Diet & Wisdom Appetizers

I’ve had a pretty good week, food wise, which is unusual as of late. It feels as though I’ve had more “off” days than “on” days. So when I have a week where I’ve kept my food journal and not gone over my allotted calories for the day, that’s a great week.

Not sure why, but for some reason I was feeling the need to give myself permission to take a day off today. I started the day well. Recorded all my food calories, measuring everything exactly and then poof out of the clear blue sky my mind seemed to lose all sound logic and reasoning and I found myself smoothing out the top layer of some Cookies and Cream Ice Cream straight from the carton with a big giant spoon.

You know how it goes – you open up a carton of ice cream and one side has ice cream piled higher than the other so like an expert brick layer, you starting smoothing off the rough edges like your brandishing a cement trowel. Before you know it, you’ve probably smoothed away a couple of servings of ice cream and you stand there wondering what in the heck just happened to you?

It’s almost like my body was taken over temporarily by the former crazy woman who used to live inside me – that one that I’ve been working so hard at evicting. I hate it when she rears her ugly head. Who is she and why won’t she go away and leave me alone?

After some self-examination and a couple of Tums to quiet my now aching gullet which knows better than to eat ice cream because of my intolerance for lactose, I faced some hard facts.

When we suffer from an addiction – any kind of addiction – taking a “day off” should basically be right on the top of our Stupid List. If your drug of choice was crystal meth or alcohol and you took a day off from your sobriety, you’d be opening a can of worms that would quickly lead you down a quick road to self-destruction.

Why should food be any different? Yes we need food for our basic survival and clearly alcohol, drugs, porn or whatever doesn’t meet that same criteria. So food IS a little different, and Lord knows food is every bit as controlling as alcohol or drugs. Clearly we can never completely abstain from eating. You don’t go to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting and hear people say, “Hi, my name is Mandy Sue and I haven’t eaten in 14 months.”

We HAVE to eat every day, but we don’t have to binge eat every day. We don’t have to eat unhealthy foods or wrong foods to fill up the empty places in us.

I started praying about every bite that I put in my mouth this week – until I decided to mine for cookies in the bottom of a carton of Dreyer’s today, that is. Because I let my flesh control me, praying never became an option because I didn’t even give myself a chance to stop and pray. I just went for it. But I did notice that throughout my week when I made myself stop and pray before I put anything in my mouth I was able to control my urges, stop and think about what I was about to eat and made the smart choice NOT to waste the calories.

A food addict cannot afford the luxury of a casual day off. As most of us know once you open the cookie jar or the bag of chips, you can’t stop at just one. My advice, don’t give in to the little voice that tells you its okay to take a break. Most of us know once we slip, it’s just a short fall off the wagon altogether. The more you fall, the easier it becomes to stay down.

The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we give to others. ~Author Unknown

28 A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. Proverbs 25:28 (NLT)

PRAYER FOR TODAY: Lord I ask that you would grant me self-control, not just daily, but hourly. I clearly can’t conquer these demons on my own and unless you step in and help me, I fear I will never beat this. Please walk beside me and convict me before I put anything in my mouth. I ask all these things in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.