Archive for the The Journey Category

^“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

In our last post we talked about the benefits of hunger. Since we are hungry, our brains are working more efficiently. Now we can think about why it is we eat in the first place.

The human body is a machine. This machine runs on fuel. We want to be smart and fast and efficient because we have important work to do. Therefore, we want to put the best possible fuel into our machine and the best fuel is not White Castle French fries and milk shakes. Some of us have spent years putting toxic sugar, fat and salt into our machines and our fuel tanks are rusted out. Therefore, we require a complete overhaul. This overhaul includes sandblasting our taste buds by eliminating the residue and cravings. This seems very painful in the beginning but once perfected, we will have an efficient machine. Even better, we will forge new healthy habits that will sustain us through the fires of affliction. Our new, battle tested bodies will be able to withstand pesky temptation when it tries to interfere with our regimen. And, we will be able to fulfill the purpose for which we were created.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

Re-learning how to eat food can be a daunting experience if we look at it through the wrong lens. If we focus on all the things we can no longer have, we will be tempted to give up before we begin. My first foray into sugar-free eating was terrifying. I prayed that God would help me for 30 days to be sugar-free. God honored that prayer of faith and He will honor your prayers too. We have to take this journey one step at a time so let’s not get overwhelmed. (And if you are already hyperventilating, go hide in your closet, cry it out, and come back when you are ready).

Some of us have food allergies or medical conditions that seem prohibitive. I would encourage you to take an honest assessment of what you can and can’t consume and work it into your plan. This is your plan. You may want me to write out a diet for you but I’m not going to do that because many people wiser than I have done this already. I visited the library and picked up books from different authors that I liked. I picked from recipes I thought I would like to eat and then ate small portions. Just because I stopped eating fast food, doesn’t mean I didn’t make the foods I liked. I still ate meat loaf, tacos and pizza—just in moderation and made from scratch so I knew what went in it. I think it glorifies God for us to enjoy the food we eat—otherwise, why would he have given us such a wonderful thing like a tongue with which to taste it all.

The most important thing would be to consider that your stomach is roughly the size of your fist and we generally shouldn’t eat much more than will fill it. Now, I’ve been known to break this rule if what I’m eating is fiber rich and calorie negligent. Meaning, I eat lots of cabbage, lettuce, green beans and broccoli. I eat small amount of protein (beans, nuts, or meat) and moderate portions of fruits. I personally tend to avoid pastas—especially when combined with fats like butter. Fat slows down the digestion of complex carbohydrates and makes us lethargic. I love butter and use a lot of it. (Butter is my best friend next to Becky!) So, I use it on my vegetables instead of bread.

Your grand adventure with food is going to be fun and profitable. While you learn to consume food that nourishes instead of poisoning the body, you will feel better.

“I go to war against gluttony because those who have walked closely with God warn me that overeating dulls me to God’s accepting presence, makes me more vulnerable to other sins, negatively affects my relationships with other people, and robs me of the joy rightfully mine as an adopted, deeply loved, and accepted child of God.” – Gary Thomas

Now for the really great news! Once you eliminate sugar from your diet, everything tastes sweeter. Milk is sweet. Vegetables are sweet. Fruit is sweet. Also, we can learn how to cook and bake with natural sugars like maple syrup, honey and stevia without the glycemic response from our overactive pancreas. Stores like Trade Joe’s and Aldi have lines of food that is organic, has few—if any chemicals—and taste fantastic. I personally enjoy their freeze-dried strawberries, Fuji apples and pears as a light snack. They also have nuts and popcorn. Yes, I eat popcorn. I buy the whole kernels and cook them in the air popper. Dried fruits like raisins and apricots are good in moderation as well.

For my salty/crunchy food loving friends, I hear air fryers are amazing. I don’t have one personally so I can’t speak to them other than what my friends say.

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

At this point I would like to say that it takes great courage to re-think the way you eat. Courage is a muscle we must exercise because we will need it in the days ahead. When you run out of courage, find an accountability partner to keep you honest and whisper (or shout) words of encouragement when you need them. Also, remember to cry out to Jesus. He wants you to learn discipline and He will help you as He helps all of His children who trust in Him.

Next time…What do you mean, exercise? Are you trying to kill me?

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” – Jesus

Many of us do not know what true hunger is. We have never felt the ache of a tummy with no hope of being filled. Such are the blessings of living in the land of plenty.

There is true comfort in the rhythm of our meals but many of us could skip one or two meals a day for the rest of our lives and not be adversely affected. It’s true. And, while many of us grew up with parents who encouraged us to “empty our plate” because there are “starving children” in other countries, we had no tangible concept of starvation, so we got into a habit of eating when we weren’t truly hungry because it was required.

When I read that Louis Zamperini survived for 47 days on a life raft with no food and very little water, I was shocked. I wondered if it was even possible. But Lauren Hillenbrand illustrated in her masterful work, “Unbroken”, that not only was it possible—it really happened. Louie’s plane crashed at sea, and he and two other men climbed aboard a yellow life raft. Yes, their bodies were emaciated when the Japanese picked them up and the yellow from the raft had transferred to their skin. They weren’t pretty—but they were alive. I write that to illustrate that people can live for extended periods of time (and in extreme conditions) without food.

Nutrition is not just a label.

Now that we have demonstrated that we are willing to learn, God will help us understand our bodies and their natural responses. Once we learn how to response to our physical cravings, we will discover a sense of empowerment. Early in my journey, I found great joy while reading about nutrition and how it affects the body. The more I understood, the more ammunition I had to resist temptation.

I used to have the attitude, “I know soda, fast food, and candy are bad for me, but I don’t care. I’m going to eat them anyway.” This mindset is poisonous. When we refuse to acknowledge the affect foods have on our bodies, we reject the sanctity of the body itself as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

“Do you not know that youare God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

Our bodies must process everything we put into it. While many people rant about environmental pollution, they are slow to realize chemical pollution by way of intentional ingestion. We often take our liver and kidneys for granted until the day the doctor tells us they aren’t working properly. These vital organs bear the brunt of our poor choices in food and drink. When we eat foods that do not nourish the body—as food is intended to do—we starve ourselves of nutrients and literally poison the only body we have for our whole lives.

The argument, “What I don’t know won’t hurt me” is wrong. One great example is Diet Coke. The word “diet” hoodwinks many people into believing the “no-calorie” lie that we can consume without affect. (Thanks for nothing, Evil Marketing Geniuses!) With ingredients like caramel color and aspartame, we have become victims of toxins we know practically little about. Worse, we drink them, don’t lose weight, and become frustrated.

So when will we get angry enough to stop giving corporations our hard-earned dollars? When will we acknowledge they have created concoctions that purposely make us addicted? Are we really happy living with bodies that cannot move, and that are sick or diseased?

Hunger is Helpful

Once we determine our brains have been hijacked by toxic products (passed off as food), we can begin the difficult work of detoxing. We can stop ingesting processed sugar. We can stop drinking sordid sodas. We can curse the monster who created donuts (chemicals fried in trans-fat). We can begin our journey by learning what true hunger is and eat smaller portions of real food. We can exercise a muscle we didn’t know existed in our bodies (self-control) and we can light a match to the kindling of hope that—given enough time, oxygen and education—will produce a roaring flame of success.

We can tip our hand to winning once we stop playing the mental game where we choose Oreo cookies over exercise, Cheetos over joy, and Barq’s root beer over good health. I know it sounds simple, but taste buds need not trump common sense. We simply need to make a decision to change our lifestyle and stick to it.

Is this easy? No.

But isn’t every noble goal worth fighting through some discomfort to achieve? I think so. And what can be more noble than saving our bodies so we can use them more effectively?

I do want you to know that the suffering is temporary. If you choose to go on this journey, you will find that while there are difficult stretches, it is mostly a wonderful adventure!

So let’s stop saying, “I can’t stop eating Doritoes. I can’t give up Diet Coke.” As I stated before, “Yes, you can!”

Next time…What Can I Eat?

I like cold turkey. Unless, by cold turkey, you mean quitting a bad habit. I think they call it “quitting cold turkey” because when you give up that thing that you love, you feel like a turkey that has been plucked of all its feathers and left to stand outside in the cold. There is no way to sugar-coat it, learning how to apply discipline to ones mind or body is not comfortable.

And that is where most people give up–before they have even started. They consider the pain and turn back to the thing that is killing them. Now, maybe they don’t want to believe it is killing them. Maybe they consider that food/drug/porn addiction isn’t really a problem. Maybe they consider they can keep it inside a tidy little box where nobody knows about it but them. But on the inside–they hate that thing and the cage they keep it in, and really wish they knew how to drop it over the edge of a bridge.

The reason so many of us struggle to conquer those things that have captured us is that we are afraid to name it. The word “sin” makes people uncomfortable. I was, for many years, unwilling to acknowledge overindulgence as sin because I loved it so much. My life was well-ordered around my proclivity to overeat, over watch television, and live a generally undisciplined life. Still, in God’s Holy law–the ten commandments–his very first “rule” is, “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.” The truth was, I pulled God out when I needed something, but for the most part, when stressed, angry, sad, happy, or any other intense emotion, I worshipped at the altar of food.

Sin is insidious and resides in all human hearts. In my opinion, the only way to conquer sin is by the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ. To know Christ we must surrender our sinful hearts to Him and as Him to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Salvation is His free gift to us–a gift that gives us communion and fellowship with God. But that free gift came at the cost of His life and therefore He does not take lightly to our living a life surrendered to sin instead.

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” – Romans 6:1-2

So the very first thing we must do is surrender our wills to Jesus and ask Him to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Then, we must all allow Him to do it.

The prayer of faith is a beautiful thing. The more I ask God to show and heal me of sin, the more He does so. The gift of repentance is wholly freeing. I give to God my shame, regret, and humiliations, and He gives me His peace. This is how I walk as a Christian. I can deny my human passions by relying on His promises to strengthen me while I allow him to conquer that thing which had conquered me.

This is not pie in the sky. This is not a wishful hope. This is a real, practical, way to live joyfully and free.

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:20-23

I started out this blog entry by talking about the thing we love making us feel like a cold turkey. I would at this point like to remind everyone that God will never leave us standing outside of the warmth of His love. Even in the worst circumstances, we can trust that He is with us and for us.

How do I know this?

Because when I surrendered my will to God and allowed Him to teach me discipline, we began walking towards hope. So yes, you can do this! You can surrender your will and invite Him to change your life. Will it be super comfy? Like your couch and a plate of cookies with your favorite television program? No. Following Jesus looks like torture. It’s like carrying a cross down a path that leads to death. By death–I mean the death of the you, you once were and walking toward life–the life you never dreamed could be possible.

Next time….Prepare to Suffer Well!