Food is NOT My Life

Happy Sunday! After traveling last weekend, I'm really happy to be able to go to church this morning with my husband. I love to travel, but it's always wonderful when I'm home and able to attend my own church.

I saw a video clip on CNN.com yesterday about a 623 pound woman. She is in the hospital right now and can't go home because her bed won't fit through the door. This dear woman is in very serious medical condition and her doctor said that her massive weight is putting too much pressure on her heart. He expressed concern that her life span will be measured in months, not years, if she can't get help to lose weight.

The story broke my heart, and what really pulled at me was the woman's statement, "Food is my life."

I didn't pick up on her age, but I don't believe she is even 50. She is in bed, on oxygen, can't move, and may very well die if she doesn't get immediate help. And food is her life.

I've never said that food is my life, but for too many years it played too large a role (pun intended!) in my life. Food wasn't my life, but much of what WAS my life revolved around food. Food wasn't my life, but it's what I ran to when stress, disappointment, frustration, anger, or boredom came up (and with three children and a demanding job, one of more of those emotions was bound to show up on a daily basis).

When I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1, it became clear pretty quickly that the eating part of this program was easy. I liked the food and it satisfied me so that I wasn't overly hungry. The eating part of the program fell right into place. The hard part of the program was changing how I thought and felt about food. I had to learn how to disengage emotionally from food and learn how to put it into its proper perspective as nourishing fuel for my body.

I've shared over the past couple of days about eating on this side of goal, so I hope it's clear that I still enjoy food - I very much enjoy food! However, it is no longer the focal point of my activities and it is not the place of comfort for all of my emotions. As I've shared in the past, one of the things that I learned on my weight loss journey was to turn to my Heavenly Father with all of the concerns and stresses of life. Food is incapable of providing lasting comfort - any comfort I thought I was getting disappeared the minute I'd swallowed my last bite. That comfort was immediately replaced with disgust, self-recrimination and despair. I learned to go to God in prayer with every need of my heart, and I learned that He is a faithful, loving Father Who had been waiting a long time for me to do that.

Food is not my life. My relationship with Jesus Christ is my life. My husband and my family are my life. My life is tremendously enriched with the blessing of a multitude of friends, near and far, and I have the joy of work that enables me to help people every day lose weight and regain their own health. My life is rich and full and I thank God every day for His blessings, because I know that all I have comes from Him. And I also thank Him that, with His help, I have learned to put food into its proper perspective.

Today I am praying that someone will reach out and help the 623 pound woman in the story before it's too late.

Have a great, on-plan Sunday!