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Night Time Eating – Carrie’s Testimony and Challenge!

by | Oct 17, 2013 | Blog

Pathway...
 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
 turn your foot away from evil. Proverbs 4:26
Night time eating is the most recent stronghold that I am seeking to overcome, with God’s help. The Lord has delivered me from the diet mentality, afternoon snacking, over-exercising and several other habits and obsessions. However, I was still holding onto eating after leaving the dinner table. Not eating several hours later when I was hungry, but almost immediately after leaving the dinner table with a satisfied belly.
The habit was created during my years on weight watchers – I would save “points” for the end of the day. While my husband put our son to bed, I could finally rest and relax – I had earned a treat and I was going to enjoy it! Fast forward many years and it was a daily habit, largely associated with emotion, that I was just not willing to surrender. I realized recently that I had to give it up, to surrender it. So, I thought I’d share some of my strategies that have helped me continue moving forward in this journey. (These strategies are in addition to the reading of Truth cards, reading scripture, prayer, praise music, etc).
Please understand that I had to draw a line in the sand to not eat after leaving the dinner table. Some of you may need a meal closer to bedtime, but I sleep better and feel better if my stomach is empty or close to empty at bedtime.  So, I choose to close the kitchen after dinner!
1)   I start every day with a commitment, a promise, to God that I will not eat after dinner.  When I am tempted, I remember my promise and then my mind and heart turns toward my Lord. I know, too, that He provides a way out for me in temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
2)   I report to my accountability partner nightly on my success or failure on this point.
3)   I track on my phone with a checkmark if I have stayed in this particular boundary. It gives me an easy way to see if I am stumbling or succeeding.
4)   I review “my reasons to stay in my boundaries even when it is tough” daily. The reason that speaks to me the strongest currently is that I don’t want to be in this same place in 6 months. I want to be experiencing more and more freedom. I know that surrendering the nighttime eating is crucial to this growth.  So, when I am tempted, I often ask myself “where do I want to be in 6 months?”.
5)   I have started planning for a little sweet at the end of dinner. I will join my family in a small bowl of ice cream. And sometimes I don’t eat the ice cream. I am free to do either one!
6)   I change the direction of my feet.  TV watching is strongly related to the urge to eat after dinner. I am now watching a lot less TV at night. Now, especially when I am strongly tempted, I will take a bath. Or I might read a book or work on my Bible studies or call a friend. Or I just wait for my husband to come back downstairs.  I just do not go near the TV and I try to stay out of the kitchen.
7)   I memorize scripture so that in a tough moment, I can immediately go to the Truth. It helps me to pray my way through the tough moments.
8)   When I do slip up, I observe and correct. I make a plan for next so that I will have a better outcome. I also may truth journal about my thoughts that I had before I broke my boundary.
I underlined the two strategies that have made the biggest difference for me. As of today, I surrendered this habit to the Lord 40 days ago. Quite biblical, isn’t it 🙂?  I have had 4 nights where I slipped up and 36 nights when I was surrendered. I consider that a huge success when I look back and know that I was eating after dinner almost every night.

What About You?

What behavior of yours may be holding you back from total freedom? Pray about what steps you might take to help you overcome.  Please share that that others may learn from you!
~ Carrie

Flesh Machinery? HA!

by | Mar 18, 2008 | Uncategorized

Ok…silly me. I thought that going home would produce flesh machinery. HA!

(Note: For those who don’t know, “Flesh Machinery” is that which causes us to be lured or drawn to food when we aren’t physically hungry. It is things that are in our emotional or habitual or even just mental programming that kick in like being on “auto-pilot”…like when a DVD is on, we go for the microwave popcorn or when Mom comes to visit, we begin foraging through the pantry for the chips…all without concern for physical hunger and satisfaction.)

If I thought going home would be tough relative to flesh machinery, it never crossed my mind how much rougher it could be not to even GET home!

Today, I got to the Tulsa International Airport and my flight to Dallas Fort Worth was …delayed…the airport in DFW was closed for weather. We got off the plane. Then they had a new departure time…we boarded again….then, the news came that the airport in DFW was closed ALL day due to weather! Oh my word! I am NOT a traveller and this is one reason why. Coming here I got scared out of my wits at DFW so I was thrilled that if I had to miss my flight home, that it was before I got to DFW. So, I am here with Jan another day. I sure had a lot of scary moments before I was reunited with Jan with my luggage in her car heading back to her house, though! I am a weather and travelling weanie! Both at once and I am a basket case!

My new flight will leave tomorrow about 5pm from Tulsa. I fly to Dallas Fort Worth and from there fly to Sacramento, getting in at 9:30pm or so.

Flesh Machinery…yes, there is a lot…the emotional turmoil of adjusting my mind to leaving my dear friend behind, psyching myself up for the travel (I hate to travel…have I said that yet?), the knowledge that my sister and mom and husband need me to take care of business with my Mom (many phone calls and emails since the last time I wrote about this in the last entry), feeling sorry for myself: “Lord, why did this have to happen?” (poor baby!), the disappointment/logistics about cancelling my Thin Within class tomorrow night since I won’t be there to lead it, oh golly gosh..I could write a million more things that I could complain about…all of which send me into an emotional topspin…wanting the REST of the chocolate bar (the big one, with almonds…the DOVE one…) that is over there on the counter!!!!!!!

So…instead of eating…inhaling…that mongo sized Dove chocolate bar (the one with the almonds that is open over there on the counter), instead of continuing with my list of all the reasons I am a basket case right now…I choose to take captive this moment (these moments!) and to give praise and thanks to God…

Thank you, God, that I am here with a friend who loves me instead of spending the night in a lonely hotel room in a city where a tornado could come from nowhere and eat me alive! Shock 2 Thank you, Lord, that my husband is a doll to be willing to stay with my kids, be homeschool teacher, Mr. Mom, care for the horses, dogs, and also try to do his regular job….wow, Lord. He is amazing. AND he has been trying to get the bathroom all fixed up while I am gone…I know he has gone to a lot of trouble, Lord…God, thank you that Daniel (my almost 16-year-old) is getting along so well with Mr. Shaun, our neighbor doing the tile work. What a blessing that is! I hope that they can connect on a wonderful new level. Lord, thank you that my Mom just called me. If she is nothing else, she is giggly and silly. That is a good thing (even if the ER staff think she has Alzheimers…). Thank you! Ok…Lord, I am PRAISING YOU for all the good things that you give. Thank you for Jan and her husband, Ali, and their wonderful hospitality. I love my friend. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Flesh machinery need not have the final word. Being controlled by the Spirit instead of all the “poor me” thoughts and other flesh machinery stuff….one moment at a time, taking captive this moment for you, Lord (and the chocolate bar doesn’t look quite so tempting when I praise YOU!).