If you fail to adhere to good dieting at breakfast, that's no excuse to go on a binge at lunch and dinner. Instead of letting discouragement rule you, COUNT YOUR CALERIES and cut back on your lunch and dinner caleries.

       Now, you're fighting back. You're doing damage control. "FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT OF THE FAITH" involves what you eat as well as what you say and do.

       If you are sluggish from overeating or weak from undereating, how can you expect maximum performance from your body? Your body is the vehicle God has given you to carry you through this life.

       You have to learn how to EXERCISE PROPERLY to keep your body tuned up.

       If you have a habit of looking for doctors to balance your health, perhaps it is improper dieting and lack of exercise. Overweight and underweight can cause numerous health problems.

       Doctors may not be inclined to point out how improper dieting is the source of your health problems if they can earn a down payment for their new Jaguar working on you. Many of them are serving two masters, you and the love of money. The Lord tells us: "NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS." You cannot serve God and food.

       Correct your weight problem and once your body has come back into its proper balance, you might discover to the greatness of your joy that the physical problems created by those deficiencies has gone away.

       Even good dieters have to eat at restuarants occasionally, so it is no sin for overweight folks to eat in restuarants. Here's the real problem. They're going to put too much food on your plate because they're in the business of selling food; so...its up to you to ORDER LESS TO EAT LESS. That's where styrofoam containers come in, but if you leave the restuarant with nothing in them; they are of no use to you.

       ORDER LESS TO EAT LESS, so long as you are not inclined to order more. If that doesn't work, order your food to go.

       ORDER CREATIVELY. Get your salad dressings on the side so you can dip into it rather than devour it all. Ask the waitress to provide you with small portions of salad dressing. Even in the minor details, ORDER LESS TO EAT LESS.

       FIND LOW CALERIE SUBSTITUTES: Horchata on ice is a tasty rice drink on the West Coast with very low caleries. It is a good substitute for high calerie milkshake cravings.

       READ THE LABELS. Everyone has a calerie level they need to function. FIND YOUR CALERIE LEVEL.

       Anything below 800 caleries a day will induce starvation, and no-one can function well while starving. If you are working hard, you will probably need at least 1500 caleries. If you are home bound or wheelchair bound, your calerie need is much less.

       If you are overweight, your calerie needs are higher, perhaps 2000 to 2500 depending on how much weight you are bearing up under and how much you are doing. Someone a hundred pounds overweight is like a person with no weight problem carrying an eighty pound backpack on their back all day. Can you imagine how strong you would be if you lost the excess weight you are carrying all day? Your heart would not have to work as hard.

       Here's the conclusion of the matter. We are all helpless. "GOD WORKS IN US TO WILL AND TO DO." No-one has bragging rights except God and he doesn't brag, so why should you?

       If you lost weight, what is there to brag about? You gluttonized it on, didn't you?

       The counsel of God in the Bible is: "LET ANOTHER PRAISE YOU." It's not spiritual to boast about losing weight. "PRIDE COMES BEFORE THE FALL," and you want to be a winner don't you?"

       Look inside yourself. Introspect. When you see or feel or know you do not have the will power to diet properly, ask the Lord for it.

       It's his to give, and yours to use while you nurture it. If you take the gift of willpower for granted with feasting, the Spirit of dieting will be quenched.

       America has its share of holidays for feasting. There's nothing wrong with a good feast done in the right spirit, but gluttony is always sin. Isn't it sad how Americans "pig out" on Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving? Those days were orginally intended to honor his birth, resurrection and all the good things he provides the earth.

       If you have a gluttony problem, AVOID SOCIALIZING OVER FOOD. Find something else to do on the holidays and those days when you are inclined to get together over food.

       Just as birds of a feather flock together, so do gluttons. "COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM AND BE SEPARATE," applies to overeating.

       Overweight people like to talk about food and brag about the weight they've supposedly lost; to make excuses to gluttonize all the more. There is a sort of self denial involved. A lying to one another. IF YOU ARE OVERWEIGHT, YOUR FELLOW GLUTTON IS NOT YOUR FRIEND unless the pounds are falling off. Let the scale be the judge. Put the numbers out. What's the big secret? A sure sign you do not intend to fast off excess pounds is your keeping the numbers to yourself. Tell your friends what you weigh. In this way, you're making yourself accountable to them when you feel the need to say you've lost weight. They will feel free to ask what you weigh now, so they can compare the numbers. It's all part of "CONFESS (YE) ONE TO ANOTHER." A Biblical principle of true spirituality.

       Bring out the scales when you have visitors. Invite them to watch you step on. Tell them your goal. "The next time you come here, I expect to be ten pounds lighter." When they come again, don't wait for them to ask you to bring the scales out. Bring them out. Hold yourself accountable. If you haven't lost a single pound, you have gained a mirror of your own weak will and lack of spirituality. In this way you succeed in humbling your pride and those who humble themselves shall be exalted. The Lord will see what you are doing, and will be more inclined to help you.

       Instead of bringing out the food when your visitors come, bring out fruit juice or lemon spiced tea and the good Book. Leave off the worldly Spirit quenching things and get involved in the spiritual things of preaching, praise and prayer.

       One of the Bible prayers for food consumption is: "LORD FEED ME WITH FOOD CONVENIENT FOR ME." You should pray that whether you have a weight problem or not.

       Jesus rebuked his disciple Peter saying, "GET BEHIND ME SATAN. YOU SAVOR THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD." When you are savoring good food in conversation with anyone, you are inviting Satan to tempt you to eat.

       If you're talking about a milkshake you savor, you've got to have the hamburger and fries to wash it down. If you don't have the will power to say no to the milkshake, you won't have the willpower to say no to what you like with it.

       Quit socializing over food. Stop socializing with people who talk about food. Quit entertaining your cravings.

       Dieting is a lifetime responsibility for everyone. "EVERY MAN IS TEMPTED, WHEN HE IS DRAWN AWAY OF HIS OWN LUST, AND ENTICED. THEN WHEN LUST HAS CONCEIVED, IT BRINGS FORTH SIN: AND SIN, WHEN IT IS FINISHED, BRINGS FORTH DEATH."

       If you over spend financially, you have to under spend to balance the books, don't you? That goes for the rich and the poor. The glutton overeats and is in need of under eating to bring the body back into balance.

       It is our spiritual responsibility to subdue our bodies in all things. We are to die to self. If we are not dying to self, we are willfully sinning; and "THE WAGES OF SIN ARE DEATH."

       May God help you pray for will power and not quench the spirit when it comes. Amen.

       If you were ministered to from this document, here is the list of dieting principles for you to print out if you wish to paste on the wall or carry with you: