Truth Card Installment #856 (Entitlement)

entitlement

Ok, so maybe I haven’t posted about truth cards 856 times. In fact, I think I have only posted a half a dozen times specific truths that are in my truth cards.

Do you find it helpful? I hope so!

It certainly helps ME to review them yet again and I hope it helps YOU to have some “ammo” so that you can take captive runaway thoughts and replace them with God’s truth! 🙂

In my years of being on this journey with Thin Within (since 1999), I have found that for me and many others I have spoken with Entitlement is perhaps one of the number one challenges leading us to eat outside of 0 and 5. I know I say that about everything, but this time I mean it! 🙂

Seriously, if we can recognize when an attitude of entitlement has reared it’s ugly head and stop it dead in its tracks, I think we will find that a lot of our eating outside of 0 and 5 STOPS.

Reviewing truth about entitlement is a great way of doing that.

These truths came from my work on Barb Raveling’s bible study on Entitlement Eating. Credit where credit is due!

Entitlement Eating:

1. When I feel entitled, I feel like eating *anything* I want because I *deserve* it. THIS IS A LIE.

2. I do NOT have a “right” to eat in that particular situation. God ALONE determines when it is time for me to eat.

3. God is DISHONORED by my attitude of entitlement. He wants me to approach all His blessings with humility.

4. When I live by my “rights” and feelings in the area of food and eating, I OVEREAT and GAIN WEIGHT. I AM MISERABLE PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, and SPIRITUALLY.

How About You?

Does an attitude of entitlement affect you at all? Does it cause you to reach for food out of the boundaries that you believe God has set for you?

 

 

More Truths About 0 to 5 Eating

More Truths for Truth Cards

More Truths for Truth Cards

If you need more truths about 0 and 5 eating—or NOT eating 0 to 5—here are some more ideas. 🙂

Again…what do I DO with these cards? I review a few of them each day. Sometimes twice or more. That way, the truth is right there in my mind, ready to leap into my thoughts when I need it! If I know I struggle more at certain times of the day, then I will review my cards just before that time of the day. I PRE-EMPT the temptation!

1. When I eat 0 to 5 I have joy, peace, and delight.

2. When I don’t eat 0 to 5 I have guilt, frustration, and disappointment with myself.

3. Eating 0 to 5 I will land on a slender size that is right for me…not TOO thin and not too heavy. (Either is unhealthy!)

4. Not eating 0 to 5, I will always battle with my weight.

5. Eating 0 to 5 I never wonder what my size will do. It is predictable.

6. When I don’t eat 0 to 5, I wonder if I will “get away with it” forever.

7. When I don’t eat 0 to 5 I have a stuffed feeling after eating.

8. When I eat 0 to 5, I get to eat more frequently. Small meals, more frequently is a fun way to eat!

9. When I don’t eat 0 to 5, food doesn’t taste as good.

10. Eating 0 to 5 I get to enjoy LIFE!

11. Not eating 0 to 5, I am paranoid and self-conscious about how my clothes fit. I reach into the closet wondering how grave the damage will be.

How About You?

Are you adding truths to your deck of truth cards? How do you use these cards? How has using your truth cards helped you out? Share your story here and you may encourage another person!

5 Truths for Freedom for the Restrictive Eater!

Image Source: iStock Photo

Image Source: iStock Photo

Hi. A friend of mine who frequents this blog, sent me an email following my post last week on Truth Cards. I asked her if she would be willing to write a blog post to share her perspective with the readers of this blog. It is incredibly valuable, but one I have little experience with. I hope you will share the link with anyone you know who may need to see this!

——-

I find truth cards to be extremely helpful. But my truth, as someone who has suffered from years of restrictive food plans of my own making and through various anonymous organizations, seems to be almost the flip side of your truth.

One of your truth cards, which you shared with blog readers on 9/3/13, reads, “Today I will have to give up food I want to eat in order to follow my boundaries.” When I read that I immediately thought, “that is not true for me.” For me, I MUST eat food I want in order to follow my boundaries. 

I had so many years of telling myself the following lies:

LIE #1. I cannot handle sugar.

LIE #2. If I start eating that binge food, I will never be able to stop.

LIE #3. There is something wrong with me at a cellular level.

LIE #4. The fact that I crave carbohydrates is evidence that I can’t handle them.

LIE #5. Desperate wanting (craving) is one step on the path to sinning.

Maybe these lies don’t ring a bell with you. If they do, if you have been like me and felt like you were evil for wanting things, and then denied yourself those very things in order to be “good,” then you can place yourself firmly in the “restrictor” camp.

I have been underweight, at my ideal weight, and overweight. I don’t think all restrictors are underweight. When I was overweight, I felt like a hypocritical restrictor. But wasn’t it inevitable? As I grew and matured physically and spiritually, I began to recognize the lies inherent in my beliefs. But that recognition was at a somewhat unconscious or perhaps semi-conscious level, and that’s when I transitioned from full-time restriction to binge eating. For me, binge eating is best described as intermittent restriction. It was restriction on the path to healing. But it was a very hard place to be, and it didn’t feel at all transitional. It felt permanent, and in fact it seemed like direct evidence that there was something very wrong with me. I told myself the lies, shouted them to myself sometimes, until eventually the unconscious or semi-conscious part of me said “NO!” and I ate every item of sugar that I could possibly stuff into myself in a short period of time. Bingeing seemed to confirm the lies, “see, I REALLY can’t handle sugar,” and “see, there REALLY is something terribly wrong with me.”

When I was finally able to see that the binges were actually created by the restriction and by my belief in lies, and I started to let myself eat the things I actually wanted, I was amazed and full of awe at the truths that God revealed:

TRUTH #1. I can eat sweets in moderation.

TRUTH #2. I can eat what I truly want and be satisfied.

TRUTH #3. There is nothing wrong with me (other than the fact that I believed a bunch of lies for years and years).

TRUTH #4. The fact that I crave carbohydrates is evidence that either I have overdone it in the sugar department and need some protein to balance out my overindulgence, or more likely, that I have not been eating enough carbohydrates and my body needs some sugar or complex carbohydrates to operate effectively.

TRUTH #5. Desperate wanting (craving) is a way of God communicating with me through my body. I can listen to God, honor my bodily signals, and take loving and nurturing action. Craving sleep, craving a hug, all my other cravings signal real needs that can be simply met. I do not need to be afraid. Cravings can be satisfied.

It all seems like a lot and as a person who is recovering from perfectionism, I tend to want to get it all right and find it overwhelming and want to retreat into a food plan that someone else has constructed because I still sometimes believe the lie that I am incompetent in the food department. When this happens, then I try to center on just one concept: My one goal for eating today is SATISFACTION.

When I am satisfied, I have no desire to binge. When I eat to satisfaction, I forget about food until next time I am hungry. In all those years of restriction, I was almost never satisfied, which is why I thought about food all the time.

Satisfaction is scary. It takes me to the next level. It solves my food problem and opens up new possibilities for me. I have been eating to satisfaction consistently for almost four months now. I have been eating to satisfaction and have been binge free for that entire time. This is coming from someone who five months ago and for the past 10 years before that was bingeing on average at least three times per week, with brief forays of binge free living that lasted at most six weeks at a time. It’s both a miracle and an incredibly simple answer to what seemed like a hugely complex problem.

It takes a lot of trusting in God to eat to satisfaction. But God is faithful, as always. If weight is a concern for you, then take heart. I had been bingeing heavily when I started, so I lost five pounds within the first week or two, of what for me has come to be known as “binge weight.” Over the subsequent few months, I’ve lost another five pounds. I am now at what I would consider an ideal weight for myself, a weight that I have not been at for over 10 years. And I got there by eating to satisfaction? Yup. Praise God!

Post by – Name withheld by request

How About You?

Prayerfully consider if you are someone who needs to write a different kind of truth in your truth cards. What does God’s Spirit testify to your heart? Are you, like my friend, in need of pressing on all the way to satisfaction? Are you restricting your eating in a way that is not trusting the body that God has given you? What is true for you? Are you willing to step out in faith and trust Him today?

5 Truths To Believe for Lasting Weight Loss

I hope you have been developing a batch of Truth Cards. If so and if you don’t have these truths added to them yet, maybe you would want to include these truths:

Truth 5

Truth 1

truth 2

Truth 3

truth 4

 

What About You?

What truths are you adding to your truth cards today?

SATURATED with TRUTH!

Image Source: Stock Exchange

Image Source: Stock Exchange

Have you ever died a piece of cloth? It is so important to be sure that the entire thing is completed saturated. If it isn’t, the change will be inconsistent or mottled, at best.

I want my heart, mind and life to be “dyed” with truth–totally 100% SATURATED.

I was struck–even in the middle of my tizzy fit–by how many times verses from Romans 8 are quoted to me. I have to admit…there are times when it makes me roll my eyes. Really? Someone is going to quote “God works all things together for good”…aGAIN?  Or “We are more than conquerors!” “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!” or ” There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ.”

Really, when you think about it, Romans 8 may be one of the most quoted chapters in all of Scripture.

So, even with an attitude, I wondered with my journal and bible open to Romans 8, what TRUTH would I believe if I believed ONLY what Romans 8 has to say? This is the list I came up with:

  1. I am not condemned (v. 1)
  2. I am free from the law of sin and death (v.1)
  3. The righteous requirements of the law have been fully met in me (v. 4)
  4. I have my mind set on what the Spirit desires (v. 5)
  5. I have life and peace (v. 6) <–an important one for me since I tend to make peace and idol if left to my own devices!
  6. I am controlled by the Spirit (v. 9)
  7. I belong to Christ (v. 9)
  8. Christ is in me (v. 10)
  9. I am led by the Spirit of God (v.14)
  10. I am a child of God (v. 14)
  11. I received a Spirit of sonship (v. 15)
  12. I am God’s child. He is my Abba Daddy (vs. 15, 16)
  13. I am an heir of God (v. 17)
  14. I share in his suffering (v. 17) <— This made me wonder how much of my suffering in my current trials are my own doing and not about suffering with Christ at all?
  15. I will share in His glory (v. 17)
  16. There is a glory ahead that far outweighs my present suffering (v. 18)
  17. The Spirit helps me in my weakness (v. 16)
  18. The Spirit prays for me when I don’t know how/what to pray (v. 26)
  19. The Spirit prays according to God’s will (v. 27)
  20. God works all things for good for me (v. 28)
  21. I love God (v. 28)
  22. I have been called according to God’s purpose (v. 28)
  23. He has predestined me (v. 30)
  24. He has called me (v. 30)
  25. He has justified me (v. 30)
  26. He has glorified me (v. 30)
  27. God is FOR me (v. 31)
  28. God gave His son for me (v. 32)
  29. God graciously gives me all things! (v. 32)
  30. Jesus prays for me (v. 34)
  31. Nothing can separate me from God’s love (vs. 35, 39)
  32. I am more than a conqueror! (v. 37)

What, then, shall I say in response to this? (v. 31)

Truly… what would happen for me…for you…if we believed even one third of this list? How might it affect our eating? I know it would affect mine. I didn’t get to carry 100 extra pounds on my frame twice just by eating foods that sounded good. I ate because I was resentful and bitter, because I wanted to celebrate, commiserate. I ate for holidays, I ate for vacations, I ate after vacations and after holidays. I ate because of nice things said to me and mean things said to me. In short, I ate for a million lies that I believed…that somehow food was going to make whatever it was better. LIE.

So, any one of those statements above, could be like a sword (of the Spirit, the Word of God) challenging the right of the lie to exist in my life.

How About You?

Might some of these truths in the list above make good material for truth cards? 🙂

What impact would it have on your eating if you believed Romans 8?