Side note: I wrote this testimony in 2006 just before the death of my mother.  As I re-read it today I realized the truths I had learned and looking back nearly ten years,  how much I would still learn.  Growth must be continual and on-going.  –Be Blessed, Dara Dietz

In August 2005 I realized I had never acknowledged my weight as a gift from the Father.  I had never thanked Him for it, for whatever blessing it had been or would be in my life.  This was significant.  I realized I had never thanked him because I felt the responsibility for my weight was all mine.  I believed my uncontrolled emotional eating was hindering the Father’s plan for my life.  How could I thank him for something I had done to myself, something completely out of his will?

I decided to follow my own advice to thank the Lord for everything in my life.  To surrender my over weight to him in a prayer of thanksgiving and praise.  As I sat there with my head bowed the words pouring from my heart the Father pulled the curtain aside to show me the huge gift my weight had been.  It was so instant so linked to my moment of surrender; I knew this was a direct result of my prayer.  He showed me how the weight had been a layer of protection keeping me safe from myself and the men who had preyed on me during my years of confusion and pain.  In that brief moment I realized I no longer needed these layers of protection.  I am no longer that confused girl looking for love in all the wrong places.  I am a strong, confident, secure woman of forty “something”.

By the first week of September I had decided it was time to deal with what will hopefully be one of the last serious health issues in my life.  Since the late 1990’s the health related conditions I had successfully treated with the use of Herbal Remedies had been kidney disease, gallbladder attacks, and uterine fibroids, among numerous smaller discomforts.    Since beginning work on my book in 2001 I had struggled through many of the emotional issues that had contributed to my weight problem.  Now the time had come to face myself.  I was impressed to check out the Weight Watchers program.  I looked them up on the net and found they held meeting right up the road from my house.  To make a long story much shorter I joined and have been using their points program since September.  At the writing of this article I have lost 80 lbs.  The true blessing is not so much in the weight loss as it is in learning how my body needs to be fed.  For the first time in my life I am learning how to eat for me.  I have discovered that I do best with a large glass of Superfood & Flax oil early in the day, a large meal around noon and a small snack of fresh veggies or fruit around dinnertime.

I have also found three herbal aids that have greatly reduced my cravings and increased my weight loss.  The first is Alfalfa grass powder.  This is so high in nutrition that my body will not have cravings because it is nutritionally satisfied.  Super Kelp Powder has been an excellent source of energy for me.  My thyroid has always been low functioning.  Kelp is the master herb for the thyroid.  It feeds and heals this very important Gland.  #1 Bowel Cleansing Formula.  Keeping the waste moving out is what weight loss is all about.  I learned a few years ago that Artichoke Extract would increase bile flow, which of course, will increase weight loss.

I have noticed an increased need for calcium since beginning my weight loss program.  Right away my fingernails grew weak and began breaking easily.  I have increased my Calcium and BF&C Formulas to 1 teaspoon, three times a day.  This seems to be a step in the right direction.   On the positive side my blood pressure is down, my energy level is up and I feel very happy in my life, (something I am learning to accept as a good thing.)  I am learning to accept all the good things the Father has placed in my life, allowing him to move them around as he sees fit.  I have learned not to hold onto anything too tightly but to allow him access to all parts of my life.  This leaves me free to do the work he puts in my hands to do each day as I leave the worries and cares of tomorrow in his capable hands.