the-futureNot all diets are destructive. What is destructive, however, is what we’re doing to our bodies when we frequently start and stop weight loss programs.

Studies have proven the greater the number of failed diets, the greater the likelihood that stress-eating has been your downfall.

What do you think we really hunger for? What is it you hunger for late at night, after everyone’s gone to bed and it’s just you and your emotions and the food calling your name?

Our bond with food is strong, and when we use it as a substance to avoid or substitute a feeling, we can find ourselves thinking about eating day and night

Mealtime memories can play a significant role in understanding who we are and why we respond as we do to food.

In my journey of piecing together the fragments of my life, I can clearly see when I started eating for emotional comfort, when I began to use food as a substitute for love.

It’s important to express and receive love in a healthy way, and sometimes people who have used food to avoid heart issues find that hard to do.

The heart of the gospel message is gaining compassion for others—trying to love the unlovable. But what if the unlovable ones are us? What if we have no compassion for ourselves—if all we have is self-loathing and hate for what we have become? What if every gauge we use to measure our own self-worth is associated with our weight?

The Bible says that we were created in God’s image—fearfully and wonderfully made.

Setting boundaries with food begins with a change of heart—not with a change of digits on your bathroom scale.

God Chose Us!  Max Lucado reminds us that we are a chosen people. When you stop and really think about this, isn’t it amazing? How much God loves us? In 1 Peter 2:9, the Bible says that we are “a people for God’s own possession.”

I’m thankful that I’ve come to understand what love looks like through the heart of God. To understand what trusting relationships look like as I’ve developed a relationship with a trustworthy God.

I once read that every extra pound you carry on your body equals a pound of emotional pain you are carrying in your heart.

My greatest prayer is that you will become emotionally, spiritually, and physically ready for a radical change in life as well.

 

Adapted from Setting Boundaries with Food, Six Steps to Lose Weight, Gain Freedom, and Take Back Your Life by Allison Bottke © 2008. Harvest House Publishers. All rights reserved.

Visit the Setting Boundaries Books website today for more information.