Tags
Abstinence, addiction, duel-addiction, duel-recovery, Eating, Food, god, Health, inspiration, over-eating, Overeaters Anonymous, overeating, recovery, Robin Claire, spirituality
This is going to be a free-form post so it may not make much sense. I’m writing it mostly to keep my fingers busy – so I won’t use them to stuff my face with.
So I’ve been abstinent a week now and I’ve already lost close to 3 pounds [1.4 kilograms]. Today was pretty hard though and I’m kind of tired from all the not-eating. What do I do with all this empty time I have on my plate now? I used to spend it eating. Now what do I do with it? I have a go-go-go mentality and if I don’t lay off that behavior I know I’m not going to make it. I guess God’s going to have to teach me how to slow down.
It’s very interesting what I’m finding out about ‘abstinence’. It used to be all about not eating so much. But it’s turning out to have more to do with getting my mental, emotional, and spiritual muscles into shape first by doing all the things my OA sponsor has me do. I’m starting to believe that the physical follows behind that.
This is what I’ve been told to do every day…
1. Pray for help to make healthy food and life choices throughout the day.
2. Practice being kind to myself.
3. Listen to one on-line pod-cast of an OA meeting. [There is only one decent, face-to-face meeting a week in the area where I live.]
4. Make one ‘out-reach’ phone call to another recovering person.
5. Read two paragraphs from the OA 12×12 book, write about them and e-mail them to my sponsor.
6. Go through the OA Workbook and answer one question a day and e-mail it to my sponsor.
7. Write down every single thing I put in my mouth. Be totally honest about it, and e-mail it to my sponsor. [I now have to eat publicly and not in secret like I have been doing.]
This may sound like a lot of work… and it is. But I’m flabby. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I will need to do a lot of exercise to get all my muscles into shape. Did you notice that the food part of this recovery is located in last place on the list? That’s because the abstaining is a by-product of all the inside work and not the other way around. I’ve heard it said that; “If you don’t straighten up on the inside, you won’t be able to keep the outside straightened up.” From all my trials with dieting I’ve found this to be very true. So God and I are going to be cleaning up my insides and, hopefully, my outside will come along for the ride.
I’m a curious cat and I’m intrigued. Where is recovery of this sort is going to take me? I have no idea what’s to appear on the horizon next, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a fascinating journey. Just fascinating!
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**Peace & Feloreaw to our Great & Mighty God**
Robin Claire
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Every step forward gets us to toward the goal. Don’t count the steps it takes – just look at the goal.
Keep going…
Peace
Thanks David, good advice. I will heed it. My sponsor told me not to ‘count the days’ anymore and I’m going to follow her directions. I have to keep it in ‘today’ because the work I’m doing is quite strenuous and if I count, I will get tired of doing it. Like you said, keep it one step at a time.
Have you ever read Hind Feet High Places? Your journey reminds me of this allegory. Praying for you today dear sister in Christ.
I did read it, but a long time ago. I will read it again soon. Hopefully they will have it in the library because I’m a book addict and I don’t want to by… one…more…book.
(Tongue in cheek…) Today’s food is tomorrow’s turd! Feast on the Word, and press into the Lord. I struggle with the same thing, dear sister. Lost forty-five pounds last year and gained at least ten of it back this year. Augh! When I realized that I was trying to comfort myself with food, then I had to ask the question, “Why?” What do I need comfort for? Does the Lord desire to heal that area of my heart instead? Very often, the answer is “yes.”
Lord, help us turn to Your Spirit for the comfort we need. After all, He is the Comforter! Please reveal our broken places – rip them open and clean out the goo, so that at last we might begin to heal from the inside out. Thanks for Your faithfulness to heal us. I love You.
Have a blessed day, sis. Try to look at Jesus instead of the waves (in this case, food), and you’ll stay on top of the situation. (Isn’t that a lovely platitude? I didn’t mean for it to be. 😉 )
Love you!
\o/
I’m almost 60 now and the scale WILL NOT BUDGE! Drat!!!
Anyway, I’ve been abstinent from compulsive eating (for me, that’s binging on junk food) for about 3 weeks, but it feels like an eternity for some reason. They say ‘time flies… (etc)” so this must not be much fun because it feels like a year.
Yes, I’ve definitely used food to soothe myself. I don’t rely on Him as much as would be good for me, because I learned from an early age “No one is going to take care of you so you have to take care of yourself”. This is a super-strong message to overcome. I was just thinking this minute, (as I’ve writing to you) that this would be a good thing to lay on the alter; helping me to gain the enough trust to fully let go and to lean on Him as much as I need to.My OA sponsor has me working on ‘letting go of control’ which is quite a tall order for me. How I’m supposed to do it is to get on my knees and ask Him to take control of my mind and heart, and to give Him my desire to eat beyond my needs.
love you dear sister,
robin
The only way I could get the scale to budge was dancing (I’m telling you, it’s a ton of fun!) – or other strenuous activity that makes you sweat – for half an hour at least three days per week –
– and cutting way down on carbs. Sugar, fruit, sweeteners, crackers, cookies, chips, etc.
I went on a carb fast for 10 days and became a double loser – around ten pounds – and lost my craving for carbs as well.
Oh, and with every meal eat Kimchi or sauerkraut to aid in digestion. I wasn’t hungry at all (but my breath sure was nasty!) I’m not a big fan of the fad diets, but needed to do something drastic like this to break the addiction to carbohydrates. I live on chips and soda!
Aren’t you thankful that fat or thin we all get to live with Jesus when we die? …and that a hundred years from now it won’t matter? 😉
\o/
This is good information Tami. I will take it to heart. Letting go of all carbs is going to be pretty difficult. I’m no longer eating junk food, but I still make sandwiches on Trader Joe’s whole wheat bread (‘sticks’ bread is what I call it) and I find I can’t get much sleep if I haven’t gotten any carbs before I go to bed. Did this happen for you? If so, how did you manage it?
love you dear sister,
robin
Since I view “can’t sleep” time as an invitation from the Lord to talk (think “Samuel”), I rarely consider sleepless nights as a problem. Some of my best conversations – and healings – have been at 1 a.m.! When I began to get some exercise during the day, sleeping at night was not an issue.
After a couple of days, your body gets used to being without all those carbs and it becomes much easier to choose better foods.
Eating after 6 p.m. is deadly to any attempt to reduce in size…especially carbs! Try some celery. It has crunch, and takes time to eat.
The problem with a diet is that it is like being under the law again. I find that all my time and attention goes to food – what I can and can’t do. I feel like someone’s holding out on me, and I “deserve” this or that. This is what sabotaged my weight loss last time.
I’d lost a lot of weight, so I “deserved” to indulge…just a bit. It’s been almost a year, and I’m still indulging…just a bit. After all, I did such a good job last year that I deserve to have whatever I want…and the scale is slowly creeping upward.
If we aren’t careful, our diets can become our idols. We ask our diet plan what we can eat, instead of the Lord. We meditate on our menus day and night! I found it necessary to repent of making food an idol, and to ask the Lord to become my main focus again.
Crazy, huh? 😉
\o/