Food for Thought: April 27th

Food Is No Cure All

In spite of what we compulsive overeaters may have believed, food does not solve our emotional or spiritual problems. Food cannot fill our hearts with love, no matter how much we eat. Rather than erasing our difficulties with family, friends, and self, overeating multiplies them.

If our problem were that of not having enough to eat, food would be the solution. It is possible for us to be overweight and undernourished at the same time, if we are eating the wrong foods. For most of us, though, the difficulty is simply that we like to eat too much. The only cure all for that problem is eating less!

The good news for compulsive overeaters is that a life of abstinence and control is possible. We do not have to be destroyed by our disease. When we recognize that we have been using food to do what only our Higher Power can do, we are on the way to recovery. Instead of turning to food to ease our aches and satisfy our cravings, we turn to God.

Thank You for being there for me.

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

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If hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the solution. I have been 'hungry' so few times in my life, I can barely remember what the sensation feels like!  As a compulsive overeater, I've treated hunger as an emergency, overeating to ward off the POSSIBILITY of hunger!!!  Sigh.

Abstinence teaches me that hunger is NOT an emergency, and that I do not have to overeat or hoard food in an effort to ward off potential hunger. Hunger will not kill me, but obesity will.

For decades I believed that food solved my emotional & spiritual problems.  But what I found was, no matter HOW much I ate, it was never 'enough'!  Satisfaction would come 'in the next bite', but it never did! So the binges got bigger and bigger, and reached the point of insanity, and STILL did not satisfy me! When I try to fill a spiritual void with food, I will always fail.  I did the same thing with booze........reaching the point where 2 or 3 bottles of wine wasn't enough.  I realized I would have to stop practicing excess in all areas of my life if I wanted peace & serenity, and to stop being a slave to my desires which refused to be satisfied.

Every day I thank God for leading me back to AA/OA and showing me the way to happiness is through abstinence & sobriety.  I now rely on God to fill me up instead of excess food or booze of any kind. I even managed to kick my smoking addiction to the curb, with His help, and now rely on NO outside stimuli to make me happy. I draw my happiness from within, one day at a time.

For today, I will rely on God for my nourishment and stick to my food plan for fuel. Because, hey, one is too many and a million is not enough.