Stop The Clock

22 Feb 2012 4 Comments

by Daniel in Food, Life Tags: Learning, Lent, Personal Growth

Today is the first day of Lent and as I’ve done the past two years, I’m going to give something up to bring my connection to the Lord closer. Usually I choose to do something that involves improving my health to take better care of the body He has given me and this year will be no different.

First of all, I would like to break my addiction to my typical pre-bedtime snack. I feel that I always need this little treat and I restrict my dinners so that I can eat it. I’ve been making a good habit of having a smaller portion of it with dinner, so that I get the best of both worlds and I find something else to eat before I sleep.

Secondly, as my post title implies, I want to stop eating by the clock. I’m tired of starving myself around 1 or 2 because it’s “almost 4 and I’m going to have dinner then.” I want to eat when I’m hungry versus struggling with the fact that it’s only been 3 hours after breakfast and I want to eat food again. Maybe it’s my body’s way of saying “hey, feed me, breakfast wasn’t enough,” even though I typically have a larger breakfast.

I’m tired of living by all of these fake rules that I set for myself and I’m also going to start looking into things in depth when I come across them. All too often I come across an article on the internet – Potatoes are bad for you! You’ll die of high blood sugars if you eat them! – and all of the anxieties about food start to set in again. Half of the time it’s on some extremist’s blog who promotes a specific kind of diet that works for them and in order to justify what they’re doing they claim that every other eating pattern is off limits and causes disease and decreased longevity.

Forget that. (Not my first choice of words either.)

I’m also looking to work with my parents to strike a small deal with them to help me mentally overcome my concern with allowing them to buy food for me. And then there are plenty of other goodies I plan to write about within the next 40 days as I keep track of my emotions and progress toward better health and loving myself because God loves me and that’s all of the acceptance I truly need. Once I start to accept and love myself, others will (hopefully) follow suit.

So join me. Give up something for Lent and have the luxury of a friend who is willing to hold your hand through the struggles and share in the smiles and laughter of our accomplishments.

To better health, enjoying our passions, and loving ourselves~