17 Things

Just a few things I have been re-learning over the past few weeks:

• I have to go to bed hungry sometimes.
• I always need to measure/weigh my food.
• Eating out is too much trouble to be worth it, 85% of the time.
• I'm not always excited about what I am about to eat--because it's what my body needs, not necessarily what it wants.
• Drinking a lot of water does help tremendously.
• I can survive temptation moments (and they often come in bulk over the course of an entire day.)
• Finding motivation and actually working out is HARD.

A few things I am learning for the first time:

• There are still plenty of lies I am believing that need to be up-rooted and replaced with the truth of God's word.
• This is a lifetime process. This is a lifetime process. This is a lifetime process.
• Falling off the wagon was not such a bad thing, though I wish to never fall that far or that hard again.
• It is pretty clear to my inner-me when it is okay to eat something and when it is not okay, as long as I am sober-minded.
• I have trigger foods that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, under any circumstances, will cause problems if I consume them. I MUST NOT eat these items. Regardless of situation or circumstance.
• If there is a question in my mind as to whether or not I should eat an item, I MUST NOT eat the item.
• I still believe that I will be free in this area of bondage eventually, Lord willing, but freedom will most likely not look like what I imagined.
• This is more a spiritual issue than a physical/mental/emotional one, though it encompasses all of those. This is a SIN problem.
• Sin can not be taken lightly. It is okay to fight with everything I have against it. In fact, I am commanded to and my life depends on it. (Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live)
• The battle plan I have settled on might seem too harsh or like deprivation. However, deprivation is exactly my intent. To deprive my sinful nature, in effect starving it so that it no longer has power over me.

"Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you." John Owen

Yes, I am a compulsive over-eater with an addiction...but God has rescued me by his grace. He has forgiven me and given me His Spirit with which to put sin to death in my life. I'm not helpless. I'm not hopeless. The fact that I have the ability to fight effectively through Christ--It's such good news.

Love to all!