Thought for the Day:
I’ve started
back on my diet attempting to lose my next 20 pounds. After losing so much weight this summer, I
decided to ease off a bit on my food restriction and excessive exercising—give myself
a break. I wasn’t scarfing down tons of
extra food but I did allow myself slightly larger portions and I ate snacks
(mixed nuts or celery with a little peanut butter) between meals if I wanted
them. I never regained my weight, in
fact I lost a little bit more weight still.
But now I am eating until that first moment that I feel the edge of
hunger disappear and then I quit. It
really is amazing how little food that takes!
If I ate until I felt full, I would eat a whole lot more (like I’ve done
while ‘off’ my diet).
It is
interesting what you crave when your diet is limited. Popcorn, Cheez-It crackers, and the biscuit
from a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich are my three cravings right now. None of them are on my ‘acceptable food’ list. I know that they aren’t good for me. They would fill me up quite well I am
certain. But they wouldn’t help my blood
sugar levels which I have nicely maintained by diet and exercise without any
medications or insulin (This morning’s reading was 91).
One thing
that I have noticed (and remember) about most ‘snack’ food is how rarely they
satisfy you. Eating some of them just
seems to make you eat more of them. If
that is what you fill up on, you need something else pretty quickly. So I stick to my protein, vegetables, and
legumes.
This got me
thinking about what really satisfies us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. There is all sorts of ‘junk food’ out there
for us to feast upon. What are some of
the ways we seek to satisfy what seems to be missing in our lives? Movies, TV, recreation, shopping, various relationships,
drugs, alcohol, work, achievement, sports, etc., etc., etc. Some of these things aren’t really bad in and
of themselves—it is just that if we fill up our lives with these ‘empty
calories’ we have no room left for what really satisfies: a relationship with
God.
John 6:35 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never
thirst.” (ESV).
I am not
talking about religion and religious exercise—I am talking about a personal
relationship with God. Time spent in
reading His love letter to us (the bible) and then talking with Him
(prayer). I am talking about learning to
rely and trust Jesus not only for our eternal salvation, but for our daily
needs as well.
I know this
might be a bit heavy for some people reading this but think about how satisfied
you really are with life. How much time
do you spend trying to feed that hunger that gnaws inside you? Is it like
trying to feed the fire in the fireplace when it is bitterly cold? Sometimes it seems like all you are doing is
throwing more wood on the fire; but never really getting warm. If this is the way you feel, maybe you are
filling your life up with too many of the good things and not enough of the most
important thing.
I also
noticed that I never really realized how poorly I felt when I was filling
myself up with high-calorie snacks. I
thought I felt pretty good until I went cold turkey off of them and then
started feeding my body the good stuff.
Now I feel much better! I didn’t
realize the difference it would make. So
perhaps you are feeling okay without God being too involved in your life. Perhaps you don’t know what you are missing
and you are settling for second best.
I hope I’ve
given you some food for thought this morning.
Wishing you the best!
(the photo
is NOT an endorsement of eating candy).
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