Food for Thought: November 21st

Moods

We used to allow our moods to determine what and how much we ate. If we were feeling good, charged up with enthusiasm, we were usually able to focus our energy on some activity other than eating. Perhaps being in a particularly good mood made it possible for us to stick to some kind of diet for a few days.

When the bad moods struck, we invariably turned to excess food for consolation, and we attempted to make the bad moods go away by eating to excess. Any sort of psychic distress became a signal for food.

Then, too, some of us found ourselves overeating in times of elation, because we had no other way to express our joy.

When we are committed to abstinence, we have a rock like foundation for our eating habits, which no shifting mood can destroy. No matter how we may feel at a given moment, we abstain from eating compulsively. Moods change and pass away, but abstinence remains.

Make firm my commitment to abstinence.

From Food for Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L. ©1980, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation.

__________________

 

***************************************************************

 

Emotional eating............I ate when I was happy, sad, angry, lonely, bored, tired...........I just ate no matter WHAT. When bad moods struck, I felt panicked...........I had to find a way to feel better, to make that mood go away, so what better way than to eat & drink them away? 

Working the Steps taught me a better way..........excess food and drink doesn't make a bad mood go away......it makes the mood even WORSE because now I add self-loathing to the mood, making it REALLY bad! Food as a drug has the shortest life-span of all the addictive substances.  The 'high' lasts only as long as I am chewing; once the food is swallowed, I must go back for MORE to keep my high.  And so the binge is born. And so the binge gets bigger & bigger & BIGGER until I find myself eating 10,000 calories and STILL going back for more.

Committing myself to abstinence gave me a solid plan for eating which is never contingent upon any given mood.  If I'm angry, I still stick to my food plan.  If I'm happy, sad, lonely, bored or tired, I STILL stick to my food plan because IT is in charge, not ME.  My mood will generally improve BECAUSE of my abstinence, in fact, and if it doesn't, that's ok too.  Nobody ever died from a bad mood, but they HAVE died from obesity & the disease of compulsive eating.

For today, I pray not to be a slave to my moods, a slave to food, or a slave to ANYTHING.  For today, I am grateful to be relieved of my addictive thoughts, thanks to my abstinent lifestyle.  For the next 24 hours, I can do ANYTHING!