Food addiction, like all other addictions, is a double-edged sword. You yearn to be free of its deadly grip, yet the pleasure you crave from it also holds a measure of reward your flesh can’t resist. How could a believer in Jesus fall prey to life’s deadliest vices? Any Christian will tell you, sins come after us all. Addiction and sin are equal opportunists, and every race, creed, and color is fair game! My shameful confession is I was addicted to food with no desire to give it up — not even for God!
I don’t mean addicted as in I like rich gourmet meals here and there. I was a slave to food. It could summons me day or night, and I would indulge on command. Some days I ate until it physically hurt. And worst still, I was unable to choose my life over hyper-consumption. Friends and family worried about me. Doctors warned me. And still, I couldn’t stop. I knew food was slowly killing me, so I made peace with my fate. I knowingly became another statistical blip on the obesity charts of life with no way out.
1999 was the year it all changed.
I lost the weight and the addiction. My story is a strange one in that I never expected salvation to come from mere words on a page. What did those words hold that a good diet and exercise plan couldn’t fix? What a strange concept that addiction could be eradicated and made subject to words on a page. The weirdest part is that I lost the first 50 pounds and didn’t change what I was eating. Of course, I eventually learned how to fuel my body with healthy foods, but that came later, decades later.
If you think I’m trying to be elusive or mysterious with my explanation, then you couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s quite the opposite. I’m trying to frame my story in a way that makes sense and is embedded in honesty. I guess there is no turn of phrase I could use that would make my explanation more believable and palatable for the masses, so I’ll just lay it out as plain as possible. Here are the words that changed the tide of my food addiction:
