Book Week: Freedom From Emotional Eating

I need to lose twenty pounds. I've needed to lose twenty pounds for twenty years. I've tried twenty different ways to lose twenty pounds. I would pay twenty million dollars to lose these twenty pounds!!! :-( 

I needed help and I found it in this book whose complete title is Freedom From Emotional Eating: A Weight Loss Bible Study by Barb Raveling.

Amazon says this:

This 8-week Bible study contains 40 daily lessons that will help you 1) break free from the stronghold of emotional eating and 2) let go of those negative emotions that rob your joy. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthian 10:3-5 that the answer to tearing down a stronghold isn't self-control - it's truth. Freedom from Emotional Eating will help you take off the lies that make you overeat and put on the truth that will set you free from the control of food. 

I started this book around Thanksgiving when my regular Bible study group decided to take a break for the holiday season. Starting the day with Bible study had gotten to be a habit that I didn't want to let go, so I went searching for a study to work through on my own. Now that our computers track everything we ever search for on the Internet, my separate searches for "weight loss" and "Bible study" made this title pop up out of the blue!  What luck!! It is a wonderful study!

Of course, we all know that if you have a problem with emotional eating, there is an underlying cause(s) of that problem. Throughout the entire study, the author systematically leads you to the discovery of your personal underlying cause. You must understand the enemy to defeat it! :-)

 Here are the first three weeks of study in which the author helps you identify the stronghold food has in your life and how God's truths can help you break those bonds. She helps you realize that you have set food as an idol in your life, something you turn to for comfort rather than the turning to God's statutes.

Week 1: Truth (It is important to start by realizing that we have screwed up our thinking with all kinds of lies about food and why we eat. She teaches the habit of truth journaling and it is awesome!)
Week 2: Trials (Mrs. Raveling says, "God wants to bring good things out of the trials we go through, but when we use food to escape, we miss out on all He's trying to teach us.")
Week 3: Idolatry (She helps you identify your idols so that you can adjust your attitudes.)

I have to say that I was shocked when I identified my idols as peace, perfection, and control. These seemed like good traits to me, traits that would result in an ordered, productive life. But when your idols become "have-to-haves" they begin to control you! So when things weren't perfect, I would get stressed and eat! When my to-do list got out of my control, I stressed out and ate! When everything in my life wasn't peaceful, I ate! You really are your worst enemy.

The remaining weeks concentrate on...

Week 4: Worry
Week 5: Discouragement and Boredom
Week 6: Anger
Week 7: Stress and Anxiety
Week 8: Depression, Loneliness, and Celebration

The study is full of scripture and she encourages you to memorize verses to turn to in times of weakness.  I bought the book on my Kindle and did all of my note taking, scripture writing, and question answering in a plain spiral notebook, but you may want to buy the actual workbook.

So there you go!! Not a diet; a whole new outlook!  If you share these struggles, I think this book can make the difference.

And finally, if Paul will forgive me for this version of his words in Romans 12:2......

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world (Vogue magazine, cheeseburgers with fries, cleanses and smoothies, Facebook comparisons, 40 oz. sodas, Kardashians, fashion, to-do lists, fitting in, diets, botox, and fakeness), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Bible study). Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will."

Love ya'll,

Shelli

I've been on a constant diet for the last two decades. I've lost a total of 789 pounds. By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.

 ~Erma Bombeck

I recently had my annual physical examination, which I get once every seven years, and when the nurse weighed me, I was shocked to discover how much stronger the Earth's gravitational pull has become since 1990.

 ~Dave Barry

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. 

Unless there are three other people. 

~Orson Welles