Obesity and the Word of Wisdom
This one has been really pressed on Ashley and I’s mind as of the last couple of years. This is a principle that first started off not even as a commandment, in fact in the scriptures with the Lord speaking it was according to him “a suggestion and not by way of commandment” and now it’s something that is required to enter into the house of the Lord. Did something change? We have read other members blogs and ideas on the subject (some suggesting that with the putting of plural marriage on hold the church needed something else to set members apart and the word of wisdom became that thing) but our thoughts on the subject are actually quite different; we don’t think anything has changed doctrinally speaking, we think that members have changed. To explain this a bit further we will need to understand a couple other things first, such as:
What are commandments
What are the purposes of commandments and keeping them
How will you know if you (or anyone else) is actually obeying said commandments like you should be
When you understand these three things you should begin to understand why the doctrine around The Word of Wisdom hasn’t really changed and how so many Mormons are actually blatantly disobeying the commandment behind it while still claiming to be obedient to it.
First, what is a commandment? A commandment is a Divine prescription; like a doctor gives prescriptions to overcome sickness, pain, physical ailments God gives up prescriptions in the form of “commandments” to help us overcome misery, depression, and ailments of both spiritual and physical origins. God’s commandments are centered in universals truths; and we know that “the truth will set you free”, which brings us to the next point;
What are the purposes of commandments and keeping them? God’s commandments are grounded in universal truths; and by their very nature will set people free by obeying them. The purpose of life at its very core is rooted in agency and being able to choose, and to have the freedom to make those choices; keeping the commandments allows us to stay free while we make other daily and life choices as we grow- and ultimately complete what we were sent here to do, “Self Mastery”. Everything in this life (the commandments included) are geared towards us gaining mastery over our bodies and proving to God that we are in control of our bodies, and not the other way around. In the church you will commonly hear this called “Personal Sanctification” and simply put that is “Self Mastery”. Now none of us are perfect, BUT, Christ proved to the world that it WAS possible to live a perfect life in the flesh, leaving all of us without excuse for failing (we can’t go to God and say that it was a rigged test that no one could win, because someone proved that it could be won) but also allowing all of us through his Atonement to gradually BECOME perfect like he was- and do so in THIS life! This is not something that He wants us to put on the back burner and say “well SOMEDAY in the next life I will be perfect…”, NO! We need to be striving to achieve self-mastery in THIS life so that we CAN go back to live with Him someday. Will we make mistakes along the way? Of course, but should we and CAN we overcome all trials through the Atonement? Yes, through the Atonement we can overcome all sin, become obedient to all the commandments, and BECOME perfect. That IS the reason for the commandments and keeping them!
Now how will you/could you know if you yourself are obeying the essence of a commandment (or anyone else for that matter) every time without a doubt? The Lord gave us an invaluable piece of eternal truth when he said:
“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law [commandment] upon which it is predicated. I am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.”
This is why commandments are often referred to as “principles with promises”- the commandment with the promised blessings that we know are tied to obeying that commandment. This is how we know that “sign seekers” are people struggling with sexual sin, or people who struggle with homosexuality will have “the show of their countenance witnesses against them”, and on and on. Most commandments can and will have the “promised blessings” to the commandment clearly laid out for you, some are harder to find, but all are there. So how can we know if we are truly being obedient to the commandment or if we are just going through the motions? (Giving lip service)
“By their fruits ye shall know them”
If you are or can say you are receiving the blessings associated with the commandment than you must be obeying said commandment… Now some ignorant people might jump in and say “what about Job! [or anyone similar] He was keeping the commandments and wasn’t receiving the blessings!” and to that I say “I am sorry, you are wrong…” Job was keeping the commandments and Job WAS receiving the blessings associated with keeping said commandments- but there are no commandments (REPEAT; NONE) that if obeyed will ELIMINATE trials! Job was receiving all the blessings for keeping the commandments, including an iron faith, testimony, patience, understanding, hope, etc that allowed him to pull through his TRIALS; trials will always be there and are NOT a sign of obedience or lack thereof. The Spirit and/or a reasonably sound brain can and should be enough to tell the difference.
Now how does this relate to “The Word of Wisdom”?
Well if we understand points 1-3 the first thing you should look at in this ‘commandment’ (I am using the term lightly in regards to “The Word of Wisdom” as it is technically still NOT a commandment) are the promised blessings associated with it. In this case here they are:
So let me summarize that up for the layman; you will be healthy, able to run/walk and not faint, your mind will be opened up and be blessed with the ability to receive and understand complex and even secret eternal truths, and finally you will not die before your appointed time.
Now some of those such as dying before your appointed time and receiving hidden knowledge can be harder to identify. Who really knows when your appointed time to die really is? This one has to be taken on faith. The other, receiving hidden knowledge is just harder for most people to identify; this is referring to personal revelation and the “hidden knowledge” is knowledge that only you should be receiving and in some cases delivered in such a way that only you would be able to understand. This one happens and most of the time we don’t even stop to recognize it for what it really is. The other two are much easier to identify and much easier to quantify. Are you healthy? Can you run and not faint? Two very simple things and yet how many Mormons claim to be living The Word of Wisdom and yet say ‘no’ to both of those questions? If you were living ‘The Word of Wisdom’ (or at least the commandments that make it up- will explain that in a second) you should be able to clearly say “I am healthy, I can run/jog/walk and not pass out by doing so”, while if you say “no, I am not healthy, and I can’t run/jog/walk and not pass out by doing so” I hate to tell you, you are not living ‘The Word of Wisdom’ (or the commandments that make it up)
Now to explain why nothing has changed. Every ‘law of health’ that God has given (and will continue to give) has the exact same blessings associated with it and is an appendage to the same commandment. If we look at the blessings tied to the W. of W. one more time:
And ask ourselves if there are any OTHER commandments that have similar if not the same promised blessings- there are a couple that should easily come to mind. To name just a few; the law of chastity, temple covenants associated with the washing and anointing, and keeping your body (temple) clean. All of them are all tied back to same core command “to take care of your bodies” because “your body is a temple and the same man that defiles the Temple of the Lord, the same man shall God destroy [promised blessing number 4]”
So how important is that truly? It is one of THE most important commands as ALL commandments are designed for ‘self-mastery’ over the body and obedience to the Spirit, and the first and great commandment is to “love God with all thy heart, might, mind and strength” and how can you possibly do that while you are destroying your body (one of God’s greatest gifts and the number one purpose for being here) and making it uninhabitable for the Spirit of the Lord (THE greatest of God’s gifts)? The simple and truthful answer is that you can’t. This is why protecting and keeping your body sacred has always been and will continue to always be one of the most basic and important things that Christ loving obedient people will strive for, and should set us apart.
For the most part in the world's history food has always been on the lacking side of the spectrum, with fatness almost always being associated with the rich, lazy, slothful, and wicked people of the time. Because of this ‘lack of food’ the ‘laws of health’ were always geared more towards what NOT to put in your bodies vs what to put in your bodies, as everything ELSE was fair game and would be eaten IF it was available; only the wicked, rich, lazy, slothful people would be able to be(or ever BE) “fat”. This is why ‘wicked kings’ are ALWAYS portrayed as overweight while the prophets standing in front of the wicked kings- very in shape (eg. Wicked King Noah). Overeating and underworking historically speaking (as stated above) were only ever in small pockets and were almost always tied to ‘ruling classes/upper classes/the very wealthy’ and it was rarely if ever addressed as a “breaking of a law of health’ as much as it was breaking the commands to ‘not be slothful’ and to ‘not be gluttonous” but in fact both of those two things feed into the same great command- “to take care of your bodies.” It has only been in the last 50-75 years (after WWII) that we have seen food become plentiful enough that even the poorest of poor in NA can eat themselves fat. Does the ‘W. of W.’ only encompass what we should NOT be putting in our bodies because that is all that matters; or did it (and has it always historically been so) just not include the ‘what and how much to-‘ put into your bodies because this was only ever a problem for the very wicked?
The commandment did not change, it never has. We are still told to ‘take care of our bodies’ and we will know if we are when we are able to ‘run/jog/walk and not pass out’, it is just that when things started to become more readily available (drugs, hot drinks, strong drinks, etc) that clarification on the broader command was necessary. So the commandments have not changed, people have changed; and If Jesus isn't coming back SOON, you can expect to see the apostles and prophets clarify this even further AGAIN as people continue to ignorantly BREAK the commandment and put too much of certain items into their bodies (as people change again, not the commandment).
But how big of a deal is the overeating and how much does it really truly tie into the real commandments? Well looking back at the blessings one final time:
If you overeat and under-work you are breaking the command to ‘not be slothful’, ‘not be ‘gluttonous’ and to ‘keep your temple clean’. To prove that being ‘fat’ is actually a part of the W. of W. it is as simple as to walk through the blessings. Are you healthy? How are your bones/joints doing? Those that are overweight will see a drastic decreased immune response, in cartilage and joint function, as well as bone stability; so absolutely not receiving this blessing. Will they be able to think clearly and receive revelation? Studies have shown and continue to show that being overweight has a drastic effect on both your retention and retrieving of stored information and people that are overweight have a substantially more difficult time in studies as well as keeping their energy levels up enough to even try to study; so clearly not receiving that blessing as well. You shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint; this one should be so self-evident it should hurt your brain to think of some way to possibly turn this into something ELSE… Being overweight you will never be able to run and not be weary and shall surely faint; so it is clear that this blessing is also not received. But what about dying before you time? Surely smoking, drinking, etc kill more people than being FAT right? Wrong… Obesity kills more than all of those others COMBINED; obesity is the number one tool IN THE WORLD that Satan is using to shorten people's time on earth and get them killed before their appointed time. Overeating and under-working is more dangerous than smoking, tea, coffee, drugs and alcohol combined and is and will continue to be the universal signs of slothfulness and gluttonous behaviour.
Wow Micah that is REALLY harsh! I know, but it is the truth and the TRUTH will free you, not lies.
The last two years (2011-2013) have been hard on me, I saw depression in my life like I never have before (the nursing program was just not the place for me) and I was struggling spiritually- now I wasn’t BREAKING any major commandments and I was going to church, etc etc, so why was I feeling like I was struggling spiritually? Why did I feel more distant from Jesus than I have ever felt before in my life?
I was still lying to myself saying that I was “living the Word of Wisdom”! I lied to myself and lied to myself as I put on weight and got more depressed and put on more weight. But I was STILL living the ‘Word of Wisdom’ right? So why am I not receiving the blessings! Then one day I got an answer from the Lord- “You’re not living the commandment to not overeat and to not underwork” and from that point in time on Ashley and I have been fighting (and winning) a battle against the flesh- the most basic and core doctrine of all Christians, to overcome the flesh and not be overcome by it. We have seen our spirituality rise and all of the blessings (including more direct and clear revelation) be poured out upon us tenfold. The Word of Wisdom, or rather the real commandment to ‘take care of your bodies’ has never changed, we have, and it was time for us to make the changes so that we could actually receive those blessings and feel TRULY worthy to enter into the Lord’s house.
Something to note as you begin your journey to self-mastery and overcoming the flesh is this; the world is currently fat. What do I mean by that? Everything is against you (it is Satan’s number one tool for destroying the Saints spirituality, ability to serve God, and even their life expectancy!) so expect an uphill and difficult battle! Everyone overeats! Almost everyone overeats AND under-works! Everyone over feeds their ANIMALS and under-works THEM!
Example of the struggles you will face; Ashley and I looked online and started feeding our animals regularly like it was recommended online and immediately saw an increase in energy and a decrease in moodiness in our pets, our pets could run and not pass out from panting from not being overfed! This however caused our animals to ‘not be fat’ which caused most people to look at our animals and think they are underfed! (Because most animals are super fat like their owners). So we took our animals to the vet and asked her- she said they were actually in PERFECT shape and that almost everyone just has fat animals. We then got even MORE flak from different people that “you can feel your dog’s ribs and spine- you are being cruel!” So we then looked online and read on three different sites about “how to tell if your dog is fat” and literally every single one of the three sites said “you should be able to feel all of their ribs like a washboard and feel their spine OR there are overweight.” Basically moral of the story is that “fat” is the new “normal” and if something or someone isn’t fat people will attack it and try to fatten you (or your animals!) up! If you are in shape people will say that you are “fat shaming!” or that you have to be “starving yourself” to be like you are (completely taking away from the hard work and personal growth of actually following the Savior and making it seem ‘evil’ to do so) and otherwise try to destroy you and your efforts to obey one of THE most important of commandments; “TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY!”
God bless you as you try to overcome the flesh like we have; if you would like to see our progress and what we have done to actually keep this commandment and actually allow ourselves the blessing of being truly worthy to enter into the Lord’s house check out our Exercise section under “Our Hobbies”.
What are commandments
What are the purposes of commandments and keeping them
How will you know if you (or anyone else) is actually obeying said commandments like you should be
When you understand these three things you should begin to understand why the doctrine around The Word of Wisdom hasn’t really changed and how so many Mormons are actually blatantly disobeying the commandment behind it while still claiming to be obedient to it.
First, what is a commandment? A commandment is a Divine prescription; like a doctor gives prescriptions to overcome sickness, pain, physical ailments God gives up prescriptions in the form of “commandments” to help us overcome misery, depression, and ailments of both spiritual and physical origins. God’s commandments are centered in universals truths; and we know that “the truth will set you free”, which brings us to the next point;
What are the purposes of commandments and keeping them? God’s commandments are grounded in universal truths; and by their very nature will set people free by obeying them. The purpose of life at its very core is rooted in agency and being able to choose, and to have the freedom to make those choices; keeping the commandments allows us to stay free while we make other daily and life choices as we grow- and ultimately complete what we were sent here to do, “Self Mastery”. Everything in this life (the commandments included) are geared towards us gaining mastery over our bodies and proving to God that we are in control of our bodies, and not the other way around. In the church you will commonly hear this called “Personal Sanctification” and simply put that is “Self Mastery”. Now none of us are perfect, BUT, Christ proved to the world that it WAS possible to live a perfect life in the flesh, leaving all of us without excuse for failing (we can’t go to God and say that it was a rigged test that no one could win, because someone proved that it could be won) but also allowing all of us through his Atonement to gradually BECOME perfect like he was- and do so in THIS life! This is not something that He wants us to put on the back burner and say “well SOMEDAY in the next life I will be perfect…”, NO! We need to be striving to achieve self-mastery in THIS life so that we CAN go back to live with Him someday. Will we make mistakes along the way? Of course, but should we and CAN we overcome all trials through the Atonement? Yes, through the Atonement we can overcome all sin, become obedient to all the commandments, and BECOME perfect. That IS the reason for the commandments and keeping them!
Now how will you/could you know if you yourself are obeying the essence of a commandment (or anyone else for that matter) every time without a doubt? The Lord gave us an invaluable piece of eternal truth when he said:
“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law [commandment] upon which it is predicated. I am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.”
This is why commandments are often referred to as “principles with promises”- the commandment with the promised blessings that we know are tied to obeying that commandment. This is how we know that “sign seekers” are people struggling with sexual sin, or people who struggle with homosexuality will have “the show of their countenance witnesses against them”, and on and on. Most commandments can and will have the “promised blessings” to the commandment clearly laid out for you, some are harder to find, but all are there. So how can we know if we are truly being obedient to the commandment or if we are just going through the motions? (Giving lip service)
“By their fruits ye shall know them”
If you are or can say you are receiving the blessings associated with the commandment than you must be obeying said commandment… Now some ignorant people might jump in and say “what about Job! [or anyone similar] He was keeping the commandments and wasn’t receiving the blessings!” and to that I say “I am sorry, you are wrong…” Job was keeping the commandments and Job WAS receiving the blessings associated with keeping said commandments- but there are no commandments (REPEAT; NONE) that if obeyed will ELIMINATE trials! Job was receiving all the blessings for keeping the commandments, including an iron faith, testimony, patience, understanding, hope, etc that allowed him to pull through his TRIALS; trials will always be there and are NOT a sign of obedience or lack thereof. The Spirit and/or a reasonably sound brain can and should be enough to tell the difference.
Now how does this relate to “The Word of Wisdom”?
Well if we understand points 1-3 the first thing you should look at in this ‘commandment’ (I am using the term lightly in regards to “The Word of Wisdom” as it is technically still NOT a commandment) are the promised blessings associated with it. In this case here they are:
- You shall receive health in [your] navel and marrow to [your] bones
- You shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures
- You shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint
- The destroying angel shall pass by [you], as the children of Israel, and not slay [you]
So let me summarize that up for the layman; you will be healthy, able to run/walk and not faint, your mind will be opened up and be blessed with the ability to receive and understand complex and even secret eternal truths, and finally you will not die before your appointed time.
Now some of those such as dying before your appointed time and receiving hidden knowledge can be harder to identify. Who really knows when your appointed time to die really is? This one has to be taken on faith. The other, receiving hidden knowledge is just harder for most people to identify; this is referring to personal revelation and the “hidden knowledge” is knowledge that only you should be receiving and in some cases delivered in such a way that only you would be able to understand. This one happens and most of the time we don’t even stop to recognize it for what it really is. The other two are much easier to identify and much easier to quantify. Are you healthy? Can you run and not faint? Two very simple things and yet how many Mormons claim to be living The Word of Wisdom and yet say ‘no’ to both of those questions? If you were living ‘The Word of Wisdom’ (or at least the commandments that make it up- will explain that in a second) you should be able to clearly say “I am healthy, I can run/jog/walk and not pass out by doing so”, while if you say “no, I am not healthy, and I can’t run/jog/walk and not pass out by doing so” I hate to tell you, you are not living ‘The Word of Wisdom’ (or the commandments that make it up)
Now to explain why nothing has changed. Every ‘law of health’ that God has given (and will continue to give) has the exact same blessings associated with it and is an appendage to the same commandment. If we look at the blessings tied to the W. of W. one more time:
- You shall receive health in [your] navel and marrow to [your] bones
- You shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures
- You shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint
- The destroying angel shall pass by [you], as the children of Israel, and not slay [you]
And ask ourselves if there are any OTHER commandments that have similar if not the same promised blessings- there are a couple that should easily come to mind. To name just a few; the law of chastity, temple covenants associated with the washing and anointing, and keeping your body (temple) clean. All of them are all tied back to same core command “to take care of your bodies” because “your body is a temple and the same man that defiles the Temple of the Lord, the same man shall God destroy [promised blessing number 4]”
So how important is that truly? It is one of THE most important commands as ALL commandments are designed for ‘self-mastery’ over the body and obedience to the Spirit, and the first and great commandment is to “love God with all thy heart, might, mind and strength” and how can you possibly do that while you are destroying your body (one of God’s greatest gifts and the number one purpose for being here) and making it uninhabitable for the Spirit of the Lord (THE greatest of God’s gifts)? The simple and truthful answer is that you can’t. This is why protecting and keeping your body sacred has always been and will continue to always be one of the most basic and important things that Christ loving obedient people will strive for, and should set us apart.
For the most part in the world's history food has always been on the lacking side of the spectrum, with fatness almost always being associated with the rich, lazy, slothful, and wicked people of the time. Because of this ‘lack of food’ the ‘laws of health’ were always geared more towards what NOT to put in your bodies vs what to put in your bodies, as everything ELSE was fair game and would be eaten IF it was available; only the wicked, rich, lazy, slothful people would be able to be(or ever BE) “fat”. This is why ‘wicked kings’ are ALWAYS portrayed as overweight while the prophets standing in front of the wicked kings- very in shape (eg. Wicked King Noah). Overeating and underworking historically speaking (as stated above) were only ever in small pockets and were almost always tied to ‘ruling classes/upper classes/the very wealthy’ and it was rarely if ever addressed as a “breaking of a law of health’ as much as it was breaking the commands to ‘not be slothful’ and to ‘not be gluttonous” but in fact both of those two things feed into the same great command- “to take care of your bodies.” It has only been in the last 50-75 years (after WWII) that we have seen food become plentiful enough that even the poorest of poor in NA can eat themselves fat. Does the ‘W. of W.’ only encompass what we should NOT be putting in our bodies because that is all that matters; or did it (and has it always historically been so) just not include the ‘what and how much to-‘ put into your bodies because this was only ever a problem for the very wicked?
The commandment did not change, it never has. We are still told to ‘take care of our bodies’ and we will know if we are when we are able to ‘run/jog/walk and not pass out’, it is just that when things started to become more readily available (drugs, hot drinks, strong drinks, etc) that clarification on the broader command was necessary. So the commandments have not changed, people have changed; and If Jesus isn't coming back SOON, you can expect to see the apostles and prophets clarify this even further AGAIN as people continue to ignorantly BREAK the commandment and put too much of certain items into their bodies (as people change again, not the commandment).
But how big of a deal is the overeating and how much does it really truly tie into the real commandments? Well looking back at the blessings one final time:
- You shall receive health in [your] navel and marrow to [your] bones
- You shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures
- You shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint
- The destroying angel shall pass by [you], as the children of Israel, and not slay [you]
If you overeat and under-work you are breaking the command to ‘not be slothful’, ‘not be ‘gluttonous’ and to ‘keep your temple clean’. To prove that being ‘fat’ is actually a part of the W. of W. it is as simple as to walk through the blessings. Are you healthy? How are your bones/joints doing? Those that are overweight will see a drastic decreased immune response, in cartilage and joint function, as well as bone stability; so absolutely not receiving this blessing. Will they be able to think clearly and receive revelation? Studies have shown and continue to show that being overweight has a drastic effect on both your retention and retrieving of stored information and people that are overweight have a substantially more difficult time in studies as well as keeping their energy levels up enough to even try to study; so clearly not receiving that blessing as well. You shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint; this one should be so self-evident it should hurt your brain to think of some way to possibly turn this into something ELSE… Being overweight you will never be able to run and not be weary and shall surely faint; so it is clear that this blessing is also not received. But what about dying before you time? Surely smoking, drinking, etc kill more people than being FAT right? Wrong… Obesity kills more than all of those others COMBINED; obesity is the number one tool IN THE WORLD that Satan is using to shorten people's time on earth and get them killed before their appointed time. Overeating and under-working is more dangerous than smoking, tea, coffee, drugs and alcohol combined and is and will continue to be the universal signs of slothfulness and gluttonous behaviour.
Wow Micah that is REALLY harsh! I know, but it is the truth and the TRUTH will free you, not lies.
The last two years (2011-2013) have been hard on me, I saw depression in my life like I never have before (the nursing program was just not the place for me) and I was struggling spiritually- now I wasn’t BREAKING any major commandments and I was going to church, etc etc, so why was I feeling like I was struggling spiritually? Why did I feel more distant from Jesus than I have ever felt before in my life?
I was still lying to myself saying that I was “living the Word of Wisdom”! I lied to myself and lied to myself as I put on weight and got more depressed and put on more weight. But I was STILL living the ‘Word of Wisdom’ right? So why am I not receiving the blessings! Then one day I got an answer from the Lord- “You’re not living the commandment to not overeat and to not underwork” and from that point in time on Ashley and I have been fighting (and winning) a battle against the flesh- the most basic and core doctrine of all Christians, to overcome the flesh and not be overcome by it. We have seen our spirituality rise and all of the blessings (including more direct and clear revelation) be poured out upon us tenfold. The Word of Wisdom, or rather the real commandment to ‘take care of your bodies’ has never changed, we have, and it was time for us to make the changes so that we could actually receive those blessings and feel TRULY worthy to enter into the Lord’s house.
Something to note as you begin your journey to self-mastery and overcoming the flesh is this; the world is currently fat. What do I mean by that? Everything is against you (it is Satan’s number one tool for destroying the Saints spirituality, ability to serve God, and even their life expectancy!) so expect an uphill and difficult battle! Everyone overeats! Almost everyone overeats AND under-works! Everyone over feeds their ANIMALS and under-works THEM!
Example of the struggles you will face; Ashley and I looked online and started feeding our animals regularly like it was recommended online and immediately saw an increase in energy and a decrease in moodiness in our pets, our pets could run and not pass out from panting from not being overfed! This however caused our animals to ‘not be fat’ which caused most people to look at our animals and think they are underfed! (Because most animals are super fat like their owners). So we took our animals to the vet and asked her- she said they were actually in PERFECT shape and that almost everyone just has fat animals. We then got even MORE flak from different people that “you can feel your dog’s ribs and spine- you are being cruel!” So we then looked online and read on three different sites about “how to tell if your dog is fat” and literally every single one of the three sites said “you should be able to feel all of their ribs like a washboard and feel their spine OR there are overweight.” Basically moral of the story is that “fat” is the new “normal” and if something or someone isn’t fat people will attack it and try to fatten you (or your animals!) up! If you are in shape people will say that you are “fat shaming!” or that you have to be “starving yourself” to be like you are (completely taking away from the hard work and personal growth of actually following the Savior and making it seem ‘evil’ to do so) and otherwise try to destroy you and your efforts to obey one of THE most important of commandments; “TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY!”
God bless you as you try to overcome the flesh like we have; if you would like to see our progress and what we have done to actually keep this commandment and actually allow ourselves the blessing of being truly worthy to enter into the Lord’s house check out our Exercise section under “Our Hobbies”.