Tag Archives: cravings

Spirit Seeker Sunday – Cravings

Spirit Seeker Sunday September 1, 2013 Comments: 2
Spirit 14 stephen

Photo by Stephen Moldenhauer

“Our souls were created to crave Him and love others to Him. So many people are waiting to hear the message of your calling. Don’t get stuck in defeat and held back from it.” Lysa TerKeurst

Maybe this is what the battle for health is really about. Satan wants to keep us stuck in defeat so we miss the satisfaction we get when we fill our cravings with Jesus and the joy we experience when we help others do the same.

Ten years ago the Lord showed me that there was idolatry in my life. It was mostly wrapped up in people-pleasing, especially in some specific relationships. He showed me that as I tried to please these people they became an idol. I missed what HE wanted me to do and instead tried to do what THEY wanted.

What was really twisted is I thought I was serving God by sacrificing myself to their needs.

The Lord gently showed me I brought pain to myself and enabled those people to stay in their dysfunction. I wasn’t serving Him at all. In fact, I held myself to a standard He never required, doing things HE never asked.

There was great freedom in letting go.

In her Made to Crave Devotional, Lysa had a great list of things that will never satisfy: Food won’t fill our souls. Possessions won’t fill our hearts. Sex won’t fill the hunger for love. Children won’t fill our identities. In my life I’d add, “pleasing people won’t fill my need to be good.”

God,
I give you permission to call me on it when I look to anything besides you to satisfy. Please connect this to my journey to health. I want the body You intended when You created me, and I want to seek that which truly satisfies–YOU! Help me to look to YOU this day. And the next. And the next.

What things would you add in your list of stuff that doesn’t satisfy?

Share these thoughts:

Satisfying the Craving

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For Love or Because of Love (Day 103)

Middle Weight Loss Journey April 12, 2013 Leave a comment

“Do you lose weight to gain love or are you able to lose weight because you are loved?” This question, which I read in the Made to Crave Devotional, made me stop and think.

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I  don’t know if I could have chosen to deal with my weight issues if I hadn’t first felt loved. I’ve been around long enough to know that if I don’t feel loved when I’m heavy, dropping a few pounds isn’t going to solve the issue.

What I cling to is this Truth: Heavy or thin, we are completely loved and accepted by the One who made us. He has brushed our hearts with His mercy and declared us good and beautiful and treasured. When the weight loss journey is hard, I press into that truth. I ask Him to help me persevere because I know He loves me and cares about my journey.

I don’t lose weight to gain His love or anyone else’s. This journey is an act of giving love to myself, the One who made me, and those who already love me. We all need me stronger and healthier. We all want me lighter in heart and body.  The rewards come to all of us.                                ~ Feb. 3, 2013

What About You?

Do you lose weight to be loved or because you are loved? Can you see how losing weight is a way of giving love?

Weight Loss Journey Day 61

Real Time Information, The Early Weight Loss Journey March 8, 2013 Leave a comment

Darn those two pieces of Christmas candy! Pretty much exactly the amount of calories I was over 1200  . . . weird to think of life this way, of how something so small can impact a goal so easily. ~December 23, 2012

Real Time Update:

MadetoCraveDevotional1591

Thanks to the Made to Crave Devotional by Lysa TerKeurst I’ve been thinking a lot about the word, “consider.” Her thoughts, along with my own calorie tracking journey, have also led me to think about the word, “mindful.”

So much of the journey to weight loss and health is simply learning to be mindful of my choices. What I am putting in my mouth? Is this a healthy choice? If I eat this now, how do I need to eat later to be healthy and meet my weight loss goal? How much water have I had? Have I made movement a priority?

Part of being mindful is considering the motivation behind my choices. Why am I choosing to eat this? Am I seeking to fill an emotional need that will still be unfulfilled? Am I hungry? Am eating because of I’m tired? Is there a choice that would meet my need more directly? Maybe I need to eat something different, or maybe I don’t need food at all. Maybe I need a nap, a walk, a talk with a friend–or God.

In Made to Crave Lysa said to “consider the joy.” She pointed her readers to the joy that’s coming from the result of good choices. I’m not yet at my goal, but this is already a reality for me.  I have much joy in being stronger, healthier, more energetic, and thinner.

As I continue to make lifestyle changes, I bet I’ll need to stay mindful, to consider the why’s and to think about the consequences and rewards for the rest of my life.

I’m still growing in this attempt. I’m much improved but not perfect. With the good nutrition of the Life Force and BENew products I’m on, my cravings for unhealthy food are much reduced. However, when intense times hit I still struggle.

This week my husband had a four hour procedure on his heart. I’d forgotten how it felt to have my insides screaming for chocolate and Fritos, but sitting in the surgery waiting room staring at the vending machine was a poignant reminder.

Thankfully, I’d prepacked  healthy choices: my BEFull shake, a tangelo, walnuts, dried cranberries, and some spinach leaves. I even packed a pretty plate and a real fork. I ate one meal out, and it was healthy. I walked to the restaurant, so I got over a mile of walking in.

My downfall was Jerry’s second meal tray late in the evening. Surgery over, he was in his hospital room enjoying his second meal of salmon.

I ate his pound cake.

It wasn’t even good.

It wasn’t comforting. it wasn’t tasty. It didn’t satisfy my junk food craving. It didn’t reduce my stress level.

Why on earth did I eat the whole thing?

Even as I ate I realized I was making a choice NOT to consider why I did it or how it went against my goals. I even chose to ignore how tasteless it was and the fact I didn’t even like it. I just kept taking the next bite even as I knew I ate out of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion and even as I knew the pound cake was not helping.

I just didn’t care.

Funny thing. Today I DO care.

What About You?

Have you reached for something in a high stress situation that didn’t satisfy?