Thin Within and HEAL both encourage us to eat within the boundaries of physical hunger and physical satisfaction. This is the basic principle for the “mechanical” or “how to do it” part of our eating.
However, most of us have shut off this mechanism with years of dieting, bingeing or overeating, and/or starvation. The mechanism may seem “broken,” but it isn’t. It is dormant. I am fearfully and wonderfully made and I can trust my body because of the Maker of my body. But sometimes I need to work patiently with the consequences of my actions for the previous umpteen years! God is gracious and WILL teach me!
For those who have temptations toward not eating enough food–anorexic behavior–the HEAL book encourages you to be sure to get professional help, but also to consider prayerfully submitting to desire eating as a vehicle through which the Lord might resurrect healthy eating in your life. The authors say on page 60:
[The Lord] may give a woman who struggles with undereating the discernment that it’s helpful for her healing to eat when she experiences head hunger, while he may convict someone who struggles with overeating otherwise. (Emphasis added, HEAL, page 60)
For most of us, this is *not* the case however. We know how to eat and are all too eager to eat!
So what DOES stomach hunger feel like? The book mentions that for some there may be a growling sensation. However, Dr. Halliday has been known to say, “Hunger is not a sound.” Relying too much on a “growling” sound to signal hunger can cause a person to eat too much on some days (when the stomach “gurgles” as it digests something) and not soon enough on other days, causing headaches and plummeting blood sugar levels and potential dizziness. A stomach growl seems like an easy signal, but it isn’t the right signal for most of us. Some of us can become very legalistic about waiting for a growl and always eating with a growl. I urge you, if you are in this camp, to ask the Lord to show you the truth about what stomach hunger is like for you.
Since the stomach is somewhat “elastic” and like a bag, I liken it to a balloon. The analogy isn’t perfect, of course. Picture a deflated balloon and that is somewhat like an empty stomach (again, not completely). The stomach is located higher in your body than many people think. Follow your lowest ribs on both side of your body to the place where they join…your “sternum.” Behind this spot on the left is where your stomach rests.
As you can see from the image above, the stomach is definitely higher than most of us think. The very gurgles and growls that we are accustomed to waiting for are often lower. (Personally, I wonder if this illustration doesn’t show not only a FULL stomach, but one that is slightly disproportionate! It seems large!)
When your stomach is empty, there will be a very distinct empty sensation from the place in your body where your stomach lives! 🙂 See if you can distinguish this today. It is very distinct and may or may NOT be accompanied by a growl.
Some people describe it as an ache, a pain, or a vacuum sensation.
Here is the thing, too…something that really surprised me when I realized it. Even if I can’t eat right away…my stomach, once it is empty doesn’t get emptier, thus justifying eating more when I do get around to eating! I am either hungry (stomach is empty), or I am not! Being “sort of hungry” is like being “sort of pregnant.” Sort of an oxymoron. Hunger is an empty stomach pouch! If I am “sort of hungry” I may be at a 1 on the hunger scale, but I am not at a 0. Busying myself with other things can keep me from lamenting “Oh, gosh, I really WANT to be hungry because I WANT to eat!” And it will keep me from obsessing… “IS this hunger? Am I hungry? Maybe I am…hmmm…no, I am not sure!!!” and on and on.
Two things can help…
1.) Pray. Ask God to show you what is “stomach hunger” for YOU and your body.
2.) When in doubt, leave it out. (Again, if you are someone who has struggled with undereating, you will want to prayerfully surrender this to the Lord and choose to eat for a time when your signals are not yet discernible. Professional help is vital.)
For most of us, it takes about one fistful of food (chewed up and compressed) to have sense of stomach satisfaction. That is a LOT less food than most of us eat! Try it for a few days and see what happens, though! You might be amazed!
If you struggle with overeating, remember how easy it is to choose more food than your body really needs. With this in mind, you can courageously begin to select smaller portions. (HEAL, page 62)
I have found that if I eat half as much twice as slow, I end up thinking that I had just as much as I used to eat. 🙂
Truthfully, even now I must return to smaller portions. While I know that I am not eating anywhere near what I used to, I still can see where I have some room for improvement in this area.
As you try this, you will discover that often what we insist is stomach hunger is actually head hunger…desire eating. I eat because I want it. Truthfully, most of the time the antidote to desire eating is to “JUST SAY NO.”
Please know that I don’t mean when you feel like you *can’t*. This is when you just simply *won’t*. I have noticed that once again, for me, evenings tend to be most challenging in terms of desire eating. I think of something, I want it, so I have it. Well, stomach hunger never entered the picture, yet I rationalize and justify…”Well, I am close enough to a 0 and, besides, if I don’t eat now, then in a couple of hours when I am trying to sleep I won’t be able to because I will be hungry.” These are subtle ways my heart has of resisting what I know is right, turning my back on the Lord and refusing to be obedient to what God is calling me to do. He calls me to die to self. I just don’t want to! :-/ I don’t WANT to “Just say no!”
Stomach hunger is usually easier for people to begin to identify over time than stomach satisfaction. For me, I identify that stopping point as “no longer hungry.” The stopping point for this kind of living isn’t once I have eaten as much as I can, but I am not quite uncomfortable yet! It is learning how little I need. Again, for the person who struggles with anorexic tendencies, you will have to learn to eat without thinking in these terms. PLEASE get professional help with this!
But for the rest of us, there is a sense that we want to shovel in as much food as we can before we *have* to stop! This shows me that my heart is still attached to food in a way that God wants to rid me of! I am free to enjoy my food, but to do so without a greedy heart is so important for my physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being!
So, note how your stomach feels during your meal. Try to especially be aware of if the sensation of hunger is gone and keep in mind it takes at least 10 minutes for your mind to know what is going on in your stomach! That is one reason why eating slowly is so helpful!
All of this sounds so mechanical, but most of us find we need the strength of the Lord in order to change our eating to these godly parameters. We have depended on food for so many things (other than fuel for our bodies) for far too long! So when we begin to try to eat between 0 and 5 on the hunger scale, we need to call on the Lord to help us! 🙂 It can be an awesome thing to see that God uses something as mundane as eating and drinking to draw us so much closer to him.
Clarity can be found in the pages of the HEAL book where the “Three Types of Hunger” is discussed. Head hunger, heart hunger and stomach hunger are all hungers that are legitimate hungers that demand to be fed.
However, so often we feed the hunger the wrong thing.
When we eat in response to these hungers, we either engage in desire eating, emotional eating or healthy eating, respectively. HEAL, page 60
This seems so clear to me.
The cool thing is, “Healthy Eating” isn’t defined as *what* I eat so much as *why*. When I eat in response to stomach hunger, *that* is healthy eating.
I put together a video to share some of this material in the HEAL book in lesson 3 on the three types of hunger. It was 10 minutes of footage that I edited down to just under 5 minutes. It is a bit “rough.” Hope you don’t mind! 🙂
Wow…if you haven’t gotten the HEAL book, page 59 alone would be a great reason to get it. Really.
I won’t include the questions here that Allie and Judy ask because I don’t want to cross a line and get a letter from the publisher telling me I have violated copyright/publishing rights, but suffice to say, moving along the same theme as yesterday…we continue to be challenged.
So let me ask you some questions of my own:
What do you “sigh” about?
If you are given a moment with nothing that busies your mind–like when you drive, are in the shower, brushing your teeth, in a boring meeting, where does your mind float to?
What do you “make big”–magnify–in your life?
O Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt HIS name together! – Psalm 34:3
Take the answers these questions to the Lord and ask him to use them to show you if HE is Lord of your thoughts and what it will take in order for him to be! This shows us a lot about our hearts. (I am doing the same…)
In the pages of lesson 3 in HEAL, we are challenged to consider some practical ways of changing that which we focus on. I would like to suggest things that I find helpful:
studying the scriptures
memorizing verses
I can attest to the fact that this makes a HUGE difference in where my “stray thoughts” end up.
Practicing gratitude intentionally during the day also causes my thoughts to head toward gratitude when they are “straying.” It is cool how that happens! If I take time each day to *train* my thoughts, often I find it pays off during those “loosey goosey” moments.
Relative to food, eating, and my body (and anything else I struggle with) this makes a HUGE difference in where I head!
I also like to listen to praise music a LOT…and sermons! I love downloading sermons from iTunes and the kids and I listen to them when we drive. We are sermon junkies! Driving is a time when my mind can go all KINDS of places, so having a place to put my thoughts intentionally, helps me a lot.
But here is the IMPORTANT thing to realize:
We can’t grit our teeth and change our own heart.
It isn’t the act of doing these things that changes us…it is availing ourselves of the Holy Spirit–God dwelling in us–who changes us through these “things” that we can “do.” True change isn’t something we can program by having a bible study method down pat or a packet of verses that we have memorized. Most of us know the truth that:
HEAD KNOWLEDGE isn’t the same as HEART change.
So always always always we must ask and wait … for the LORD. I just find that bathing my mind in His Word any way I can helps me to be more mindful of His presence and to do that.
What will you do today to foster changes in your heart?
Psalm 139 includes a verse where the psalmist asks the Lord to search and know his heart and to show him if there are any offensive ways in him, any anxious ways in him…wow. That is a brave prayer to pray. I know that, relative to so very many things, including my feelings about food and my body, I have a lot of anxiety. God has worked a lot of progress in me in this area, but there yet remains a lot of work to be done! I am so thankful that he continues to work. He continues to do that “new thing” in me constantly!
He does in you as well. Philippians 1:6 says that he will complete that which he has begun. We can rest, confident in this. No, it isn’t a “quick fix” or an easy deal…that much is certain.
…if there’s going to be any real change in our lives, this has to be our genuine request to God. Before we’re transformed physically, we must be refined and renewed from within. That’s what the HEAL Journey is about–going to God daily and asking him to search our hearts, to test us, and to make us more inwardly beautiful in his sight. It’s about transformation from the inside out. As God brings to light the things that are not pleasing to him, we are presented with the opportunity to become the women he wants us to be. HEAL, page 58.
We have to, have to be willing to invite his close scrutiny and correction–not just about which food or how much exercise. Those are all symptoms of something deeper. We have to invite him to evaluate what we value, what we hold dear…and when he nudges us gently, we must respond in tender obedience.
Look up Galatians 5:19-21. In the HEAL book, Allie and Judy break this verse down, looking at each piece of it. In your journal, list each of the words that are mentioned as being an act of the sinful nature. If you like to dig in to scripture, use the tools on Blueletterbible.org (where the link above opens a new tab in your browser) to develop an understanding of each of the words included. How do any (all?) of these show up in the area of food, your body, eating, in your life?
For instance: Envy…for me, I envy passionately (more than I would want to admit) those that seem to have no “issue” with food, eating, or their weight. I see that there is this ugly little area in my life where I have an automatic attitude about people like that! Lord, forgive me! In fact, when someone appears thin and athletic, I have an automatic set of assumptions I make about them…Gosh, this leads me to see other ugliness in me as well…all things that the Lord wants to change! He wants to transform me from the inside out!
Please don’t allow the enemy to use these words to put a spirit of condemnation upon you. That is NOT what is intended here. But what IS intended is that you will be challenged to humbly allow the Lord to love you into change. Our hearts is where the overhaul has to begin!
If you want a really good prayer/study, take time to go through each of the words in the passage and ask the Lord to search you and know you and show you if you need his loving correction in any of those areas. Don’t minimize or justify. Just welcome the fact that he is HERE to bring the much needed change!
Tell us about it here if you feel led by Him to do so!
As much as we try to avoid it or control it, hunger–both physical and spiritual–is a good thing. It is a constant reminder of how dependent we are on God to meet our every need. Our hunger gives us a continuous opportunity to draw near to the One who is our comfort and source of life. HEAL book, page 56-57
It is SOOOoooo much easier to focus on externals like body, weight, our food…than it is to focus on what is really going on…the deep things, like the heart hunger.
By focusing on externals–our diets, our weight, our eating or not eating–we avoid confronting the real issues in our lives: our fears, unresolved grief, emotions, relationships, rebellion, and insecurities. HEAL, page 57
In what ways does this statement from page 57 resonate with you in your life?
In the HEAL book, this statement is followed by this question: “Who or what has hurt you the most?” We are then encouraged to ask God to show us how these people or experiences have affected our lives. I want to urge you to do that right now. But do so allowing the Holy Spirit full access to you, your heart, your mind, so that he might minister to you personally.
What do you think this may have to do with your quest to change physically, emotionally and spiritually? You can ask the Lord about that as well.
I found that the answers to these questions have had a radical impact on how I view food, what I “use” it for, my relationship with God, how I view my body and a whole host of things…all that impact me at varying levels. Some people may minimize that there is any need or value in analyzing this, but God has shown me that I don’t operate in a vacuum. These things have predisposed me to experience difficulty with food, eating, and my body. Sin is still sin, true, and I must choose to repent each day of my life of the sin I have committed, but understanding some of the “why” behind my struggle has actually helped me to do this as well. God’s kindness leads me to repentance. Understanding that I am not crazy, but that there are *reasons* I struggle, helps me so much!
When I ask the Lord to show me the root of these things, as painful as his answer(s) may be, it is in that place where true healing may begin to take place.
The previous post was published just moments ago, so if you haven’t yet seen the weekly assignment for the HEAL book and you are doing the study with us, don’t miss it! I didn’t want to wait, though, to publish my thoughts as I began this week’s material. =================
Even if you don’t have the book, you can join us!
Take time to read John 4:1-41 if you haven’t yet. The HEAL book asks us to do this and it is a great place to read and prayerfully consider what God may be saying to each of us.
We each have a hunger within our souls that craves to be fed–a hunger for love that longs to be satisfied. This “love hunger” is inherent within all of us, but it’s how we respond to this hunger that determines the life we live. Will we allow God to fulfill the desires and hungers of our heart? HEAL, page 55
As you read the passage in John, consider what the woman’s culture had done to her…what was she doing there during the heat of the day? Why might she want not to ever have to come to the well again? You may want to look up some history to learn how “women like her” were treated in her culture to get a full feel for what she faced in her society. There was so much there…and yet…Jesus treated her radically differently than anyone else.
In what ways can you identify with the woman in the story? If you sat down with the woman across a cup of tea (or whatever your pleasure), what might the two of you talk about? How would your conversation be different before she had this encounter with the Lord and after? How had her life been changed?
What does this have to do with your HEAL journey and quest to change?
For what do you thirst? For what do you hunger? What do you turn to for the slaking of your thirst or the satisfaction of your hunger? I mean…really. Like when the lights are out, no one else is home, and no one else will know?
Are you happy in this place? What are you willing to do to change?
It has been said that change can’t happen until the discomfort (misery) with change is overcome by the discomfort we face staying where we are. Can you relate to this comment? How so? Take some time to ask the Lord to touch you in your thirsty, hungry places. Wait for him in silence to show up. Open His Word and hear from Him. He longs to show you compassion!
These little chapters have a lot in them! 🙂 We may not finish in the 6 weeks that I had originally proposed. 🙂 Of course, please go at whatever pace you prefer.
This week’s (or however long…) assignment:
Continue to memorize Psalm 139 if you have chosen to do so. How about turning it into a prayer of praise. For instance: I praise you, God, that you search me…that you know me. That you, Holy God, are willing and able to be intimate with me. Thank you that you care about every detail of my life–even when I sit…which I seem to do a lot of, Lord! You also know when I get up! Help me to get up for your glory, Lord! Etc…You could take a few of the verses each day and pray this way. Just a thought!
Work on the Action Steps that you established for Level 1. If you are comfortable doing so (as the Lord leads you), do the same for the other levels. Try to make some headway in level 3…waiting for physical hunger before eating. Evaluate what happens when you do this and deal with what surfaces that may be related to levels 1 and 2 (relationship with God and relationship with food).
If the Lord leads, apply an action step in level 4. Journal how you feel about making a beneficial food choice. Does it cause you to stumble? Is it too soon? Or do you love having the freedom to select beneficial foods when you are hungry? 🙂 Tell us what you discover here at the blog!
Work through Lesson 3: Healing Your Hunger on pages 55-67 of the HEAL book. If you don’t have the HEAL book, take the time to check this blog each day. Journal your responses to the posts/questions posted here or respond here at the blog. Consider establishing your own blog to chronicle your journey, if you haven’t already done so!
There is a lot in this chapter that is vital. I plan to post frequently. I am loving this material! 🙂 So visit regularly!
Don’t forget to pray throughout this experience! Practicing praising God for his attributes can transform a life! TRULY! It helps get our focus off of self and on to the one who IS BIG! 🙂
In fact, diets make the entire “pyramid” about food or food and exercise…well, about SELF:
As you can see, this isn’t a very stable image. When the beneficial food choices are what life is all about, life topples easily. That is why we can’t keep it up! But when the pyramid is laid out like the HEAL pyramid is, with God as the foundation, there IS a stability for our entire lives!
Diets tell us what to eat, when, and how much (most of the time). Many of us come to this stage of our life with a wealth of experience with diets. Some of us have lost a truckload of weight. Most of us have gained it right back. The diet doesn’t last forever. For some of us, what does seem to last forever is the obsession that dieting can trigger. Obsession with our appearance, with nutrition content in our food, labels, points, blocks, grams, calories and exercise mania.
For many of us, we have to try to walk far afield of graphs, charts, nutrition information and so forth for a season..maybe even a long season…so that we can truly get our bearings with the Lord’s direction and experience the freedom from obsession that he desires for us.
For me, the most recent chapter of this experience of freedom for me has come by not using a bathroom scale. I can’t pretend that I have this figured out yet, but CAN say that I am feeling a lot more freedom than I have ever known now that the scale doesn’t greet me each time I go into the bathroom…beckoning to me:
“Hop on and see… …just go ahead and check… …come on…you want to… …you know you do…”
Only to have me get on that piece of metal and instantly be puffed up with pride at my “accomplishment” or condemned because of my “failure.” (Really, most bathroom scales are NOT accurate to within 2 pounds, so how can I “celebrate” that as a success or bemoan it as a failure? And what about cyclic fluid retention and a million other reasons that a person can vacillate in their weight even by 5 pounds in a single day? Goodness…the hot fudge sundae I ate the night before, does NOT show up as fat weight overnight! Why do we accept these lies as truths worthy of condemning us?)
All of this to say…as soon as we begin to talk about “Beneficial Food Choices” some might say, “I knew it! I knew this was a diet like any other!”
This isn’t the case. There is a huge difference! Let’s look again at the HEAL pyramid! Open your books to have a look at it.
We are doing this so that, as we hit the fourth level, that of selecting beneficial food choices, we can see that this is NOT a diet. So, let’s review a bit…
First – The pyramid is set up the way it is so that the foundation is God. He is the basis for everything and runs through everything. The other “levels” of the pyramid will fall unless the Lord sustains and flows through the others.
Secondly, the second level of the pyramid deals with the tendency we have of looking to food OR dieting OR eating “healthy” food as a means of feeling better about myself, about life, about anything. If I blame food for my condition, if I “hate” food and resent that I have to eat it (for instance), then I do not yet have a healthy relationship with food. Diets usually blow right past this concern. We are taught to hate certain foods and that other foods are almost capable of imparting “righteousness” and virtue to us if we eat them. In fact, there is even an eating disorder that has been recognized in recent years. It is called orthorexia nervosa and is “health food obsession” in a nutshell. The HEAL book challenges us not to go there…but to allow God’s Spirit to heal and soothe what is the true ache in our hearts. Only God can satisfy our need for heart satisfaction and, by Jesus’ blood, make us righteous. Only the Lord can enable us to forgive ourselves for the many years we have abused our bodies or tormented ourselves…not eaten when we were hungry, forced ourselves to eat tasteless foods that were supposed to be good for us, or thrown food down our throats when we weren’t hungry…and all the motives behind all that we did. The LORD HEALS!
As we invite the Lord to deal with this in us, we begin to test the waters of 0 to 5 eating–eating what we desire between the parameters of physical hunger and satisfaction. That is the third level of the pyramid. I hope we can see why these levels do need to be addressed in this order!
We may experience a broad plethora of emotions as we begin to eat only to satisfy physical need and stop eating for the many reasons we have been previously. This takes us back to level 2…dealing with our relationship with food…and back to level 1…allowing the Lord alone to be for us what we have turned to food to be… (See how these levels are interconnected?).
As these levels begin to be more a part of our lives, we sense the Lord calling us to a greater sense of responsibility for the body he has entrusted to us. We begin to discern that we feel physically better in response to some foods than others. This almost seems like an incidental awareness that may emerge slowly as the obsessions fade. We may feel like garbage when we start the day with a quick bowl of cereal, finding we crash and burn within an hour. Or we may realize just how energized we are for half a morning after having some other foods. This is the insight we carry with us into this fourth level of the HEAL pyramid. We may discover that some of the information we learned during our dieting experiences, can actually be “sanctified”–used by the Lord in a beneficial way. But all the while we remain aware that the heart can be deceived…we can wander back into our obsessions if we aren’t alert!
Over time…and it may take a long time for some…we begin to be able to use nutrition information to begin to select foods that are more beneficial than those we chose when we began this process. Not for righteousness’ sake…as we remain steadfast that only the Lord can truly impart virtue into our lives…but because with discernment and a sense of responsibility, we want to feel better and operate at our best. This is a slow change. We also choose foods that the Lord gives us an appreciation for…including the taste!
I learned from my exposure to the “ZONE Diet” years ago that I really feel much better when I have protein with each eating occasion. When I am at a 0 and eat something without protein, I will experience a lack of energy much sooner than when I am sure to have protein as well.
So, then, level 4 is that place we arrive not where we try to revert back to a diet…no, we continue to allow the other three levels of the HEAL pyramid to undergird this top layer. The fact that this layer is smaller than the others indicates it isn’t supposed to be a focus.
You see, so often, we flip the pyramid on its head…we try to make eating beneficial foods where we start AND where we end. We ignore the rest of the pyramid. That is certainly what diets do!
So…with this all said (sorry that this was so long!), let’s look at our goal for this level. Please remember to give yourself time to get there. This isn’t a “do it today” sort of goal. You may not find yourself emotionally ready to exercise this type of discernment until you have rested in the freedom of the other three levels for a long while (like a year!). All the Lord to lead you.
We move to a spiritually mature approach to nutrition when our spirit of vanity and perfectionism is replaced by a spirit of gratitude and a genuine desire to honor God…this comes only from a heart of change–when we really realize who we are and who we belong to–that our lives, our beauty, our bodies are not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). HEAL book, page 47
Level 4:Beneficial Food Choices (Journal your responses if you don’t have the HEAL book…and share them here if you like!)
My goal: To be able and willing to delight in beneficial foods more frequently. Not to consider myself more virtuous for doing so.
Action Steps: To have fresh salsa available all the time (this is one of the few beneficial foods that I enjoy…so I may as well have that as a snack instead of cookies!). To select grilled chicken instead of fried at least sometimes. 🙂
For me, this has to be babysteps!
Tomorrow, I will post the next assignment and some thoughts about it, too. 🙂 Hope you are still hanging in there! 🙂
