Food for Thought: July 23rd

Food: Servant or Master?

Food used to be our master. The mental obsession with food and the craving for more controlled our life. As we recover, we begin to see just how much we were in slavery to food and our appetite. We know that no matter how long we abstain and recover from our disease, we will always be powerless over food. The idea that we will one day be able to eat spontaneously is the most dangerous delusion we can entertain.

By abstaining from compulsive overeating every day of our life, we make food our servant rather than our master. We eat what we need to nourish our body, but we do not permit eating for comfort, excitement, or any other emotional reason. Whatever it takes to remain abstinent is what we are willing to do each day.

Never forgetting that we are always one mouthful away from a binge ensures that food will remain our servant.

Today and every day, may I serve You instead of food.

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

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As a compulsive overeater, I've spent a lot of years making food into my master. The only thing that keeps food in proper perspective is abstinence. I am never more than one bite away from disaster, and turning food back into my master instead of my servant.

It's amazing how, at 56 years old, I can find so much difficulty in feeding myself! Something that should be SO simple can be so incredibly difficult. Sigh.

If I divert from my plain, simple, boring Food Plan, I wake UP my taste buds and food is back in charge of ME. I am obsessing over it, and it's consuming my every thought. What to eat, how to sneak it, where to get it.........it's EXHAUSTING.  To live a life that's devoted to food is a life that's WASTED.

Abstinence is my sanity in the midst of chaos. Structure prevents chaos. Without a firm, solid Food Plan to follow, I am lost in the wilderness of compulsive eating, where there is no such thing as 'enough.'  I can eat junk food for hours on end and STILL not feel full or satisfied. So what is the point in starting down that road? There IS no point. Sometimes I 'forget' that fact and veer off course anyway. And then it takes me forever to get back ON course.

Sigh.

For today, I will follow my boring, plan and unexciting Food Plan and feel grateful FOR it.  Food is not entertainment or comfort or fun. Food is fuel for my body, to keep it alive and running. That's all.  My strength and comfort comes from God, not food. May I remember that today.