Invading Thoughts

Invading Thoughts     

               Okay, so this is time to ‘fess up:  How many times a day do you think about food?  After you’ve finished breakfast, do you think about what you’re going to have for lunch?  And after you’ve finished lunch, do you think about what you’re going to have for dinner?

            These are my answers:  I think about food, what seems to me, all the time.  It’s embarrassing.  Of course, no one else knows what’s going on inside my head, but it’s embarrassing to me to think about my next meal after I’ve just finished one meal.

            It’s embarrassing to be having a conversation with someone and be thinking at the same time, “I’m going to stop at the DQ on my way home.”

            Often I use this excuse (notice the use of the word “excuse” not “reason”), “Well, of course, I’m going to think about food.  I live in a single person household.  I’m the one responsible for meal planning, grocery shopping and food prep.  I HAVE to think about food.”

            Hm, yeah, well that might explain one-tenth of my thinking about food, but let’s face it:  it doesn’t explain my thinking about the DQ in the middle of a conversation.

            So what do I do about the voice that haunts my thoughts with food?  I think I found the answer taped to my refrigerator (must have needed these words at some other time in my life):

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8, Life Application Study Bible).

            I’m going to try to do this.  God’s way is always the best way.

                                                                                                                                    Sharon Witty

P.S.  Gloria and I pray you, our readers, a Blessed Easter.

The Habit of Eating

One reason losing weight or even controlling what we eat is so challenging is because we have to eat to live. That’s nothing new. Eating is what nourishes our body, keeps us healthy, and can be overdone. Eating is a conundrum.

I was raised by a generation that knew the Great Depression. They knew life without…without anything extra, without money, without gas, without sugar, without food. My mother was a wonderful cook and made do with little. Her greatest joy was feeding company or making sweet treats to give to those she cared about. 

Mary Pipher in her book, “Another Country” explains, “The women encouraged one another to eat, a habit that came from a time when food was scarce.” I have made eating a habit of pleasure, rather than of need. I eat for enjoyment and celebration. It makes me happy to eat. I eat to cheer myself up.

Instead, I should eat out of hunger, for nourishment and good health. I need to ask myself, “Am I hungry?” before I eat. Is my stomach growling? Or do I just eat because the clock says it is time? And do I quit when I am full?

Scriptures offer a reasonable way to eat. “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God!” (Deuteronomy 8:10a NIV).

Gloria D. Stewart

Good Nutrition

Good Nutrition            

               Happy, happy spring!  How delightful to welcome spring—especially this year.  The advent of spring brings Easter, preceded by Lent.

For many of us the Gospel reading on the first Sunday of each Lent is Satan’s tempting Jesus in the desert with power, pleasure and wealth.

            When Satan came to Jesus, Jesus hadn’t eaten for 40 days.  Surely, he was hungry, but when Satan said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread,” Jesus answered, “Man [or woman] does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:3-4, New American).

            We can analyze Jesus’ response in many ways, and, through the years, I’m sure it has been, but today let’s look at it in a couple of ways.

            God created us as triune persons—physical, mental and spiritual.  To be healthy, we need to care for all aspects of our person.  To keep the physical me healthy, I need to provide myself with more than bread (even though, I love bread), just as Jesus said.  Good nutrition is a complex process, and I’m not a nutritionist, but I suspect all of us who struggle with weight management know mega truths about nutrition—the number of servings we should eat daily of protein, dairy, fruits and vegetables, fiber…ad nausea.

            But that verse also reminds me that I need to keep the spiritual side of me healthy.  My body needs more than bread to be healthy, and the whole me needs more than food to be healthy.  I need God; my spirit also needs to be fed. 

            So each year when I hear that verse read, one of my first thoughts is this:  No, I don’t live on bread alone.  I need God’s love to live.

            So maybe when I am tempted to overeat, I can feed myself differently—with prayer, reading spiritual material, or just sitting quietly with God, soaking up the Holy One’s love.

                                                                                                                                    Sharon Witty

Our Daily Bread

I didn’t use to like bread. Unfortunately that has changed during my lifetime.  Now I love bread. Especially if it has butter generously spread on top…or layered with cheese. Or sweet moist breads like pumpkin or banana or poppy seed or turned into cinnamon rolls… Have I gone on long enough to make you hungry for bread?  

Bread is a staple. If you have bread, you have a meal. Just top it with peanut butter, or jam, or a slice of meat and you have all you need. There are hundreds of kinds of bread, I’m sure, and just as many ways to enjoy eating it.

I remember coming home from school and my mother had freshly baked cinnamon rolls and wonderful crescent rolls hot from the oven. The house smelled wonderful. The moment was heavenly.

Those memories we have and cherish also create a desire to relive that time by eating the same food again. Those foods become our comfort foods. The ones we turn to during emotional crises. The ones we eat yet they don’t satisfy because we are trying to fill an emotional emptiness instead of a physical hunger. Why not follow the suggestion offered in Isaiah?

“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare,” (Isaiah 55:2 NIV).

Those are definitely words to live by. 

Gloria D. Stewart

Demons

February 21, 2019

Demons            

I try to free write every week day (note:  I don’t always achieve this lofty goal).  Last Friday, February 15, I chose to write on the topic of “demons.”  Strange topic, right?  But hear me out.

            Often when we think of “demons,” we think of spiritual demons, i.e., Satan.  But most of us have personal demons, or “issues” we also call them.

            Ever since I was a child of some five years (back in the Dark Ages), compulsive overeating has tormented me.

            As I continued to write about my compulsive overeating, I began to “see” that through the years the Holy Spirit has taken me on a journey, and I realized the healing the Wise One has brought about within me—a bad eating day today is still 95% better than my worst eating day 20, 30, 40 years ago.

            The journey on which the Holy Spirit has taken me led me to being involved in various weight management groups, each giving me tools which helped heal me a little more.

            Each group guided me to daily recording my food intake.  I continue to use this tool presently so that I am aware of what I eat not only daily, but also weekly.  Today, I share my chart with you.  If such a tool can be helpful to you, feel free to use it. Tweak it to fit your needs.

Day	Protein	Dairy	Fruit	Veggies	Fiber	Extra
M
T
W
Th
F
Sa
Su

            As I neared the end of my reflection last Friday, I became aware that God’s healing in this area of my life is one more example of how much the Holy One loves me—how much God loves each of us, for “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.  Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life (Psalm. 143:8, NIV).”

                                                                                                                                    Sharon Witty

Time to Persevere

I read an article in the February 2019 Prevention magazine about sticking with your New Year’s resolution. I hit a rough patch about two weeks ago and I’m trying to get back on the straight and narrow with my eating and exercise. It is too easy for me to let up for a day or two and before you know it I am on a slippery slope of overeating and missing exercising. Sound familiar? This pattern too often leads us to give up our good intentions.

The article I read said the key was to form new habits. The experts say it takes three months or longer to establish a habit. 

One suggestion was to realize there will be challenges – roller coaster emotions and cravings come to mind. I need to admit my weaknesses and plan a strategy. For instance, instead of eating a bowl of ice cream, I will do 10 minutes on the treadmill, go for a walk, or reward myself with 15 minutes of reading time or another non-food choice. Every time I crave or long for a specific food or taste, I will replace it with a good behavior. Create a new habit and persevere!

Another idea was to consider the results of eating a particular food. Take my ice cream addiction. Ice cream is full of fat and sugar. If I eat ice cream I will feel cold and lazy and I’ll go sit under a blanket and be a couch potato. I will feel sleepy and the ice cream will raise my cholesterol and blood sugar. Then I’ll feel guilty and depressed about what I just ate.

Instead, I choose to avoid ice cream because of all the negative impacts. Or I can play up the benefits of eating something for its good qualities – such as broccoli. It is good raw or cooked. I feel healthy when I eat it because it is clean food and it is full of vitamins that are great for my body.

I’m going to try these two ideas in my own walk with perseverance. It is very similar to our faith. We face challenges in our faith walk, too, and the testing of our faith creates perseverance.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance,” (James 1:2-3 NIV).

Persevere, my friends, persevere.

Gloria D. Stewart