Hunger or habit?

Why do we eat what we do? What pushes us, prods us, and pulls us towards food?
As I stood in my hotel room this week, traveling around the country like a vagabond for the organization I consult for, I recognized that hunger often has very little to do with why we eat.

I arrived at my hotel tired and stressed as I thought about the days that were ahead. My husband was waiting to hear about a big job opportunity, one that would put him back in the major leagues as a coach, after a heartbreaking exit from the NY Yankees coaching staff- and all I wanted to do was eat crackers! I was nervous, tired, and a bit on edge- and my instinct was to grab the bag of cheddar rice cakes that I brought along in my suitcase.
Instead, I dropped to my knees beside the hotel bed and bowed my head. I asked God to fill the hole in my heart and nerves, instead of me numbly eating crackers.
A sense of purpose and peace came over me as I stood up. After living free from food compulsion for over 20 years, I still know my weak times. Those times I'd like to grab food out of the desire to feel numb, or to erase nerves and apprehension. We all eat from emotion at times...a cup of great cocoa when it's cold and we want to feel cozy, the chocolate when PMS is raging in our bodies, chicken soup when we feel sick and want to be comforted. There's nothing wrong with that at all! The trouble starts when we turn an emotion into an eating habit.
Soon the habit is how we function- rather than feeling our lives as God has intended We stuff our days and nights with drive-thru raids, cupboard hoards, and compulsive eating, rather than feeling the pain or mundane of life.
Even Jesus Himself felt bored, lonely, angry, hurt, apprehensive, joyful, sorrowful, disappointed, and let down by those he loved and trusted. But we don't see Him stuffing away His pain with figs, bread, fish or wine. He felt it. He lived it. He believed in a greater purpose than momentary discomfort.
We are invited to feel our lives rather than stuff them. I think I'll R.S.V.P to that invitation today.

Voices We Hear in our Heads

Have you ever stopped to think about what you hear in your head? The endless banter and chatter almost becomes natural to us- except for the fact that there is nothing natural about beating yourself up daily. Author Tim Hansel states that the average person speaks about 120 words a minute, but psychologist tell us that when we self-talk, that is carry on conversations in our heads, we speak at a rate of about 1,300 words a minute...70% of those words being negative! So where do these voices come from?
Most of what drives disordered eating plays out in the head before we ever grab a spoon or fork. Lies and accusations rant in our minds. "You will always fail." "You'll never change."
"There is no such thing as freedom. This is as good as it gets." On and on, like a bad tape stuck in a recorder- the messages play in our minds. Most voices we hear come from one of three sources:

• Our parents (spoken and unspoken)
• Our culture (media, peers, teachers)
• Satan (called the "Accuser" (Revelation 12:10) and "Father of Lies" (John 8) by Jesus

It's Satan's voices that really toy with our minds as we attempt to separate truth from lies. Charles Stanley, in his book When the Enemy Strikes points out that Satan has a few main purposes:

• To draw you away from God
• To thwart God's purpose for your life
• To deny the glory of God in your life

Food has been a brilliant tool in his hand to draw us away from God. The lies and accusations we feel heap condemnation and despair on us rather than hope and freedom. Speak back to the lies! Don't believe them anymore...call them out! There is truth and inspiration waiting in God's whispers of belief in you...

(For more on this topic check out chapter 6 in my book Truly Fed: Finding Freedom from Disordered Eating www.trulyfed.com )

Why Hunger?

What's our problem with hunger? I've done a lot of pondering on this topic, and have come to realize that we were created with a need for hunger. When our bodies are done using what they've been fed, we are supposed to feel the trigger of hunger. The problem is, we are so used to either stuffing ourselves throughout the day, listening to diets and food plans that tell us when to eat and how much, bingeing on food to the point of feeling ill, or abusing hunger (anorexia)going after its starvation effect. Why are we so afraid to experience the normal function of hunger in our lives?
I believe we experience three types of hunger:
Body Hunger: This is the natural function of the body that uses up the food we ingest, and then needs to be filled again.

Spirit Hunger: The desire to be filled spiritually by communicating with God in prayer, learning from the word (the bible), fellowship with other believers, and experiencing the beauty of God within creation (nature, music, people).

Emotional Hunger: Eating to cover up an emotion such as boredom, loneliness, fear, anger, stress or frustration.

Many times we are really hungry spiritually, yet we stuff in food rather than turn to God. Sometimes we have an emotion that is glaring, yet we eat to cover it up and not "feel" it. Sometimes our bodies are just plain hungry, yet we deny our body the satisfaction of feeding it properly, or binge instead of listening to what our bodies need. Paying attention to what kind of hunger we are experiencing can start to undo disorder when it comes to food.