Addicted to Chalk??

Did you ever get a chance to see the 2003 movie, "Supersize Me"? It's about a guy who decides to eat nothing but McDonald's breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the documentary-style film, you see the director, producer, writer and star Morgan Spurlock chow down on apple fritters, hash browns, fish fillets and Big Macs--5000 calories a day or the equivalent of 9.2 Big Macs. Oh, and everything was super-sized so that included huge, monster-sized buckets of Coca-Cola and Sprite. Buckets.

By the end of the month, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (11.1 kg), had a cholesterol level of 230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment using a vegan diet supervised by his future wife, a chef who specializes in gourmet vegan dishes. (A big, hardy shout-out to Wickipedia for this information).

Dude. That's some serious eating. 

Obviously, most of us don't eat at Mickie Dee's three times a day, every day. But when I mention the words, "eating disorder" what comes to mind? For most people, it's "anorexia", "bulimia", or "chalk-eating disorder" (thanks A&E channel). But what about compulsive overeating? Or compulsive under-eating, or eating just a bunch of meat and cheese all the time (Atkins anyone??)?

What I have come to know is that in my own personal life, without God playing a huge role in my daily life, my eating is DIS-ORDERED. No, I don't mean that I have food strewn about the house like a bad episode of Hoarders. What I mean is that my eating doesn't make sense.

God is a God of order, not chaos. He wants us to eat what we need to eat to function well, feel great and carry on His will effectively.

A bad day for me might include deciding to make some vegan raw sugar cookies (notice the self-styled justification? Hey, its healthy junk food) and eating half the batch or compulsively eating dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets or possibly even overdoing it on beans and rice. And don't even get me near a loaf of French bread. With butter. That baguette never had a chance.

Here's what I've found. If I get up early, read God's word (aka The Big Holy Book), ask Him to show me what it means for me, pray and ask for direction and knowledge of His will and the power to carry it out, suddenly I don't have a need to eat crap. Oddly (or is God-ly--haha), I have a desire to supplement my food with random healthy things like blue algae and to consume raw foods and drink pure water.

My struggle with food has more to do with my struggle with God than anything else. I am super hungry all the time. I have a choice. I can eat Big Macs or I can fill my gut with God.

If you struggle with any type of disordered eating, the answer is the same: more God. Say out loud, based on 1 Corinthians 10:31:

So, whether I eat or drink, or whatever I do,  I do all to the glory of God.

P.S. In addition to God's word, there are many amazing 12-step groups that focus on eating disorders, including Food Addicts Anonymous www.foodaddictsanonymous.org, Overeaters Anonymous www.oa.org and Celebrate Recovery www.celebraterecovery.com.