When we eat right, good food tastes better. There is a spiritual lesson here. When we cram our hearts and minds with cultural sugar, we have little appetite for a feast of God’s Word
As mentioned previously (see here), one of my sabbatical goals is to be more disciplined in terms of diet and exercise. To that end, I have made a real effort to remove junk food from my diet (especially carbs/sugar).
While the overall aim is not so much to lose weight as it is to be a better steward of my health, I am, so far a loser.
To this point, I have noticed two benefits:
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I feel better. According to what I am reading, this is because I am not giving my sugar levels a roller coaster ride where I suddenly raise my levels, and then because insulin kicks in, plunge it below even a fasting level.
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Good food tastes better. I ate an orange today at lunch time; it was delicious.
Have you noticed the same thing? When you are eating right, do vegetables and salad taste far better?
Are you disciplining yourself to get the right nutrition for your soul?
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control (Proverbs 25:28).
What I have found (and have to keep re-learning) is that when I eat sugar, I get sucked into myself and THAT is a sin for me. When I eat what I KNOW to be RIGHT for ME, then I feel good about myself and I can focus on others. The lie that trips me up is when I think or see a sweet, that it will satisfy me and that if I don’t partake, then I am deprived. My reaction HAS to be: Satan, get behind me.
I don’t want to be the devil’s advocate here, but it will sound like I am…(satan, get behind me)
This may be a chick thing, so bear with me…
I’ve found that if I spend too much time thinking about everything I eat, pretty soon I’m obsessed with it. I did Weight Watchers for a couple years and I couldn’t think of anything but how many “points” and calories all the foods had, and how little I could get by with.
This isn’t the same thing as just changing the contents of your lunchbox to fresh foods; it’s more like examining everything edible all the time.
I had to quit and just start listening to my body when I was hungry and full, eating things I knew were decent and only partaking in rich foods on Sundays. (I KNOW. Isn’t that awful? But it’s the day we get to go to town and eat out!)
I can’t give up all gloriously fat/sugar/carb foods, but I don’t fret about them if I have a bite or two. And I don’t feel like I’m focusing on food all the time, now.
I’ve loved your posts on trying to live healthier….especially “Cake”!