Stop the Overeating

Overeating is eating beyond the amount of fuel your body actually needs. The average person eats three meals a day plus snacks just because she thinks she feels a tinge of hunger. Overeating has become a way to avoid discomfort and seek pleasure at all times. Food becomes a way to buffer away any emotion—good or bad. The average person is just not aware that this is happening.

But, you are not the average person. You can stop the buffering and overeating.

Buffering clearly avoids suffering of all kinds. Our minds do this to us throughout the day if we are not aware.

We buffer with food because we are bored or sad or lonely or just anxious. Or because we have to do something hard. You can do something hard without eating. It just takes acknowledging the emotion and physically feeling it for a moment as you get to the hard work. And, it passes.

I have learned that overeating is often equal to under feeling.

These days we fail to even take note of how our physical body actually feels and the signals it is sending us so that we will take better care of it. This happens when we overeat and disregard the full feeling that our bodies signal to us that it is time to put the fork down. We also don’t want to feel our emotions which are also part of our bodies.

We strive for comfort.

So, we struggle with knowing how to cope with discomfort throughout the day.

But, discomfort has so much to teach us. It often comes when we have to do hard things throughout the day. This is perfectly normal—but we don’t have to eat through each moment. It is uncomfortable to write a really good podcast or learn a new demo for work or study for a speaking engagement. Our brain may offer us a way to lessen the pain with food as in a coke and a candy bar. This will lessen the pain for a moment, but eventually your brain learns that whenever there is a moment of discomfort regardless if you are really physically hungry or not—a coke and pretzel cocktail is needed.

And, the overeating cycle ensues.

You will actually be forming a neural pathway to this end. Then it becomes a Pavlov’s Dog type of thing—your brain starts to learn the cue that when you are in discomfort—this particular food and drink will lessen the pain. This pathway then creates overdesire and overhunger for those substances which leads to overeating in the end.

And, overeating decreases the ability to be able to fast off of food for a spiritual purpose.

After all of this, you find you are continually serving yourself a plate of discouragement.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Be aware of what is happening all around you.

The production and marketing of food takes advantage of our desire for pleasure with the least amount of effort—it’s called processed or fast food. And, we crave it. But we don’t have to eat it.

When we decide to Delay and Pray it from our daily menu for a period of time or even forever–replacing with vegetables, protein, and healthy fats, those cravings go away within weeks. And, your emotions start to balance. All done for a spiritual purpose.

It is hard to change habits that you’ve created over a lifetime. But, it is so possible. Spiritual fasting is different and it works. It’s time to jump in.

Anything is possible with God!