GAMING THE SCALE

I weigh in at the weight loss center every Monday evening.

It is always the best low eating day of the week for me.  I can be totally off my eating regimen throughout the week, but come Monday morning I get "weight loss religion".

Ridiculous, but true.  As if eating less on Monday alone will show positive results on the scale!

I clean and clip my nails, I shower at noon so that any 'heavy" grime may be removed and I shave extra close!

I wear lighter clothes, a thinner belt, remove all the money from my billfold...and anything else that I think might reflect a lower number on the scale.


Every monday night the announcer in my head speaks and says, "And now the condemned man steps onto the trapdoor, the noose is firmly around his neck."

Don't believe for one moment that the scale is ever your friend!  If it does show a lower number than before, it is only in an effort to sucker punch you next week with a higher one!

I'd like to pretend its the damn scale, but the real enemy looks back at me in the mirror. 

There is no gaming me.  

I have to live with the results of what I did or didn't do concerning weight loss management this week.

Living day by day and just eating right today without worrying about what I will or won't do tomorrow is best.

Today is all anyone has to handle.

Today, even though its a Monday, I will not game the scale, with God's help I will focus on healthy eating for a lifetime...one day at a time.

A LITTLE HUMOR

Aspire to inspire before you expire.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My wife and I had words,
But I didn't get to use mine.
~~~~~
Frustration is trying to find your glasses without your glasses.
~~~~~
Blessed are those who can give without remembering
And take without forgetting.
~~~~~
The irony of life is that, by the time
You're old enough to know your way
Around, you're not going anywhere.
~~~~~
God made man before woman so as to give him time to think of an answer for her first question.
~~~~~
I was always taught to respect my elders,
But it keeps getting harder to find one.
~~~~~
Every morning is the dawn of a new error.

PILOTS VS. MECHANICS

PILOTS vs MECHANICS


Just in case you need a laugh:
Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane, but only a high school diploma to fix one; that's reassurance to those of us who fly routinely

After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a 'gripe sheet,' which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft.
The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on
the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident...


P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
*
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
*
P: Something loose in cockpit
S: Something tightened in cockpit
*
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
*
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute
descent
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
*
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
*
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
*
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.
*
P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
*
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you 're right.
*
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search
*
P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.
*
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
*
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
*
And the best one for last
*
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from the midget

STRESS

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance
In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued,
"And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,
As the burden becomes increasingly heavy,
We won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water,
You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.
When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home You can pick it up tomorrow."

"Whatever burdens you're carrying now,
Let them down for a moment if you can.
So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while."

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon,
And some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet,
Just in case you have to eat them.

* Always wear stuff that will make you look good
If you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be
"Recalled" by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again,
It was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time,
Because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well.
Just get up and dance.

* When everything's coming your way,
You're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you.
The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world,
But you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery
on a detour.

OUR GOAL

TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS

"Torn between two lovers, feelin' like a fool..."

Yep, that's me.

I want to love eating healthy and the results of lost weight, better health, smaller clothes, fewer meds, and not always avoiding mirrors.

On the other hand I really love Jerry's pizza with everything including the ingredients they normally don't put on the pizza when some one orders everything!  

I found that out several years ago. 

 I ordered everything on the pizza and they said does that include Canadian bacon and black olives?  I said well isn't that normally on an "everything" pizza? They said no, not unless it was SPECIFICALLY ordered.  I said well, I'm specifically ordering it to be included on my everything pizza.

Actually we used to call them "garbage pizzas" because of all the ingredients.  OH!  And extra cheese too!

Nice rare sirloins hot off the grill, noodles, fresh baked bread...and various other things I put into my mouth that never satisfied very long. 

I was always looking for the next food fix.

What combinations of food can I eat that will satisfy my hunger, taste great and...

And what?

That's as far as I got.

"What combinations of food can I eat that will satisfy my hunger, taste great..."

The satisfaction, if one can even truly call it that, was always~always~always short-lived!

While I was eating whatever unhealthy (or even occasionally something healthy) food that was on the plate (or in my hand or on YOUR plate!) I would be thinking about what I would be eating  for my next meal. 

Usually that meant I would be eating all day long non-stop, except to go pee.  Come to think of it that was most days!

You always knew when it was going to be a "BIG" eating day.  My chair would be sitting in front of the open refrigerator door!

Really doesn't sound like any amount of food can "satisfy" does it?

Food that is eaten compulsively and not eaten to satisfy true hunger and nutritional needs is like a lady of the evening offering "true love".

She may look enticing, she may smell nice, she may say all the right words and convince you to eat now and diet tomorrow...but she will lead you to hell.  But not before heaping lots of guilt and shame on first!

I have never been sorry for food that I did not eat.

Never.

So torn between two lovers I can...

 Choose to live a crappy life over-abundantly with food

                                      OR

live life with better health and fewer platters.

Is it even really a choice?

Yes it is...only God can help me choose real life.

Left on my own...

...Think I'll go close the refrigerator door now.

THE VIEW FROM HERE

About a year ago, Feb. 16, 2010 I started attending a weight loss clinic in my town.  They offer the HMR diet plan. http://www.hmrprogram.com/  I lost just over 100 pounds in 188 days and I have kept that weight off for seven months now.

I lost the 100 pounds by eating only their food...that is considered "Phase 1" of their program.


In "Phase 2", real world food is gradually reintroduced along with weekly classes to help you transition back into the real eating world in a safe and sane manner in a concerted effort to be trained how to eat healthily and maintain your weight loss for the rest of your life.


In Phase 1, I had very few decisions about food to make. I simply ate their food...period. If I got hungry, I had another of their meals or shakes. Very simple, very easy a little boring but you cannot kick on the results!




Now after 7 months of eating more real world food and the accompanying decisions of "to eat or not to eat" gets me worn down.  It is hard for me to start and stop in moderation!! 

It gets old, and my attitude is less than "stellar" sometimes.

WORDS OF WISDOM

Someone has written these beautiful words. Read and try to understand the deep meaning of them .

1. Prayer is not a "spare wheel" that you pull out when in trouble, but it is a "steering wheel" that directs the right path throughout.

2. Friendship is like a BOOK. It takes few seconds to burn, but it takes years to write.


3. All things in life are temporary. If going well, enjoy it; they will not last forever. If going wrong, don't worry, they can't last long either.


4. Old Friends are Gold! New Friends are Diamond! If you get a Diamond, don't forget the Gold! To hold a Diamond, you always need a Base of Gold!


5. Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, GOD smiles from above and says, "Relax, sweetheart, it's just a bend, not the end!

A CREATURE OF HABIT

I admit it I am a creature of habit.

 I buy gas at the same filling station and bank at the same bank that my folks did. I grew up with Skippy peanut butter and see no reason to try any other brand. (Except PB2! Boy that's good!)


I like a certain brand of shirt, and any shirt I buy must have a pocket! MUST!

I prefer Hanes to Fruit of the Loom,  and I used to prefer Chrysler products but Chevrolet may be winning me over. 

Maybe.

SOMETIMES MEMORIES HURT ~ SOMETIMES IT HURTS MORE TO FORGET!

Last January it became abundantly clear (ahem) that I needed a new winter coat.  Winter was "hard" last year but zipping up the jacket was harder.

Walking around in a too small unzipped coat open to the elements became more uncomfortable than going to buy a new ( and larger) jacket.

I went by myself.  I was embarrassed enough to have to do this (again) let alone have a family member (read that wife) tag along and not say anything.  I seldom like the tone of her silence!

As I walked the aisles of the local farm and ranch store I looked over the pickings left over from the late fall and Christmas season. 

In the past couple of years my shirt sizes had gone from 2X - 3X to 4X - 6X depending on the "generosity" of the cut.

"Generosity" - it never ceases to amaze me how we humans try to dress up a pig with lipstick and perfume!

"I wouldn't even need a larger coat if the manufacturer would have been a little more 'generous' in his cut with this one!"

I'M HUNGRY - - - - FOR LOVE???

I am a lot thinner than I was.

Not to say I have "arrived"...I'm never going to not have to manage my weight until I stop eating...permanently.  But that's a subject for another post.

I geuss you can say that I was under the false assumption that by getting thinner and healthier my demons would otherwise give me time off for good behaviour.

Wrong.

I'm still just a mixed up little boy inside, who wants to:

A. Solve all problems with food.

B. Deny having any problems by eating food to forget about them.

C. Refuse to understand my fears and bad feelings and drown the incessant clamoring of a poor self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy, feelings of loneliness, and forgetting the tough parts of growing up by eating.

D. All of the above (and): "BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!"

Yes I'm sure there is more...but I'm a guy, be patient, just to admit I have feelings is a BIG step!

"OLYMPIC" WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

If I wanted to be an Olympic athlete would I just show up at tryouts one day with no preparation and expect to prevail? 

Sounds silly doesn’t it? 

Oftentimes we look at dieting that way though. 

As discussed in earlier posts, we really don’t like to be troubled with the details of what it takes for successful weight loss. We want weight loss to be "trouble free and easy".

We want to eat a “little less” throw in some fruit and vegetables and count walking up and down the aisles of the frozen novelties section as exercise.

  
[AND WE WANT QUICK DRAMATIC RESULTS!]

 As long as we are dreaming lets win the big lottery too!

People who are seriously approaching the decision to do something about their weight need to “get ready to get ready”. 

That’s what I said. 

If you are serious about losing weight you need to “get ready to get ready!”

What do I mean?

Well if you had aspirations to be an Olympic athlete but had never really developed athletic skills such as physical stamina and strength, what would you have to do first?

You’d start slowly. You would wait patiently to see results.

You would build up your muscles and you would exercise.  You’d begin to train your body to be conditioned for more and more strenuous exercise.

YOU WOULD BEGIN TRAINING.

You would not expect to have an Olympic athlete’s body overnight.  It would take years! You would accept that without a second thought.

 You would be purposeful. 

You’d get associated with other like-minded individuals. 

You’d seek out a coach, a mentor - a training buddy. 

You’d be teachable. 

You’d put yourself in the hands of experts and listen to what they said. 

You’d train with many different exercises to work over the whole body, and you’d exercise specific muscles and train for your particular athletic discipline. 
You would practice, practice practice!!

And speaking of discipline, yes, you would learn that skill as well.  In fact without the skill of discipline, you may as well stop before you get started.  Have courage though, part of your training would help you develop that skill too.

You’d read material about your sport, and you’d watch others as they developed their skills, learning from their successes and failures.  You’d study films of yours and others performances.   

You would take constructive feedback from your coaches…you would adapt to a new way of living.

You’d get mentally tough and you would focus…oh how you would FOCUS!!

  
You’d make sacrifices of time, money and anything that would distract you from achieving your goal to make the Olympic team in your sport.

And you’d do this for years often with no recognition, often weary and discouraged, sometimes even wondering if it was worth it.

[And many, many of the people you train with wouldn’t make the cut and they’d quit.]

   
But YOU would PERSEVERE! 

In order to be successful you’d train this way to achieve what very few people ever achieve; and even if you got selected to represent your country in your sport there would be no guarantee of victory.  You could do all this work for years, be in tremendous shape, excel beyond 99.9% of the rest of the world and still come in last at the Olympics. 

Someone always comes in last! 

Does that mean the training and years of sacrifice weren’t worth it?

The medals, if you’re talented enough to win one, are merely a symbol( a truly FANTASTIC symbol), but the benefits of being an Olympian (win or lose) last a lifetime!

Well, you can see where I’m headed.  Losing weight (and keeping it lost) is a lot like going into training to become an Olympian.

You get ready to manage weight by getting ready to act like an Olympian.  Many of the same characteristics apply. 

“WEIGHT MANAGEMENT” is not for wimps!  

 Notice I said “weight management”.   

Getting ready to get ready is just as much about retraining your thinking habits as it is about retraining “bad eating habits” into “weight management eating habits”.   

(The worst fat in my body is situated between my ears!) 

An Olympic weight loss manager practices their skills until they no longer think of weight management as a “diet”.

When it comes to weight loss and weight management I like to say that “we are all in this together by ourselves”. 

Personally, I need group support.  I’ll take an “atta boy” from anyone. 

But I face the refrigerator and cupboards by myself!

No one is holding a gun to my head forcing that 3 pound bag of chips and half-gallon container of French onion dip down my throat.

I stand on the scale alone.

I realize that the sun does not rise or set on a bad (or good!) day of weight management.

I retrain my thinking to -!!STOP!! - saying that "since I really failed at my lunch, I will just fail the rest of the day and start fresh tomorrow." 

No!!

I will eat my snacks and supper just as if I didn’t fall off my plan at lunchtime!  There is no more “wait till tomorrow”.

I will forgive myself, I will agree that weight management can be difficult (or darn near impossible at moments) but I will not have a pity party and crawl back to that carton of ice cream.  


Let me let you in on a little secret, whatever that food is -  that is tempting you to crawl back to it -  is not your friend! You will "love it" and it will "leave you"..with bulgier hips, more thunderous thighs and crying in your chip dip!!

I will keep the real goal in mind…not a number on the scale, a healthier happier me!

I think this goal is more important for us than any gold medal!

I am in “Olympic [weight management] training” with some of these HEAVY THOUGHTS, and it is my intention that it will result in my LIGHTER LIVING!

WEIGHT LOSS IS EASY!

Sure it is! 

The theory is quite simple:”Consume fewer calories each day than you burn and you will lose weight.”

Straightforward.

Simple.

Easy!

There!  What problem would you like me to solve now?? :-)

Ok, I know.  The theory is simple.   

The rules of weight loss are a lot like the rules to the game of chess.  Thirty minutes will get you the basics of chess, but it can take a lifetime to master the game.

And losing weight is no game! 

And for me anyway, it has taken all of my 51 years to begin to get the application of what it takes to lose and keep off the weight.

I learn a little each day.   

Somewhere along the line of this current reduced eating phase of my life I’ve emotionally accepted that I am no longer dieting.

 I will never “diet” again.

 Ever.

Period, paragraph, explanation point!

The way I am eating now is now the way I live, literally.

My pastor recently showed me how I used to walk up and down stairs.  If he wasn’t so serious about it I would have thought he was kidding around.  He had it down pat. The way I slowly came down the stairs in pain with each step, balancing precariously and holding on to the railing for support, and completely out of breath was the way I was.   

He told me he seriously wondered when he’d be called upon to conduct my funeral.  He figured it would be sooner rather than later. 

He was right.

I didn’t know how bad I felt until I started feeling better!

My mom died of breast/lung/brain cancer at the age of 70.

My dad died of lung cancer at the age of 57.

My sister died of breast cancer at the age of 51.

I had given up trying to lose weight.  Why go to all the hassle of another failed diet when cancer’s just around the next bend waiting for me anyway?

Trouble was, what life I did have left, was getting so miserable with the strain of morbid obesity, I could no longer afford to wait for cancer! 

I was already miserable enough!

  

(New readers will want to visit my permanent page marked “How Did I Get Here??” for that part of my story.)

Rereading this, I can imagine what you are thinking.  I was pretty hopeless, depressed and trying to commit suicide…one spoonful at a time.

Yep.

If you’ve ever been exposed to any 12 step program they call that:”Stinking Thinking”. And I had a seemingly incurable dose of it.

People loved me and prayed for me…that is all I can attribute to what has begun turning my life around.  I had given up…but my wife; family, friends and my doctor had not…thank God! 

Yes! Let’s not forget God who instills love, who is love, who looked at my miserable sinfully obese life and loved me through these people!  They loved me when I no longer much loved or cared for myself any longer.

Sighhhhhh.

Surprised by love.

So now I choose to live. 

I will never “diet” again and I will fight cancer “tooth and toenail “if it ever comes. 

“IF” not when!

To that end (no pun intended!), I had a colonoscopy performed this morning as a preventative measure because of my family history of cancer.

 Yes it is a hassle.

 I also had to undergo the additional indignity of six enemas this morning as well. 

They (and you know who you are!) are right; I really am “full of it!”

The results?  A-OK!

I’ve chosen to have a lot of life in my days, no matter how long I live.

Eating well and taking care of me is now part of the new plan.

So these heavy thoughts rattle around inside my brain, but they do now urge me toward lighter living.

I can live with that.

A HELPING HAND

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.



Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, 'God! How could you do this to me?'


Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! 'How did you know I was here?' asked the weary man of his rescuers. 'We saw your smoke signal,' they replied.


The Moral of This Story:


It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

So if you cannot get ahead of your hunger, or cannot seem to make the scale reflect a lower weight, consider these "smoke signals" to remind you to look on the horizon...help is on the way.

Maybe that help doesn't come the way we want it to, because we, well I  don't know about you, but I want to remain in control.

I was in "control" the entire time the jet (of weight loss -- actually weight GAIN)  was spiraling out of control ready to corkscrew me into the ground.



Jesus reminds us that only by losing our life (folding our life into Him) shall we gain real life...hmmmm.

God will help us absolutely!

 Sometimes when we look for a helping hand though, we should look at the end of our arm!

No one puts food into my mouth but me!

Often I know what to do, I just don't want to do it.  I want an easier way.

The "easy way" is the road to oblivion...one donut at a time.

So let us, (read that me) choose to look at the burning huts of our diet disasters and consider them smoke signals for help to do what we know we are supposed to do.

Sometimes it's as simple and as hard as that.

SOUTHERN TEN COMMANDMENTS

Some people have trouble with all those 'shall's' and 'shall not's' in the Ten Commandments..

Folks just aren't used to talking in those terms. So, in middle Tennessee they translated the 'King James' into ' Jackson County ' language.....no joke (posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Gainesboro , TN ).



(1) Just one God


(2) Put nothin' before God


(3) Watch yer mouth


(4) Git yourself to Sunday meetin'


(5) Honor yer Ma & Pa


(6) No killin'


(7) No foolin' around with another fellow's gal


(8) Don't take what ain't yers


(9) No tellin' tales or gossipin'


(10) Don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff




Now that's plain an' simple.

Y'all have a nice day!

A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE OF A DIFFERENT SORT

Last weekend my wife and I were invited to a 50th. birthday party for one of her co-workers husbands. Neither of us had met him but it was important to her co-worker we come and so it was important to us to be there.
 

This was no small affair.  A party room was rented at the Holiday Inn and there were black plastic hats, black beads, dark sunglasses and glow-in-the-dark necklaces for all to wear.  A DJ was hired for music and there was a buffet style food table set up.  Each table was decorated in black and there were Hershey’s Kisses strewn all about the tabletop.
 
It was a first rate party!  We had a good time visiting with the other guests, and it was a good chance for me to people watch. 
 

The buffet table had an assortment of choices. There were fruits, vegetables and cheeses, and several hot items including wings and egg rolls.  I decided early on that it was best for me to just sip my diet Coke and not eat.  The fruits and veggies I could handle, but I wasn’t sure about the wings and egg rolls.  I wasn’t going to rush in where “diet angels” would fear to walk.
 
This is when I learned a valuable lesson.
 
I watched the other people eating around me.  One lady’s plate I noticed in particular, though she was not the only one.  There was ONE eggroll, ONE chicken wing, ONE slice of Swiss cheese and a small assortment of fruits and vegetables. 
 

Good grief! There was more plate showing than food!
 
I sat at her table for two hours and she never did completely finish what she’d taken!  A nibble here, a nibble there…Mein Gott in Himmel!!
 
Intellectually I know that what she did was the socially acceptable thing to do.  This was a party food party, not a sit down “big meal” affair; but before I would have treated this buffet line as an all I could eat competition. 
 

“Just roll that steam table of wings over to my table please!”
 
Before it would have been all about the food and very little about the people I was seated at the table with.
 
So I sat at the table visiting with the other guests around me, nursing my Coke and stealing a Hershey kiss or two from my wife. 
 
Never in my life have I done that before.  Oh!--- Not that!--- I’ve stolen lots of “kisses” from my wife before…the “not eating all the free buffet food I could get” was the new experience.
 
Well, there was that time I passed on the Swedish meatballs……YUCK!
 
In times past I would have made a minimum of two trips to the food table, (let alone the carnage I would have inflicted on the cake, mints and nuts table!)  I would have concentrated on the food I was eating and not the people I was with.
 
This time I was trying real hard to concentrate on the people I was with, but I was also thinking a lot about the food I wasn’t eating.
 
Trying not to feel deprived.  

Trying to focus on this new chance at life I’ve been given.  

Practicing a new freedom my mentors have been teaching me. 
The freedom not to eat--- a birthday surprise of a different sort!
 
And it’s still true, I’ve never been sorry for what I didn’t eat.
 
Is it fun at the time?  Of course not!  But neither is the guilt I feel when I fall off my reduced eating plan…that guilt is worse than “not fun.”
 
Fitting into jeans that are 14 inches smaller around the waist is fun!
Fitting into a 1X shirt (with no button gap!!) and tossing out my 6X’s is fun!
 
Having my wife’s arms able to really reach around and hug me again is FUN!
 
Ahhhh, these heavy thoughts that move me toward lighter living!

*A DIETERS PRAYER

Listen to my prayer, oh Father in heaven, and please don’t tune me out.

Please hear me and give me the answer I need…


My thoughts of food are constant and my cravings never seem to subside.


Oh supreme Lord, my tongue demands the taste of bacon always and will not shut up!


Cereal boxes stare at me from the cupboard demanding they be opened and poured.


Having given in before, I know that overeating with poor food choices only damages my health, and causes me physical suffering and mental anguish which is not your will for me oh God.


Oh my King, food pretends it is my friend but it wants me to misuse its purpose that you have designed for my life.


As soon as I gorge myself, then food mocks me and reminds me that I am such a weak failure.


I tremble with shame.


My stomach grumbles with desires my heart cannot be satisfied with by eating alone.


Only you oh Lord can truly satisfy! You and you alone!


I can’t even describe the horrors brought by dragon mirror and demon scale and their evil ways that overwhelm my resolve to regain my health.

 However your steadfast love emboldens me to look directly back at my reflection, and humbly be held accountable to my mentors when I step onto the scale, all Glory belongs to you my King!


My heart reminds me that food eaten for fuel and health never heap pangs of guilt upon me, that just eating enough is a FEAST, dear Lord! A feast that you lay spread before me, my eating life according to your plan. Your wisdom is beyond my comprehension.


Help me remember your food plan for me tastes far better than all the high calorie morsels that our enemies at Dairy Queen, Hershey’s and KFC entice me with.


Oh that Dove chocolate would sprout wings and fly far, far away from me to the desert and melt, melt away never to demand that the entire bag be eaten in one sitting again!


Oh God, remind me to seek shelter in your arms as the cries coming from my refrigerator torment my resolve to eat healthy today. 


Clean out my cupboards and remove any food that will trigger a binge that would lead me down the path of weight gain, self-loathing and grief. This would not be your plan for me…oh God.


Surround me with likeminded people, your servants, Oh Most High, who help me learn self-control and satisfaction in living for you.

They remind me that real happiness is not found by eating bread alone, no Lord, your words, your words alone are the source of all my needs, and food that you have blessed is the most delicious of all!!



‎"The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable." -John Piper




*INSPIRED  BY PSALM 55

(c) C.W.M. 2010