There have been some changes that I've been considering making for some time now regarding the way our family consumes food. Mostly I feel we eat too many calories, from the wrong kind of foods, way too frequently. My very best friend recently spent 3 weeks at the
Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida learning about the live raw food lifestyle, learning how to prepare raw meals and detoxing her body from chemotherapy treatment. She had a wonderful time and all the benefits of eating raw Jill was boasting about really got me thinking about the food I prepare and consume.
What really seems natural to me about the process is simply eating whole foods that God created without modifying them and adding our "special" touch to them. Raw foods are, simply enough, foods that have not been cooked. They're the fresh fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds, and herbs we've all come to know and love in their whole, natural state.
Somewhere after four years of marriage and birthing two children 19 months apart I find myself 85 lbs overweight. If that number startles you it's okay. It does that and more to me. It is overwhelming, depressing and frustrating. It's not the fact that I am a wife or a mother that has made me gain so many pounds. There are circumstances that can happen when you're married and have kids that if you are not careful to guard yourself against them, can cause a woman to gain weight, that's all I'm saying.
A few months ago I made the decision to do something about the excess weight and eating situation I have gotten myself into and it is working well. Eating raw is just the next natural step for me. Over the next 40 days I will be learning all I can about living raw so that as I complete my next phase of Hcg vlcd I can smoothly transition into a raw lifestyle.
So not coincidentally on Saturday while I was at Books-A-Million, while I was looking for a book to educate me about the raw lifestyle I ended up purchasing another book called
Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst. I started the 216 page book that afternoon and finished it a few short hours later. The subtitle of the book is "Satisfying your deepest desire with God, not food". As I literally devoured chapter after chapter, tears filled my eyes as Lysa confessed many struggles and thoughts I've had about food, about being overweight, about my disappointment in myself.
More importantly the book finally gave me the missing piece to my puzzle. Finding my new "want to". Let's be really, really honest with each other. Most of us know the "how to", or have the resources to learn the "how to". It's the "want to" that makes the difference between paying for a monthly gym membership and actually using it. My new go-to verse for strength has become 1 Corinthians 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me" - but not everything is beneficial... I will not be mastered by anything.
What I learned was really how much God's word has to say about food, taking care of yourself, and the bare basics of it all - disciple and self control. I've had a huge change in my heart about how I think and act around food. I've come to realize that my over dependence and over indulgence in food has really all along been the sin of gluttony. Eating in excess is a sin. "Do not join with those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags (Proverbs 23:20-21). Lysa explains why we were meant to crave more than food: "If we fail to understand how to fill our souls with spiritual nourishment, we will be triggered to numb our longings with temporary physical pleasures. When those pleasures are food, the resulting behaviour is what we often hear referred to as emotional eating. But this issue is bigger than emotions; it's really about spiritual deprivation."
Please take 5 minutes to read Lysa's devotional
Call To Action and see if it tugs at your heart strings. If there are any of you out there who can identify with the cries of my heart and what Lysa has to say I would really, really LOVE to host a home group to study her book Made to Crave.
I want to learn to replace my dependence on food with total dependance on God the Father. I'm just a girl in love with Jesus, learning to walk with Him to the very best of my ability. Thank you for reading and sharing in my journey! I am excited to continue this new adventure and to walk it out and hopefully help encourage someone else along the way.
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