Freedom From Emotional Eating - Introduction
First I’d like to welcome everyone to the Freedom from Emotional Eating study!! In the comments below please introduce yourself and let us know why you have joined us in this journey!!
Let’s jump right in....
“Has it ever occurred to you that emotional eating is a bit like having an affair?”
What a provocative statement in so many ways. When you really start digging into the study and see how our emotional attachments to food can be just as dangerous as an emotional attachment in an affair and that our bondage to food is a result of the lust of the flesh. When you finally look at the reality of your relationship to food, your attachment doesn’t sound so innocent anymore.
This is why God gave us boundaries, a boundary is any restriction we p
ut in a place to enhance our lives and keep us safe. Eating whenever you feel like eating leads to emotional attachments to food and God is the only one that can help us break the stronghold. I consistently need to remind myself that eating for emotional reasons only numb me from the circumstance and doesn’t allow me to deal with the root of the issue.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NLT) We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
Strongholds are not overcome by self control and discipline, but by taking every thought captive to Jesus Christ!
This is such an important statement, we have all at one time or another put our faith in our boundaries vs putting our faith in the one who can truly set us free. I have become to look at my boundaries as a temperature gauge for how I am doing spiritually. If my boundaries are off, then I know I need to do a spiritual check: am I spending enough time with dad, is there something I need to ask for forgiveness for and repent of, do I need to forgive someone else, am I being disobedient about something? For me it's usually something in one of these areas.
What do your boundaries look like?
John 8:32 (NLT)
And you will know the truth and the truth with set you free.
“God can set you free from emotional eating. As you saturate your mind with truth, God will use the truth to change you desires and actions.”
Here are some steps Barb provides to Ending an Affair with Food
1. Set Boundaries: Be willing to commit to “No more eating what I want, when I want”
2. Think of your boundaries as absolute boundaries: Be willing to commit to “No more breaking boundaries, period”
3. Learn to rely on God for Emotional needs: Be willing to commit to “develop a habit of running to God for help with life rather than food”
4. Seeing emotional eating for what it really is: be willing to commit to “see our relationship with food through the eyes of truth”
5. Limit contact with your favourite food: Be willing to commit to “cut off contact with the foods that send us over the edge into binge mode”
6. Exercise: be willing to commit to “working on a relationship with your body”
7. Memorise Scripture: Be willing to commit to “memorising bible verses, it will help you break from from the control of food”
8. Avoid Boredom: Be willing to commit to “stay busy, so you don’t have time to dwell on thoughts of food”
9. Get an accountability partner: Be willing to commit to believing “there is power in accountability”
10. Don’t give up: Be willing to commit to believing that this time will be different “this time you’ll be using spiritual weapons to break free from the stronghold of emotional eating”