I have a problem with self-control. Do you? When it comes to career, professional, and “work” goals I am good. I don’t just “try” to do things; I do them. I achieve my goals. However, when it comes to personal things like diets, I am good for a little while and then I make the choice to give in to temptation. It is a bad habit and a pattern. I can lose weight for a period of time, then comes the “need” for chocolate. Or I am out all day going from one business meeting or event to another… and get hungry and before I know it the “eating healthy” falls to the “convenience” of whatever food choices are offered.

The temptation to eat the wrong things comes most frequently when working close to home. If I am on major business trips and gone for days at a time, I find it easier to keep to my planned “diet.” Airports provide plenty of temptations, but I have developed “habit” of not eating at the airport unless I’m stranded for extremely long periods … and if I am motivated enough I can track down an apple or cheese or some other nutrient-rich alternative.

However, I’ve found that if I’m the speaker at an event, my hosts seem to be offended if I do not eat what has been provided. By not eating it seems to insult their hospitality. So I eat what is before me at least the main course. I can move around the salad, I can skip the dessert to “prepare” for going on stage. But skip the entire offering? Oh, no.

I have to confess that food has more power and a bigger role in my life than it should. There are foods and additives I must avoid as a migraine sufferer. There are other foods I must avoid for other medical reasons. Yet for all the time I spend thinking of food, or perhaps because of it, I am not at a healthy weight. I’ve tried and succeeded and failed at numerous diet plans, both sensible and drastic. I have given food its own altar in my life and that goes against the Bible.

“No other God but me” is what we are directed to worship as Christians. Yet food and weight and diets and everything associated have become a multi-billion dollar industry, so I am not alone. But as a Christian I know the ultimate and only solution to this unhealthy relationship with food is to give it to God. Step by step I am doing that. It isn’t about “trying.” It is about doing. I can do all things through God who strengthens me, including losing weight, getting healthy, and repositioning food to its proper place, which is feeding my body to enable it to serve the Lord … and that is all it is about.

 

Author:  Lea A. Strickland, MBA CMA CFM CBM GMC
Copyright ©2012 Lea A. Strickland
All Rights Reserved

Verified by ExactMetrics