish and I attended
Weigh Down’s “Desert Oasis 2000” summer convention and heard
Gwen speak live. We also had the opportunity to meet a number of
224
other Weigh Down participants. I was inspired by the experience,

and over the next few months, I lost 70 pounds off my 5’11” frame.
Since that time, I have maintained my weight loss and have con-
tinued to grow closer to God with each passing year. My wife also
maintained her weight loss, even returning to her pre-pregnancy
weight after carrying our triplets. Our marriage and family grow more
beautiful every day. We have so much hope for our children, know-
ing that we are passing down Godly principles that will prevent them
from experiencing the pain of being overweight and self-focused.
The principles in Weigh Down Basics have impacted every area of
our lives for the better and we have nothing but hope for the future!
Marc lost 70 pounds.

Tish lost 35 pounds.
225
Gwen speaking at the Festivals.
This assembly was the Passover and
Passion of Christ 2018.
18
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW
SUFFERING
I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their
groaning and have come down to set them free. Acts 7:34
You may be halfway across the Desert of Testing by now. It helps

to know that everyone will be tested and tried and that it is just a part
of the journey.
Jesus said, “If you save your life, you will lose it.”[1] Over the years
I have really had to learn to die to my will, because I had so many ex-
pectations that I thought were reasonable, but they obviously were not
in God’s plan. With respect I would ask, “Why did you make humans
with a will, but ask them to die to their wills?” But I would always go
back and do the will of God. In the end, it always worked for the good.
True Christianity teaches us that we have to put to death our sin-
ful nature. This form of obedience involves death to self. Death to
self, or our will, is the core of obedience.[2]
obedience
1 “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:25
2 For more on this topic, see the Appendix for information on additional resources.
Holding onto their human will was the major downfall of the Israelites.
If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots
of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into
the desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Exodus 16:3
At this point, the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt. Do you
identify at all…do you feel as if God has brought you out into this des-
ert to starve you to death? Do you feel that the amount of food He
allows daily is way too small? Do you feel that the length of time be-
tween hunger signals is way too long? Do you feel that your spouse’s
attention toward you is too little? Do you feel the financial situation
God has left you in is too hand-to-mouth? Do you feel that the job
God has handed you is not fulfilling enough? Do you weary of this
seemingly too skimpy lifestyle and have-to dependence on God’s hand
to control when you eat, how much cash you have coming in, and how
kind your spouse will be to you? Have you been tempted, as the Israel-
ites were, to go back to Egypt? At least in Egypt, you did not have the
spiritual warfare nor the guilt feeling nor the tug of war with your heart.
Has the thought of letting loose and saving yourself been tempting?
The Last 10 Pounds
You have lost 20 pounds, but now the amount of food you have
cut back to only leaves you at a plateau. You know you have 10 more
pounds to go. God seems to want more from you. In fact, He wants
some of the last morsels that you thought were rightfully yours. Have
you not given enough? It is like people working on marriage rela-
tionships. Some of you feel you have given up so many of your rights
to make your partner happy and your marriage better, but God seems
to ask you to die to your wishes even more! How could this be, when
you feel like justice would require your spouse, for once, to die to his
or her wishes for the sake of peace? God is asking the person who
seems to be the most submissive to exhibit even more humility. God
228
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING
is asking the person who gives his coat to give his jacket, too. God is
asking us to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile.[3]
If you are like me, you would at least like to know why we have to suffer
to the point of death to our own wills, be a living sacrifice, and follow the
steps of Jesus all the way to the cross with our strongholds. Can we not hold
onto some of our will? But this is also somewhat the wrong attitude. It is
not the last 10 pounds that you are holding onto…it is the last 10 pounds
of you ruling over God. You need to take your will to the cross.
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an ex-
ample, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no
deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled insults at him, he did
not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrust-
ed himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body
on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness…
I Peter 2:21-24a
There is the answer. He died so that we might die to sin, or wrong
living, and live right. Most of us are taught that when we come to Christ,
he has done all the dying. The inspired Scriptures tell us differently.
When God started off with Adam and Eve, His obvious intent was to
provide mankind with a life free of worry, sacrifice, suffering, and death.
But what quickly became apparent through Adam and Eve’s behavior
was that man thought they had a better idea and man’s temptation was
to rule over his authority. The child wants to rule the parent, the wife the
husband, the employee the boss, etc. Once Adam and Eve disobeyed au-
thority, their eyes were opened all right—not to how great they were, but
to how much lower they were than God—they were naked and in need.
3 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not
resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And
if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone
forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not
turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” Matthew 5:38-42
229
Their punishment was pain so that they would forever remember
that they were man and that God was the Ruler of the Heavens and
the Earth and the Universe.
Suffering and pain are what educate us to who we really are—
mortals with no ability to save ourselves. The more you stay under
God’s authority, even through the authorities He has placed on Earth,
the less pain and suffering you will experience.
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is
no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that
exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against
the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who
do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for
those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free
from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will com-
mend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong,
be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant,
an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is
necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punish-
ment but also because of conscience. Romans 13:1-5
Accepting God’s Decisions

It is a given that we will suffer. It is a given that God will disci-
pline us if we need it. Job said, “Shall we accept good from God, and not
trouble?” Job 2:10
First off, note that trouble is not always from satan or caused by
us. It is from God. We are not to be surprised that this Earth is pri-
marily a testing ground, yet Americans live as if it is a playground.
In I Peter 4:12-13 it says:
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering,
as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you
230
participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when

his glory is revealed.
This advice is not what we hear from the world, who thinks suf-
fering is strange and being under authority is weird. The world does
not understand why someone would deny themselves.[4] Satan whis-
pers for you to take care of yourself, for no one else will.
However, Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must say no
to himself. He must pick up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24b
The Luke version states that unless you carry your cross, you cannot
be a Christian or be Jesus’ disciple.[5]
The cross is persecution from men, suffering, or self-denial. He-
brews 12:11a tells us, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but
painful.” Suffering is not unique to you; it is normal, but it is painful.
Even Jesus prayed with sweat drops of blood as He surrendered His
will to God’s: “Not my will but yours be done.” Luke 22:42b
It is essential to know that everything that happens to you (by
the hand of satan) is screened or “okayed” by God first. Look at this
passage from Job 1:7-12:
The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered
the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in
it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?
There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man
who fears God and shuns evil.” “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan
replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and
everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his
flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your
4 “They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of
dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him
who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” I Peter 4:4-5
5 “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:27
231
hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your
face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in
your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went
out from the presence of the Lord.
Satan took Job’s income, his investments, his children, and his
health. Job accepted this suffering and fell to his face and exclaimed
that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, and then he praised
God.[6] Job’s wife was upset, and Job, again, rightly exclaimed that we
should accept not just the good from God but also the suffering.[7] At
the end of this testing, Job learned that the all-powerful God of the
Universe holds the answer to suffering. Job argued to God that he
was sinless and not deserving of suffering. But God finally spoke and
put Job in his place by asking him a few questions that he could not
answer, such as “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?”
Job 38:4a Job said, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things
too wonderful for me to know.” Job 42:3b Once again, another lesson
on the same subject…God is God and we are not.
Consider It Pure Joy
So not only are we to accept suffering, but we are to consider
the opportunity to be able to suffer like Christ an honor and a joy.
James 1:2-4 points out:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Per-
severance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything.
6 “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the
ground in worship and said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will
depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be
praised.’” Job 1:20-21
7 “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” Job 2:10b
232
Most of us have been through some significant suffering. I have

counseled for years, and the truth is that all of God’s children have
endured many things, no matter what it looks like on the outside.
The result is patience, character, righteousness—the goal.
Change Yourself First
Knowing that God is putting us all through the refiner’s fire, we must
not jump out before it is too late. For example, even if a marriage or job is
tough—we are not to consider leaving the place where God has put us.[8]
Reform yourself, not the surroundings. Make sure God is leading
you to change jobs, or God just might re-create the same situation in
the next job. Do not even think about “getting even” with someone
who has wronged you—in fact, turn the other cheek.
Jesus Also Suffered
Another way that I have been able to endure the pain of change is
to know that even Jesus, God’s only Son, did not escape the suffering.
Hebrews 5:7-10a refers to the suffering that Jesus bore:
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions
with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and
he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son,
he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he
became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was des-
ignated by God to be high priest…
Isaiah expressed it very well:
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer and
though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring
8 “Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to
him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.”
I Corinthians 7:17
233
and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.
Isaiah 53:10-11a
Accepting suffering announces to the world, “I believe and trust that
this is a good God who only gives me what is best for me.” Jesus suffered
and voluntarily gave his life because the Father asked this of him.
Paul summed it up this way…“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in
view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1
You have heard when Paul asked for his suffering to be removed
three times, the answer from God was “my grace is sufficient for you,” but
what that really means is God wants it this way, and I have no doubt
that it is for our own training and refinement so that we are eternal
material. This answer stops all questioning and begging of God to
enhance the circumstances. Who would believe that in the end that
“not my will but thine be done” would mean you are sitting in the second
highest powerful seat in the Universe? Who would believe it?
Life Comes From Death
A caterpillar essentially “dies” in its cocoon so that a butterfly can
emerge. Consider the spring that follows a harsh, deadly winter. Every
year we watch trees lose their leaves, appearing to die; yet they come
back to life bigger and stronger than the year before. Another symbol
of life from death around us is the daily example of the long, cold night
and the warmth of the morning sun rising again. We have to believe
that the sun will rise again. Jesus drew a great word picture for us:
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it
remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man
who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where
I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves
me. John 12:24-26
234
It all boils down to acknowledgment that we were born yesterday

and that God is the Genius of forever. There is an eternal purpose,
and when you are done with suffering, you will be done with sin.[9]
TRUTH TIP
Everything in life is screened by God. Trust Him that suffering
is used for your refinement and to draw you closer to Him.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
Gwen reading Scripture at Baptisms during Pentecost 2018.
9 “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same
attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does
not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of
God.” I Peter 4:1-2
235
List Of Strongholds
Substance Abuse Strongholds • Malice/Revenge
• Food • Excessive Exercise
• Tobacco • Overbooked Calendar
• Alcohol • Anorexia/Bulimia
• Drugs • Love Of Money
• Prescriptions/Antidepressants • Overspending
• Diet Pills • Praise Of Men
Emotional Strongholds • Lying/Deceit
• Depression • Theft
• Self-Focused Fears • Social Status
• Hate • Careers
• Jealousy • Children (Excessive Focus)
• Unworthiness/Insecurity • Materialism
• Self-Focus/Self-Pity • Disrespect For Authority
• Hypochondriac • Slander
• Protective/Defensive • Mocking
Sexual Strongholds • Projection
• Pornography • Selfish Ambition/Sabotage
• Lewdness • Miserliness/Stinginess
• Sexual Lust Strongholds of Escape
• Promiscuity • Workaholism
• Adultery • Laziness
• Homosexuality • Procrastination
Marital Strongholds • Television
• Lack Of Submission • Computers
• Misplaced Loyalty • Soap Operas/Reality TV
• Marital Discord • Sports
• Selfishness • Hobbies
• Manipulation • Video Games
Controlling Strongholds • Social Media
• Anger • Thrill Seeking
• Pride/Boasting • Magazines
• Credit Cards/Shopping Diagnosed Strongholds
• Nagging • Hypochondria
• Power/Control • Anxiety
• Gambling • Phobias/Paranoia
• Greed • Personality Disorders
• Gossip • Panic Attacks
236
TESTIMONY
Rachael Purdy, down 50 pounds.
When God showed me Weigh Down Basics, I was ready for a
change! I was trapped in the rabbit hole of “healthy” eating. My version
of healthy eating included organic, free range, hormone free, grass-fed,
raw milk, cultured, unprocessed and OVERWHELMING! There were
so many food rules, I couldn’t keep them all straight, and I had no time
to think about anything else. It was all very confusing. I just knew that
I was overweight, in pain and discontented with my life.
When the original Weigh Down Diet book was placed in my hands
in 2012, I knew I would never go back to my old ways! I was taught
how to transfer my focus from the food to a focus and love for God.
As I put into practice the Biblical principles of Weigh Down, my pain
and discontentment turned to joy. My relationship with God became
so personal, strong and sweet—I lost 50 pounds eating regular foods
from a regular grocery store!
I love to stay in Weigh Down Basics classes, I listen to Weigh
Down All Access
every free moment I
get, I keep my nose
in the oodles of
books produced by
Weigh Down Min-
istries as well as my
beloved Bible, and I
stay connected with
others who are run-
ning after this whole-
hearted relationship
to God! I praise God
for Weigh Down and
for Gwen Shamblin
Lara for teaching
Rachael lost 50 pounds.
me truth from God’s
Word about how to
CHANGE!
237
Gwen in her kitchen at Ashlawn in
Brentwood, Tennessee.
238
19
FREE FROM UNWANTED
BEHAVIORS AND SUBSTANCES
This is a long chapter, and I do not want you to get lost in it. I
have one major point to make, and that is that most of our problems
center around being egocentric and the answer is found in being
God-centric. With that in mind, let us begin…
However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow
all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will
come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed
in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The
fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the
calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when
you come in and cursed when you go out. The Lord will send on you curses,
confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are
destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in
forsaking him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has de-
stroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will strike
you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching
heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until
you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you
iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder;
it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. The Lord will
cause you to be defeated before your enemies. Deuteronomy 28:15-25a
What the Scripture calls sin, the world calls addictions, compul-
sive behaviors—implying that it is out of your control, a disease, or
that for some unknown reason, the victim is compelled to behave
a certain way. In this interpretation, self-control is out of reach for
the “addicted” person. The better terms would be dependencies,
bad habits, cravings, enslavements, evil desires, sensual desires, or
just sins. These terms are more accurate because this leaves the door
open for choices and as more of a spiritual matter than a disease that
needs medications. Whatever term you use to refer to wrong behav-
iors, just remember that they are all within your control. Many un-
wanted behaviors and dependencies are on the rise.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that
the use of antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs (those that
affect brain chemistry) has drastically risen since 2005—actually, it
has skyrocketed over the last decade. Antidepressants are prescribed
more than drugs to treat high blood pressure, asthma, or headaches.
Not only prescription drugs, but alcohol abuse and drug abuse have
drastically increased over the years—an increase in the use of meth,
cocaine, and heroin. Mental illnesses are on the rise and are now
more common than cancer, diabetes, or heart disease.
Mental diseases and illnesses have been around since the begin-
ning of time, according to this passage. Likewise, Leviticus 26 talks
about an irrational fear that God will send if we continue to rebel
against Him. The Scriptures say that these maladies are allowed by
God in hopes that we will turn back to Him. Everything about Christ
says that he wants us to be healed, and everything about healing in
the Bible says that we need to turn to God.
There are many outward manifestations of a heart not grounded
on the Rock. Lists abound in the New Testament that show that
the acts of the sinful nature start in our very own heart and mind.
Romans 1:28-31 says:
240
FREE FROM UNWANTED BEHAVIORS AND SUBSTANCES
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowl-
edge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought
not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness,
evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and
malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and
boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they
are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
As stated earlier in this book, as faith in God decreased in this coun-
try, vices increased and faith in science as the solution was the natural
grasp of mankind. But godless science is worthless. With this transfer
came the transfer from personal responsibility to labeling all maladies a
“disease.” Again, if something is a disease, then it is out of your domain
of responsibility, and in this pill-driven medical era, more than likely
you are given a prescription. Each year they incorporate more behav-
iors that were once labeled a sin, and amazingly, this year, mainstream
Christianity made an all-out effort to label suicide as a disease.
The most common modern science theory for depression or un-
wanted psychological behaviors suggests that one has an abnormal bal-
ance of special chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. A pre-
scription is then given to the patient. However, if that is the case, which
comes first? Did you overeat and then become depressed, which re-
sulted in an abnormal balance? Or did you have an ongoing abnormal
balance and therefore become uncontrollably, chronically depressed
and in need of mind-altering drugs? Just as sin brings depression, re-
pentance brings joy. Since I have had the humble honor of watching
thousands amend/improve their behavior and then become so joyful
that they are now drug-free—my suggestion is to give behavior change,
including turning to God, a try. Many recent articles have expressed a
growing concern about patients who are now addicted and dependent
on these drugs within months of starting them.
I had the opportunity to do a work-study on mental disease dur-
ing graduate school, and no doubt there are rare mental illnesses
241
from birth defects and inborn errors of metabolism that are chronic.
At the time of the training, we learned that one of the main causes of
developmental delays outside of genetic abnormalities is substance
abuse. Yet even in purity, and for reasons that God allows that are
beyond our control, there are chronic, irreversible conditions.
The real cause of this skyrocketing use of unprecedented pre-
scription drugs for adults and children has got to be reconsidered.
To suggest that all vices, abnormal behaviors, and mental confusion
are disconnected from our own choices leaves so many people in a
hopeless situation. Just like obesity—if it is a “disease,” we are hope-
lessly obese the rest of our days. To imply that behavior that can be
changed with choice is actually due to genetic flaws, physical defects,
chemical misfires, or compulsive behaviors and has to be medicated
is irresponsible of our generation. This approach has robbed thou-
sands of the opportunity to walk free from overeating and overmedi-
cating. For individuals who are under care, talk to your physician,
because most are in agreement that we as a population have become
too dependent and will be more than pleased to help you return to
a normal, drug-free lifestyle. There are thoughtful counselors who
know that these are not just physical conditions but spiritual condi-
tions and rightly encourage the patients to get spiritual help.
Two Types Of Sins
The Ancient Good Book calls out-of-control behaviors “sins,”
and the unwanted mental confusion and rebukes are called “curses.”
There are two types of sins…sins of the disposition and sins of
the flesh. The sins of the flesh are more visible. For example, the
prodigal-son-types outwardly show greed, sensual indulgence, over-
spending, wild lifestyles, laziness, etc. It is there for the world to see.
Then, there are the older-brother-types who look like they are
doing everything right on the outside—they are on time, produc-
tive, disciplined—but on the inside, the personality characteristics
are hateful, unloving, unmerciful, jealous, untrusting, angry, moody,
242
self-righteous. What a damper the older brother put on the fattened

calf banquet party for the repentant younger brother.[1] The sins of
the disposition may start off seeming benign, but with time they
could quickly grow into anger crimes, divorce, fits of rage, hate, and
even murder, because murder is simply projection at its zenith.
Even though one manifestation of a crooked heart seems more
visible than the other, be sure that the unrepentant heart will come
forth. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good
fruit.” Matthew 7:18 Both manifestations are equally wrong. The
good heart emptied and refilled with the character and loving nature
of the Father will be both loving and outwardly self-controlled.
This chapter gives you insight into unrepentant behaviors and at-
titudes. If the mind and heart continue down their own unrepentant
path and you continue to overeat, binge, etc., then the paths of sin,
guilt, depression, anger, and curses will be realized. We are at a cross-
roads. There is only one path to freedom. Let us first visit the roads
that we do not want to take. Then we will walk through the steps to
the right path that is liberating![2]
Dead-End Path One—We Should Not Feel Guilt
The first wrong path that we will expose is the lie that “God does
not want us to feel guilt.” Well, this is clearly not true because God
made our conscience and He made it to work. If you have a con-
science, then you have not been given over to a stony heart. I praise
God for any stirring conscience of guilty feelings, because I know that
God’s Spirit is prompting me. We should feel the guilt but we must
not stay in the guilt. Guilt and repentance and getting it right are sim-
ply the product of the presence of the Holy Spirit of the Most High
God, and it happens to be the most valuable entity on the planet. I
love a working, active conscience, and I do all I can to get convicted,
1 Luke 15:11-32
243
TRUE
REPENTANCE
PASSION SEEKERS/
LUST/THEFT
PROJECTION/ DEEPER SELF-FOCUS/

ANGER/ DEEPER DEPRESSION
DEPRESSION
WE SHOULD
NOT FEEL
GUILT
because the result is change. I love convicting sermons, convicting

readings in the Word and listening to convicting lessons from Weigh
Down. I love being around people who are righteous, for they are
convicting, showing me how I can improve.
Some preachers/pastors believe that it is bad to feel guilt—that
it is blasphemous or insulting to God and Christ to say that people
need to worry about sin. In fact, over the last decade, so many reli-
gious entities have led people to blame anywhere but inside. Both
Christian counselors and worldly counselors have led hurting,
244
seeking people astray by numbing God’s guilt with pills. We have

more evil and crime in this world at younger and younger ages. This
numbing and playing around with the brain’s neurotransmitters is
possibly anesthetizing the very hand of God. Without the working
of the conscience, people fall asleep spiritually and fail to completely
change. Guilt must be quickly dealt with, for it is too heavy to leave
on your shoulders. You need assistance from the Saints to help get
you quickly away from the guilt through confession, repentance, and
then walking in the light.
Oh, the need for pure religion to bring back guilt and morality to our
teens! The numbers being ticketed with DUI, arrested for illegal acts,
and incarcerated for hate crimes are astounding. Without this convic-
tion and gentle prompting for redirection, the world would be complete-
ly chaotic and devoid of morals—and unless we turn it around, we are
headed there. There is an acute need for America to wake up and use
the conscience, the Holy Spirit, the resulting guilt, and hopefully, rapid
repentance correctly. We must look inward and stop blaming the world
before we are given over to our own devices like Sodom and Gomor-
rah—unrepentant cities that God destroyed because He could find only
one righteous family in the midst of five cities.[3]
The Holy Spirit is a free gift given to those who obey,[4] but it is
worth billions—it spares us from many shameful, destructive behav-
iors. In a word, the guilty feeling of the Holy Spirit has been our only
salvation. I crave it and cannot imagine life without it. God’s Spirit
gently wakes me up at night and reminds me of my words and actions
the day before that could have been improved. For example, I will feel
bad if I talked too much or missed what God wanted me to say to a
hurting person. Then, through prayer and planning, I go back and get
it right the next day. I love the conviction so much—I love convicting
3 Genesis 19:1-29
4 “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given
to those who obey him.” Acts 5:32
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sermons or times that make me look inward. If any testing or difficulty
comes my way, I rely on God and His Spirit to guide me. This free rev-
elation is the most important element on Earth. Christ said:
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things
and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:25-26
Christ revealed his convicting life and left us with God’s convict-
ing Spirit. It is what has brought so many of us together and changed
us and unified us. Everyone at the Remnant Fellowship Church loves
this conviction. We long for it each time we meet or fellowship with
one another.
But for those who ignore it or think they can cast it aside, I must
warn you that at any age your conscience can harden all the way to
stone. Do not delay. Get away from people who tell you to ignore
it—who tell you that you are okay like you are—or who join in with
you to project and blame others.
What does the average middle-aged, middle-class, even church-
going person do with this conviction? Anger/projection or depres-
sion/antidepressants. In 2010, antidepressants were the second most
commonly prescribed medications, right after drugs to lower choles-
terol. About 254 million prescriptions were written for them, result-
ing in nearly 10 billion dollars in costs.[5] The result is that people
are reaching for substances as the solution for depression…alcohol,
illicit drugs, and other highs or numbing agents, and now marijuana.
So this first path is a belief that there is no guilt or conviction
from the Heavens—it is a guilt created from evil, religious people
who are trying to control innocent people. Its travelers usually sur-
round themselves with people who adopt “I am okay, you are okay”
attitudes to justify their indulgences and preach not to judge anyone.
5 National Institute of Mental Health: Antidepressants—A Complicated Picture

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Dead-End Path Two—Projection/Anger/

Depression
The second path of projection is so common.[6] This second path
is not calloused over—they sin and then feel the guilt—but instead
of repenting, they blame everyone else near them for their plight.
This feels so good, temporarily, but then the guilt comes back,
so they rant at someone else—the government, the bank, the car in
front of them, the house help, the waitress, and even the dog. There
is an endless resource to blame. It becomes a way of life to end all
responsibility, but it comes with a great price…strained relationships,
ruined friendships, divorce, lost jobs, etc. You end up empty but loaded
down with sin. Instead of favor, you have a lack of acceptance from
God and man, which results in rejection, isolation, and loneliness.[7]
The First Recorded Projection
This has happened before—in fact, it was the road taken by the
very first family. Genesis 4:2b-8 says:
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain
brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel
brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked
with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not
look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then
the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what
is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must
master it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And
while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
6 See Chapter 21, “Projection Versus Introspection”

247
First, we learn from this passage about Cain and Abel that anger and
depression, a downcast feeling, accompanied the first sin and every sin
thereafter. Everyone has sinned, so all people have felt this guilt, which
is the lack of favor from God. However, it is what we do from here that
counts. When things go wrong, it is not random…it is God trying to
get your attention…but instead of changing, you took the wonderful
conscience pain and hurt someone else. You must look inward first and
thank God for showing you anything. Please! Who even bothers any-
more to teach us what we need to know? God is your best friend! What
a revelation to be prompted by the Heavens for what you did wrong. If
you do not change, you wind up like Cain—lonely and an outcast.
We need to learn to say…“I am wrong, I am sorry, it is my fault.”
Do you want to rebuild relationships? Try saying these words…
“I should not have said those words…I should not have acted that
way, you are right.” When you have lived a life of “I am right and
you are wrong,” it gets harder and harder to turn it around. What
is more, you do not see your own faults. The writings of David in
Psalm 36:1-2 say, “An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness
of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes
he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.”
Looking inward and changing is a hard teaching if you have pride
and therefore flatter yourself. The nearer that Jesus got to the cross,
the fewer the people who followed Him. His disciples said:
“This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Aware that his disciples were
grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? …The
Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to
you are spirit and they are life.” John 6:60b-61,63
In other words, follow God’s Spirit and do not follow your fleshly
desires—they are no help to your life. What is so hard about being
wrong? Nothing. It is a lie that people think you are intelligent if you
win the argument. The truly honored wise can sincerely say, “You are
right and I am wrong.” The brilliant wise can freely say, “I am sorry,
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forgive me.” A rush of love comes between two people during these
times of humility. You may keep your pride, but know this…you can-
not have a relationship nor a friendship with your pride. Pride and
loneliness go hand in hand. Pride and joblessness go hand in hand.
It is hard to swallow at first that you have sinned, and even harder
still to believe that all this time the resulting self-pity and self-focus
were a result of not repenting. But try this, and you will see that hap-
piness and good relationships are in your hands, inside your choice
and control. When you see the joy and hope that you receive from
changing yourself instead of projecting, you will want to swallow this
truth versus vomiting projection on everyone.
No doubt counselors have been hesitant to tell people the truth
because the average person does not want to hear it.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it
judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is
hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the
eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:12-13
God’s True Shepherds of the flock—the church—are so gentle
and loving, but give the truth that sets people free.
Things That Can No Longer Be Excuses
Dysfunctional: Again, referring to the Cain and Abel passage, you
can see that we learn many things. As we have discussed before, the
world’s first family was dysfunctional: Cain killed his brother with a rock!
Any sin in a family member affects the other family members. All have
sinned, therefore all families are dysfunctional. We must no longer con-
tinue to let the label “dysfunctional” serve as an excuse for our behavior.
Family History: It has always run counter to my advice for people
to continue to talk about, dwell on, or in any way use history to excuse
their present behavior. In other words, it is not logical to believe that a
person’s having been abused in childhood is why they are continuing
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to adore the indulgence of food. I do not see the connection; how-
ever, I do see the “excuse,” just as I see the excuse of “I am afraid to get
thin because men may notice me.” In reality, this is a wanted excuse to
justify overeating, for they love the relationship with food more than
the relationship with men or God. It is a choice. If you have some
special history, genetic makeup, dysfunctional family, or critical event
that makes you cling to the refrigerator—I have not seen it, because
A God-focused relationship will

automatically result in a better and
restored relationship with mankind.
everyone loses weight on Weigh Down when they eat less food.
Saints who refused to dwell in the past and who stayed in the pres-
ent are the ones who ate less food and lost weight! A large percent-
age of people coming to Weigh Down had previously been counseled
into spending hours resurrecting dysfunctional family history. Many
wanted to tell me that they had just learned through counseling that a
family member had sexually abused them, and they had absolutely no
memory or knowledge of it or visualization of it—in fact, let’s tell the
truth, if you have absolutely no memory or evidence, it did not hap-
pen! My advice would be the same every time, regardless of whether
or not this revelation about their past turned out to be true. Look
at the Apostle Paul. What a horrible history he could have dwelled
on. He put to death innocent people—not only that, God’s innocent
children! He imprisoned many. The Apostle Paul never dwelled on
all his murders—never talked about them, but just briefly reflected on
the past and acknowledged that he had been the “chiefest of sinners.”
He did not describe the details or bring up all the emotions from the
past. He simply talked about the saving grace and forgiveness of Jesus
Christ. He moved the subject “off ” himself and talked about the pres-
ent or the future—never self-focused stories of the past. Now, if that
is how the Apostle Paul took care of a horrible history that could have
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haunted him, then let us please allow history to rest—especially if

God has erased it from your memory banks.
Unforgiveness: Jesus said that if we do not forgive others, that
we ourselves would not be forgiven.[8] Just forgive in your heart and
move on. Jesus did not say to the adulterous woman, “Go and fix
everything and everyone you have wronged.” No! He just said go
and “you” sin no more. I have seen people become very dramatic
about calling people up in their distant past, flying to the city where
they lived and resurrecting things that are not beneficial. Here is the
point: one is a focus on other people, and one is a focus on your own
sins and your own relationship with God. Your own reconciliation
with God is the goal. Let Him guide you.
A God-focused relationship will automatically result in a better
and restored relationship with mankind. As you just focus on laying
down your own strongholds, you will become merciful, because you
see the degree of difficulty. A forgiving nature is birthed in the heart
of a truly repentant person.
The repentant tax collector in Luke 19 offered to go back and pay
people he had wronged four times what he had taken from them.[9]
Sometimes God will call you to this. But, for the most part, sinners
were not asked to dwell on their history.
Here is what John the Baptist told sinners:
“What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “The man
with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who
has food should do the same.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized.
“Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” “Don’t collect any more than
you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And
8 “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Matthew 6:15
9 “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give
half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I
will pay back four times the amount.’” Luke 19:8
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what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse
people falsely—be content with your pay.” Luke 3:10-14
They were asked to start that day being different. These people were
focused on how they had hurt the Father. If we are the victim, we need
to know that everything that happened to us is screened by the Father.
Now go forth and realize the same…God is allowing what is happening
to you and therefore must want this circumstance for a reason.[10]
If you repent, turn, and change by

looking into the mirror of your heart
every day and line it up with the
attitudes and kind deeds of Jesus Christ,
you will watch the pain go away.
My guess is that all of us have played both victim and abuser roles
at some point in time. Whether you are the victim or abuser, repent of
your own past and present sins. Reconciliation with God first and man-
kind second will be inevitable—not vice versa. God takes care of vic-
tims. Fear for the hearts of the abusers and pray for them, because this
God of ours will take revenge on those who wrong us. He loves justice.
Turning Guilt And Depression Around
What we have learned so far is that guilt-depression is real and it
hurts. However, the choice of sympathy from self-pity, victimization,
and projection take you off the true path and simply numb the guilt,
so the only option is to eradicate the initial guilt. If you repent, turn,
and change by looking into the mirror of your heart every day and line
it up with the attitudes and kind deeds of Jesus Christ, you will watch
the pain go away. God did not send Cain to group therapy class to
10 “Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him.”
I Corinthians 7:20
252
discuss and justify why he was depressed. He gave him no counterfeit

acceptance—rather, He gave him the advice to repent and get it right
the next time. He loved him enough to give him that truth!
The person who is making the choice to enjoy the feeling of
focus on self and self-pity, with the combination of the food binge
and antidepressants, is just that—making the choice and loving
the feeling. It just feels good to have a pity party and to be angry at
someone else and to medicate yourself with food and drugs. The
escape of personal responsibility is tempting as one lies in bed until
noon every day. Looking for help and comfort is not wrong—but
you will not find it in the medicine cabinet…you must go to God,
for He is the one who can fix problems and fulfill your needs with no
guilty side effects and no negative physical side effects. The truth: it
feels better to repent and turn than to binge and feel like a victim or
take antidepressants.
The Allure Of Sympathy
The conversation or thought process of many people who want
to make the choice of depression is predictable. They want to think
that others can get out of depression, but that they cannot. They put
themselves in a category that cannot repent, for “others have not had
as hard a life as I have.”
I have talked to many depressed people, and I have noticed a pat-
tern of excuses for those who do not want to let go of depression. “Hap-
piness, good things, and nice clothes are all for someone else, not me.
I am a loser, a failure, not worthy. I feel as if I have never been a help
to anyone nor has anyone helped me. I do not know if I have enough
fight in me to get out of depression. I feel very unimportant, forgotten.”
Note: all of this is a horizontal focus on man and circumstance,
and not a vertical focus on God and His Kingdom or church. It is all
a focus on a comparison of self to other people and their standards.
Why? This person’s stronghold or idol is sympathy of men. This per-
son’s false god is in looking for sympathy from other people—not from
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the Heavens. Empathy, sympathy, and consideration by men are all
the same thing and very alluring. The problem is that they do not fill
you up; they leave you empty and desperate, because eventually those
around you will no longer give it to you, so you have to find new people
to stroke you, praise you, flatter you. No one wants to be around this.
God is what you need. Men’s praise is empty. “Fear of man will prove
to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” Proverbs 29:25
Do Not Blame Circumstances
Yes, some people have more problems than others, but it can
be self-inflicted. If guilt-depression was circumstantial, then there
should have been more depressed people during the Great Depres-
sion in the 1930s, but there were not. People were very poor and
hardly ever had meat to eat or shoes to wear. These circumstances
did not propagate more crime nor depression from the individuals. I
think the rich have problems and the poor have problems, the prob-
lems are just different. Everyone has problems that are allowed by
God so that we would reach out for Him.
The truth: it feels better to repent and

turn than to binge and feel like a victim
or take antidepressants.
The book The Hiding Place is the famous story of Corrie Ten Boom
and her sister Betsie, who lived for one year in a Nazi concentration
camp. Neither Betsie nor Corrie talked about self-pity or depression.
Betsie found good even in the plague of fleas and lice in their bunks. She
noticed that the guards would leave them alone at night due to the fleas
and lice. She knew it was from God, for it provided them with a window
of time to share the Bible with the other prisoners. She never lost sight
that God was with her; even under the torture of that hellish situation,
she had joy in her heart, concern to share Christ with others, love in her
heart, and a smile on her face. Betsie’s dying words were, “Corrie, we
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have got to go back and tell them that there is no pit so deep that Jesus
is not still deeper. They will listen to us, because we have been there.”
Betsie had a relationship with God and Christ—they were in her heart,
and no matter where she was, God was right there with her. She stayed
focused on God and His working around her and she depended on God.
The circumstances were so bad that she basically starved inside one year.
God wants you in the circumstance you

are in for training for eternal life.
Okay, so you have had it hard—then go back and tell the world
that you have been there and you had God, so there is no pit so deep
that Jesus Christ is not still deeper. God wants you in the circum-
stance you are in for training for eternal life. He wants you to take
this opportunity to call on Him at all times and for all things until
He is your everything—God and Christ in our heart. He wants you
to praise Him in your circumstance so that others can find Him too.
Complaining is a sin.[11]
Dead-End Path Three—Deeper Self-Focus/
Deeper Depression
Demon Possession
I want to briefly mention some behaviors that may result from
demon possession. This is talked about all over the Bible, and I can
vouch that demonic possession is real in this century. I do not believe
in the practice of going into every room in a house and casting out
demons. Neither Jesus nor his disciples cast demons out of people’s
rooms. According to James, the brother of Christ, in his first chapter,
satan can enter our hearts through our own evil desires:
11 “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” Philippians 2:14

255
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot
be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted
when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after
desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown,
gives birth to death. James 1:13-15
Jesus said, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the
devil’s work.” I John 3:8b Satan has falsely accused God and charac-
terized our loving Heavenly Father as a Being whom you would not
want a relationship with or who does not want a relationship with
you. Jesus has destroyed that evil work. Jesus told us that we should
be most careful what is in our hearts.[12]
There is a difference between idolatry and demon possession,
therefore, these are handled differently. My experience tells me that
the majority of our problems stem from idolatry, a decision to give
the heart to something on this Earth. Demon possession is more rare
but real. Possession by an evil spirit is talked about all over the Bible.
In the Old Testament, the boy David would play and sing psalms,
and it would drive the evil spirits away from King Saul, who had an
evil spirit sent by God.[13] In the New Testament, Jesus and his dis-
ciples drove out demons. But from what I can see, in almost every
case, the demon-possessed person was brought to Jesus rather than
the person approaching Jesus. One exception where the demoniac
approached Jesus is the account of legion, found in Mark 5:2-20 and
Luke 8:26-39. The symptoms of these demon-possessed people
were described in the following ways: “It scarcely ever leaves him” and
“throws him into convulsions.”[14]
12 “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality,
theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and
folly.” Mark 7:21-22
13 I Samuel 16:14
14 Luke 9:39
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The possessed person was not asked to do anything or to have

faith or respond to “Do you believe?” type questions by Jesus, as hap-
pened in cases involving healing from physical ailments or forgive-
ness of sin. After Jesus spoke a word, the demons, subject to Him,
would come out:
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to
him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This
was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up
our infirmities and carried our diseases.” Matthew 8:16-17
The person was restored and Christ often would warn to “go and
sin no more.”
Perhaps the scourge of demon possession is not from our own
evil desires, such as idolatry, but from leaving an empty heart that is
not devoted to anything—especially not to God. Therefore, satan
gets a foothold and enters. Biblical accounts indicate that young peo-
ple were a target, as young, impressionable people are more prone to
have this “open book” type of a heart. And, of course, the Gospel of
Matthew warns:
When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seek-
ing rest and does not find it. Then it says, “I will return to the house I left.”
When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in
order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than
itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is
worse than the first. Matthew 12:43-45a
There is a difference between demon possession and spirits that
come and go. In non-seekers, you have seen this evil spirit come and
go—it is in the form of anger, and you can see hate from the pit of
Hades in their eyes. Be pure, pray, and be quiet until this passes. This
type of topic usually scares us if we feel like it is something that is out
of our control, but God is in control. Pray without ceasing and have
the Saints pray.
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If it is chronic demon possession, take action by bringing your
loved one or child to godly Shepherds for prayer. Jesus and the dis-
ciples healed many through prayer. So what Jesus’ followers found
out was:
“Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus replied, “I saw
Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to tram-
ple on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy;
nothing will harm you.” Luke 10:17b-19 (Vipers, snakes all referring
to demons or false preachers.)
I have previously discussed overmedicating and drug interactions
with mental conditions. It is not just clergy here who feel like this
country is overmedicated—the doctors themselves are divided on this
issue.[15] It is wise to beware that perhaps prescription and illicit drugs
exacerbate all self-focused, depressed, and disturbed conditions. Now
add to that the influence of demonic possession. “Excited delirium” is
a condition that manifests as a combination of violent, bizarre behav-
ior with speech disturbances, insensitivity to pain, and superhuman
strength. There are situations where the police have even used a Taser
on the individual and the person did not respond. This description
sounds like the demoniac in Jesus’ day. From 3000 BC to the 1700s
AD, it was called demonic possession. In the 1800s, it was renamed
“Bell’s Mania,” coined by Luther Bell in 1849. In 1985, it was renamed
“excited delirium,” and at this point, the only etiology given was acute
cocaine intoxication, with no mention of demonic possession. Science
and religion at this point did not intersect. There is the good, pure,
honest, loving, caring Holy Spirit of God and there are also evil spirits
looking to enter unsuspecting souls.
The prayers of righteous men, God’s Saints, and His church are
powerful. God is in control of everything.
15 American Psychological Association, Monitor on Prescribing: Inappropriate

Prescribing, 2012
258
Results Of Continuing In Sin

According to Deuteronomy 28, if you remain on the path of idol-
atry and the sin is not reversed, this separation from God or this feel-
ing of hopeless isolation can lead us into deeper depression and into
some equally bizarre behaviors and major mood swings, due in part
to the highs and lows of antidepressants. Continued unaddressed sin
will result in too many drugs and a combination of demonic posses-
sion—and therefore, the inability to concentrate, decreased activity
level, restlessness, and sleep disturbance.
Look at this passage from the Psalms by King David when he
sinned:
O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon
me. Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have
no soundness because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a bur-
den too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and are loathsome because of
my sinful folly. I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go
about mourning. My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in
my body. I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart…
For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. I confess my iniquity;
I am troubled by my sin. Psalm 38:1-8,17-18
Continued sin can lead you into deeper isolation from God, and
the needy person may resort to many things in an attempt to “make
it” in life without the foundational and structural walls that God pro-
vides. In 30 years of counsel, all of the below manifestations have
presented themselves, but know that there is hope and an answer
from above.
Outward Physical Manifestations: According to Deuterono-
my 28, unrepentant sin can manifest itself in skin rashes and “ner-
vous habits.” Outward physical examples include damaging nail bit-
ing, hair pulling, thumb sucking, and picking at the skin to the point
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of making sores, pica (bizarre eating habits), self-mutilation, and ul-
timately where satan is leading people…suicide.
The first thing to do is re-read Deuteronomy 28 at the beginning
of this chapter and remember the connection between sin and curses.
Next, check your heart for any unrepentant sin. I know people who
have been to every dermatologist on the planet, to no avail. How-
ever, when they used self-control, the rashes and the seemingly un-
controllable itching disappeared sometimes within a few days. For
something that is physical pain, like a bad rash, it is acceptable to take
an over-the-counter pain medication (itching is a low threshold of
pain), and always put something cold on the areas of concern, such
as an ice pack, and hydrocortisone spray to numb the area. Within
hours of controlling your hands, with prayer and determination, you
can reverse all of these manifestations.
Emotional Manifestations: Physical manifestations are more
obvious than emotional manifestations of worry and unfounded
fears. The godless have no control over their environment, and some
try to cope by making their world smaller and smaller. If thrust out-
side their environment, they might have panic attacks. To cope,
they collapse their world down so small—in an attempt to keep it
a manageable size—that they confine themselves to their houses.
Eventually, some go so far as to feel safe only within the confines of
their own bedrooms. Many spend hours worrying about their safety.
Sometimes it manifests itself in “germ” phobia, which is rooted in
fear for self and an attempt to “control” the environment. This can
lead to some obsessive-compulsive cleaning behaviors. It can also
lead to obsessive-compulsive purification of the inside of the body,
resulting in weekly colon cleansing with combinations of laxatives.
Continued, unrepentant sin also leads to a feeling of hopeless iso-
lation and can play on phobias and spawn all kinds of self-focused
fears, mixed with the abundant prescription drugs that are used
today—paranoia and panic attacks, agoraphobia, self-mutilation,
suicidal tendencies, mania (feeling very “high”), and then depression
260
(feeling very “low”). This manic-depressive mood swing behavior

is eventually aggravated by the highs and lows caused by antidepres-
sants and prescribed pills. Patients will take uppers and clean the
house or rake the yard until 2 o’clock in the morning (high). Now
they want sleeping pills to go to sleep (low). In other words, the
uppers give the person a burst of energy until they are “spent,” only
adding to the unbalanced lifestyle. God can give both without costly
side effects, “for he grants sleep to those he loves.”[16] I have seen manic/
depressive people completely cured by putting into practice what
Christ has taught.
Chronic anxiety is like a friend, and if one issue is resolved by
the physicians, this patient can skillfully find another doctor who will
listen to their new unresolved concerns. There is no peace. Often
labeled hypochondriacs, they frequent psychiatrists, psychologists,
clinics, or doctors, and if they cannot get a physician to find this
problem, there is always another. For the hypochondriac, even if
every test was taken and they were diagnosed as free from disease
by 100 doctors, it would make no difference, because the doctors
just missed it, or misread the X-rays, or the hypochondriac forgot to
give them this new, devastating evidence, and so now off to physi-
cian number 101. This path is expensive. Eliminate internal pain by
repentance, as King David did in Psalm 38.
But most people are victims of modern medicine that is encour-
aging excessive preventive treatment. For years I have felt that mod-
ern medicine was promoting too many x-rays for women for breast
cancer, but I had no evidence to back this up. Just recently, one of
the largest and most meticulous studies of mammography ever
done, involving 90,000 women and lasting a quarter-century, has
added powerful new doubts about the value of the screening test for
women of any age. One in five cancers found with mammography
and treated was not a threat to the woman’s health. The study found
16 Psalm 127:2b
261
that the death rates from breast cancer and from all causes were the
same in women who got mammograms and those who did not. And
the screening had harms, with 20 percent of the women receiving
unneeded treatments such as chemotherapy, surgery or radiation.[17]
When you start to trust more in God than in man, my belief is that a
peace will come over you and that God’s Spirit will guide you to pre-
ventive medicine as needed. You cannot add another day or hour to
your life.[18] We need more trust in God and much less worry in life.
Once again, there is nothing wrong with

looking for love; God made us with a
desire to fill up the heart. The problem is
the wrong choice for the object of your
affection or passion.
The anxiety-ridden highway is the one most traveled in this coun-
try and has funded several multi-billion-dollar industries. For those
who do not turn to excessive doctor visits…tobacco, wine, beer, hard
liquor, tranquilizers, and antidepressants are being purchased by the
truckloads. We use these substances to numb ourselves, and then
we give them to our children. Not only has the overuse drained our
pocketbooks—it has left our physical bodies in bad shape.[19]
Are anti-anxiety medications working? Are we less anxious as a
population? To the contrary, we have more anxiety than ever, and
we have become slaves to substances. These substances cover up the
guilty feeling that people do not want to feel, yet the effect of the
drink or illicit drug such as marijuana, or even stronger drugs such
as methamphetamine, cocaine, or heroin eventually wears off, and
the dependent souls feel worse than before. Increasing the dosage is
17 New York Times: Vast Study Casts Doubts On Value Of Mammogram, 2014
18 “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Matthew 6:27
19 See Chapter 20 for more on substance abuse
262
inevitable if one wants the same effect. When drug users come back
down off the substance, they see that they are farther behind on their
projects at work and the house is messier than it was before. They
are more behind on their bills, and the family is more disappointed
in them than they were even a few months ago. Incompetence, in-
eptness, desperateness set in. Anger runs even deeper. Many times,
families are split by the wedge created by the use of a numbing, escape
agent. Their children suffer from the path they have chosen. When
we see grown adults sucking their thumbs or biting their nails until
they bleed, pulling their hair out for comfort, numbing themselves
with alcohol by mid-morning, or stuffing in even more food when
they are already 60-plus pounds overweight, we know the world is
hurting, but these worldly substances are no match to the feelings of
energy and comfort that God can provide.
Dead-End Path Four—Passion Seekers/Lust/Theft
This road draws travelers who are looking for excitement to
escape the path of guilt using TV, soap operas, reality TV, uppers,
drunkenness, indulgences of all kinds, compulsive shopping, theft,
sex, adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. There are several lists
of evil desires in the Bible. Here is one:
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and
debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage,
selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and
the like. Galatians 5:19-21a
People who deem themselves “religious” use, as their drug of
choice, things that are acceptable to “churchgoers,” such as gossip,
slander, discord, divisiveness (stirring the pot), workaholism, exces-
sive greed for prosperity, high-roller gambling and day trading, exces-
sive exercise, overscheduled calendars, excessive hobbies, or for the
truly passionate…death-threatening hobbies such as skydiving, etc.
Passion seekers are often confident and attempt to control others.
263
Sexual Lust
Next to food and love of money as the two largest strongholds in
the U.S. is the lust of the flesh. This lust is much more damaging in far
more reaching ways—besides the risk of ruining a relationship with
God and your spouse, you incur risk for HIV infection, other sexually
transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancies. Americans are
bombarded, day in and day out, with insidious messages of lust from
the Internet, Facebook, movies, music, television shows, video games,
and advertising that glorifies a superficial, selfish, self-serving concept
of sexuality. The older generation would be shocked at knowing that
younger people now are unashamedly sending explicit messages or
photos to others. This generation has also witnessed unprecedented
dating services for married men and women, glorifying adultery.
Forty million people a day are logging onto porn websites,[20] and
that number does not include “soft” porn, which is, no doubt, equally
as damaging. There are 68 million daily pornographic search engine
requests, 25 percent of the total daily search engine requests.[21]
In addition, Scriptures state that this sin is more damaging spiri-
tually. In I Corinthians 6:12-20 it says:
“Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by any-
thing. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but God will
destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for
the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord
from the dead, and he will raise us also. 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! 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.” But he who unites himself with the Lord is
one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man
20 CDC Pornography Consumption Statistics

21 Brigham Young University: Pornography Statistics
264
commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his
own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
For years, I have felt like the longer one focuses on this indul-
gence, the deeper one gets into the bizarre and abnormal. Men may
choose other men due to availability to fulfill their constant lust that
is now day and night. Having too many partners to count or remem-
ber, these people contract life-threatening diseases as warned in
Romans 1:18-25:
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness
and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since
what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made
it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible quali-
ties—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave
thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts
were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like
mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them
over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrad-
ing of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for
a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—
who is forever praised. Amen.
Fifty years ago, there might have been one source of a porno-
graphic magazine that was first published in 1953. Since the 1950s, it
has been what some would call a sexual revolution, but what I would
call a moral collapse of society. But again, we cannot blame the en-
vironment—those in control, no matter what they are exposed to
or tempted with, can maintain control and evade temptation. The
265
Scriptures tell us for women to dress modestly for a reason.[22] But
it is amazingly true that to the pure all things are pure.[23] We are not
all to dress like nuns or puritans because of the few hearts that are
lustful. When someone has the wrong focus, lust could erupt from
nothing. It is not the environment.
All these passions can be turned around. For those imprisoned
by it, it fills your day. However, using your Dependencies Worksheet
at the end of this chapter, note how the frequencies of the cravings
decrease. If you start by fighting through even 30 minutes of self-
denial, it quickly builds self-control and you will find these sensual
desires fading. Within a month, you could be completely walking
free from these behaviors that once enslaved you.
When you let go and let God…you will

find acceptance by the best looking, most
talented, richest, most powerful Being in
the Universe, the Great I Am.
Once again, there is nothing wrong with looking for love; God
made us with a desire to fill up the heart. The problem is the wrong
choice for the object of your affection or passion. There are many
things listed here, but our stand should be made clear. God pro-
vides for pleasures, but strictly within His boundaries that cannot be
crossed without severe punishment or consequences. For example,
wanting more than what is in the parameters of marriage reveals lust
and greed.[24] Job was a righteous man. He loved and trusted God so
much. In Job 31:1 he said: “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look
lustfully at a girl.”
22 “I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety…” I Timothy 2:9
23 “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not
believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.”
Titus 1:15
24 Read Proverbs Chapters 1 through 8 for God’s boundaries and warnings
266
Taking something that God intended to be beautiful and going

beyond what God has allotted will bring much pain, and if you con-
tinue in the wrong passion, you become a prisoner of your own de-
vices, with a truly frightening, continual lust for more. Parents, take
heed—we are told not to awaken these desires until God leads.[25]
Read Proverbs 1 through 8 and Colossians 3 over and over until
these Scriptures fill your heart instead of lust. You are not your own;
you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Stealing/Theft
Stealing could fall under the category of a stronghold, but for many
people it is just a temptation. This country has more than its share…
North American retailers have more employee theft than any other
country in the world—accounting for an annual loss of over 33 bil-
lion dollars and the highest contributor to overall retail loss. Another
way to say this is that North American dishonest employees make up
28 percent of the overall employee theft across the globe. An average
dishonest employee steals 10 times more than the average shoplifter.
Theft ranges from children stealing from their parents or other chil-
dren at school, to petty theft, to grand larceny. In 2012, nationwide
there were an estimated 8,975,438 property crimes, including motor
vehicle thefts.[26] This does not include stolen credit cards, identity
theft, or hacking. Collectively, victims of property crimes, excluding
arson, suffered losses calculated at 15.5 billion dollars in 2012.
Another form of theft is stealing ideas, stealing words (plagia-
rism), or stealing intellectual property. This form of theft is tempting
because people feel as if they can get away with it; however, it is not
true. Not only is it warned against in the top 10 commands, there is
a Father up above who knows it happened, and it is God who we are
trying to please. Give credit where credit is due.
25 Song of Solomon 2:7

26 FBI National Press Release, Crime Statistics, 2012
267
When You Feel Like Giving Up
To all those caught up in drug dependencies and alcoholism, if
you feel like your life is useless and you are contemplating giving
up…read the following: Notice how if you focus on yourself and
your problems you will not even want to live another day. Now…
focus on your children—how do you feel? Think about their needs;
now think about their needs 5 years from now…10 years from now.
Think about them growing up, getting married, having in-laws and
grandchildren. Imagine a house full of grandchildren one day. How
do you feel? Well, when you focus off yourself and onto the needs of
others, it makes you happy inside and you see the use of living. What
if you have lost everyone and everything already? Join a genuine fel-
lowship and care for her needs and watch God give you everything
back.[27] When you help someone else, it unlocks many doors for
your own stronghold and helps you go all the way.
Second, I address those caring for ones who are drug dependent.
What does the spouse or parent need to do? 1) Do not judge—
take the log out of your own eye before you judge your brother or
sister.[28] 2) Show respect under all circumstances—no matter the
choices of dependency that others have tried, remember you have
made wrong choices of dependency. Mercy triumphs over judgment
every time.[29] Jesus was gentle with all those hurting…“A bruised
reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till
he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope.”
Matthew 12:20-21 3) Help the dependent person with getting their
assignment above…focus off of self and onto children’s needs, work
needs, needs around the house—keep it simple. Make them useful
and keep conversation off themselves and you will find them light-
ing up. I warn you that rehabs and present religious rehabs are based
27 See Healed from Dependencies testimonies on Remnant Fellowship Website

28 Matthew 7:3-5
29 James 2:13
268
on the “no choice” rehabilitations that are subtly making the person
more self-focused. Most require 28 days in a room that is perhaps
worse than a prison cell, and if you do not complete the 28 days, in-
surance will not pay for it. Beware that the root problem is, at best,
just managed. There is hope in the true path of Jesus Christ.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this
way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on
the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear
in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punish-
ment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. I John 4:16b-18
The answer is love. God has put me in a position to have wit-
nessed victory over each one of these manifestations or strongholds!
Though some people are finally given over to their sin, I do not be-
lieve the word “addiction” should be used because it implies that a
person has no choice. We have a choice! We can change. Thousands
have stopped reaching for quick fixes that have no value in ending
this broad spectrum of expressions of a misplaced love, focus, and
passion. You can do this too!
Repent And Replace
1. Repent first… Lay down sin first, look inward, change your-
self. If you need motivation to lay down drugs, look at before and
after pictures of meth users and the devastating effects.[30] Also, re-
cord all the devastating effects that your behavior has caused on you
and your family. Do not just give up drugs/overmedication; give
them up under the auspices of your physician, and replace them with
depending on God for the strength, “up feeling,” and energy you be-
lieve the pills provide, and by doing what is right. If you are under
heavy doses, stay under your physician’s care and have him provide
a reasonable progression of decreasing the dependence on pills.
30 CBS News: Meth’s Devastating Effects: Before and After

269
Remember, when you let go of all your worthless idols, depression
will end. Jonah 2:8 says, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the
grace that could be theirs.” The depression is from clinging to the idol,
self-centeredness and sin. So you need to give up the food. Your
heart will be happy as you lose the weight, and the need for the pills
will diminish. Please do not misunderstand me on this point: to rise
above the world you must simultaneously turn away from the world
and toward God. Half-measures will leave you emptier and more
depressed than if you had stayed firmly planted in the world. Stay
under your doctor’s care and be sure to testify to what God has done.
Looking for help and comfort is not

wrong—but you will not find it in the
medicine cabinet…you must go to God.
Jesus once urged the rich young ruler to give away all he possessed
and follow him.[31] He would never find completeness in his worldly
possessions—only in following Christ. Sadly, the young man reject-
ed Jesus’ counsel; he could not bear to risk the lifestyle he already
knew, even for a chance of filling up with Jesus. Can you imagine
how he would have felt if he had followed only half of Christ’s ad-
vice, giving away all he had but then not following Jesus? With the
comfort of neither his possessions nor of the Lord, he would have
been absolutely miserable! Likewise, giving up antidepressants or
the food and not replacing it with the love of God might make you
feel like what some call “crashing.” You must depend on God and ask
Him into your heart, and use all the principles that we have outlined
in this book.
If you decide you are ready to give up your guilt-depression/
self-focus path which usually includes multiple crutches, then
remember: do not try to just give them up; give them up and at the
31 Read Luke Chapter 18

270
same time REPLACE them with a close, loving relationship with

God. Otherwise, you might sink in the waters.
2. Get it right! The answer to these problems are found in the
first few pages of Genesis… Cain was told that he could end his guilt-
depression if he would get it right. He did not, and it led to murder.
There is the short and long of it…get it right immediately. One key
is knowing that self-focus is the underlying common denominator
of all these sins. If you do what is right, you will be accepted by God
and a rush of healing will go from head to toe, from relationship to
relationship, from mental to spiritual. The mind focuses upward—
not inward! We must know what God wants. Finding church leaders
who know what God wants is key, and you will know by the healing
and the fruit that you have finally stopped obeying man’s rules and
regulations and started obeying God and His will. God has gracious-
ly given truth to Weigh Down and the Remnant Fellowship Church,
and you know it because the fruit abounds. How wonderful to know!
Self-focus can be reversed by repenting…it is a choice.
Empathy, sympathy, and consideration

by men are all the same thing and very
alluring. The problem is that they do
not fill you up; they leave you
empty and desperate
3. Go to God for comfort instead of idols. In II Corinthians
1:3-4 it says:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our trou-
bles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we our-
selves have received from God.
God can give comfort better than anything or anyone. He may
send someone your way, or you may receive an encouraging phone
271
call or a positive Scripture. Ask Him and He will comfort you. People
have an overwhelming need for comfort. We need to be calmed and
assured. This is normal.
4. Answered prayer is key. Sin-laden people experience an
“out-of-control” feeling because they have not gone to God for every-
thing. If they have not experienced frequently answered prayers, then
no wonder they feel “out of control.”[32] Find answered prayers, and
then remember that the Lord “hears the prayers of the righteous.”[33]
5. Fellowship… Find the Saints who have already gone through
all of this and have overcome, and cling to their fellowship.[34] Get ac-
countability partners…Saints from the Weigh Down Office. TRUE
REPENTANCE IS THE KEY, and being around Saints who will tell
you the truth is fundamental and essential.
In conclusion, The Ancient Good Book calls out-of-control be-
haviors “sins,” and the unwanted mental confusion and rebuke is
called “curses.” God has allowed these things to get us to reach out
to Him and to see that He is the source of all things. It all boils down
to the fact that we are looking for acceptance—which is a feeling. It
is a warm, loving feeling high up in our heart. Shame and rejection is
a painful feeling.
One of the most devastating choices that man can make is the
praise of man, approval of man, attention of man. This is a trap, and
I have watched people completely stress out and be spent with this
as a goal in their life by the time they are in their late 20s or early 30s.
They find that they are exhausted, they are spent and they feel used
because they have been constantly trying to please everyone. It cre-
ates a deep-seated insecurity, and these people wind up “losing it” at
some point.
32 See the section in Chapter 16 on “How To Get Answered Prayers” for this
essential information
33 James 5:16
34 For more information, visit www.RemnantFellowship.org
272
In contrast, turning to God brings a rush of joy; where depres-

sion was once dominant, in its place is now a heart full of unspeak-
able happiness and inexpressible joy. There will always be a one-to-
one ratio between joy and obedience to God. Antidepressants are
not the prescription I recommend. It has to be a genuine repentance
with a pure heart.
When you let go and let God…you will find acceptance by the
best looking, most talented, richest, most powerful Being in the Uni-
verse, the Great I Am. Now that is how you build solid self-esteem!
You can master this choice of truly repenting and giving your heart
over to the Father. You must master it, because you were made to
go down this narrow path and through the narrow door, which gets
easier with every pound lost, because now you see that these are ac-
tually pounds of disobedience!
Peace and joy are the results of godly sorrow and true repentance,
because the acceptance of God floods the soul. Even your counte-
nance will change. Notice how easy it is to make this connection we
are talking about. Make it a point to observe how depressed you feel
when you mess up and how great you feel when you obey God and
eat right and lose weight.
You can master this!
TRUTH TIP
Get up every day looking to make God smile by doing His will.
In return, He rewards you with JOY & PEACE!
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
273
TESTIMONY
Terris Meadors, down 170 pounds since 2011.
I attended my first Weigh Down class in 1997. I went with my then
16-year-old daughter who got on the scale and realized she was over 150
pounds. I never considered going for myself because I had given up any
hope of losing my excess weight. I was over 300 pounds and was resigned
to live the rest of my days in stretchy size 3x clothing—always shopping
in the large women’s specialty shop where I didn’t feel so judged. I never
expected to find the joy and excitement that I experienced when I started
the Weigh Down Basics program. No one, not in all my life, had given
me so much hope. Gwen Shamblin Lara ignited a fire in me.
I was learning from God’s perspective, and I was being taught
how to truly love God. I’ve lost 170 pounds and have gone from a
3x to a size 4. Who would have ever believed that was possible? And
my daughter is now a slender, married woman with two children of
her own! I now have the energy to take care of and play with all 10 of
my grandbabies, something I wasn’t able to do with my own children
because of my extra weight.
I didn’t know how much change would
come from a weight loss program, but I changed.
I learned to take personal accountability for
what I do. I guess you could say that I grew up in
Weigh Down.
Now the fun
has begun…
at 62, to be
mistaken for
my daughter’s
sister…who
would have
ever thought
that? Praise
God for truth
that sets you
free!
274
20
ALCOHOL, TOBACCO
AND DRUG ABUSE
This chapter provides additional help specifically for alcohol and
tobacco dependencies. However, remember the entire book can be
used, especially Chapter 18.
Thousands of people have used the principles taught through Weigh
Down to be permanently set free from any dependency, including
cigarettes, alcohol, antidepressants, diet pills, sexual lusts, or other
worldly desires. First, you have to admit that you have a problem—
that you need to change. Then you start with the basic principles of
Weigh Down and replace the word “food” with “alcohol,” “tobacco,” or
whatever your stronghold is. Make a whole new plan for your day with
a new reward. Focus on the long-term reward of pleasing God and not
the short-term worldly desire. Set your mind on what God wants rather
than giving in to what the flesh wants, and concentrate on others in place
of self. Every time your mind wanders toward this stronghold, quickly
re-focus and ask God to help you focus on Him or His will. If it involves
leaving the scene, then do it! Open the Bible and read God’s Word. You
will be successful and you will fly above this powerful downward pull.
It will be manageable because your mind is on the will of God.
Alcohol
Small amounts of wine have been proven to be safe and even me-
dicinal. However, alcoholism—“overdrinking”—is the number one
drug problem in the U.S., as it is easily accessible, legal, and socially
acceptable. In a survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2012, nearly one-quarter of
persons aged 12 or older were binge alcohol users in the 30 days prior
to the survey. This translates to about 59.7 million people. Heavy drink-
ing was reported by 6.5 percent of the population aged 12 or older, or
17 million people.[1] These numbers do not include an ever-increasing
number of children ages of 9 to 12 joining this crowd. SAMHSA defines
“binge drinking” as 5 or more drinks on the same occasion. Drunken-
ness and intoxication has a strong negative impact on behavior. In fact,
4 in 10 of all criminal offenders report drinking alcohol before and after
the violence or crime. About 35 percent of victims report that offenders
are under the influence of alcohol. Every 30 minutes, someone is killed
in an alcohol-related car accident in the U.S. According to the CDC,
there are approximately 80,000 deaths attributed to excessive alcohol
use each year in the United States—the third leading cause of death due
to lifestyle choices. On average, about 30 years of potential life is lost
for each death.[2]
An old 2006 statistic states that there were more than 1.2 million
emergency room visits and 2.7 million physician visits due to exces-
sive drinking that year. No doubt it is much higher today. It can cause
neurological impairments, neurological problems, dementia, and
neuropathy, but it is also well-known that it causes mood swings to
the point of suicidal attempts. Alcoholism is associated with all health
problems, since the body is very sick from digesting this chemical
void of nutrients. Many alcoholics replace food for drink, so every
organ is affected. It is associated with cardiovascular problems, in-
cluding heart attacks, myocardial infarctions, strokes, heart fibrilla-
tion, and hypertension. These complications do not include inju-
ries to yourself and others, including traffic injuries, falls, drownings,
1 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: Results from the
2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health
2 CDC Fact Sheet: Alcoholism and Death
276
ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND DRUG ABUSE
burns, and unintentional firearm situations. There is also a higher

prevalence of increased risky sexual behaviors. During pregnancy,
there is increased risk of miscarriages, stillbirths, and mental birth
defects among children that last throughout life. Of course, it is asso-
ciated with increased risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus,
liver, colon, and breast cancer. In excess, it causes gastrointestinal
problems, dumping syndrome, and pancreatitis. Alcohol-induced
cirrhosis/fatty liver is the number one diagnosis.
Alcohol is an extremely demanding molecule once it is inside the
human body, and it will demand to be completely broken down or di-
gested first. Therefore, it will delay the breaking down of protein and
fats and triglycerides. Immobilized fats accumulate around the liver and
harden…impeding the essential functions of the liver. Cirrhosis is the
15th leading cause of all deaths in the United States. Needless to say, the
economic cost of excessive alcohol consumption is estimated at over 200
billion dollars.[3] So again, this excessive alcohol use is the third leading
lifestyle-related cause of death for the nation. The combined cost of the
abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs is over 600 billion dollars an-
nually in costs related to crime, lost work productivity, and healthcare.[4]
This substance abuse, like tobacco, can start in the teen years for vari-
ous reasons. In fact, survey results from the National Institute of Health
indicate that 28.6 percent of the 12th graders and 40 percent of the col-
lege students reported binge drinking. Again, “binge drinking” is defined
as five or more drinks on the same occasion. Surveys reveal that binge
drinkers can down as many as six to nine drinks in one sitting. Binge
drinking is even more prevalent in the 20s and 30s, and it peaks at the
age of 35 to 44—a time associated with the peak strain of life. Alcohol
poisoning from binge drinking—a medical emergency that results from
acute high blood alcohol levels—is a reality. Since it affects the central
3 CDC Press Release: Excessive Alcohol Consumption Cost the U.S. $224 Billion,
2006
4 National Institute on Drug Abuse: Trends and Statistics, 2012
277
nervous system, it causes a loss of consciousness, low blood pressure,
body temperature comas, respiratory depression, and possible death.
Without knowing God, life becomes more of a burden and over-
whelming. When people do not know God and do not experience an-
swered prayers—a relationship with God and getting all of their prob-
lems solved—they find themselves escaping and coping with alcohol.
Just as it is in most dependencies or substance abuses, most people
do not know that they have a problem. Over the years I have found
that most people think that no one sees their stronghold, their sin,
their vice, but it is quite the opposite. People are polite, but they know
pretty quickly if you are overdrinking, involved in an affair, greedy for
wealth, etc. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.[5]
When you choose the wrong comfort and help in life, the effects are
far-reaching. God cannot be mocked and His words in Deuteronomy
28 do not fall to the ground. Bowing down to and indulging with alco-
hol will ultimately affect you financially and relationally, including loss
of productivity, unemployment, family problems, and possible divorce.
People think that they can keep going across the boundary lines
and escape the consequences. Can the liver regenerate? Yes, if you
repent, stop drinking for a while, and once your health returns and
your liver has healed, then return only to moderation. Ask for God’s
Spirit, because God does not overdrink and Christ did not overdrink,
therefore Christians are not to overdrink. The Apostle Paul in Ephe-
sians urged us not to be drunk with wine but rather be drunk with the
Spirit of God.[6]
With God’s Holy, incredibly temperate Spirit, you can have
a drink and not overdrink…you can have a meal and not binge…
you can have a pipe or cigar to celebrate a newborn. Modera-
5 Luke 6:45
6 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the
Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18
278
tion—temperance—is what is acceptable for God’s Holy people.

Ephesians 5:15-20 says:
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the
most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be
foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine,
which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one
another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in
your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for every-
thing, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Tobacco
Smoking and tobacco use are a worldwide concern where 1 in 10
adults are smokers. In the United States, the number of smokers is
about double, at one in five. According to statistics, every fifth person
has an “addiction” to a tobacco product, including cigarettes, pipes,
chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco, smokeless tobacco, and snuff.
Focus on the long-term reward of

pleasing God and not the short-term
worldly desire.
Many diseases are linked to tobacco. Tobacco use causes more
than 5 million deaths a year, and for every 1 person who dies from
smoking, 20 more suffer from a smoking-related illness. For exam-
ple, nicotine has been shown to accelerate cardiovascular disease
and cancer of the lungs, larynx, neck, and mouth. Smoking also ex-
acerbates asthma. On the average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier
than non-smokers. Tobacco-related illnesses are responsible for the
deaths of 480,000 U.S. citizens per year—more Americans than the
number who died in World War I and the Vietnam War combined.[7]
7 CDC Fact Sheet: Smoking and Tobacco Use, 2014

279
A very common manifestation of compulsive behavior is cigarette
smoking. In spite of the research, I do not believe that the body crav-
ing nicotine is the big deterrent to quitting, but it is the dependency
of an anxious spirit. As we have discussed before, I believe the soul’s
enslavement is stronger than the body’s. The body is quite happy at
the decrease of carbon monoxide down the lungs. But the ripping of
the soul from the world affects body and soul. The withdrawals spiri-
tually are hard to measure and vary from soul to soul.
If a person will redirect his focus from himself to God each time he
feels the urge to smoke, he will reduce three packs a day down to zero.
Keep a log and watch, for it is no different than ending head hunger. This
is true not only of tobacco abuse, but also of alcohol and pills. Instead
of the body being dependent on nicotine, it shows signs immediately
that it loves any decrease or even quitting “cold turkey.” Though it can
be temporarily very uncomfortable, I have never seen anyone harmed
yet everyone helped when they ate less food, smoked fewer cigarettes,
drank significantly less alcohol, or took fewer antidepressants. How-
ever, I see the withdrawal being severe if this gap or void is not filled in
with God. The withdrawal is the soul ripping itself away from the world.
It hurts. Only the Savior can dissolve this kind of superglue.
All these truths set you free to do what is right, and you will be
blessed doing what is right! End the lies now. There is a place in the
workbooks for lies versus the truth.[8] Write them down, because it will
set you so free to take responsibility and behave differently every day.
Illicit Drugs
I want to address the increase in acceptability of illegal drugs and
the argument that taking drugs is no different than alcohol consump-
tion. I want to talk to the teens and the youth. I, unfortunately, have
had to counsel more and more youth or parents whose children are
getting exposed to drugs at earlier years.
8 Weigh Down Basics Workbook, page 126

280
I definitely see a difference spiritually, physically and socially in

alcohol use and drug use. Now the Scriptures, which document the
sins of mankind for 2,000 years, do not address drugs, which gives
probable indication that drugs were not used for “highs” like they
are today, at least among the Israelites and Christians. Yet, alcohol
is addressed even as early as Noah’s day. Now, in moderation, alco-
hol is not condemned by God, as “it cheers the heart of man”[9] but
no Christian leader could be addicted to it.[10] Drugs, once discov-
ered, were used for medicinal purposes. But what is the difference…
does God care? The difference, from what I have seen and counseled
is this…alcohol for teens is considered illegal until age 21 in all 50
states. Drugs are illegal at any age in most states. Twenty states have
approved marijuana for medical use and two have approved its use
recreationally—Colorado and Washington. In the U.S., federal law
establishes 21 as the national minimum drinking age. In some states,
it is a civil offense and in some states it is a criminal offense.
First of all, the use of marijuana is not without significant health
hazards. For one, you are smoking, so these negative effects are ob-
vious. Marijuana is associated with effects on almost every organ
system in the body, ranging from the central nervous system to the
cardiovascular, endocrine, respiratory/pulmonary, and immune sys-
tems. Research shows that in addition to marijuana abuse/depen-
dence, marijuana use is associated in some studies with impairment
of cognitive function in the young and old, fetal and developmental
consequences, cardiovascular effects (heart rate and blood pressure
changes), respiratory/pulmonary complications such as chronic
cough and emphysema, impaired immune function leading to vul-
nerability to and increased infections, and the risk of developing
head, neck, and/or lung cancer.[11]
9 Psalm 104:15
10 Titus 1:7, Titus 2:3
11 The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology: Clinical Consequences of Marijuana, 2014
281
The CDC reports that deaths from drug overdose have been ris-
ing steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading
cause of injury death in the United States. Every day in the Unit-
ed States, 105 people die as a result of drug overdose, and another
6,748 are treated in emergency departments for the misuse or abuse
of drugs. Nearly 9 out of 10 poisoning deaths are caused by drugs.
Drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 2010. Among
people 25 to 64 years old, drug overdose caused more deaths than
motor vehicle traffic crashes. Drug overdose death rates have been
rising steadily since 1992, with a 102 percent increase from 1999 to
2010 alone. In 2010, 78 percent of the 38,329 drug overdose deaths
in the United States were unintentional.[12]
But someone might argue that alcohol with continued use has
as many side effects. What is the difference? In counsel with youth
and parents of abusers, I have seen a difference in who goes after the
drugs. I believe that many of those who are tempted with drugs start
off with low self-esteem and even depression and/or do not feel like
they fit in with the mainstream crowd, but also I see a more daring
spirit, knowing the legal consequences are greater—less fear or hu-
mility. I have also noticed the following…emotionally, the user’s
personality changes—sudden mood swings, irritability, irrespon-
sible behavior, poor judgment, depression, and a general lack of in-
terest in important things. With the family…the user tends to be
more argumentative, breaking rules or withdrawing from the fam-
ily and, again, using lies to cover up. At school…decreased interest,
negative attitude, drop in grades, many absences, truancy, and disci-
pline problems. Social and Spiritual problems…new morality and
new friends who are more comfortable with rebellion to the law, less
conventional styles in dress and music, less interest in church, and
questioning right and wrong or moral standards set by God, so basi-
cally questioning the existence of God—anything to ease the guilt
12 CDC: Drug Overdose in the United States

282
of the lack of favor from parents, teachers and God. In other words,
a needy child goes from needy to desperate but emboldened only
while under the influence. My observation is I am not seeing this
with teens and alcohol.
One last important difference…with alcohol, there is a one to one
ratio of consumption and impairment and self-control. The more you
drink, the worse it gets. With drugs, the users can quickly go to a highly
impaired state with no ability for the user to moderate the impact and
this, perhaps, is intentional for escape purposes. You see more overdoses
of drugs, and death is more common. The point is that I see no good in
either excessive alcohol or drugs, whether it is because it draws a more
needy person to start with or it is, indeed, the drug impairment itself
or both—I feel like it is something that needs to be avoided altogeth-
er. Moderate drinking has centuries of evidence of no harm and even
medicinal, positive consequences. I see no good with the use of drugs
taken through damaging smoke, unsanitary needles, or shameful snort-
ing—much less the obvious pattern that one drug leads to much stron-
ger, highly damaging drugs for most users. It leaves in its wake much pain
and sorrow. There should be no dependencies, and if you look forward
to it or would really miss it—you have the dependency. Use these mate-
rials, as they direct you to God and Christ, to get out while you can.
Overcoming
I do not believe that the human body becomes addicted in the
sense that it is craving nicotine or alcohol—however, there are a cou-
ple of uncomfortable days while the body adjusts to the adaptation.
Just hang in there with the help of the Saints and your loved ones
who can help you through this. The withdrawals spiritually are real
and should not be confused with the physical withdrawals. Stay lis-
tening to Truth.[13] Go back and read Chapter 18.
283
Screen For Overdrinking
If you find yourself drinking almost every day of the week, then
answer the following questions. If you answer “Yes” to three or more of
these questions, it is possible that you have a drinking problem.
Do you enjoy and look forward to coming home to q Yes q No

beer, wine, or mixed drinks every day?
Are you more in a hurry to get your first drink than q Yes q No
you used to be?
Do you miss alcohol if it is not available at q Yes q No
social events?
Can you handle more alcohol than you could when q Yes q No
you first started drinking or do you feel yourself
wanting more?
Do you hide alcohol to drink in secret or hide your q Yes q No
drinking from the family?
Do you feel any guilt about your drinking or regrets q Yes q No
about your behavior while intoxicated?
Has a family member, close friend, employee, physi- q Yes q No
cian, and/or church leader come to you about your
drinking?
Have you ever had a DWI/DUI? q Yes q No
TRUTH TIP
Weigh Down works for any stronghold. Substance abuse is no
different than overeating. You are looking for a feeling that only
God can satisfy. He made you to crave Him!
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
284
Weigh Down Dependencies Worksheet
Did you go outside of God’s will today with your q Yes q No

dependency?
Did you PRAY when the temptation came up? q Yes q No
Did you run to the Word of God?
Did you AT LEAST set your clock to “20 minutes” q Yes q No
to see if—by prayer—a way of escape would come
from God?
When temptation for your dependency came up, q Yes q No
did you “flip” the lies from satan and quote the
TRUTH?
How many tests with your dependency did you pass
today?
How many did you fail?
Do you feel you spent more time TRANSFER- q Yes q No
RING your focus to GOD today instead of focusing
on your dependency?
Do you feel more READY and PREPARED to obey q Yes q No
God’s voice over the voice from your dependency?
Do you feel your heart improving toward more of a q Yes q No
love for God?
Write down the number of times you messed up.
(Complete this worksheet daily for one month, and
watch the number go down. See WeighDown.com for
more copies.)
Weigh Down can provide accountability through online classes. Please

call our office for more information.
285
TESTIMONY
Durville Patton, down 25 pounds and free from
addiction!
Growing up, I became a product of my environment and, being
easily influenced, was angry, disruptive and had daily fights with my
three siblings. I became a thief and a liar by the age of 10 because I ran
with the wrong crowd. I never met my dad and disrespected the one
person who was looking out for me—my mother.
After high school graduation, I played two years of junior college
ball and then received a basketball scholarship. I was a starter and top
scorer. I began traveling around the country meeting great athletes
and coaches and being on TV shows. I became addicted to alcohol,
women, illegal drugs and the attention I received from news report-
ers. I was EMPTY on the inside but had it together on the outside—
so I thought.
In 1995, I suffered a knee injury which would eventually ended
my basketball career. I graduated and decided to leave Iowa and start
over. I moved to California because of depression and feeling like a
failure. The drug use increased, and at one point even briefly landed
me in jail. I was left broken physically, mentally and spiritually.
I visited Houston and ran into a high school friend who used to
be very overweight. She had lost over 100 pounds and said it was
because of God and finding a program called Weigh Down. It made
such an impression on me that I visited a local Weigh Down class
and then returned to California with the materials. I devoured what
I read and began putting everything I learned into practice. My life
began very quickly to turn around as I was learning how to really be-
come a Christian for the first time.
Through Weigh Down Basics, God showed me how to replace
all my addictions with a complete peace from Him…and this turned
out to be the best high! My life is so blessed today. I am married to
my best friend and God has given us three incredible children to raise
with so much hope. The Weigh Down resources are very instrumen-
tal in who I am today in every area of my life—my heart and my mind,
on my job, in my marriage and as a parent. I’m so thankful to have
286
this truth that continues

to teach me how to be
ready to meet God. I stay
in a Weigh Down class,
which strengthens my re-
solve. God has come back
in and given me a true re-
lationship with Him and
an amazing life. My life
is completely restored
beyond anything I could
have imagined.
287
Gwen on the You Can Overcome Show, Season 13, Episode 9,
“Weight Loss for Millennials,” filmed on March 14, 2018.
288
21
PROJECTION VERSUS
INTROSPECTION
There are two types of people: those who look inward and
those who project. This is a separate chapter because introspection
is the single most needed action to start the process of transforma-
tion. Introspection is looking at your own actions and seeing what
is wrong. Convicting sermons are what make you open up your
heart and take a look. Only the Spirit of God can penetrate the deep
recesses of the heart. People who want to be born again love convic-
tion that leads to introspection.
On the other hand, projection is the single most related enemy to
the message of change found in this book. Projection is liquid pride,
and it hates to be wrong; it will argue to the last breath that it is not
wrong and it cannot be wrong.
Looking inward should lead to true repentance—however, pride
blocks repentance and stops change dead in its tracks. Pride—for
whatever reason—wants so badly to be right and for others to be
wrong, for others to be the problem. Deep-seated pride will often
have hateful, jealous thoughts. It sees no problem lying to keep the
impeccable delusion going—the deception, uncontrolled rage, self-
ish ambition, and anger. People with pride try to confuse the conver-
sation and control the arguments with raised voices and harsh words.
They are manipulators, and they have learned how to control people
with anger. They are experts at projection, always pointing the fin-
ger—and nothing is good enough. They are always blaming others
near them or far—the government, other world leaders—and down
deep, they blame God for their problems. They erroneously reason
that their best defense is a good offense—if you stay on the attack,
you can never get blamed!
The Bible warns that these people are mockers and that if you
correct them, then you are inviting insult. They go so far as to slander,
sabotage, and lie about others.
Genesis 4:6-7a says, “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you
angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not
be accepted?’”
The “Cains” of this world obviously want to rid the world of their
competition, but it runs deeper…they do not like people who are ac-
cepted by God if they, themselves, do not feel personally accepted by
God. This is what I call the “Cain Syndrome.” The Cain personalities
would prefer to believe that people who claim to have a relationship
with God are dreaming this up, confused, deluded, self-deceived, ar-
rogant, bordering on blasphemous, and obviously in need of a crutch.
They reason that it demeans God, and why would God put Himself
down on our level? They hate the word favor, and they really do not
want to believe that God would actually favor someone. Since they
have not experienced God’s favor, they do not want anyone else to
believe in it because it is convicting. They might have to reform their
ways. Anger to the point of murderous thoughts started with the first
family unit, and as this world belongs to satan, it will be here until
Christ returns.
How many times has religious history repeated itself? Consider
the accounts of Saints who were mistreated, tortured, imprisoned, or
killed because they were visibly accepted by God on this Earth: Abel
was murdered by Cain, Jeremiah was thrown into a well, Daniel was
thrown into the lion’s den, Stephen was stoned to death, and Christ
was crucified. Chapters 37 through 50 of Genesis tell the story of
the favored Joseph, a shepherd boy who was sold into slavery by his
brothers because he told them God had revealed to him favor in a
290
PROJECTION VERSUS INTROSPECTION
dream. This favor from their father—and now from God—outraged

them.
Getting rid of Abel, Joseph, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Jesus did not
make them feel better, for only doing what is right will remove all
jealousy and hate, and these attitudes will be replaced with love.
What a relief!
People attempt the “Cain solution” in the workplace daily. They
try to sabotage the boss’s pet to “get ahead” or to get themselves in
good with the boss. I have good news for those engaging in this be-
havior. You can reverse course. You no longer have to go down this
rotten path of projection to get rid of your guilt feeling!
The problem that lies at the origin of this path is that the person
does not want to give their firstfruits to the Heavenly Father. You do
not mind taking this love from the Father, and you do not mind giv-
ing Him a portion of your income and a whole list of things you like
to give that come naturally. For example, you like the command to
go to church because you personally love the fellowship. However,
when He asks for what goes against your will—for instance, your
food—well, you are not so sure about that.
Again, we do not easily give up the one worldly stronghold or
lifelong idol He asks for, just as many married people do not easily
give their spouses the main thing they want. They will give nice, de-
cent things, but not the one or two things their spouses really desire.
How you deal with the firstfruits will affect your stronghold, and ul-
timately, your relationships with God, your spouse, and your family.
Many times, what God and your spouse want you to give up are the
very same strongholds.
Cain, not Abel, had this problem. Both brothers offered sacri-
fices of the work of their hands. Their outward behaviors were the
same. Man may have a hard time seeing why God accepted one gift
but not the other gift. You cannot always tell what is in the heart by
merely looking. As said before, one person could be eating a piece of
291
chocolate cake and be sinning, and another person could be eating a
piece of chocolate cake and be in the center of the will of God.
Holding back on what God really wants from you, you will want
to eliminate the Abels in this world who hold nothing back and freely
give their all. But with the correct heart’s goal, you will not want to
“eradicate” the Abels of this world. You will want to find them and
imitate their behavior. You will show honor to those who have given
their firstfruits to God and have obtained favor. You can get this ac-
ceptance, too! We do not have to become angry at someone else, hate
someone else, mock someone else, or murder someone else. Instead
of sabotaging a co-worker or trying to find a way of making a pas-
sionate person of God’s feel stupid, we, ourselves, can give our heart,
mind, soul, and strength over to God. Then we, too, will find this
same acceptance.
The Stronghold Of Control
Anger, control, and projection are all tied in together. It is some-
times difficult to tell that controllers are not on the right bandwagon.
They look the most righteous of all the sinners. After all, they devote
their heart and soul to working on cleaning up the “world.” They
object to bad music, and they refuse to patronize businesses that
support immoral activities. They monitor all the foods in the house
(high fiber bread, low-fat yogurt, lentil beans, rice cakes, veggie burg-
ers) and screen the lunches and sweets. They try to get their spouses
to do “righteous” activities. Yet their true heart shows up at home…
they give the silent treatment or become openly agitated if they do
not get their way. On the inside, the heart is ugly, and yet time has
been spent on the outside of the cup, on the house, on making the
family look good, and they have religiously tried to straighten up the
government and the schools. But down deep, no one is happy. “The
wise woman builds her house, but with her hands the foolish one tears
hers down.” Proverbs 14:1
292
Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of

them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the
behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your
lives. I Peter 3:1
Let go of control and help others by changing your own life and
by being gentle and quiet. But know what God wants. He is not legal-
istic, and His rules are not burdensome. There is a Holy Spirit for our
own hearts, and we should not try to be someone else’s holy spirit.
Let God convict others.[1]
What would have happened if Cain had changed his ways? What
would his behavior have been if he had decided to improve—repent
and turn back with a heart for God? He would have recognized that
he was at fault—not Abel and certainly not God. He then would have
looked closely at Abel’s heart and tried to imitate the heart that is
purely in love with God. Then he would have asked God to forgive his
old heart of selfish love. Finally, he would have proven his remorse by
bringing the right sacrifice the next time. This is called…“Do what is
right.” In this scenario, there would be NO anger toward God or Abel.
No playing god by murdering his brother—neither literally with a
deadly weapon nor figuratively with ugly words. No jealousy or pro-
jection toward a man who innocently gave his heart and, therefore,
his pure sacrifice to God. No getting busier out in the fields just to
get rid of the pain of rejection by God, and no believing there was no
guilt. There would be no substance abuse or numbing agents. There
would be no pursuit of counterfeit acceptance—through sympathy
or men’s approval. There would be no worldly sorrow—sorry that he
just got “caught”—but rather godly sorrow that brings a 180-degree
transformation so that his mind and heart return to the Father and
leave the love of idols.
1 See “The Triangle” on page 206

293
In the end, introspection is the key that unlocks the first door on
this journey. James, the brother of Jesus, said it this way:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it
says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a
man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes
away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks
intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this,
not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what
he does. James 1:22-25
Projection is worthless, and it is a lonely path, for no one wants
to be in the company of a critical, negative, projectionist who always
has a double standard when it comes to their own sins. However, if
you look in the mirror of your heart and apply the reforms needed as
pointed out by the laws of God and continue to do this all your life…
you will be free. I love introspection, looking inward, looking in the
mirror, and then being convicted and getting to change. This pas-
sage is so important because it brings up how important it is to keep
looking inward. It is not just a one-time occasion. I continually look
for God’s Spirit to guide me when He awakens me in the night. The
more you look inward, the more you will progress. The more you
change, the more you will want to change because it ends embarrass-
ment, shame, guilt, etc. Remorse, penitence, contrition and change
feel good and are better than any meal on the planet!
TRUTH TIP
Stop blaming outside forces for your overweight. It is not a disease
or someone else’s fault. You have God’s Spirit of self-control to
change your life if you obey Him through Jesus Christ.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
294
295
296 Gwen at her home in Brentwood, Tennessee.
22
THE NARROW DOOR
Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to
Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because
many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” Luke 13:22-24
I have lived a long time and counseled many. I have watched peo-
ple fall off the path, and I have seen how narrow the door to the King-
dom really is. It is a narrow focus, a narrow road, but Jesus walked
this road and he is now sitting at the right hand of God. We have
been told to walk in his steps, and this cannot be said enough, for it
is essential that we think like he thinks, love like he loves…care and
live and teach like he teaches. Jesus is the way and the truth and the
life and no one comes to the Father except through him, or living as
he lived.[1] To follow in his steps, we must turn our steps away from
where they were going. Where have you been walking?
To start down the narrow path, you need to walk through the fol-
lowing steps…
Step One—Make A Choice
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and
love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Matthew 6:24
1 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” John 14:6b
Nothing narrows the road more than this one choice. You can-
not have it both ways. Many people have deceived themselves and
believe they are serving God when they are still serving the food. No
one can serve two masters at the same time. You cannot work at Mc-
Donald’s all day and at Wendy’s all day at the same exact time. Im-
possible. So pick a boss, a business. I choose God and His Kingdom
because it has the best benefits and retirement program.
What is this saying? You cannot have it both ways. You cannot
love the food and love the Father at the same time. If you love the
world, you have no room in your heart to love the Father. This means
that the love in your heart is finite. You only have so much to give.
You have to choose the path where you live forever.
Most people never realize that they have to choose. They think
they can get away with several interests, get away with eternal life and
a half-interested life in God and His True Church. This is the mind-
set of people who think that they can keep their spouse and have an
affair. It is impossible! This is the “Both Ways Delusion.” As proph-
esied in II Thessalonians 2:11-12:
For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will be-
lieve the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the
truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Once you break free from the powerful delusion, you wake up
from this coma and comprehend that you cannot have it both ways.
You become aware that you need to make the right choice—love
God over and above your own selfish greed. When you finally make
a decision of masters, then you have narrowed your load so that you
can enter the narrow door.
Step Two—Turn Around
Once you choose, then walk away from the old master, let it go,
repent.
298
THE NARROW DOOR
Peter said to the crowd, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
To serve the new Master, you have to leave the other one; to work
for McDonald’s, you have to put in your notice and leave Wendy’s.
This repentance is like someone who wakes up from an affair and
says, “I have got to get out of this affair because I cannot please two
women. One is going to leave me. I am going to choose my wife be-
fore I end up having two women rob me of a marriage, my children,
and my finances,” and they get up and they go home to stay…forever.
You have to say goodbye forever to that way of living, that selfish love.
Overeating or tobacco or alcohol or any vice is no different. You
either obey the voice of one or you obey the voice of the other. You
cannot please both the food and God. And what is more, the passage
brings out the point that you will hate the one and love the other.
You yourself have to get out of these affairs before you are loving the
wrong one. Go home to your wife; go home to God. The wrong slave
master will be the death of you. That is why the children of God had
to get out of Egypt.
What if you have repented many times and you do not trust your-
self? Then you never really repented. You were simply sorry.
Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret
it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while—yet now I am happy,
not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance.
For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way
by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no re-
gret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced
in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation,
what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.
II Corinthians 7:8-11a
To repent means you have stopped the past action. This is not
about saying you are sorry that you messed up. This is about saying
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“goodbye” to behaviors of the past. When you hate your life, you
will find the new life. Put to death your old ways, take off the old gar-
ments, say goodbye to the old man. No more overeating, no more
eating past full. No more greed! Get rid of the old life and never pick
it back up. That will be your first time to have true repentance.
Step Three—Put On The New Life
Put on the new life, be born again, and be a new creation by put-
ting the Thin Eater behaviors and mindset into practice. Live like
Jesus Christ in all humility and willingness to suffer to complete the
will of the Father. Christ did not complain, he simply lived to please
the Father, whatever it took. You cannot stop at just killing your old
desires; you have to replace those old desires with godly new desires.
You have heard of this parable taught by Jesus in Luke 11:24-26:
When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seek-
ing rest and does not find it. Then it says, “I will return to the house I left.”
When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it
goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in
and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.
This person that Jesus was talking about had accomplished Step
One (made a decision to serve God) and Step Two…they had re-
pented and left the old behaviors behind. But they had not done
Step Three…put on the new self to be like Christ. By not filling the
heart with the love of God, the wanton demons came back in and
were seven times more wicked than before—now more bingeing,
more greed, and more lust than before. Like Ephesians 4:19 says,
“Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality
so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”
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THE NARROW DOOR
Step Four—Persevere
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and
to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control,
perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly
kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities
in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and un-
productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does
not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has
been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more
eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things,
you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. II Peter 1:5-11
This is not just a decision that you make

one time. This is a constant, ongoing
decision…first every hour, and then
every day.
Perseverance means sticking with it even though it might be hard.
The path gets narrow as those who are struggling give up. Do not
give up, because it is hard to get started again. Just keep swimming!
Perseverance is commitment. It is like finally letting your spouse
know that you are going nowhere, even if it has been difficult. It is that
commitment to keep going no matter what comes your way or how
heavily tested you are, for you are in it for the long haul. Now you know
you will never again put food above the Almighty Lord of All.
Never consider giving up. This is not just a decision that you
make one time. This is a constant, ongoing decision…first every
hour, and then every day. The desire to please God starts off your day
and it finishes your day.
Why do you have to keep it in the front and center? Because there
are all kinds of things that stop you, distract you, and pull at you. The
world does not want you to lose weight, the smokers do not want
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you to stop smoking, your drinking buddies do not want you to stop
drinking, etc. I am sure that you have sensed this by now. Misery
loves company, so the demons do not want you to overcome, to be
born again, and to be saved from your old self. The world wants you
to join them in every kind of dissipation.[2]
Day by day and step by step you make every effort and walk on
the narrow path and enter by the narrow door. Keep going and you
will make it!
Parable Of The Four Soils
To find the truth that sets you free from obesity and all vices is
a gift from God. But you must be most careful. The word “careful”
is used often in the Scriptures in reference to obeying fully. Careful
means “full of care and concern.” The ancient dragon, satan, does not
want you to find the truth, so he will steal it or twist it to his advan-
tage. Satan uses our weakness to his advantage. His advantage is to
get us to destroy ourselves with greed. The teachings of Christ and
all the Prophets give so many stories to warn us, but the parable of
the four soils gives you insight into perils of the heart.
While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from
town after town, he told this parable: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.
As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on,
and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the
plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns,
which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good
soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “The knowledge
2 “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—
living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They
think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation,
and they heap abuse on you.” I Peter 4:3-4
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THE NARROW DOOR
of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I
speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing,
they may not understand.’ This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the
word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil
comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not be-
lieve and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with
joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in
the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for
those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s wor-
ries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil
stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it,
and by persevering produce a crop.” Luke 8:4-15
So the seed fell on rocky soil, shallow soil, near thorns, or good
soil. Now, the seed is this priceless truth that is fundamental. The
first person who heard the truth lost it quickly because the birds
(satan and his demons) ate up the seeds because the heart was like
stone—set in stone—a heart as impenetrable as granite. No one—
not even God or the Son of God himself—could get them to turn
from their ways. Truth is said all their life, but they do not want it.
The shallow soil is the heart that likes the message of conversion
and gets excited, but does not like the Desert of Testing, the heat that
is essential to burn off selfish desires, so they quit.
The third soil is also good and even deeper and loves true reli-
gion and takes root, takes the heat, but fails to give their “all” to God,
and so the worldly people—the thorns—tempt them to go here and
there, do this and that. They become more worried about worldly
things than spiritual things. With one foot in and one foot out—two
masters—they finally succumb to the distracting things of the world,
and these thorns squeeze out the Spirit of God that was guiding them
solely for the past few years. They die. You have to stay in the Vine,
getting guidance from God continually.
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The final soil is good, ready for a change, and plants itself away
from the thorn bushes and keeps the soil clean. Their love for God
runs deep, and the longing to find and please the Spirit of God is
constant and strong. They bear much fruit.
TRUTH TIP
You will succeed if you never quit! Our personable God has a
unique purpose for your life.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
TESTIMONY
Jessica Enns, down 120 pounds since 2013.
After being overweight for most of my life, I took my first Weigh Down
Basics class in 2013 and lost 120 pounds! Since losing the weight, I have been
through two pregnancies and quickly returned both times to my current weight.
My weight loss story began as a child in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I
was an overweight child and started my first diet when I was only 11 years old.
Throughout my teen years, I was lonely, made fun of, greedy for food, lazy, de-
pressed, self-harming and had suicidal thoughts. I spent thousands of dollars and
went into debt trying diets that put me on herbal pills, bars, shakes and juices,
and had me weigh, measure and write down everything I ate. The one-on-one
counseling that was offered basically just shamed me if I ever veered off the plan.
All this restrictive dieting left me with heart palpitations, low blood pressure
and fainting spells. In my early 20s, I went on to try cleanses, detoxes, and “hot
yoga” challenges. I even trained for and ran two half-marathons, which left me
injured and even heavier…yes, I had managed to gain weight even while training!
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THE NARROW DOOR
My mother introduced me to Weigh Down, and when I looked it up on the

internet I was excited to see there were classes I could do online! I signed up for
the Weigh Down Basics Class and felt God’s heartfelt conviction right away. I
needed to change my habits, such as no more eating in front of the TV to escape.
I learned how to wait for physical stomach hunger and the growl, and to eat small
portions with no distractions. I learned to enjoy real food again!
It didn’t take long to see the blessings come pouring in! I did everything
Gwen and the Weigh Down Basics classwork said to do along with all the rein-
forcement resources. I began breaking away from my focus on food and started to
have a growing hunger for God’s Word instead! I lost 120 pounds in 18 months
and was completely set free from depression, suicide, anxiety and panic attacks,
and I was able to forgive others, something I had struggled with in the past.
I am so grateful that I can raise my children to be free of the misery I experi-
enced as a child and teen and instead to enjoy the freedom and abundance that
comes from putting God first in all areas of life! Weigh Down is a true heart-change,
and I will never go
back to my old ways!
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Follow Weigh Down on Tour! Visit WeighDown.com to see if Gwen is coming to a city near you!
Gwen with some of the Weigh Down staff and volunteers at Desert Oasis 2018.
306
23
THE ESSENTIAL, IMMINENT
REQUIREMENT
By the incredible grace and the leading hand of God, I have been
working with Saints for over 30 years to point them to the healing
hands of Christ and God as they lay down strongholds. Weigh Down
and Remnant Fellowship Churches have been a calling. You discover
quickly that you cannot judge a book by its cover; this message is
about mere Christianity and an eternal, saving relationship with
God through Jesus Christ. However, it differs from much of the
mainstream teachings, for it is about a deep love for God that
completely permeates your actions, your life, your purpose, your
goals, and your ambitions.
This book was written to move you from a passive to an active
mode, and the major action point behind all these writings has been
“choosing whom you obey.” You choose gods, you choose personal
responsibility, you choose whom you obey. But what must be clear
is that you are not just choosing between thinness and obesity, nor
is it just choosing a whole new fun life versus an average life. This is
not just another weight loss book or lifestyle book…this is about life
and death. No…this goes even deeper than physical life and death
choices…this is about spiritual or eternal life and death. Indeed, it
is a choice, and mankind has been given freedom to choose; we are
freewill agents. This choice is neither compulsory nor obligatory.
However, when you consider the options, there is only one wise alter-
native. Think about this…obedience, compliance, honor, respect, and
surrender to God (not man) should not be contested, deliberated, nor
debated, because the negative consequences and risks are too high.
There is a difference between a selection and a life or death de-
cision. There is a difference between a preference and perdition.
The suggestions found in this book are not just a fun alternative; if
you do not surrender to the God of the Universe, the stakes are too
high, the consequences are too devastating. Moses put it this way:
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or be-
yond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who
will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”
Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea
to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very
near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I
set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I com-
mand you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and
to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase,
and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to
possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you
are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare
to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long
in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I
call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you
life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your
children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his
voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you
many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:11-20
How easy my life would have been if my calling or message had
been merely a good suggestion for mankind. But this is not a game, but
rather a serious, essential, eternal life choice for you and your family.
Christ had to be clear to all of mankind when he came, for they
had relaxed the laws of God. When you read the Sermon on the
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THE ESSENTIAL, IMMINENT REQUIREMENT
Mount found in Matthew Chapters 5 through 7, notice that Christ

tightened up obedience, not relaxed it like this present generation
implies:
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not mur-
der, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell
you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judg-
ment…You have heard that it was said, “Do not commit adultery.” But
I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already com-
mitted adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin,
gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your
body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right
hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you
to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 5:21-22a, 27-30
Obedience, compliance, honor, respect,

and surrender to God (not man)
should not be contested, deliberated,
nor debated because the negative
consequences and risks are too high.
In other words, Moses would teach from God that if you carry
out the action of murder or adultery, you are subject to judgment;
but Jesus, who knew God even better, who had been with Him, knew
what God really meant…if you lust or hate in your heart, you are
subject to judgment.
When you read various Bible translations, you know that this
judgment from the Sermon on the Mount is more like Wycliffe put
it…“shall be guilty to doom.” The King James Version translates it as…
“guilty of hell fire.”
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The Scriptures bring you to the Valley of Decision.[1] You have
been put on Earth to consider life or death, love or hate, Heaven or
Hades. You must consider your outcome, your destiny. Who do you
“yearn” to follow…self or God? Who do you want to rule your life…
self or God? Do you hunger and thirst after righteousness? It all
boils down to obedience or disobedience, but not because God is
a tyrant and He demands compliance. I do not see any animals out
there marching in line in a high step, nor birds cowering before God’s
authority scared to sing a tune, nor thousands of animals slaving to
build a big tower for God. To be honest, it looks like God gets the raw
end of the deal on all accounts…man or animals. Animals are born,
play, eat, have relationships, have offspring, use their gifts, do not fret
or worry, have happy looks on their faces, are nice to each other and
respectful of the line of authority of life and wildlife.
We are lucky to live. It is not that problematic. Man has made
rules that have made life all too complicated and hard, too burden-
some. It is man’s rules that have wasted your life, false religious rules
that have exploited your life, and if that is not enough, they have left
out God’s loving rules…this is the ruin of a life. Animals in the wild
glorify God because their form of compliance to God and His Laws
gives you the correct, delightful picture of who God really is: won-
derful, marvelous, perfectly delightful, and brilliant when it comes to
our care and direction. Satan paints God to be a distant, unpredict-
able tyrant with unreasonable, unattainable religious requirements.
So the decision of life with the true and wonderful God is supe-
rior in every way…it is either life…or death, darkness, decay, hate,
fear, worry, emptiness, and bankruptcy. Amazingly, not everyone
will choose the right path, even if they find it—there are many stub-
born hearts. Jesus said the path to destruction was wide but the road
1 “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:14
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to eternal life was narrow.[2] This is a concept that God will help you
understand. This book is filled with the truth of God’s Word bring-
ing out the seriousness of obedience…following His guiding hand
down to the very last bite.
Now, we said that this was a war for your soul. What will be your
outcome? There are not 15 different good paths to take with 15 dif-
ferent good outcomes. There is only One God, with only one path
that leads to life—and any other direction you choose leads to death.
Satan will convince you that you are on the good path when you are
not. How do you know how you are doing or whether we are on the
narrow path or not? You will know by the fruit.
The Warning
I want to address one very possible reason why people have a hard
time knowing how they are doing or how their children are doing.
It is called “legalism.” False religion teaches you man-made rules.
Legalism is depending on man-made rules for salvation or being fa-
vored by God. We can all agree that the pharisees were “legalistic”
and that they put burdensome rules on man that were greater than
they could bear, so many people under those false preachers were
oppressed. Christ came back in and taught that it was the heart—
we should examine our hearts. But this is tricky, because we want
to smooth over the crooked cracks with ourselves and our children,
and satan wants you to either pat yourself on the back or condemn
yourself. Remember from the beginning, Colossians 2:20 says that
man-made rules have no value in restraining sin. Indeed, man-made
rules or legalism bear bad fruit. But if you find a Shepherd who can
guide and distinguish between man’s rules and God’s rules and put
God’s laws into practice, you will bear much fruit.
2 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that
leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the
road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
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Matthew 7:16-18 says:
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn-
bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but
a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad
tree cannot bear good fruit.
So it is by the fruit. Now, there is a lot of imitation fruit, but usu-
ally time will tell if the fruit is rotten underneath—especially if you
pray for wisdom.
But beware…satan could turn the Truth into legalism. Legalis-
tic people who would rather improve others and things rather than
change their hearts love this. They do not know why they cannot
lose weight—they are eating on smaller plates and they put their fork
down between bites, but they are gaining and not losing. Why? They
have, as Jesus said, strained out the gnat and swallowed the camel.[3]
They eat on smaller plates but do not eat smaller amounts, and they
We are in an incredible war, and since

the very beginning, satan has tried
to stop us from being in a
relationship with God.
love one, two, three steps or rules on a piece of paper but they miss
the spirit of it all. They eat what God’s body is calling for but they
do not always stop when they are full—ultimately, they do not com-
pletely comply with small amounts guided by hunger and fullness.
They starve so that they can binge, whereas the Spirit-led person will
fast so they can feel the Spirit of God even more keenly. Again, two
people could be eating a piece of chocolate cake and one is sinning
and the other is not. One was led by God and one was led by greed.
Two people could be doing good things—one is led by God and one is
3 “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” Matthew 23:24
312
led by the praise of man. Ultimately, to be on the right path and to have
the right heart, you are going to need the truth of what pleases God.
The reason so many struggle is that satan minimizes the essential,
imminent requirement to obey God. In other words, satan whispers
“immortality without conditions” to the masses.
Now, the ancient Scriptures tell us that satan is more crafty, devi-
ous, and deceitful than all creations, and his biggest deceit is that you
will not surely die—it is the Great Delusion. Genesis 3:1-7 says:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD
God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not
eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We
may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not
eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not
touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the
woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw
that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also
desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some
to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of
them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig
leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Later in the evening, God asked them, “What is this you have
done? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat
from?” Adam responded by blaming Eve for this, and Eve blamed
the serpent. Adam and Eve were given the punishment and told that
things were going to be a lot harder from this point forward, which
seems to be the need for our stubborn hearts. Perhaps that is the rea-
son why it says, “The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are
lifted to safety.” Job 5:11 And in Ecclesiastes 7:2a, “It is better to go to a
house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting…”
God is love, but God is also Lord of All, so our walk on Earth
should be one of humility and solemnity. We are in an incredible
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war, and since the very beginning, satan has tried to stop us from
being in a relationship with God.
Does God Give Up On Us?
There are passages that let you know that there is a time limit for
us all. Even before death, God could give up and just give us over to
our own desires, give up trying so hard to lure you to His side, give up
on giving you ways of escape. It happens, and I have seen it. If you get
out from under authority or lose the personal responsibility, and the
veil drops down[4]—change is impossible. You end up with a sensual
indulgence for more, a continual lust for more, and you cannot get
out of it.[5] But it is usually not for those who are worried about this.
Those who are worried have a chance; those who are not worried are
the ones who have gone too far.
How do you break a relationship? You disobey. How do you re-
pair a relationship? You repent and then you obey. If you are alive and
can read this and you have even the slightest holy fear, then respond
while you have a chance!
Humble obedience is the key to this relationship…simply an
essential concept. Obedience implies you have an authority. Being
under authority has been so criminalized in this generation; however,
it is the means of a saving connection between you and God, which is
your life and breath—it is the meaning and it is the essence of a rela-
tionship with the one who is above you. Whether it is the child to the
parent, the wife to the husband, the man to his employer, the people in
the church to their spiritual leaders, and everyone under Jesus Christ,
and Christ under God, it is a linear line of a relationship going up.
4 II Corinthians 3:12-18
5 “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to
indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” Ephesians 4:19
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A relationship with God
A relationship with man and self
Satan wants you to go sideways.
Satan wants you to go sideways. He wants you to obey yourself

over God, and he wants you to obey other people and man-made rules
over God. The whole point is that he will do or say just about anything
to get you to disobey your authority—hunger and fullness and what
your body is calling for—because it upsets the whole relationship, the
answered prayers, the jewels, and then you wind up projecting that
it is everyone else’s fault that you are overweight, overdrinking, gam-
bling, overtalking, overspending, etc. My suggestion for mankind is
to humbly work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.[6]
Learn from the results of disobedience from Adam and Eve in
the very beginning. That test remains the test—the test that you are
to guard your heart against, making sure that there is nothing that is
more important than a beautiful relationship with God. Satan wants
you to believe, “Your eyes will be opened and then you will be more like
God and you will have knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 3:5 The truth
is that your eyes become closed when you disobey; you become more
distant, and your heart becomes cold and hardened until you cannot
6 “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my

presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation
with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12
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seem to alter your ways at all, except for the worse. When your eyes
are closed, you become blinded. Satan is a liar. Are you more God-like
when you disobey? Are you more Christ-like when you do not get
under God’s authority? The answer is absolutely not! Christ would not
consider equality with God something to be grasped or comprehend-
ed.[7] Christ was under authority. He would not do anything unless
his Father told him to do it, and he said that over and over in the final
days and in the Garden with the hardest of all tests—giving his entire
life up and shedding his blood, which is what God was calling him to
do. In the Garden, Jesus said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup
from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42 To the very end,
he never ate the fruit that was on the tree in the middle of the Garden
that God commanded not to eat. He never sinned or rebelled against
the will of God, just like all the animals. Being under authority, or obe-
dience, is walking in the Spirit. You can be born again of the Spirit of
God and walk in that Spirit…with hunger and fullness and with all of
God’s commands. Can you listen to His Spirit guiding you on spend-
ing, drinking, speaking, and any desires in life? Yes, you can follow this
lead. But you have to seek it like you are looking for gold or search for
it like you are looking for diamonds—you have to desire it more than
fortune, you have to revere the guiding hand of God above all.
Will you have more knowledge of good and evil if you disobey?
The answer is “No.” It is all lies. When you obey God, you can dis-
cern good from evil. When you disobey God, everything becomes
muddy and confusing—what is right and what is wrong.[8]
Scripture after Scripture lets us know the life following Christ—
someone who is called a Christian—must stop sinning.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world
7 “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something
to be grasped.” Philippians 2:6
8 For more discussions on this topic, further reading is found in Ezekiel 34
316
does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are
children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But
we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is
pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you
know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is
no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to
sin has either seen him or known him. I John 3:1-6
How do you break a relationship? You

disobey. How do you repair a relationship?
You repent and then you obey.
So here is the conclusion of this matter: God really did say to have
no greed, so then we will end greed in our lives. We will be content
with what God has given us. Obedience, compliance, honor, respect,
and surrender to God—not man—should not be contested, deliber-
ated, nor debated, because the negative consequences and risks are
too high. No, the Word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in
your heart so you may obey it. Let us all obey our dearest Creator.
The Truth Will Set You Free
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32
We must tell ourselves the truth. The world will tell you that you
are overweight from eating the wrong foods, that it is genetic, that it
is your hormones or a metabolism problem. This is not true. Notice
the pattern. All of these lies have one thing in common…they take the
responsibility out of your hands and put the blame on the food, your
mother, your genes, or anything but yourself. In addition, notice these
lies make you feel sorry for yourself because you accept the lie that you
are a victim. A voice tells you that you must have been left out by God.
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Now, notice how you feel when you hear the truth…You are not
a victim, you have not been left out, and you can lose the weight per-
manently and be thin for the rest of your life by choosing to obey
God with eating! Notice that satan tries to rob you of joy. But the
truth energizes you and convicts you to take responsibility: you have
been overeating, and if you reverse this today, you will lose weight. I
see people taking responsibility each day, and it is exciting. But pro-
jection and blaming others will paralyze you, rob you of the God-
given responsibility, and give you an invitation to give up, rather than
fight to eradicate your own selfish desires for too much.
There is a one-to-one correlation between telling yourself the
truth and being set free from overeating. Those who hide from the
mirror, the scales, or the Weigh Down accountability partner never
progress. If you listen to the truth of Weigh Down, keep a food re-
cord, record your weight, and just get up to fight the good fight, God
will see you through. Take responsibility for desiring too much food
God really did say to have no greed, so

then we will end greed in our lives.
We will be content with what
God has given us.
and change your mindset. Weigh Down gives you all the tools. I can-
not tell you enough about listening to the truth and the effect it is
going to have on your transformation into a Thin Eater and being
born again to a whole new you! Romans 12:1-2a says:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies
as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of
worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.
When you transform your mind, your heart, and your desires
by listening to the truth and by getting into the Bible, then you will
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desire less food. This is a permanent lifestyle change.

Admitting your late-night eating is going to unlock Truth
binge eating. The truth is going to release the chains
and the slavery of the imprisonment that you have
been bound to—the enslavement to the pantry, the
refrigerator, and all the chocolates in your drawer. We
tend to change when we look in the mirror and see Mind
ourselves for what we really are. Heart
I want you to experience freedom. Jesus came to
Earth—he lived and died to set you free, and down
Desires
deep you long to be free. Truth helps to end your anx-
ious greed for food. For example, the truth is that you have thousands
of eating occasions left in your life, even if you are 30 or 40 years old,
and you will see the food many more times during your life.
Just as truth sets you free, lies keep you locked in your pris-
on of poor choices. For example, the lie…“I have to eat this food
now because I might not see it again.” The truth is that Ameri-
ca is not going to run out of food. Another lie…“I am different, I
cannot reform.” But the truth is that you can reform your ways
and you probably used to eat this way as a child. The truth is that
God commands you to eat right and to take care of your body.
In I Corinthians 3:16-17 it says:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spir-
it lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for
God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
But of course you can change today. You were made to change!
Here is the truth… You cannot just disobey God and destroy your
body with overeating. Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “Go
and sin no more.”[9] If I could sum up the definition of sin—which,
of course, now we know also means wrong choices/addictions—I
9 John 8:11b
319
would say that it is giving yourself permission to get out from un-
derneath the guiding hand of God/authority. Jumping in and out
of authority means you are your own god, and the problem with this
scenario is that it keeps the insubordinate person up 3 pounds, then
a few years later up 5 pounds, and what used to be disgusting to you
becomes normal; and then you find yourself up 11 pounds, up 20
pounds, and you just get used to being “up” and you dress for it. Dis-
obedience (partial obedience) becomes obedience in your mind—
the norm. People who create the “new norm” scare me to death—it
is no different than the “new norm” all of the sudden being polyga-
my… So where does it stop? God has told us not to continue in sin,
and He would not have told us that if we could not do it. Obey God
fully—this is the essential, imminent requirement.
TRUTH TIP
Don’t seek God to use Him. Seek God for this relationship and
companionship! It’s not about what He can do for you but the
adoration you can give Him. It must start with laying down sin.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
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TESTIMONY
Tracy Carson, down 218 pounds since 2007.
Weigh Down Basics changed my life! A very dear friend of mine told me
about Weigh Down back in 2006. Before that, I had been on several diets, some
that were excessively rigid and controlling, which just made me extremely food-
focused and self-focused. I was full of projection, self-pity, and depression, not to
mention extremely overweight.
By putting the principles of Weigh Down Basics into practice—eating what-
ever regular foods my body is calling for when I am physically hungry and stop-
ping when my body is physically satisfied—I lost 218 pounds and have kept it off
for years! When I am feeling bored, lonely, sad or frustrated, I have learned to go
to God and His Word to fill me up instead of turning to food or anything else. I
have also learned to stop blaming others, blaming my circumstances, and blaming
the food for my overeating and being overweight. Now I take personal responsi-
bility for my thoughts, words, and actions. I am so grateful for the joy, peace and
hope that God has brought to my life through applying this teaching! My life has
been saved, and I never worry that I will return to that old life! Be encouraged that
you can do this too!
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TESTIMONY
Blake Zanoni, down 80 pounds since 2002.
I was a miserable, depressed teenager who ate constantly. I would
even set an alarm to wake up in the middle of the night to eat or sneak
food. Beyond food, there was anger, lust, and depression in my heart
with very little room for God.
I was introduced to Weigh Down Basics at age 16 (in 2002), and
I started to put the principles into practice. The changes were amaz-
ing! For the first time in my life I felt my stomach growl and realized
how amazing it was to wait on God to eat. My weight started to fall off
quickly once I fully committed to God’s way of eating. After the sum-
mer between my junior and senior year of high school, the kids that I
had gone to school with for years didn’t even recognize me!
Weigh Down taught me that the idols I was running to couldn’t
give back, but God could, and that there was total peace in seeking out
His ways. I praise God for the changes. I have maintained my weight
loss and never gone
back to that old
way of life!
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24
ALL OR NOTHING
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course
of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offer-
ing to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the
firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his
offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.
So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Genesis 4:2b-5
Do you see the difference between Cain and Abel? Abel easily
gave exactly what God wanted because he did not worship posses-
sions but rather God, but Cain gave up what he (Cain) wanted to
give up and kept back what he thought would be good for his pocket-
book. Again, many of us have what I call the Cain Syndrome; that is,
we give to God what we want to give, something worthless to you—
something perhaps that would not matter anyway—but it is not what
God asked for.
We get angry at God for asking us to sacrifice the thing we love.
Moreover, just as Cain did, we get angry at God for not being happy
with what we decided to give Him. For example, many people say,
“Well, I gave God my breakfast this morning.” But actually, they
did not want breakfast anyway. However, when the afternoon snack
comes by, they are not about to give that up, even if they are not hun-
gry! Your sacrifice may be that you cut your food in half—but there is
a chance that you might eat both halves. But those who choose their
sacrifice are dumbfounded that they have not lost weight.
The Cain Syndrome is evident in many marriages, too. For ex-
ample, a husband may agree to please his wife with a date but then
considers his own preferences—not those of his wife—in making
plans for the evening.
A wife may cook a wonderful meal, supposedly to please her hus-
band, but be unwilling to submit to his intimate wants. Just like Cain,
she is angry at the husband’s ungrateful attitude for the sacrifice she
decided to make for him.
If an army officer complied with 9 out of 10 orders, would you say
he was obedient? After all, 90 percent of his senior officer’s require-
ments were met. The answer is no. The nine orders completed were
just those that came naturally anyway—sacrifices of convenience.
Not obeying 1 out of the 10 commands reveals your will over the
authority and perhaps that you have a better idea.
Partial Obedience
Obedience is tested only when we confront something we do not
want to do. In I Samuel 15 it tells of God ordering King Saul to to-
tally annihilate an enemy. Through Samuel, God told Saul:
Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs
to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and
infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. I Samuel 15:3
Saul did go to battle. He did most of what God had commanded,
yet he spared Agag, the king, and took home some cattle and sheep.
Did Saul obey or disobey God? Look at the text: “Then the word of the
Lord came to Samuel: ‘I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because
he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.’ I
Samuel 15:10-11a Samuel confronted Saul, asking, “Why did you not
obey the Lord?” and Saul tried to pass his actions off as obedience.
“But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord as-
signed me.” I Samuel 15:19a,20a
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ALL OR NOTHING
Saul, you see, had the Cain Syndrome. He did the part of the
command that came naturally—going to war—but where Saul’s will
differed from God’s command, Saul chose his own way. It is all or
nothing. God did not credit Saul with obedience, even though he
had been victorious in battle and had carried out a large percentage
of the commandment.
In the same way, God did not acknowledge Cain’s offering. God
knows our hearts. Even though we give God some of the food—the
convenient food we want to give Him—that is not being obedient
to Him. He is asking you to go to the next level. Do not hold out.
Rather, give Him everything He wants.
The key is ending your relationship

with food, overeating, binge eating,
and binge drinking by a transfer of a
relationship—a transfer away from the
food and onto God Almighty.
It is the heart we should examine. The person devoted to clean-
ing up what is outside their own heart is not doing what Christ did.
Christ loved and obeyed the Father and taught others to do the same.
One way turns people away from desiring Christianity and spawns
rebellion in the spouse and children. The right way—staying focused
on loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as your-
self—will make you a magnet and will convert many.
The key is ending your relationship with food, overeating, binge
eating, and binge drinking by a transfer of a relationship—a transfer
away from the food and onto God Almighty. Another way to say it is
it is a choice of lifestyle, but you need to know a secret so that you do
not waste your time… It is all or nothing.
Mark 12:29-31 is the summary of all the laws that God has given
us in life, and all the words of every Preacher who has ever been sent
down on Earth, every Prophet, are all summed up in the following:
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“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no
commandment greater than these.”
If you leave a root of wanting to go back to your old lifestyle, then
the root will grow up and take over, and you will become obese again.
If you leave a root of wanting to get drunk, then it will grow up, and
one day you will go back to being an alcoholic. If you leave a root of
anything that is against the will of God, I promise you it will come
back, and it will always take over.[1]
You Cannot Serve Two Masters
Have you heard of the story of Jacob and Esau? These were the
twins who were born to Isaac and Rebecca. Isaac loved Esau, who
was a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Rebecca loved
Jacob, who was a quiet man, staying among the tents. The Jews had
been taught by God over the centuries to pass down the birthright to
the oldest son. The birthright was huge, and obviously the lion’s share
of the inheritance came with this, but also the blessings from God.
Esau had been born first, with Jacob second. Jacob was holding onto
Esau’s heel when he was born.
Once, when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the
open country, famished.
Esau said to Jacob, “Quick! Let me have some of that red stew. I am fam-
ished.” Jacob replied, “First, sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about
to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said,
“Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to
Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and
1 Hebrews 12:15-17
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ALL OR NOTHING
drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. Genesis
25:30-34
Now Jacob did not stop here. He wanted the blessing too. Right
before Isaac died, he sent Esau out to go hunting for wild game and
to prepare him a soup. Then, after that, he could come and receive
his blessings. Isaac, in his old age, had poor eyesight. Rebecca over-
heard the conversation, so Rebecca got lamb’s wool, wrapped it onto
Jacob’s arm so his arms would be hairy like Esau’s, prepared a soup,
and sent Jacob in to his father, Isaac. Jacob was pretending to be Esau.
Isaac felt his hairy arms and gave the blessings from God to Jacob.
When Esau came home from hunting, he went to his father crying
out for the blessing, and his father told him that the blessing could
not be reversed.
It is about connecting to God,

your Creator, so that you can live
and live eternally.
Now, in the book of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul refers back to this
story about Jacob and Esau, and he interprets this story that has been
so misunderstood:
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without
holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of
God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a
single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you
know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could
bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
Hebrews 12:14-17
Esau is referred to as “godless.” He sold his inheritance rights
as the oldest son for a single meal, and yet Jacob fought, planned,
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yearned for the birthright and the blessings. The point is this: many
people come to Weigh Down just to lose weight. They learn the
techniques, but their motive is all about weight loss and all for self—
they were not seeking or longing for the birthright, a relationship
with the Almighty God of the Universe.
Weigh Down is not about losing weight at all. It is about con-
necting to God your Creator so that you can live and live eternally.
To connect, we must be like Jacob and compete for His presence and
love and show God that we want it—that we are not going to let food
get in the way of a relationship with God, laying down the love of the
created things on Earth over the Creator, and the result just happens
to be the receiving of the fruit of God’s Spirit and His characteristics,
which include love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and
goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. This self-
control leads to weight loss.
This is about a relationship with God. Esau would despise the
relationship with God. This means that he did not consider being
close to God as more important than anything in the world. Food
could come between him and being first with God, getting all the
blessings from God—he would sell it all for food. You have to reverse
that. You have to show God that you would rather have a relationship
with Him than just a single meal. You would rather have His blessings
than food.
Again, if you leave a root of love of self over love of God or love
of food over the love of God, it will come back, and it will take over.
If you leave a root of indulgence in the heart, even if you have laid 90
percent of it down, it will come back to take over. Why? Because you
have not made the choice. You are just “playing religion.” You are
half-hearted.
You have to say, “I am ready to leave the old lifestyle behind. I
want a whole new life, a new life with God, away from idols, away
from the world. I want a life with God.” You have to give up the rela-
tionship with the food. You cannot have it both ways.
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ALL OR NOTHING
That is what Jesus said. You have to give all of your heart. It is all
or it is nothing, because if you leave a root, it will come back and take
over. Esau was left with nothing. Jesus could have easily said, “Give
your heart, soul, mind, and strength to God.” Instead, he purposely
said in Luke 10:27, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and
love your neighbor as yourself.” The “all” is telling. If it is just partial
remorse, then you are saying that you have not decided to give up the
relationship with food or the position of deciding when you eat or
what you want to eat at all.
If desires rule over what God’s programmed hunger and fullness
tell you, and if your desires for what to eat rule over what the body is
calling for, then you are being your own boss over God’s body. You
are deciding what is best. Think back to the decisions you have made
over the years. Have you overfed the body? Have you taken care of
your body? Have you made sure that the body was pure and that your
mind has been pure? When you rule, you make many bad decisions.
You must let God lead you and learn to hear His voice, His lead, His
Spirit guiding you. He will always make great decisions for you, your
health, your life, and your salvation. You must fight through the lies
and fight through your desires to find God’s lead for you and your
body, your soul, and your mind. When you love God with all of your
heart and soul and mind, you will find His lead. You cannot be lazy
about this or put this on the back burner like Esau.
The fact is that if you have a “root,” it just means you never gave
yourself fully over to God. “See to it that no one misses the grace of God
and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” He-
brews 12:16 You left a part of your heart, mind, and soul back to rule
over it all. You have held back a part of the day that is “yours.” Perhaps
you are afraid that God would not give you enough food or income
or good times. Perhaps you think He is too distant or harsh. But look
at all the animals. They are so taken care of—all with a home and a
family and a future for the species. Remember back to your first few
329
days, just trusting God with hunger and fullness, and how great you
did. You did not hurt for anything—you lost weight and were hap-
pier and had so much more energy. Those are the moments of giving
all to God. Those moments help you see the truth of God’s rule. It is
wonderful.
All the tips in the world of how to eat less food will not help you if
you do not just give it up and let God give back to you what He wants
to give back. I can attest to the fact that it is more than enough; God
is generous. Remember, more is not more—more is less. When
you overeat, you cannot taste it, and the results are painful.
Even in the small choices—when you hear God’s lead through
authority, suggestions from His Word, or directions from His Word,
please take heed, because every little decision helps you to make a
total life change. Learn to love to follow God’s voice through hun-
ger and fullness. In I John 2:5a it says, “But if anyone obeys his word,
God’s love is truly made complete in him.” And the opposite is also
true. However, if you continue to obey God, your love for God will
be complete—daily choices that renew the mind until the mind is
made up, and at that point it is a whole new life. You do not just make
a one-time decision at age 12 to follow Christ. This is an ongoing
life-change decision that you carry into every day, every space, every
meal, and every situation.
There are many passages that refer to being completely obedient
in the Bible.[2] Think again about the example of a soldier in the army.
If a private only obeys 9 out of the 10 things that the lieutenant of-
ficer asks him to do, is he obedient and under authority? The answer
is “No.” You have simply obeyed what you decided to obey, and you
are over the lieutenant because you trump his decisions. You are put
2 Genesis 26:4-5, Exodus 19:5, Leviticus 25:18, Numbers 15:40, Deuteronomy

15:5, Deuteronomy 28:1, Joshua 1:7, I Kings 8:61, Psalm 119:4, Ezekiel 20:21,
Zechariah 6:15, Matthew 19:17, Luke 11:28, John 14:21, Romans 2:13, Hebrews
5:9, I Peter 1:22, I Peter 4:17, I John 2:3, Revelation 3:3, Revelation 14:12
330
ALL OR NOTHING
here on this Earth to finally acknowledge if God rules your life or

not. There is absolutely only one way to show God if He rules in your
heart. Whatever you do on Earth, you would do in Heaven at some
point after a few thousand centuries. This desire to rule over God
would rear its ugly head and finally undermine God and then try to
outdo God.
The concept of surrender could not be done without full love. I
want to continue to build on the love of God that has been the un-
derlying, foundational point of the transfer, being born again, and
this concept will continue to grow with learning to suffer for God.
This love is everything, and it is no different than a mother suffering
to birth a child but the suffering brings such joy. God is so gentle in
It is surrender all or nothing to this

astonishing and incredible Creator of
all! Give your all, for all will be given
back to you!
the way He instructs us and corrects us. No human has ever been
this longsuffering (which is love) nor patient with you. God is so un-
selfish in every decision He makes, starting with allowing this Earth
to have even one more day of existence. What an expensive, heart-
ripping experiment on God’s behalf to allow life in free will agents
who have basically projected and blamed Him for everything wrong
on Earth when it is the greed in mankind that has caused his own
demise. Love is the answer. Keep looking inward and see how you
could love God and those around you more. God delights in man,
and He delights in our love for each other—a world of peace with no
strife. Slow down and love; slow down looking for more and love;
give, be patient and kind and long-suffering. If we could teach the
gentleness of God to our children, then we will have hope of a world
of love. With this as your purpose, you can easily see how people can
give it all up to live for the treasure of Zion, the Kingdom of God in
331
your heart. If we love ourselves more, it completely negates the hope
of the City of God on Earth.
If you have not been born again, converted, transformed all the
way, you have not surrendered all—you have merely given what you
wanted to give, perhaps to lose the weight but not to surrender to
the Most High God of All. To get the favor from God Most High, it
is all or nothing, because it is how you show God that Heaven rules.
This is our purpose and destiny. It is surrender all or nothing to this
astonishing and incredible Creator of all!
TRUTH TIP
We were not put on Earth to focus on our body or worry about our
health. We were given breath in order to experience a personal,
beautiful relationship with this awesome and most loving God of the
Universe. Don't waste another day! God is better than a binge.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
Gwen with the Wright family from Nigeria. Femi and Flo Wright have lost over 55 pounds combined
through Weigh Down Basics!
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25
A WHOLE NEW LIFE
We started this book talking about our purpose in life. Many have
confused our purpose and live to eat instead of eating just to live.
Food is sensual indulgence, not fuel. It is hard to stop eating because
we have become so sensually oriented…just one more salt, one more
sweet. We also started the book with conveying the decline in vir-
tues in this country, which implies a rise in depravity and corruption,
due to half-hearted Christianity. For every action, there is a reaction.
The society follows the church, and as much of the pulpit has lost
its way to holiness, the people have followed. For 50 years, we have
relaxed our morals. The Prophets warned us that there would be men
who would infiltrate the church and create a gospel and a grace that
would give us a license to sin. [1] What are the results of this infiltra-
tion in the twenty-first century? May I be so bold as to say that much
of the country’s troubles have come from several generations who
have become increasingly self-focused, prima donnas accustomed to
being spoiled—taking the priceless, precious, valuable, irreplaceable
life that the generous Creator has offered and wasting it. We have
replaced God-adoration and God-dependence with self-assurance.
No doubt there are global pockets of godlessness; however, it
appears that so much of the other parts of the world are ahead of
us concerning humility, appreciation, and “outdoing one another in
1 “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly
slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a
license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” Jude 4
showing honor.”[2] Perhaps having gone through hardships encour-
aged virtues such as no expectations—which is the source of hap-
piness—while our country birthed a generation born with wealth,
which encouraged arrogance. Haughtiness is repulsive, while humil-
ity is disarming, engaging…magnetic. We could all use a new life…a
whole new life to bear good fruit for the glory of our Creator and His
Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ first sermon on the mount provided us insight:
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize
them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Like-
wise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A
good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to
me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does
the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive
out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I
never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Therefore everyone who
hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man
who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because
it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words
of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who
built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the
winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at
his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their
teachers of the law. Matthew 7:15-29
2 Romans 12:10
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A WHOLE NEW LIFE
Growing up in mainstream Christianity, I had no concept of nor

was ever told that I could or should have a whole new life. A whole
new life…what does that mean? Why would I even want to be a dif-
ferent person? How much of me do I have to lose? Jesus said we
should be born again, yet in the last 50 to 60 years, the false grace
warned about has insidiously come forth, teaching that our evil way-
ward desires are blotted or covered by Jesus—God does not count
these unrepentant sins. This tempting lie or delusion teaches that we
are all pretty good and our weaknesses of indulgence are cancelled…
right? However, Jesus said that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and
a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. I wanted you to read this whole
passage in its full context. What this passage says in whole is that
there are many false teachers who will lead you to believe that you
are saved when you are not; even if you have done good things, they
were not the things Jesus told you to do. So obey Jesus’ words and do
not just listen…put them into practice.
The person who built their house on the rock, meaning doing the
will of God, would withstand the great storms and the great Day of
Judgment when all would be exposed and even every word you had
spoken would be analyzed and judged.[3] When you read from Gen-
esis to Revelation, you finally see that it is all saying the same thing…
you must master it. We are responsible for our own actions. So that
is what Jesus meant by saying that we have to be born again, be a new
creation, for our flesh does not want to take responsibility; however,
once I tasted personal responsibility with the help of God’s Spirit, I
did not want to go back to the old life!
What a joy to know that you are showing the whole Universe that
you love God more than anything, and it points to Who the author-
ity is in this Universe. This is essential and fundamental, and it is
3 “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for
every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by
your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37
335
a guilt-free life. It is a choice that costs you nothing, a free choice
that saves you money. You actually put currency in your pocket from
these life choices—fewer doctor bills, pharmaceutical bills, every-
size wardrobe bills, diet program bills, lower food and alcohol bills,
and fewer counseling bills. This is the grace of God: to be able to
choose Him to love so that you do not overdo it on anything in the
world.
Why is this grace? It is grace because our nature is to be a slave to
something, and the Lord God Almighty is the only loving, merciful,
and wonderful Master in the Universe. All other masters are tyrants,
dictators, oppressors, persecutors, authoritarians, totalitarians. By
grace we have been saved to give our allegiance to the only one Good
What a joy to know that you are showing

the whole Universe that you love God
more than anything, and it points to
Who the authority is in this Universe.
God in existence. We have a 70-year job interview on Earth, and by
grace, if we work for the right boss, we will be hired by the right boss.
To be born again—to have a whole new life—you have to stop work-
ing for yourself, stop working for evil and evil desires, and work for
the One Good Boss, God Almighty. Loving the world is painful—it
hurts, and it will never love you back. It is the ultimate unrequited
love. It is grace because without Christ’s sacrifice, the Holy Spirit and
personality of God would not have been sent to us to dwell in our
hearts. We could never have been born again. We would be heavier
than ever, angrier, more depressed, having every bad spirit and none
of God’s wonderful Spirit in our lives.[4]
Trust me. I am telling you the truth. This world is not special, for
it will pass away—however, the man who does the will of the Father
4 John 14:15-27
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A WHOLE NEW LIFE
will live forever.[5] That is special! You think food or alcohol or lust or
fortune are special? Is it special to go eat? No, it is not special. Food is
not special. God and His Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, and self-control is special! That should make your heart
rate go up! That should make you excited—a chance to get close to
God, a chance to commune with God through Jesus Christ. King
David considered this relationship with God better than gold and
sweeter than honey. That is exceptional, that is superior! Food, alco-
hol, or TV is not the reward you give yourself at the end of the hard
day anymore. It is God and a relationship with Him, a chance to get
alone with Him. That is what you reward yourself with. Yes, you have
to eat food, but look at little children. They are not excited about the
food. They are excited about life, about fellowship with their parents
and other children, and they love God with a simple, childlike heart.
Unless we become like little children in heart and love for God we
will not enter the Kingdom of God. There is a whole new life out
there waiting for you beyond the food.
Walk In The Spirit
If you are having a hard time, then this is perhaps the most im-
portant chapter of all. There is something in the teachings of false
religion that seems very hard to get rid of and it is very devastating to
our success. The worldly churches teach something that gets so deep
in your heart that you really never just drop everything and get it
right. It is the combination of the legalism of man-made rules, along
with the self-assured false grace that gives a license to sin. Jude 4 says:
For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have
secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace
5 “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives
forever.” I John 2:17
337
of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only
Sovereign and Lord.
The basic fear of not obeying God is not in your blood…not in
your upbringing. So you switch some things but do not really eat
when you are hungry and stop when you are full.
Jesus said that you had to be born again to even enter this King-
dom of God. In John 3:1-8 it says:
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of
the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we
know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could per-
form the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” In
reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of
God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?”
Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s
womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter
the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives
birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be sur-
prised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever
it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or
where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
So Jesus explained that you cannot even see the Kingdom of God
nor can you enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born again,
born of the water and the Spirit. The water is the baptismal deci-
sion of repentance—to die to what you used to do—and born of the
Spirit is following the guiding hand of the Almighty God, moment
by moment. People get this book and then turn the rules into their
decisions and it goes back to a pre-planned day. No good—this will
not work. This is about following the guiding hand of God, being
quiet and still and listening for Him every day, everywhere, every
moment. This wind blows wherever it pleases, not wherever you
please. You hear its sound, but you cannot predict beforehand where
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A WHOLE NEW LIFE
it is going, you cannot always decide the week before, the day before,
the hour before. After years and years, you can get better at following
and knowing the heart of God, but you must stay awake, following
hunger and fullness, following His lead on when to speak and where
to go. He can guide all decisions.
A diet is just fine with the unrepentant overeater who wants to
control their own week, day, moment. This person is not under au-
thority. If you are still not just instantly turning and sinning no more,
you are missing it. Just as Jesus told the woman caught in adultery…
“Go and sin no more.”[6] Jesus said that we needed to make drastic
measures to get it right.[7]
It is time, while you have the chance, to change and be born again
with the water and the Spirit. Do you not feel the time running out?
There is something in the air. We need to all look in the mirror of our
heart and see if we are giving all aspects of our lives over to God and
following the guiding hand of God. “And we all, who with unveiled
faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image
with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
II Corinthians 3:18
Our own guidance (management and taking control) and antiau-
thority have left us with many miseries and a lack of favor from God.
To enter the Kingdom of God, you have to be born of the water and
the Spirit, and where God takes you will be much better than what
you think or imagine.
6 John 8:11b
7 “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better
for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Matthew
5:30 “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed
than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.” Mark 9:43
339
Walk In The Steps Of Christ
You can do this! You can only do one thing wrong, and that is
to quit, to give up. So remember, there is suffering both ways in life:
doing it God’s way or doing it your way. If you go your own way it
results in suffering from curses, while the suffering that comes from
doing it God’s way is guilt-free and brings blessings. It is better than
giving up and giving in to following your own ways. Remember, Jesus
said his yoke is easy.[8] You can choose this new life if you just focus
on putting the truth into your mind daily. It will finally go into your
heart and then into your actions.
Many a Saint has walked this path before you. You can get this
weight off permanently or lay down your strongholds—the keys are
in the Word of God. In I Peter 4:1-2 it says:
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with
the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with
sin and as a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil
human desires, but rather for the will of God.
The Kingdom of God is in your heart, and Jesus’ Church is the
fellowship of those who are pure Saints. Being done with sin is after
you have been through the suffering of the Desert of Testing, and
the Promised Land is that place where Saints acknowledge and show
with their actions that God rules.
Walk In Love
If I could come up with a one-word answer for how you are going
to reverse this sensual feeling and walk away from your dependen-
cies forever, it would be the word “love.” How could something like
the love of God release you from greed? The answer lies in the fact
that indulgence, greed, and lust are wrapped up in a love for self. We
8 “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:30

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A WHOLE NEW LIFE
are programmed by God to love ourselves, and that is why Jesus told
us to love our neighbor as ourselves.[9] You do not have to train a
child to take toys for self. Worldly psychologists and even spiritual
counselors will say that you are overeating because you do not love
yourself enough. This is incorrect. We are actually too focused on
ourselves and our selfish desires. We are excessively worried that we
are not going to be taken care of—so we overdo it. Greed for self
drives binges.
Your passions and your loves dictate

your actions today, tomorrow,
and the next day.
Success or failure is in your choice of who you love, adore, wor-
ship—one is life and one is death. Your passions and your loves dic-
tate your actions today, tomorrow, and the next day. The object of
your passion determines whether you binge tonight or victoriously
let go of being a god of your life and allow the Creator to rule. If you
love God, you will not take His throne. The love that makes it into
Heaven forever is selfless, surrendered love and a mind focused on
the dominion of God.
We have been given such grace and good news that we can and
must change to enter the Kingdom of God. This means that you have
the ability to follow Christ and find this genuine love that sets you
free from loving yourself. Love of self and selfish desires lead to binge
eating, overdrinking, carousing, laziness, and feeling like you deserve
more. The only way to get over this entitlement is to realize that you
are not a victim but rather incredibly gifted to have life and a chance at
eternal life. The answer to eternal life is love of God above all things.
It is not just about the stopping; it is about instinctively knowing
who is Lord of All and showing you acknowledge this authority with
9 “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39b

341
your actions. He cares that you would rather obey Him, because it
says to Him that you still have a relationship. You are home. You are
not off having an affair with food. Why do people make it sound like
it is so hard to do? It is hard if you have not made a choice and you
are secretly holding onto a relationship with food.
There comes a time when you just make the decision and you
do what is right. If you are praying, “O God, can You do better than
rocky road ice cream? O God, can You do better than the food in
the refrigerator/pantry? Can You do better than these relationships
I have had?”—He is so humble and longsuffering that He will allow
you back after trying the world. And He comes in and fills your heart
better than any food, drink, drug, or lust could do. You start seeing
that He is the Ultra-Giver of All. He is beyond personal, caring, and
comforting. Invisible, yet present. He is beyond a personal coach or
professor—so genius and brilliant! He is worthy, and so worthy that
He would even take the time, as busy as He is. There is a relationship
with God and an adoration of Jesus Christ, His Son, and it is real, and
it is far better being in tune with the Creator who has more capital,
more power, and better perks than anything else that is going to de-
stroy you and rob you of a relationship. Anything taking that relation-
ship away from you or discouraging you from a relationship, please
get far away from it! It is not your friend. It is a lie, and it is not the
truth! You, too, can have this relationship.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and
everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know
that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his com-
mands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands
are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This
is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that
overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
I John 5:1-5
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A WHOLE NEW LIFE
Walk In The Light

John 3:19-21 says:
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness
instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates
the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be
exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may
be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
It is so strategic that you stay in the truth and walk in the light so
that you can see what is really in your heart. Jesus is the light, which
means he is the plumb line or the raised bar that we aim to reach,
the standard that we compare ourselves with for quality control. You
have to keep the light of Christ all around you at all times to make
sure that all actions, thoughts, and words are lined up with the supe-
rior actions of Jesus Christ.
Focus not on your will each day but rather on the superior will or
mindset of Christ. His preferable response to the will of God is what
surpassed those who disobeyed God’s will.
The main thing to know about Christ is this…he loved the Father
and he did exactly what the Father told him to do. This adoration is
the main characteristic to ponder and imitate. The mighty warrior
King David adored God and publicly danced in the streets, singing
to Him.[10] It says three times that Noah did exactly what God com-
manded.[11] Love of God is everything. In John 14:31, Jesus says,
“but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly
what my Father has commanded me.”
The main warning…Americans believe that they deserve more
than any other group of people. America is overweight because each
person believes that they deserve to reward themselves after 5 o’clock.
10 Psalm 119, II Samuel 6:14

11 Genesis 6:9,22; Genesis 7:5
343
We do not deserve to indulge ourselves after work. It is God’s day,
God’s body, God’s time, and He has plans for you—and it may not be
for you to be a couch potato each evening. It is time to give God back
the second half of His day.
Notice that the animals, just like the Angels, just do the will of
God. Mankind as a whole stops to consider their own will far too
much. However, Christ perfectly responded…“not my will but
yours be done”—which is the exalted foundation of the New Cov-
enant and True Religion. “Not my will but thine be done” should
be every word spoken, every word of every song sung, every thought
you have left on Earth…then you will truly be like Christ. We are
to be like Christ—commanded to be Christ-like—which is consis-
tently, faultlessly, faithfully married to God. Another way to say this
is that the spouse who stays faithful is superior to the spouse who
Christ is in the image of the Father, and

for all mankind to return to the Father
we must be like this Christ—free of sin
or our own will. The emphasis must be on
the superiority of his actions and heart
in relation to God.
commits adultery. If people in their 20s can choose a human spouse
and remain faithful for life, mankind can choose to commit to their
Creator and stay faithful evermore. Jesus asked us all to pray that the
will of God be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.[12]
Christ is in the image of the Father, and for all mankind to return
to the Father we must be like this Christ—free of sin or our own will.
The emphasis must be on the superiority of his actions and heart in
12 “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’” Matthew
6:9-10
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A WHOLE NEW LIFE
relation to God. We are imitators at heart—it is a part of our ge-

netic makeup—thus why we should watch the company we keep, the
company our children keep, our children’s children.
To focus on Christ for the purpose of imitation is but a joy…his
whole life was admirable…one unbroken continuum of selflessness
to the service and glory of God for the glory of love and for the eternal
welfare of his brothers and sisters—to all mankind. Now Jesus had
no beauty so as to attract mankind, no formal education to impress
mankind, no artistic gifts to draw attention… He neither offered nor
promised wealth to his followers; indeed, he only offered self-denial
and possible martyrdom to his followers… So what was attractive
about Jesus Christ? He offered the secret of a relationship with God
and spoke with authority about such a relationship because he had
the most experience—he was the firstborn over all creation.[13]
When the beam of white light of Christ passes through the prism,
the optical window, it disperses into a spectrum of light waves, bro-
ken down into a collection of virtues and graces, kindness and love
that would outshine any rainbow in the sky. What is the light made
of? It is the spotless purity, sinlessness, and innocence of this Sac-
rificial Lamb—the Lamb who, when the lots were cast, was chosen
by God Himself and set aside, dedicated as the “Lord’s Lamb.” This
purity toward God first has been acknowledged and undisputed by
friend and foe and every religion and devout person in every genera-
tion as the most influential and greatest man who has ever walked
the Earth. The only possible competition or comparisons would be
those Saints and Sages and Martyrs who have walked in his footsteps.
Yet, no one who has walked the Earth can compete. Why? All su-
perlatives belong to Christ, because no one has made the sacrifice
that he did… Jesus, the highest next to God (seated on the right-
hand side of God), became the lowest. He was the closest to God
in power, wisdom, and age—the firstborn over all creation—yet He
13 Colossians 1:15
345
bowed lower than any man has bowed. He had the right to power,
yet chose the lowest position of man and the humblest of all deaths.
Who is this Christ? Moses gave up a lot, going from being a pharaoh
to being a nomad—but Christ gave up much, much more. Think
of the range of superlatives…royalty and yet a servant, authoritative
and yet submissive, powerful and yet weak, a King and yet obedi-
ent, strong and yet empathetic, he was complex and yet lived simply.
Christ was Lord and deserved reverence, yet he daily displayed more
holy fear toward God than any being ever created. It is, in a word, the
absolute profound perfection in character; above all in surrendering
his agenda and in connecting to the will of the Father—completely
in tune with God’s Spirit, which positions him above all. Beyond a
doubt…Christ loved God. Philippians 2:5-11 says:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very
nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made
in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore
God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We are asked to imitate Christ, and we can do this because we are
much lower and have less to give up. We are to walk in his footsteps,
and it is nothing but a joy to be given this as a purpose and directive
for our lives. God is truly trying to build a Holy Priesthood of believ-
ers.[14]
14 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of
darkness into his wonderful light.” I Peter 2:9
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A WHOLE NEW LIFE
“But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to my-
self.” John 12:32 Though Christ had nothing to offer man but a rela-
tionship with God, he was a magnet—those who follow in his foot-
steps will have the same draw.
This is your personal responsibility; however, the Scriptures
teach us that it is easier when you do not neglect the fellowship of
believers, because they will uphold you, carry your burdens, and en-
courage you in many ways. The gifts of the Saints are essential for
the health of the entire Body. Likewise, you are more fulfilled as you
use your gifts. Fellowship like we have at the Remnant Fellowship
Churches provides such light, and I know I could not do without it.
These are trying times, for there is a great judgment ahead.

In II Timothy 3:1-5 it says:
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be
lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient
to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slander-
ous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash,
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of
godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
Yes, have nothing to do with them—bad company does corrupt
good morals. However, I have good news…good company creates
good character. Here at the Remnant, God led me to encourage par-
ents to raise children in a different way than the previous and present
generations who have been spoiled rotten with entitlements. How?
By, first of all, teaching the parents to live a life of self-denial follow-
ing Christ, and then sacrificially raising the children so that every need
would be met as an infant—basically, selfless parenting. This was
something that I had tried…knowing the infant so well that you would
meet their needs before they could even whimper. My belief was that it
would build an incredible trust and relationship with the child.
347
Then, as they get older, just spending hours teaching them how to
get answered prayers and showing them the rewards for obeying au-
thorities, parents, teachers, etc. so that they will have their own person-
al relationship with God and a wonderful relationship with mankind.
Next…teaching appreciation of what you have—eyes, ears, legs,
and to be content with what God was giving them, not manipulating
to get more—more was not better.
Finally, teaching how much joy comes from being a servant. The
results were phenomenal, so I shared this concept with the other par-
ents and now we have a youth group that has grown up selfless but
at the top of their class, not grabbing but winning the scholarships,
humble servants but in demand from employers and moving quickly
into management positions.[15] By just putting all of Christ’s words
Focus not on your will each day but

rather on the superior will or mindset
of Christ. His preferable response to the
will of God is what surpassed those who
disobeyed God’s will.
into practice, the blessings abound. There is hope for you, for your
family, for the true Church, for the community and for the country
through Jesus Christ as the sole answer.
In I John 1:7 it says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, puri-
fies us from all sin.” This is the type of transparent light and fellowship
that builds you up day by day. A foot cannot say to a hand, “I have
no need of you.”[16] We need each other to make this journey to the
15 For more on this topic, read History of the One True God Volume III: God-
Fearing Families. See the Appendix for information about how to get your copy.
16 I Corinthians 12:21
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A WHOLE NEW LIFE
Promised Land. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so man
sharpens man.”
This serious calling is asking for solid choices of conclusive deci-
sions, permanent turning away from the evil life, decisive new behav-
iors to be just like Christ—undeviating, daily, perpetual persever-
ance! God has called us out to change. We are “The Changers.” Let
nothing deceive you or deter this essential CHANGE.
You have made a decision to have a whole new life, a connection
and surrendered relationship with God, and you will need constant
reinforcement. Besides having a full-time office that is manned
with loving counselors, Weigh Down and the Remnant Fellowship
Churches have provided many resources to help with this transfer.
Please see the Appendix for a list of all the ways you can find more
information to help you on your journey. Remember that it is the
truth that will set you free, transform your mind, and change your
heart. Make sure you use the Weigh Down websites, class materials,
YouTube channel, and Facebook group. You can see that you have
much support and that you are not in this alone. Do not neglect the
responsibility you have to pass this truth on to those you love. This
next generation needs this truth and the powerful connection to THE
ONE TRUE GOD to live and live an abundant life! Let us all keep
doing this together for the glory and the rule of The One True God!
In Conclusion
In a world of uncertainty, there is a message from Christ of cer-
tainty. We do have control over our lives and the outcome. This grace
gives us all so much happiness!
The resolve of this book has been to convey how God is trying to
get through to mankind and how much man needs God to live fully
now and to live forever—but not to force this upon people with per-
suasive words, rather to motivate your own personal experience. “You
fall in love with what you focus on” was the foundational teaching of
Weigh Down that went out around the world in the 1980s to 1990s.
349
I will clarify this statement with…you imitate what you admire. The
main point to a relationship is that we are made in His image and we
need to show love and respect for God’s character by imitation—you
emulate what you respect. In other words, you verify what is in your
heart by your focus and imitation.
This is a journey of choices to a whole new life, and on this path,
there may be obstacles to overcome, but in the end all that matters is
this one thing: to be born again…to have a transformed mind, to be a
new creation so as to return to the Creator from which we came. Again,
it is all about showing respect, love and love for God and being able to
draw near to Him by imitating Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. This is
not the end but the beginning of a whole new life. Join this incredible
group that is exiting out of Egypt, and you will find for yourself that
God is amazing! He loves you and you can do it too!
TRUTH TIP
Your changed life shows the whole Universe that you love God
more than anything, and it points to Who the Authority is in this
Universe. This is essential and fundamental, and it is the key to a
guilt-free life.
WEIGHDOWN WORKS!
350
TESTIMONY
Michelle McDonald, down 30 pounds since 1996.
I took my first Weigh Down class in January 1996, lost 30 pounds, and
began working for the Weigh Down Workshop a few months later. I have
worked closely with Gwen Shamblin Lara for over 20 years now and can
honestly say that my life has changed for the better in every aspect! From
the 1990s until today, this foundational teaching has not changed. Every
lesson in Weigh Down is Bible-based and backed up with Truth through
Scripture. Through learning to approach food the way God intended, I
have not only lost 30 pounds, but kept my weight off through two preg-
nancies, was healed of hypoglycemia that necessitated a diabetic diet, and
was healed of an ulcer that required daily medication. I enjoy God’s full
variety of foods and have not shopped a diet food aisle in decades! In ad-
dition, through the teaching of putting God first in every aspect of life (not
just eating), my husband and I are about to celebrate our 25th Anniversary,
happier and closer than ever before! We have raised two Godly, healthy
young men who are focused only on God’s will for their day instead of
focused on food, alcohol, drugs, social media, entertainment, or any of the
other worldly lures that call young adults today. All four of us have learned
to appreciate each and every day as a gift, and we have learned to respect
our authorities and treat everyone around us with Godly patience and
kindness. I know my life would be completely upside down at this point if
I had not found Weigh Down Basics and incorporated these lessons fully.
Once you take that first step toward letting go of the worldly idols in your
life, the peace, blessings, and guidance that God gives will FAR outweigh
the extra food or any of the created things that the world can offer!
The McDonald Family

TESTIMONY
Vickie Veeder, down 167 pounds since 2007.
For as long as I can remember, I have always struggled with food and as a
result, my weight. As a teenager, I remember always being on a diet and try-
ing to hide what I ate in secret, only to eat small amounts of “healthy” food
in front of my parents, siblings and friends. I went through a very difficult
season of life and turned passionately to food for comfort. When I finally got
on the scale, I weighed 283 pounds.
Then one night I saw Gwen on the Larry King Live TV Show. I called
the office and ordered the original Weigh Down Diet book. I took an online
class and learned how to get greed out of my heart and how to eat food again
in normal quantities!
With the help of Weigh Down Basics, I realized that by loving God
wholeheartedly and worshiping Him more than anything on this created
Earth, my love of food could be overcome. I learned about the basics of hunger
and fullness and looking to God to fill me up instead of the food. I have now
lost 167 pounds. My doctor took me off diuretics and other prescriptions I had
taken for over 20 years. My cholesterol went down over 60 points and I was
able to walk, skip and dance for the first time since high school…and without
pain! I am at my lowest weight ever, all while eat-
ing small amounts of delicious food just like I did
when I was a child!
353
APPENDIX
Additional Resources
All available at www.WeighDown.com
Weigh Down is the non-profit publishing house for and is sponsored by
Remnant Fellowship Churches. It has been producing resources for over 30
years which have proven to help participants overcome overeating, alcohol-
ism, gambling, drugs, sexual sins, materialism, and other strongholds, fully
supporting all people seeking to glorify God and promote His Kingdom. If
you need help or know someone who needs help, please refer to this list of
resources.
Classes
Weigh Down Basics
Your next step! This class is for every person wanting to start their successful
weight loss journey! This 6-week online class emphasizes the foundational
principles of Weigh Down and provides practical steps and class support!
Exodus Out Of Egypt: The Change Series
An 8-week online weight loss class. It continues the foundational principles
of the Weigh Down Basics class.
Revolution
A 10-week online weight loss class. A must for everyone who wants addi-
tional support in laying down dieting and weight loss gimmicks.
Exodus From Strongholds
A 12-week online addiction class. Break free from any stronghold in your
life (overdrinking, anger, drugs, praise of man, shopping, control, smoking,
etc.)—permanently.
Breakthrough
An 8-week online advanced weight loss class for those who have already been
through our other classes but have plateaued in their weight.
The Last Exodus
A fun 8-week online weight loss class for youth and young adults.
Feeding Children Physically & Spiritually
A practical guide for children, parents, and parents-to-be for healthy
childhood development.
APPENDIX
Greed Exposure
This 9-week online class will help you control overspending, manage your
budget and eliminate your debt.
The Legend To The Treasure
An advanced 16-week online class—based on nautical symbolism that helps
the participant steer his ship in the right direction toward a deeper relation-
ship with God.
History Of The One True God
This powerful 6-Week online class will show God’s great love for all Creation
and why He deserves our complete devotion.
Inspiration
Weigh Down All Access
Become a member! Unlimited streaming to all Weigh Down classes and class
materials. Additional library of videos and audios on all subject matters includ-
ing marriage, parenting, depression and more. Sign up today.
Weigh Down TV: You Can Overcome Show
Hosted LIVE by Gwen Shamblin Lara every Wednesday at 6 p.m. Central
Time at www.WeighDown.com/Weigh-Down-tv.
Gwen’s Daily Devotional
Sign up to receive daily inspiration. www.gwenshamblin.com/daily-devotional
Weigh Down Facebook Group
Share, testify, connect, chat with Weigh Down staff, and join online class
chats all on this glorious Weigh Down Facebook Private Group. Reach out
today to become a member.
Weigh Down Radio
A free 24/7 online encouragement resource full of testimonies, music and
instruction to help you lose your weight.
Weigh Down on Tour
Check our online calendar to see if Gwen is coming to a city near you.
Weigh Down App
Download today!
Emails from Weigh Down
Sign up today for Weigh Down’s emails at www.WeighDown.com.
355
Connect
Weigh Down Outreach Representatives
In addition to taking your class orders, the staff is there to encourage, instruct
and pray with you. Call 800-844-5208 anytime the office is open.
Regional Representatives
Connect with someone locally who has lost their weight and wants to en-
courage you. www.weighdown.com/weigh-down-regional-representatives/
Accountability Partners
Request extra help and accountability while you are in a class.
Class Coordinator
Get extra support when you join one of our online class chats.
Gwen Shamblin Lara Library

For a Complete List go to www.GwenShamblinBooks.com
The Weigh Down Diet
Original book written in 1992. Practical advice to help you on the path from
physical hunger to spiritual fulfillment.
Rise Above
Read this next! A follow-up book to The Weigh Down Diet and Weigh Down
Works available in eBook and Audio Book.
The Legend To The Treasure
More than weight loss. This book contains powerful spiritual lessons on how
to lay down the last bit of self and praise of man, coupled with practical, true
statistics of what life is like without God. Available in eBook.
History Of The One True God Volume 1:
The Origin of Good and Evil
A beautiful and clear account of Genesis Chapters One through Eight and
how these events affect us in our weight loss and walk with God. Available in
eBook and Audio Book.
History of the Love of God Volume II:
A Love More Ancient Than Time
Change your perspective on how you parent, who you are in the workplace,
how you approach food and how you treat your spouse and loved ones. Avail-
able in hardback and eBook.
356
APPENDIX
History of the One True God Volume III:

God-Fearing Families
This book will give you the practical steps you need to make the dream of a
loving, united, God-centered family a reality for you and your loved ones.
Websites and More!

WeighDown.com
Join a class, connect with your regional representative, sign up for an event,
check the class schedule, watch class orientation videos and more.
GwenShamblin.com
The official site of Gwen Shamblin Lara. Book an appearance, watch media
clips, and visit her daily devotional page.
GwenShamblinBooks.com
A complete library of Gwen’s books. Sign up to receive weekly book excerpts.
RemnantFellowship.org
Visit the official site of Remnant Fellowship Churches.
Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
Find and follow “GwenShamblin” and “WeighDown.”
YouTube
Watch inspiring videos on the GwenShamblin and WeighDownWorkshop
YouTube Channels.
Music
For music that is guaranteed to turn your focus Heavenward, go to the
Weigh Down store or Michael Shamblin’s YouTube channel or website,
MichaelShamblin.com.
For more information, please call us toll free at 1-800-844-5208 or visit our
website at www.weighdown.com.
357
A Note From Gwen
You are not a failure! You have been applying the wrong remedies to weight loss.
I have had the opportunity to work personally with thousands of people who have
applied these principles. It is instant and permanent
weight loss and the Truth fills you up. God needs to
be involved; we all need God when it comes to chang-
ing our behavior. We were made to master this (Gen-
esis 4:7). Through the classes and the best-selling book,
The Weigh Down Diet, this program has reached millions
and the statistics are unprecedented. These results are
not to be found at any medical clinic or weight loss facil-
ity in the world. Any program can possibly produce a few
testimonies of people who
happened to lose weight,
but no other program has produced hundreds of testi-
monies who have kept large amounts of weight off for
three, five, or even over ten years! Yes, something is very
different here, and it should give you much hope! The
testimonies you meet on our websites or in our materi-
als are everyday people just like yourself; they had tried
everything possible to lose weight…only to gain back
even more. But they tried one more program: Weigh
Down. And they have now learned the secret of how to
turn to God for help on His terms. It truly makes all the
difference!
About Gwen
Gwen Shamblin Lara was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, with a
strong faith and foundational values. She grew up with a medical background, mak-
ing rounds with her father, Walter Henley, M.D., who was a General Surgeon. She
received her undergraduate degree in Dietetics and Masters Degree in Nutrition with
an emphasis in Biochemistry from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Gwen
was an Instructor of Foods and Nutrition at the University of Memphis for five years,
and she worked with the city’s Health Department for an additional five years, helping
specifically in the areas of overweight, obesity, pregnancy, and child health.
A very spiritual person with a strong faith in God, Gwen felt led to found
The Weigh Down Workshop in 1986 in order to teach these principles to those
358
APPENDIX
who were desperately seeking to lose weight per-

manently. Initially offered through audiotapes
and small classes taught by Gwen in a retail set-
ting, this teaching began yielding unprecedented
results. Participants were not only losing their
weight while eating regular foods, but they were
using the same Bible-based principles to turn
away from other strongholds such as smoking or
alcohol abuse.
By 1992, the program was packaged for semi- Michael and Elle with Gabriele,
Gates, and Garland Shamblin
nar use, churches began to sign up, and the media
began to pay attention. The growth was explosive.
By the late 1990s, Weigh Down was internationally known in most Protestant,
Catholic, and Evangelical churches around the world. Gwen Shamblin Lara and
The Weigh Down Workshop
were featured on such shows
as 20/20, Larry King Live,
and The View, as well as in
such magazines as Good
Housekeeping and Woman’s
Day. In 1997, The Weigh
Down Diet was published by
Doubleday, Inc. The book
quickly sold over one mil-
lion copies as people discov-
Charles Grantham, Gweneth, Garland, Gates, Gracie,

Gabriele & Gloria
ered the secrets to losing weight quickly and perma-

nently while finding a new relationship with God.
Gwen is married to Joe Lara, and she has two
grown children who have children of their own; they
are surrounded by little ones! Joe has a daughter,
Liana. Gwen’s son, Michael, is married to Erin (Elle),
and they have three daughters…Gabriele, Garland,
and Gates. Gwen’s daughter, Elizabeth, is married
to Brandon Hannah, and they have four children…
Gracie, Gweneth, Gloria, and Charles Grantham. Back Row: Brandon, Elizabeth,
The children and their spouses have always been sup- Gracie. Front Row: Gweneth,
portive and work alongside her in the Church and Gloria & Charles Grantham
their contributions are invaluable.
359
Gwen having fun with her grandchildren at Desert Oasis 2018.
Gwen at a wedding at Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood, Tennessee,

360 with some of her grandchildren.
APPENDIX
Gwen with her daughter, Elizabeth. Gwen with husband, Joe Lara.
They have worked closely together for
many years.
Gwen enjoying the beach with her grandchildren. 361

Gwen pictured with some of her family.
Gwen hosting the You Can Overcome Show, Season 12, Episode 10, “Overcoming Head Hunger,”
filmed November 8, 2017.
362
APPENDIX
Gwen speaking to children in the Zion Youth Running for the Crown series.
Gwen speaking to prisoners about breaking free from strongholds. Several prisons across the country
utilize Gwen’s Weigh Down classes.
363
Read Before Starting:
General Medical Information
You may have joined this program because the stronghold of food (or other
dependencies) is having a physical impact on your body, as well as your spirit.
If this is the case, we recommend that you consult your physician for a medical
examination before you begin. Also, if you have any pre-existing health condi-
tions such as: food allergies, diverticulitis, cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, bowel
resections, chronic ulcers, kidney disease, chronic constipation, etc., please con-
tinue to be under your physician’s care and guidelines for food and medication.
For example, if you have chronic constipation, you must keep eating fiber. If you
have ulcers, take your medication and do not eat the foods that upset your stom-
ach. Reducing your intake of excessive amounts of food will be a positive change,
but the body that has become accustomed to excess food may experience some
unfamiliar feelings during this transition. God has made our bodies to be sensi-
tive to what and how much of anything we need, but this internal system must
be resurrected! Be patient and trust God ultimately to satisfy you far better than
anything the world can offer.
Some physical conditions may be alleviated when you lose weight and start
eating regular foods in smaller amounts. For example, if you have high cholesterol
or triglyceride levels, losing weight permanently could possibly alleviate the prob-
lem. Spastic colon and ulcers may improve as you eat the volume of food that your
body calls for. Joint and muscle problems are improved in some cases. People
on cortisone and/or those who have lupus will still lose weight, but the weight
loss may be slower. Diabetics going through this program will reduce their food
intake, bringing the insulin/food ratio closer. As a result, many have been able to
reduce or even eliminate their medications. It is very important to understand,
however, that the process of regulating insulin must be done under a physician’s
supervision. Also, medications that should be taken with food usually require
only small amounts—e.g., one to three crackers. Please consult your physician in
regard to any of these conditions.
Weigh Down has helped many anorexics and many more bulimics to let go
of control and become at peace with their bodies. They have lost their focus on
food and their obsession for thinness, trading this in for a focus on and devotion
to God. While individuals with anorexia or bulimia can certainly benefit from this
program, they should remain under the care of their physicians.
If God causes your heart to question, we suggest that you take your concerns
to your physicians and counselors to prayerfully determine how to best treat your
personal situation.
GENERAL MEDICAL INFORMATION
A Special Note On Medications

This series was written to address the heart’s enslavement and dependence
upon food as a comfort and as a delight. However, once one examines one’s own
heart, other dependencies surface. Early Christians were warned about using
alcohol to get drunk and were advised, in contrast, to “be filled with the Spirit”
(Ephesians 5:18). These early Christians did not have access to antidepressants
as we know them today. Mainstream religious institutions have adopted an alarm-
ing stance on the liberal use of medications for the pain of an undirected heart.
Instead of warning individuals to stop loving something on this Earth, they have
embraced medications to numb all the symptoms of sin—to a fault.
I am making a plea for God’s people to re-examine the liberal use of medica-
tions. Even the government is now monitoring the distribution of popular anti-
depressants because of their unprecedented use in the last few years. This is a
stronghold satan dreads for us to attack even worse than the food, because a lack
of joy in God’s people helps to keep the spread of Christianity in check. Satan
would hate for us to realize that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Satan would
much rather we chase an earthly cure.
Weigh Down is by no means suggesting that everyone throw out their med-
ications today—that is not the point. However, this is a prayerful challenge to
people of God who have thrown God out and embraced a pill. This book is asking
people to re-examine their worship, their dependency, and their position upon
the liberal use of antidepressants and medications, just as we have asked people
to re-examine their worship, their dependency, and their position upon the liberal
use of food.
Some people may be reluctant to examine the present position on the use of
medications which currently exists in this country. But it is our duty as Christians
to question anything that does not teach people to repent from investing their
lives in idols on this Earth and instead turn toward God as their first and major
treatment. As Christians, we should put loving God with all our heart, soul, mind,
and strength first on our list instead of second, third, or last.
So, again, I plead: let us re-examine our stance on the dependency upon the
medicine cabinet. We need so desperately to examine our attitudes and lack of
trust in God and our overconfident trust in medications. Weigh Down has seen
thousands who have done just that, many of whom have completely come off
medications step-by-step.
Again, if God causes your heart to question, we suggest that you take your
concerns prayerfully to your physicians and counselors to establish appropriate
treatment for your personal situation.
365
Giving Back!
You are losing weight, ex-
periencing healing, and find-
ing the answers that you have
looked for all your life, and we
know you want to give back.
The blessings are overwhelm-
ing, and you want everyone
you meet to feel this same free-
dom and connection!
We would love your sup-
port in sharing this message
with others. You can be a part
of changing the world and making a difference. All donations help get this
message of hope and Truth out to those who are hurting and suffering.
Whether you add a few additional dollars on top of your purchase or make
a larger donation, all of the proceeds are used to teach people how to have
a relationship with God and to love Him with all of their heart, soul, mind
and strength.
The sale of this literature is not for a profit. This non-profit ministry is
supported by readers like you, class participants, and Remnant Fellowship
Church members around the world. The money is used for the print and
duplication of materials, and any additional money is returned to God’s
Ministry to reprint, reproduce, or produce other life-changing materials.
These revelations and the Word of God are not for sale. They are freely
given to those who cannot afford to pay for the reprinting of these words
and videos and audios that are used solely for the furthering of the King-
dom of the One and Only God of the Universe. Every year, thousands of
hurting people are given this material through online seminars, books,
encouragement, mentorship, and other audio/video products absolutely
free. In addition to this, all of the products are priced well under market
value. May they be used to make His True Nature known so that all will
lovingly bow down to Him, and with great adoration, and praise Him for-
ever and ever.
Gwen and The Weigh Down Staff
366
APPENDIX
Weigh Down Weight Record

g
Week nnin
g i
Be 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
+4 +4
+2 +2
0 0
-2 -2
-4 -4
-6 -6
-8 -8
-10 -10
-12 -12
-14 -14
-16 -16
-18 -18
-20 -20
-22 -22
-24 -24
-26 -26
-28 -28
-30 -30
-32 -32
-34 -34
-36 -36
-38 -38
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Be
gin
Body
nin
Weight
g
367
Weigh Down Food Schedule Chart
To help you learn where your focus is, try writing down your eating
schedule—your fast food drive-thru’s, your movie and snack hours, your middle-
of-the-night runs, and your personal food schedule—write it all down. Try to
think about even the small things—how many pieces of candy or mints or bites
of chips from that little snack drawer and that little hideaway did you have? How
many cups of coffee with cream or sugar? People are so used to mindless eating
that they really do not remember what they ate. Next, enter the amount of time
you spent preparing for and eating the food. Put a checkmark in the Hunger and
Fullness columns if you waited for hunger and then stopped when you were full.
If you did not wait for hunger or stop when full, place an “X” in the appropriate
column. Note: When you start eating when you are not hungry, you will not be
able to feel the full sensation either. So you will have to put an “X” on both Hunger
and Fullness. The goal is to eventually have no “X’s” on Hunger and Fullness and
to continue to try to decrease the “Total Time” of the “Thinking About Food” and
the “Eating Food” columns. For more copies of this chart, see Weigh Down Basics.
Food Schedule
Food Schedule Chart
Date:Sample
:
Time Spent
k
ac
s?
r?
Sn
Thinking & Time Spent What You

es
ge
l/
lln
un
ea
Preparing: Eating: Ate/Drank:

Fu
H
M
bagel, jelly,
5 mins.
Breakfast/
15 mins.
Morning: large juice
half sandwich,
15 mins. 1 ½ hrs.
Lunch: 10 french fries
X X
two small
Afternoon: 10 mins. 15 mins.
Reese’s cups
meat & three on small
1 hr. 1 hr.
plate, roll
Dinner:
Night
Tempted but passed the test! Praise God!
Eating:
1 ½ hrs. 3 hrs. = 4 ½ hrs. Total time on food
368
APPENDIX
Food Schedule Date:
Weigh Down Food Schedule Date:_____
: k
Time Spent
ac
s?
r?
Sn
Thinking & Time Spent What You
es
ge
l/
lln
un
ea
Fu
H
M
Breakfast/
Morning:
Lunch:
Afternoon:
Dinner:
Night
Eating:
= Total time on food
Food Schedule Date:

Weigh Down Food Schedule Date:_____
:
Time Spent
k
ac
s?
r?
Sn
Thinking & Time Spent What You es

ge
l/
lln
un
ea

Fu
H
M
Breakfast/
Morning:
Lunch:
Afternoon:
Dinner:
Night
Eating:
= Total time on food

369
Weigh Down Prayer Chart
We are ending our relationship with the food, and we are gaining a relation-
ship with God. You cannot have a relationship with God without talking to Him.
Jesus taught us how to pray:
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be
heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what
you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive men
when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not
forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:7-15
We were taught to pray in the Name of Jesus because he has been given all
power. Every day and many times per day I pray…“In the Name of Jesus Christ.”
It is the most powerful thing in the world. The Bible teaches us that God hears
the prayers of the righteous. For more copies of this chart, see Weigh Down Basics.
Prayer Chart Sample

Did you pray... M T W T F S S
When you woke up this morning?
For God’s help in waiting for true stomach hunger?
For God’s help with food tests/ways of escape?
Once you got stomach hunger, for God to help you

with what to eat, to slow down and stop when satisfied?
When any stressful situation came up today?
With your family or friends today?
For others and for God’s Kingdom to come?
Before bed for your sins to be forgiven?
370
Are you starting to change (Yes or No)...
Did you spend time in the Word, audios, Truthstream,
APPENDIX
Weigh Down Prayer Chart
Did you pray... M T W T F S S
When you woke up this morning?
For God’s help in waiting for true stomach hunger?
For God’s help with food tests/ways of escape?
Once you got stomach hunger, for God to help you

with what to eat, to slow down and stop when satisfied?
When any stressful situation came up today?
With your family or friends today?
For others and for God’s Kingdom to come?
Before bed for your sins to be forgiven?
Are you starting to change (Yes or No)...

Did you spend time in the Word, audios, All Access,
workbook learning about God and looking for His lead?
Did you find yourself praising God in your heart today?
Are you starting to be drawn to God like you were

to the food?
Are you starting to lose interest in overeating/bingeing?
Look at the chart above; are you starting to pray and

depend on God more?
371
Rewards/Answered Prayers/Jewels Page
Wait For The Reward And Then Record
A jewel is a reward God has given you for being obedient. Prayerfully consider
jewels you have received since you began this journey. List them in the space pro-
vided below. You will want to reflect on your jewels frequently and add to this list
during the coming weeks. These symbols of God-given victories will be a constant
source of encouragement for you. For more copies of this chart, see Weigh Down
Basics.
Example:
I have more energy than I have had before.
_____________________________________________
I am able to wear a smaller jeans size than I was able to before.
_____________________________________________
How has God blessed or rewarded you for your obedience?

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
372
APPENDIX
Weigh Down Ways Of Escape Page

Scripture assures us that God will help us when we are tempted. Many of you
have discovered that, when you begin to eat when you are not truly hungry, some-
thing will happen to get in your way. Your food might fall off your plate and onto
the floor or the whole shaker of salt dumps onto your plate, ruining your food.
You might be shopping, looking for something to cheer you up, and you come
across a blouse that you just love and feel like you have to have. However, the one
blouse that is in your size has a huge stain on it from someone else trying it on!
These are God’s ways of getting your attention—letting you know that He can do
better for you than you can do for yourself. Pay attention to these signs! For more
information, see Weigh Down Basics.
Example:
I was going to eat some popcorn to satisfy my head hunger. When I opened
_____________________________________________
the bag, the sack ripped open and all the popcorn fell to the floor.
_____________________________________________
How has God provided you ways of escape from temptation?

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
373

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A spiritual awakening to losing

Welcome, Weigh Downers! Let’s Get Started!

The Weigh Down name and logo are registered trademarks.

Printed in the United States of America

Hi, I’m Gwen Shamblin Lara!

Gwen with long-time Weigh Down Staff Member Jennifer Martin,

What does God have to do with this anyway?

The problem and the solution

We have been trying to feed our

Religion is simply what we adore

is chewing just because the food calls your name—

What we are really asking is…“Am I a failure, or has God forgot-

should be a servant to our Creator…to His righteousness. Being

Do not let your mind wander to food at

including something as seemingly harmless as water. More is not bet-

If you lose the passion for food, the

I know you are weary, tired, and hurting. It is

7 See Chapter 9 for more on exercise and weight loss

New Daily Routine

I was now ranging from ten to twenty pounds over my pre-col-

and exercise were never a part of the conversation. We had delight-

God is the Creator, the Chef behind all

respiration of a living organism by measuring its rate of exchange

God is near and He is interactive, lavish,

Gwen Shamblin Lara featured on CNN’s Larry King Live show.

of man.[1] He is, in fact, the opposite of austere and distant…God is

• This class, which comes with 6

P­lus, save $20 off your class

Gwen Shamblin Lara

1 “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to

How To Wake Up Internal Senses

Turn to God each time you are anxious

2 See Weigh Down Basics Workbook Week One, page 36

Put an end to dieting by making sure you

3 See Weigh Down Basics Week One

There are people who have real

can throw it away or give it to the pets! If you are eating in a

Pain Of The Esophagus

The liver is a chemical factory that is capable of turning these mol-

Slow down and search for this

Overeating is the source of most

1 See Chapter 8 for more about “The Transfer”

You start to feel satiated, fulfilled, not so “hungry” anymore.

Eat Like A Thin Eater

1 PRAY to eat only when physically hungry,

1 International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders: Beneficial

Waiting for hunger is the healthiest

3 See Chapter 4 for more information on this process.

Juvenile-onset diabetics can also adopt the Weigh Down ap-

3. Man-made rules…“lack any value in restraining sensual

We were not put on Earth to find man

It is tempting to diet, for instinctively

It is tempting to diet because you instinctively know that SELF

7 “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:11b

The message of Christ is…to transfer

5 See page 221 on “the Great Delusion”

Cross-centered self-denial is mere

7 See Weigh Down Basics Workbook, page 36

You Fall In Love With What You Focus On

Plus, save $20 off your class