Sometimes it helps to take a break and look at life. Find out what’s working. What’s not. And what needs to change.
It also helps to do that with eating. If we find out what areas we need the most help with, we can then direct our renewing of the mind efforts to those areas.
If this is something you’d like to do, I’ve prepared an evaluation you can use to look at your eating issues. I did this the other day with mine and have already found it helpful just to know what areas I need to watch out for (for me it was careless eating and good food eating).
Personal Evaluation
- What are your primary boundaries?
- Do you have any secondary boundaries? If so, what are they?
- What time of the day or week, are you most likely to break your boundaries?
- What situations cause you to break your boundaries, if any? (For example: work, watching television, potlucks, etc.)
- Do you eat for any of the following emotions? Circle any that apply: anger, worry, boredom, stress, excitement, discontentment, envy, judgment, insecurity.
- Look at your answers to the last few questions. Can you think of any practical things you can do to make it easier to follow your boundaries? Brainstorm a list.
- Do you need to add any secondary boundaries? (Keep in mind that there is no perfect boundary that will make it easy to lose weight and keep it off.)
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how diligent have you been with the renewing of your mind?
- If you haven’t been very diligent, what’s getting in the way?
- Can you think of any practical things you can do to make it easier to renew your mind?
- Here are three different renewing-of-the-mind challenges for you to consider:
- The get-your-feet-wet-challenge: Renew your mind every morning in the area you’re working on.
- The middle-of-the-road challenge: Renew your mind every morning in the area you’re working on plus write five index cards with verses on them that will help you with this weakness. Review those verses at least twice a day in addition to your morning preparation truth session.
- The hardcore challenge: Renew your mind in the morning, write out your Scripture cards to use twice during the day, and have another quiet time/renewing of the mind session right before the time of day that gives you the most trouble. For example, if you usually eat outside your boundaries in the evening, have your quiet time right after supper.
- Consider getting an accountability partner if you don’t already have one to help you stick to your renewing of the mind goal.
Good questions and challenges! I can see how learning more about our habits and thinking patterns helps us to identify problem areas and work on changing them. Great job!
This is such an excellent resource, Barb. The book, The Beck Diet Book, helped me with renewing my mind in this area though it isn’t a Christian book. One thing she has you do is really rate how “painful” hunger is. I will often exaggerate how I feel, whether it’s hunger, fatigue, or sadness and when I do that, I’m easily tempted. Rating it helps me to realize it isn’t so bad. The other though I have which is really a problem is “I deserve.” Really? Of course, this thought usually follows the other. “I’m SOOOOOO exhausted. I deserve some chocolate pretzels.” I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. ;-)
Yes, I’m afraid I do know what you’re talking about – all too well! Entitlement eating has been responsible for a lot of extra calories in my life over the years. That book sounds interesting. I hadn’t heard of it before, but I can see why the rating system would help with the renewing of the mind. It would never have occurred to me to rate how painful hunger is – interesting!
I didn’t get time this morning to let you know how FANTASTIC these questions are for me! They are especially good for helping me take responsibility for breaking my boundaries. Can you guess what the first thing is that I do; when I intentionally break a boundary?!……….I conveniently forget about it, put it out of my mind. Then I quickly get stuck in the rut of not re-newing my mind, because, well I already forgot I broke the boundary! UGH!! With these questions you wrote for us, I have to admit- yes, I did break a boundary, and yes, I need to deal with it. Thus reminding myself that re-newing my mind is the only way to end this bad habit.
And you know what! It’s more freeing to face my failures, re-new my mind and and ask God to forgive me, than it is to deny it!
Sometimes by trying to “get away” with it, I make things so much harder for myself.
Thanks Barb! (((HUG)))
I’m guessing you’re talking about the app questions – I’m glad you like them! Those boundary questions do the same thing for me – one of my most common ways of breaking boundaries is to justify it to myself: “Well, I’m not REALLY breaking my boundaries . . .” So I need that question that says, “Did you break the boundaries? If so, which one did you break?”
Yes exactly!! I have to answer the question truthfully- and not avoid what I’ve done. I love that, it convicts me to really look at and see what I’m doing- not avoid it!
Thank You!
What a great idea about the 3 different plans to renew your mind. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful, Christina!