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Here we are again. At the office party or in the kitchen after bible study and NUTS if the food isn’t just TOO tantalizing. It seems to have a magnetic pull on us.
We tell ourselves NO… we WON’T give in THIS time, but nevertheless before we know it we are laughing with the others, enjoying “fellowship” while holding (and eating from) a large plate of food. And it isn’t about hunger. It is, quite simply, about I WANT IT AND I WILL EAT IT BECAUSE I WANT IT. We might even have the thought that “It isn’t fair that everyone else should get to eat and just because I am not hungry, I don’t get to…”
This week we turn our attention to two related types of eating, “Indulgent Eating” and “Social Eating.” Often, we just don’t feel like following our boundaries. Often, it may be because we are in a social situation and everyone else is laughing, having fun, so it is “only fair” that we should get to as well. Barb’s studies this week bring some very important thoughts to the forefront.
I am breaking this week’s assignment down into 5 mini-assignments. Of course, you can do it any way you choose. 🙂
Monday
1. Please visit Barb’s website and complete the Indulgent Eating bible study.
2. Select at least 3 statements from the first section under “This is what I learned” to add to your truth cards. Even better if you add all 5! Share with us which three you added. If you haven’t started a deck of truth cards yet, you can see a post about it here. Evaluate if this might be a tool that could be used by God to bring victory at a level you haven’t previously known. Is it worth it to try something new?
3. Use Barb’s journaling questions about Indulgent Eating to write statements that you can add to your truth cards. Here is an example:
The first journaling question, I use to frame my answer and to develop a statement that can go in my truth cards. Barb asks, “If you were to eat ‘what you want, when you want’ 100% of the time, how much do you think you’d weigh?”
My response:
“If I were to eat what I want when I want (in the quantities I want) 100% of the time, I would be at least 100 pounds overweight. I have been there before and I could get there easily again.”
Continue to use Barb’s Indulgent Eating material to frame statements for your truth cards. Share with us in the comments what you added to your truth cards today.
Tuesday:
- Complete the rest of the journaling questions, including looking up the Scriptures that Barb supplied. Which verse means the most to you or did God use to encourage or challenge you? Share with us.
- Answer Barb’s question: Is your life better or worse with boundaries?
- What percentage of the time do you feel like you live as if you don’t have boundaries? Why do you think this is the case?
- Complete Barb’s Indulgence Eating questions. Again, use any of your answers that fit to create new truth cards. Share here any truths that you feel led to share so that others can be encouraged as well.
- Respond to Barb’s question: Do you think your best chance for happiness is to do what you want when you want? Why or why not?
Wednesday
- Visit Barb’s social eating bible study page found here. Please don’t be put off by the “salad vs pizza” dieting scenario. Instead, imagine the more likely situation for you, as a Thin Within participant, to be in a situation where everyone else at a party or get-together is eating four pieces of pizza when you either aren’t at a “0” yet and have to wait to eat or you are at a “0” but it takes only one piece of pizza to get to a “5.” The rest of the scenario she paints for us plays out. The situation is totally ripe for overindulging. You finally get this feeling of being “ripped off” and give in and eat along with and as much as everyone else.
- What is the lie that Barb says is present in the back of our minds?
- What is true about the notion that “Life should be fair”?
- Respond to Barb’s discussion of “The Fairness Line.” What do you think about what she says?
Thursday
- I want to join Barb in encouraging you to recognize the lies that our society feeds us. The lie that “Life should be fair” saturates everything! What are ways that you know you have bought this lie? Can you persevere in renewing your mind with truth about this today? This week? How will you do this?
- How are things going on your renewing of the mind plan? Maybe it’s time to recommit to your plan established in week 2! If you don’t have an accountability partner yet, please consider getting one today by visiting the Accountability Page and posting there. If you have had a partner, but haven’t been in touch, consider getting in touch with your partner and evaluating what you will do going forward or dissolve your partnership and let one another loose to find another partner.
- Complete Barb’s “Social Eating Bible Study” section at the bottom of the page.
Friday
- At the end of the Social Eating Bible Study, Barb asks: Think of an upcoming social gathering where you’ll have to control the way you eat if you want to follow your boundaries. If life is about indulging your desires, will you have much to be thankful for in that situation? Explain.
- If life is about loving God and others, will you have much to be thankful for in that situation? Why or why not? Explain.
- What is God laying on your heart today about Indulgent and Social eating? Are you happier when you live by design or desire?
Follow Up Comments
I know that the summer is filled with opportunities to enjoy friends, family, times in the sun, lots of fun! You can recommit to spending 15 minutes a day allowing God to change your thinking–even now in the middle of the summer. What do you think? I know lots of us started this study filled with promises to ourselves. If your heart is kindled to want to let the fire flare up again, why not just dive back in this week–today, even? There’s no need to throw in the towel until a new study starts. Don’t buy Satan’s big lie!
I wrote all 5 truths, but especially need to remember that more is not necessarily better. And it is TRUE that I am far happier when I live by design and not by desire!
I can’t imagine how much weight I would gain if I ate what and when I wanted all of the time! I don’t want to go there.
I do know that if I ate what/when I wanted all of the time, I would NOT be happy. I would feel too full and uncomfortable, shaky (from sugar overload, I’m sure), I wouldn’t like how I looked or felt, I would sleep terribly, be unhealthy and not do myself any favors as I get older. The truth is that the boundaries/internal signals that God gave me, hunger and satisfaction, are a gift. I am to use them!
Me, too, Carrie. I feel like all of those truths are good ones! I agree! These boundaries are, indeed, pleasant! I can’t imagine the agony of counting and weighing and measuring anything any more.
Heidi, thanks for this Bible study! I hopped on to your site after the study started, but instead of feeling behind, I’m going to hop in here and go back later to catch up.
I need to go get some index cards today when I run errands, but I am going to write the 5 things to think about too! I’m also going to include the verses listed in the indulgent study plus I’m writing this: “I need to put away the foolish philosophies of this world (unhealthy body image, my worth is based on what I look like or the number on the scale, diets that rely on my own effort…not God’s truth and strength) and I need to focus on Christ (based on what I gleaned from Phil 3:708).
Hi, Beth. What a great attitude! Yes! Dive in wherever you like. I do recommend Week 1 and Week 2 be covered as week 2 especially is foundational. Great ideas for truth cards!
Thanks! I’ll have some time on Thursday to do that. 🙂
Well, I have been doing the study throughout this past 7 weeks and God has given many small victories and is helping uncover other idols besides food. I don’t usually post, but I wanted you to know I am here and can’t wait for Monday morning when the new weeks work is posted. I read everyone’s comments, but I don’t ever feel led to add anything. I am usually through it by Wed or Thursday so I am also doing Beth Moore’s Breaking Free. So, all that to say, thank you and I am loving this study, God is definitely using it to show me new things.
So, today I wrote down “More is not better”, “Boundaries make life better, not worse” and “I need boundaries ALL THE TIME”. All 5 were great but those really spoke to me.
So glad to hear from you, Christine. Thanks for posting. Hey, if you have the videos for BF, my friend Jan and I are in them in the church in New Orleans! I think it is video 10 that we are in. LOL! Wave at us! 🙂
One other thing, in regards to the questions about eating whatever you want whenever you want…I personally have never met anyone that can do that and is a healthy weight. I am sure that there are people that can, but I believe satan has used this feeling of “oh, poor me, why can’t I eat whatever I want, anytime I want” as a lie that causes me to pity myself like there is something wrong with me that I can’t eat all day everyday and be healthy. Ha! It’s a lie…who can do that?? No one I know!
Yes. Christine! I think you are right!
Well, i just completed Tuesday’s “assignment.” Wow!
Here are some of my truths:
1) my life is Better when I live in my boundaries. Without 0-5, I’d be dieting, counting points/cals, concerned with food all of the time, obsessed about exercise, comparing myself to others constantly, etc. I’d be resentful of what I couldn’t eat, mad at what I had to eat. I’d be in the diet/binge cycle again. I could go on and on.
2) I will gain so much if I stay in bounds , even when it’s hard. I’ll have freedom in living at my God given size (now or eventually), weight release (or know that this is my intended size), feel good in my body, break bad habits, etc
3) God does want me to stay in bounds. He put the signals in my body so of course He wants me to follow them! Also, I have experienced the freedom and peace that comes from living in them and I know He wants that for me.
4) Bounds. are not always easy to follow. They often require sacrifice – mostly of my fleshly desires and also my coveting of a body type that I will never have.
5) Yes, it is worth the sacrifice when I think of the gain!! Among other things, I gain a closer relationship with God, freedom, peace, weight release, natural eating habits, following God’s lead and His intention for me.
When I read these, it’s like “Duh – why wouldn’t I stay in the boundaries??”. I will write these on my truth cards to read daily. My best chance for happiness is to follow God’s will, not my own.
I hear you, Carrie. Great list! Thanks for sharing it!
I wrote these things:
1. Just because food is in front of me does NOT mean I need to eat it.
2. More food is not necessarily better.
3.Boundaries make my life better, not worse.
4. I am far happier when I live by design and not by desire-even when lots of yummy food is right in front of me.
wow for me this scripture from Tuesdays part of the study questions about what scripture hit you the most:
Philippians 3:1919 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
I looked up the meaning of the word shame and the meaning of the word glory. Wow.
So basically I do not want to take great pride or pleasure (glory) in disgrace or dishonor (shame).