Emotional Triggers

Today's post is in response to the Made to Crave Bible study blog hop about emotional emptiness. Hmmm...sounds like a really chipper topic, doesn't it?  The truth is, everyone experiences emotional emptiness in some way.  Sure, some of us are better at hiding it...but it's there.

Taking a real look at my eating habits reveals that I am a "bored" grazer.  I'm a child of the 80's.  We are probably the first generation to sit in front of the TV for an extended period of time and basically "check out" of reality.  Don't get me wrong.  I was plenty active as a child and wasn't overweight then.  But I built those habits that I'm having to learn to recognize now.  I sit in front of the TV with a bag of whatever is easy and handy (and I promise, it isn't a bag of carrot sticks!) and before I know it, *POOF* the bag is empty.  I didn't even realize I was eating!  I'll even let you in on an embarrassing secret:  more than once my husband has asked, "Hey!  What happened to that bag of (insert basically any unhealthy food here)?"  To which my reply would be, "It must have been your son," because I honestly didn't realize I emptied out the darn bag myself!

There are so many emotional triggers and I've fallen to them all.
Night out with the girls?  Chips, salsa, and fruity drinks, please!
Night out with the husband---ALONE?  WooHoo!  Let's go eat ANYTHING fried!
Kid did something great at school?  Ice cream...check!
Tragedy has struck your family, your community?  Drown those feelings with comfort food or send piles of food to the family in need.

It doesn't matter what it is, I've come to the realization that I am simply unable to allow myself to "check out" of this PROCESS of eating.  It seems simple enough, but for me, I just have to make sure that I am eating for nutrition, not because of a host of emotional triggers or emptiness.  Our verse this week (Lamentations 3:22-24) reminds me that the Lord is my portion, not food.

And here's another reminder:

Afternoon Acts of Kindness

This week in the Made to Crave Bible study, we were challenged!  Don't you just love a challenge???  In Ch. 12, Lysa encourages us to “fill our afternoons with His thoughts of love toward others” instead of wallowing in discouragement or frustration over our struggles. Do this and share how it does or does not help you.

Can I just say how much I LOOOOOOVE random acts of kindness?!?!?!  I'm tellin' you what...if you're in a funk you need to get out of fast, that is definitely one way to do it!  Plus, it is zero calories--BONUS! You simply CANNOT complete a random act of kindness and keep that giggly feeling to yourself.  Seriously, just try not to smile about it...IMPOSSIBLE!!!

So, one of my favorite RAOK's is the drive-thru.  This time, when I paid for person's breakfast behind me, I left a little gift as well:

I purchased 10 adult size "I Am Second" bracelets and 10 child size for my son to share.  My plan is to continue the drive-thru RAOK and also give a bracelet to each person who asks me about mine until I am out.  I'm so excited to do this.  

Now, I challenge YOU to go out and complete a Random Act of Kindness! :-)

Delighting in Obedience

Oh my word!  Friends, I knew this journey was going to be tough, but I'll admit that the first couple of weeks were smooth sailing.  I was motivated, had family encouragement, and I felt GREAT.  Then, BOOM!  I should have known the devil wasn't going to let go so easily.

I was working out Thursday night with some nice yoga.  Right in the middle, I started to feel nauseous, but I had started and I was NOT going to quit.  Friday I woke up with an achy body and sore throat.  NO!!!!  I didn't work out because I was just so tired by the time I got home from work.  Well, what's one day?  And then, I didn't work out Saturday...or Sunday...or MONDAY.  Oh, dear.

I did keep up with my M2C reading and morning devotionals, but I just couldn't get that nagging feeling out of my stomach.  Have I just undone everything I've been working for?  Is it going to be impossible to start again?  WHAT HAVE I DONE???

If you were a part of the M2C Monday morning conference call, you know what the message was about...WILLPOWER.  Do these ladies have cameras set up at my house or something?  'Cause they were talking to ME!  The #1 LIE of willpower is that it won't be a struggle.  Boy am I learning that lesson this week.  Along with that little gem of advice, I was also reminded that I have to keep the perspective that I am creating a NEW LIFESTYLE and that I needed to make it HARD for myself to fail.  Time to get some accountability, girl!

Somewhere along this journey of learning how an online Bible study (OBS) works, I missed the post about getting into a small group.  So, to keep myself accountable, I am creating my own small group for this Bible study on Facebook.  Let me say that again---a girl who has never done an online Bible study before (ok, you know what, it's time to get real with you....I've never done ANY Bible study!) is going to create her own small group.  YEP!  I sure am!  I felt led to do so.  Here's where the delighting in obedience comes in.

Our verse from this week begins with "I give you treasures of darkness..."  The end of last week and beginning of this week were starting to get dark, y'all.  I was not standing up to overrule any objections the devil was putting into my head.  In order for me to follow the advice to make it hard for myself to fail, I HAD to get some accountability going on.  Then, the Lord put the small group idea into my head.  And I just jumped into the light feet first.  Pray for me, people! ;-)

From our reading this week, Lysa's sentence from p. 82 jumped out at me: "We are never supposed to get the satisfaction our souls desire from our looks".  Add to that a couple of verses that I felt like I needed to add to my notes this week: "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." Proverbs 14:30 and "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7.

I am guilty of trying to satisfy my soul's desire through my looks.  But the truth is, I'm never going to be satisfied with it.  NEVER.  I'm super guilty of being envious of what other's have...especially in the looks department.  I have BEAUTIFUL friends...and it's hard to go in public with beautiful friends when you're secretly wishing you had something that each of them has.  The guilt of that is a difficult pill to swallow.  But, you know what???  The Lord isn't looking at my outside.  He wants me to get satisfaction in Him!  So, I'm going to continue to strive in delighting in the obedience of that.

On that note, since our blog message today on M2C was full of inspirational songs, I thought I'd share one of my favorites as well...



And if you've made it this far (whew, it's a long one!)  I'll share something funny.  After I finally decided to get up off my butt Tuesday, I got on the elliptical and worked hard for 60 minutes.  HARD...like I LITERALLY wore the wheels off of my old elliptical.  I'm not even joking.  The wheel came flying off and the workout was over!  It was SOOO funny.  Hahaha!  I hope you get a little chuckle out of that one.  No worries, though, I got a new one today.  No excuses!