My article in Today’s Christian Woman is now online: "I Was a Food Addict"
We don’t need to punish ourselves for our overeating. God loves us as we are. Work on speaking truth with love to yourself. Those are three thoughts from the piece.
May it be a blessing to you!
Karen,
I just read your article in TCW. I wanted to say *thank you*. It was a beautifully written article and something that I had been trying to put into words for months. I love *me* becaue *Jesus* loves me. Regardless of what size I am, I am lovable. Blessings.
HI Karen, I wanted to tell you that your article about being a food addict was God inspired at the right time for us. My husband found out today from the dr.office that he may have diabetes. We were able to read your article and glean from it. He had high triglycerides as well as high sugar. I may also, but haven’t been checked. WE are both total food addicts. He had been down all day and thanks for your article that we could relate to. Also, thanks for your recommendation of dietician.com. It is a wake-up call for the both of us. Our kids need us.
Sincerely,
D.R.
Re:”I was a food addict” article.
That article really touched me because I am a food addict. I somehow think that I will get comfort from food. I am single, never married, and I have believed I fill my loneliness with food. I am 5’8″ and weight 225 lbs. Could you please pray for me? I am really struggling with losing weight and I don’t want food to be my idol anymore. Jesus needs to be the one to heal me, not food.
God bless,Candie
Hi Karen, Thank you so much for sharing your story on TCW. I’m obese, just turned 50 and am going through depression which I’ve never had before. Sister when I read your comment ‘You can love your overweight self, just as you are, because Jesus does’ I choked up, becuase I’ve been teaching others this and couldn’t believe it for myself. I don’t know that I’m 100% in line with that but I KNOW it’s truth. Thank you sooooooo much.
Love from your sister in Christ, Eileen
Oh, my goodness–you described me in your TCW article. I have gained significant weight in grad school–and I despise the way I look. I will complete my program in May and I am overcome with performance anxiety, with feelings of inadequacy and with negative self-talk. I can see (thanks to your insight) that I am using chocolate, sweets, and fats to medicate my anxiety. I will ponder your thoughts and see how I can change my self-talk as I enter a new role. I’m glad I found your site through the article–I know I will be a regular reader of your blog! Who knows, maybe (like you) I will be the answer to my own prayers. Blessings!
The story that you’ve shared mimic’s my own relating to food, anxiety,weight and Christ. As one who knows and is know by Christ, this is a matter of both obedience and joy. Just as our conversion to Christ was a matter of seeing our sinful reality and knowing we can receive the unconditional love our Father. This area for me, is one of sanctification. We’re loved despite our weaknesses, but the Lord loves us too much to not confront us in this area of life. This is instilling vision in me, in ways I’ve never know and oh, have I lacked vision in this area of life. You’re aricle is one of the links, the clues of his presence that is spuring me on to obey and discovering lot’s of “Ah-ha, that’s you again, God” moments.
Your article in CT really touched me. In fact, as I started down through the article and read your physical description I thought, “We could be twins”. While I am not a mental health therapist, my husband is…another similarity. Your article has inspired me to find out the underlying reasons for my uncontrolled eating and to learn to love myself. Last year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Three biopsies and two lumpectomies later, God has healed me! I cling close to His promises. Thank you for sharing your story.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to drop a note.
Blessings!
Karen
Hi Karen,
thanks for your testimony via TCW.
I am now a beginner professional who comes from a working class family. like yourself when you first started work. in my interactions with my colleagues who are either lawyers or pupils training to be lawyers,I subconsciously feel inadequate or constantly trying to keep up with what I perceive to be their sophistication and standards. i can identify with your struggles. however knowing that we are made righteous and forever loved by Jesus gives me the power to go on. no more feelings of inadequacies because the Lord sees us through Jesus who has redeemed as, as He is so are we in this world~ Amen!
i also had weight struggles in senior high, coming from an asian society where most young women are about less than 120 pounds, i was tittering the edge of being a large girl when i was 18. i became really obsessed about food and caloric intake and kind of lost the pleasure of savouring food with my family and friends, also did not realise that the Lord wants us to enjoy His creation (yup including moderate amounts of yummy food!). but thanks to Him, I’m on the path of recovery, learning to take it easy with the food, not being so obsessed with my food, my weight and learning to enjoy my life through God’s grace.
also I’m learning to be good at my work by relying on God’s grace and resting in His provision to give me the edge to be good at my work. for nothing is impossible with Thee~ for He has good plans for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us.
thanks for your testimony, it gave me the inspiration to share my story too.
Hi and many thanks. Just saw your article in CT and it really spoke to me. I’ve had a bit of a weight problem ever since leaving my ex husband, who used to try to control my eating constantly. I looked great but was miserable. I struggle with giving up my “goodies” and even though I exercise, I still weigh more than I’d like and sometimes get on my own case about it. Like you, I’ve also beaten myself up about perceived inadequacies as a counselor. I had six years post graduate training, am a licensed MFT and mental health counselor, and have done counseling part time a few hours a week in addition to day work (which is what has supported me) but often have felt really inadequate, although my clinical supervisor has often told me I’m a good clinician. I hear those punitive saboteur voices telling me I should have my own life in better gear and not be so depressed and down (despite the fact I’m unemployed and desperately need to find work). To make matters worse, my current husband and I have taken in his mentally disabled son who is now in the hospital because we couldn’t afford his meds, and we are debating whether we should take him back in because he confessed to the hospital social worker he has had fantasies of raping me. We wanted to be good Christians and do the right thing by him, but all I feel is burned out and exhausted, and sometimes think if I were a better counselor I’d know the right thing to do. If I had the money I’d go back into counseling myself (which I did when I was in training) but we can barely afford to pay our bills. Sorry to emote so much, but I really did resonate with the weight issue and the struggles with inadequacy in my abilities. Blessings to you.
I read the article from a link in the Christianity Today newsletter. My concern is with the declaration of food addiction in the past tense. If it is a true addiction, there is a real danger in premature declarations of victory, it seems to me. There are twelve step programs that provide mutual support and a spiritual program for dealing with food addiction, including Food Addicts Anonymous http://foodaddictsanonymous.org/and Recovery from Food Addiction http://www.geocities.com/RFA77235/.
Dan,
I agree I am always in danger of relapse. And yet, after 30 years of working through my emotional issues that drove the eating, I feel hopeful that I can maintain my current, healthy eating. Thanks for the reminder!
Also, http://www.OA.org is a resource for overeating.
Karen
Karen,
I read the article in TCW and I was floored. I’m single and very active, but I’m also fat and a diabetic. I turn 40 in December and last year I got fed up with being fat and fighting to manage my diabetes. I lost 30 lbs in 3 months, lost another 20 over the course of the next 4 months and I’ve been hovering for another 6. I often feel like some other person has control of my body. Although I make much better choices if I’m going to indulge, I’m still way out past what is good for me. Sometimes it’s as though there’s someone else controlling my body and I’m inside screaming “NOOOOO!” while I’m stuffing my face. I thought that I had been learning not to be anxious and to turn things over the Lord, but now I’m wondering if maybe this is a form of addiction – to pour my anxiety into the old habit of seeking comfort in food. You have definitely given me something to consider! Thank you so much, sister!
I read your article on Christianity Today’s site and I had a mixed reaction to it.
Thanks for writing such words as “You can love your overweight self, just as you are, because Jesus does.” I think that somehow got lost in the article.
The first thing I noticed, although hard to see on-line, was what looks to me like a “before and after” photo spread. That tripped me up right away because it buys right into the negative diet mentality that we are bombarded with. I also find before-and -afters to be so full of self hatred/loathing vs. pride and “worthiness”. A therapist said to me years ago, “if you can’t love the before then the after will never stick around.”
Next up were the numbers. I’m 5’4″ and 172 would be SKINNY for me. But that’s not the point. I thank God for the healing he has brought into my life where I don’t have to obsess or eat over those numbers that you wrote about. But I’m certain there are others who read what you wrote about 172 being fat and who subsequently stuffed themselves or felt bad.
What worked for you is not going to work for me necessarily. We each need to seek the Lord in prayer for what He would have us do (in line with the Bible.)
What we do know is that He does not want us to hate ourselves! The accuser of the brethren is behind those thought patterns 100%!!
Then, at the end, you wrote “…, I learned the most important lesson: Anxious and fat or calm and thin, I can love myself because Jesus loves me … just as I am.” I just wish you would not have teamed fat with the negative and thin with the positive – I would have been much more convinced!
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. “Romans 12:2
We, as Christians, need to step back and evaluate all the stuff we believe about size and appearance and food and health. We shouldn’t be thinking like the world in these matters.
I’m so sorry you felt hurt by some of my words and by the photos. I absolutely agree we need to seek God for what he would have us do about food and health issues. We can love ourselves at any size and in any condition, because Jesus does. No self-punishment required. He’s taken it all. That’s the point I meant to convey. Thanks for your cautionary words about how I expressed it.
Blessings,
Karen