In Barb’s study we have had a chance to evaluate and study a bunch of different motivators that cause us to eat–to break our boundaries of 0 to 5 eating.

This is the last of the review, but please know that you can review all the time. I personally believe that I can do her sets of questions again and again and train myself for success as I do! That is one reason why I have her app on my iPad, iPod, and iPhone. I want to have them at the ready access so that “on the fly” I can THINK through the choice to blast through my boundaries.

Not only that, but if I DO break my boundaries, I can do the questions afterward and it can help, too. Just because the “damage is done” doesn’t mean the damage has to be done! 🙂

Social Eating – Life isn’t fair. But that’s actually a good thing! If life were fair, I wouldn’t have the freedom to sit at my computer and read a blog! LOL! I am a sinful person and God is holy God and if life were fair I would be sentenced to death and expelled from His presence forever. Jesus took my penalty…life isn’t fair and I am glad! So, when I think about how friends of mine seem to be able to eat whatever they want, whenever they want, in the amounts they want, I definitely don’t want to coddle the thought “Life’s not fair! How come they get to eat so much and I have to struggle so much with food, eating and my weight!” Instead, once again, God is giving me an opportunity to grow in my character. He can use my struggle to make me stronger in Christ–a more God-honoring person who has a tender heart to His leading!

Is breaking my boundaries just because I am in a social setting really worth it? What are some blessings that have come to you when you have kept your godly boundaries in a social setting even when others have been eating?

Following Boundaries is Hard Eating – This was the study day when Barb socked it to us with the reality that we so very often look for life to be easy. We had to accept the fact that life simply will NOT be easy. If following our boundaries is the only way that we face challenges in our lives, we are living a very blessed life! LOL! So, yes, following boundaries IS hard. Suffering and difficulties are hard, but we know that God forms and shapes our character. This weight struggle has never  been merely about losing weight. God is interested in our hearts. If we make it be just about weight loss, we will miss what he wants us to experience. Let’s not do that.

Do you struggle with the thinking that this should be easy? What is the truth about this? How might believing the truth–that life IS hard and God uses hardships to form and shape our character–affect you and your journey to be your God-given size?

Preventative Eating – We don’t like to be uncomfortable. We like to prevent a situation where we know we are likely not to be near food–not to have access to food. Sometimes, this motivates us to break our boundaries and eat to prevent hunger. Or to eat an extra amount of food so we are sustained longer, even though we know we are past 5. Eating to prevent hunger is still eating outside of our boundaries. We reviewed some strategies for coping with this concern and saw that really, it is a rare situation indeed when I will be without food of any kind. Planning my hunger so that I can eat within my boundaries just before a situation when I won’t be able to have a meal is one approach. Another is to carry a few nuts with me. Finally, another option is to be willing to be uncomfortable–to be hungry, knowing I can have a meal after my appointment, seminar, or courtroom appearance is over. God can grow our character!

Have you tried any of the strategies to avert preventative eating? What have you experienced?

So, which of these types of eating–of blowing through your boundaries–provides the greatest challenge to you?

1. Careless Eating
2. Justification Eating
3. Indulgent Eating
4. Appearance Eating
5. Entitlement Eating
6. Failure Eating
7. Holiday/Vacation Eating
8. Emotional Eating
9. Keeping My Boundaries is Hard Eating
10. Hopeless Eating
11. Good Food Eating
12. Bad Scale Eating
13. Social Eating
14. Preventative Eating

What have you done to grow? What has God been showing you? Please share your praises or questions or thoughts! Let’s celebrate what God has been doing!

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NOTE: We are starting our new study of the Healthy Eating Abundant Living book on Monday, May 6th. I hope you will join us. If you want to join us, but this is the first you have heard of it, please do a search here at the blog for “Study May 6” and you will get a list of posts that tell about it. Hope you will join us!