A Must Read

If you've ever struggled with overeating, stress eating, or emotional eating, you have to read Made to Crave. I just finished reading it and I can't say enough about it. What a wonderful and eye-opening book! I think it's the best book I've ever read regarding emotional eating. It's definitely a book I will return to again and again. It was hard to put down once I started reading it. It usually takes me a long time to finish a book. Mainly because I read at night when I go to bed, and I always end up falling asleep after a few pages. This book kept me awake and reading into the wee hours of the morning. (Not recommended for those who have to get up at 3:45 AM for work.) 

Life has been busy here between work, my dad being sick, and dealing with attorneys and paperwork for the divorce. I'm determined not to allow these things to derail me. I'm doing an April challenge with my friend Nancy. We committed to staying on track 100% for the entire month of April with our Weight Watchers plan. That means getting our healthy guidelines in each day, no excuses! So far it's going great. I had an extremely stressful week last week and managed to stay focused. We decided to use tally marks at the top of our daily tracker to indicate each time we had a desire to eat but paused and turned to God for help instead. It's a wonderful visual to see how many times each day we go to God rather than giving in to unhealthy cravings. 

I've been prayer walking each day. I usually feel tense and exhausted when I leave work. Sometimes I would stop and get frozen yogurt or a small ice cream treat on my way home for stress relief. While there's nothing wrong with treats, this was quickly becoming a frequent habit for me. Now I sit at work and think about getting home and going outside by the pond for my prayer walk. Not only can I get my daily exercise commitment in, I feel much better after walking. 

Beware of those seemingly innocent food habits! It's easy to justify rewards and treats with excuses like I was doing. While there really is nothing wrong with it (especially since with Weight Watchers you can eat anything as long as you stay within your daily points allowance) recovering food addicts have to be aware of traps.

Going walking instead of stopping for ice cream is helping me to retrain my mind that there are other ways to cope with stress that are enjoyable. I'm not giving up a thing. Instead, I'm gaining new confidence and renewed motivation to continue moving forward with my health and weight loss goals.