Gluttony

Since this blog was started because of my issues with food and it's founded on a spiritual, God-centered approach to overcoming those issues, I want to share anything that I come across to help others who are struggling with overeating or emotional eating, too.

If you want to start from the beginning and understand a little more about this area of my life, you can read the first entry here.

This week I found an interesting news artice from Health.com on how emotional eaters can still stay slim. You can read it here. It offers tips on strategic eating for those who turn to food for comfort, without letting it get out of hand and becoming a problem. Michelle May, M.D. who is the author of "Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat" says that "you can comfort yourself with food and still stay thin by following some simple ground rules."

These strategies include: Only eating what you really love (otherwise, you'll eat more of something that isn't that good to reach a point of satisfaction), making it blow your mind (taking the time and focusing your attention on what you're eating instead of eating while watching tv or working. This distracts you from enjoying it so you'll end up eating more), not eating on an empty stomach, and bagging the guilt (otherwise, you miss out on the full pleasure of eating the treat you want. Guilt can lead to a vicious cycle. As we feel guilt for eating more than we should or for the wrong motives, we want to comfort and get rid of that feeling. So we develop an "I give up" mentality and just eat more!)

Two other great articles I read just this morning come from writers at (In)Courage. The first one titled "Honestly" is written by the author of "Made to Crave," Lysa TerKeurst. You may remember I mentioned her and her new book on my other blog last week. She discusses her personal battle with comfort-eating and her weight loss journey since realizing that she was ready to do something about it. It challenges us to face our problems that we're making excuses for or procrastinating dealing with and being totally honest with ourselves about our sin. She touches on the physical, spiritual, and mental aspects of the battle to change in this area.

Lastly, Sarah Mae's post titled "The Good Kind of Gluttony" focuses on the feasting of God's Word and promises, filling ourselves up with the Spirit of God instead of trying to find life and satisfaction in anything else other than Him.

I hope you take the chance to read one or all of these if you're struggling with this issue in your life. They offer great encouragement.

Also, in case you haven't heard about it, there's a whole ministry aimed to help people have a biblical approach to weight loss and overall health management. It's called First Place 4 Health. The group study started at First Baptist Church in Houston and has grown to become a nationwide ministry. They promote Christ-centered priorities such as prayer, Bible study and scripture memory. They address the entirety of a person- mind, emotions, body, and spirit- in the healing process as well. You can find success stories, recipes, health articles, workout dvds, books, bible studies and food journals all on their website. I know of a couple of women through my mom who have benefitted from this program or just from the "First Place for Health" book.

Again, I'd have to promote reading Lysa's "Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire With God, Not Food." I hope to read it soon when i'm not in the middle of two other studies! If you want to follow her blog, just click here. You can read her bio story, her daily blog, all the articles she has written, and watch videos of her speaking engagements!