The Truth About Emotional Eating

1 Peter 5:6-10:” 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

Physical hunger: gradual-satisfied by many foods-stops when full.

Emotional hunger: urgent-specific cravings-tied to stress/emotion-often leads to guilt.

Lord, help us stop turning to food for what only You can provide. Forgive me for failing here Jesus, heal our hearts and renew our minds. Teach us healthy ways to process emotions and to come to you when we are weary and burdened and fearful. Give us wisdom and self-control that only comes from the power of the Holy Spirit in me. Thank you Lord, it’s in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Action Item: pause before emotional eating-identify one emotional trigger-journal it and ask the Lord to heal it. 

Are you sick of trying diet after diet and NOT losing weight?

Hey there friend, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach. I gained 100 pounds in my late twenties and struggled for years to get it off. Seven years ago, I found a basic system that worked and has helped me lose 90 of those pounds. I’ve been working with women in online fitness and nutrition ever since to break chains of diet culture, embrace their bodies and fueling instead of dieting. 

 In this podcast, I'll teach you how to:

• • Lose Weight in a Way that honors God without obsessing about the scale
  • Meal Plan and Prep for Your Family
  • Follow a MACRO based plan that allows you to eat the foods you love.
  • Recognize and pray through triggers keeping you stuck.
  • I’ll help you Plan your week and schedule your self-care time.
  • Cultivate a spirit of self-discipline in your workouts you actually enjoy.
   
  It's time to give God your health journey and watch Him make you new, from the inside, OUT.

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Transcript

Hey, fam, good morning. What's happening? Thanks for being here today.

So this is something we'll talk about quite a bit, but we're going to talk about it again because I know so many women silently struggle with emotional eating.

It's that hunger that comes when we're overwhelmed, or lonely, or tired, or anxious, or we're trying to numb ourselves. And so let's talk about how food becomes our comfort.

And while food can absolutely be enjoyable, it was never meant to carry the weight of healing or emotions, right? Like, only God can do that, which we know, right? Like, we know that that's true.

But why is it so hard to remember that when we're in the pit? I have some assurances for you, so stay with me. Hey, friend.

Welcome to the podcast where we talk about weight loss a little differently, not just calories and workouts, but the heart, the habits, and the beliefs behind it all. Because this isn't about just losing weight.

It's about becoming the woman God is calling you to be. So if you're tired of starting over, stuck in cycles with food and ready to invite God into this journey for real change, once and for all, you're in the right place.

So let's get into today's episode.

Today we are reading from 1st Peter, Chapter 5, Verses 6-10. It says, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Let's hang tight to that one.

Let's make that our constant reminder as we kick off the first day of June. Let that be the anthem of our month, which just happens to be my birthday month. I can't believe I'm going to be 44 this month.

Oh my goodness. So as we dig into today's teaching, I would like you to ask the Lord to open your heart to what he has for you today, okay? Are you ready?

Did you ask him? Father, open our hearts. Open our hearts.

Open our hearts.

So we've talked about this before, but I always need a lesson, right? Like it's where repetition, where it finally might kind of start to sometimes stick into our brain.

So I'm guessing you probably do too because you keep coming back and listening to me. So we're going to explore the difference between emotional and physical hunger.

Now pay attention to these because this will give you a very clear visual of the difference. So physical hunger is gradual. We're satisfied by many foods and we can stop when we're full.

Emotional hunger is urgent. It's a specific craving. It's often tied to a stress or emotion and it often leads to guilt and shame, right?

Like that's a very powerful distinction, don't you think? And learning to recognize the difference is your superpower. So physical hunger is gradual.

It can be satisfied by eating a variety of foods and you can stop when you're full. Emotional hunger is that urgent specific craving. It's like, oh, oh, I need to have this right now.

It's like that thing that you're like, oh, I don't really want to eat this because, you know, I told myself I wasn't going to eat that, but, you know, I'm just I'm feeling like I really want to eat it or everyone else is eating it.

And so, you know, someone mentions it, like someone mentions ice cream, and then you're like, the only thing you can think about is ice cream. Even like you said, you're not going to eat ice cream right now.

That's an emotional hunger, it's tied to something.

And what emotional eating is really asking for, like sometimes a craving isn't even food, right? Like it can be social media, whatever it is that's your coping tool.

But we have to find that place where we can seek rest through God, where he becomes our comfort, where we're searching really for connection. We want to find a way to release the stress.

We want to process these emotions, which only happens through prayer. But our idols and distractions, anything that pulls us from God is a coping tool. And food is a big one for so many of us.

And we have to have grace for ourselves here, but we also have to set strict boundaries. Because we can take advantage of grace, in my opinion. We have to remember that as we move into what God has for us, that healing requires compassion, right?

Like we can't shame ourselves into weight loss. We can't shame ourselves into healing from emotional eating. We have to dig down to the root of it.

And that's what we do at the Biblical Weight Loss Framework. Like that is the core of what that program was created for. God invites us into healing in his way.

Not through diets, not through condemnation. Because you're never going to shame yourself into lasting change. You cannot bully yourself into weight loss or freedom.

So how can we walk this out? How can we take this with us every day? Well, yeah, I say all the time, we have to pause before eating emotionally.

But you actually have to pause. You have to walk away.

If you're in the pantry headed for something because you felt a sudden craving, you need to go about face 180, turn around, walk into the bathroom, sit on the toilet and say, God, why am I going there?

What is it that I'm feeling that's drawing me away from you? What do I need? What do I actually need, Lord?

I need you to take this feeling from me. It is so key. Father, help.

Lord, I need you. Lord, like you don't even have to say those things. You can think them.

You don't have to say all of them. You can pick one that will be your mantra on repeat. I say, Lord, give me what I need.

If you're in a space where you just can't speak it out loud, you think it and he will come to your aid.

Remember, we just read in verse 10, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his strength, glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, establish you. But the enemy is there.

He is prowling like a roaring lion. He wants you to fail over and over and over in this area of your life.

He is constantly filling your head with lies and doubt and fear, telling you that you're not enough, that you're worthy, not worthy, that you're never going to overcome this area of your life. And it's a lie. It is a lie.

And we can either believe God or we can believe the enemy. After you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself, God himself will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Can I get an amen? Thank you, Jesus. When you're eating your macro plan, it's easier to walk away from emotional eating because your food is prepped.

Like your food is prepared, you know when your schedule eat times are. So that helps you here as well. Like I said, the enemy does not want you doing this work.

He likes you unprepared. He likes you scared. So making sure that you're eating enough during the day.

So many emotional eating episodes are worsened by under eating earlier in the day, not waking up and eating your breakfast. Creating balance in your meals matters. Macros matter for many reasons.

This is just one of them.

So I just want to encourage you that this struggle does not make you weak. Healing your relationship with food is holy work. This is God's work.

He cares about every part of your life, especially this one. He wants to work with you here. So I just want to encourage you to lay it down today and let him lead.

Holy Father, help us stop turning to food for what only you can provide. Forgive me for failing here, Jesus. Heal my heart and renew my mind.

Teach us healthy ways to process emotions and to come to you when we are weary and burdened and fearful. Lord, give us wisdom and self-control that only comes from the power of the Holy Spirit in me. Thank you, Lord, for continuing to do this work.

It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So your action item for the week is to pause.

When you feel that craving hit or that urgency to eat something, when you don't know if you're actually hungry, take a beat, take a moment, identify what's triggering you and ask the Lord to heal it. Yes, it feels hard, but you are worth it.

Beloved, this isn't about doing everything perfectly, okay? This is about becoming consistent in the things that actually matter. Waking up, spending time with the Lord in prayer and in the word.

So don't just walk away from this episode inspired, walk away making a decision to start every day with Jesus. What is one thing that you're going to do differently today? Just start there.

And if this episode spoke to you, share it with a friend who needs it too. Because you are not the only one who's walking through this. And if you would, would you go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review?

It helps me to know that these messages are encouraging you. Please know that I am here cheering you on. I am praying for you.

And if you want to work with me one on one, just shoot me an email to info at herweightlossmindset.com and let's talk about how we can work through your personal journey. And I will see you back here for the next episode. God bless.