I just started reading Lysa TerKeurst's book Made to Crave today, and I didn't realize that at the end of every chapter there is a handy little Reflections section! I had been hoping to just read through the book and be cured of all my battles with food, but the book makes you mull on what you have read and how it affects our own lives personally. I have decided to start blogging again, and these reflections make perfect little blogs. So here goes....
One weight loss company personifies cravings as a little orange monster that chases us around, tempting us to eat unhealthy foods. Take a moment to reflect on your own experience of craving, recently and over time.
If you could personify craving based on your experience of it, what form might it take? Would it be like the little orange monster or would it take a different shape? Describe what your craving looks like and how it behaves?
I crave sweet tea, sodas and chocolate. First, I find that I feel as if I'll thirst to death if I don't drink a soda or a sweet tea. When I crave or thirst for either the tea or the soda, it feels as if I am in the middle of the Sahara Desert about to literally die! Then out of nowhere my oasis appears: an Olympic-sized pool of sweet tea or soda. My cravings are very specific too. Sundrop (OH MY!) is amazing to say the least. This particular craving began about three years ago when my husband and I moved to Gastonia, NC, bottling capital of Sundrop. The wonderful people from Grace Baptist Church always have several 2 liters of Sundrop on hand at every church function, so it has to be from God right?! Secondly, I really only crave sweet tea from Pals, 'Sudden Service in a Flash.' Pals is a fast food restaurant that is only located in Northeast Tennessee, God's Country honestly, and this particular craving began to control me again three years ago when we moved outside of Pals' region. I would occasionally indulge in a sweet tea when we lived near Pals, but when I could not have it anymore, I wanted it so badly!
Like I said earlier, I crave chocolate, but that isn't completely true. I am without a doubt a choco-holic! Dessert should always include chocolate! I like chocolate any way in which I can get it, cookies, cakes, pies, candy, oh my! My craving though tends to look like an M&M. An M&M is just so perfect, like a hit of chocolate. Just pop one, or a few, and my chocolate craving subsides, sorta, until I need a bigger hit, like a cookie or brownie! This particular craving gets bigger and bigger as I try to resist it, and I find myself thinking in terms of chocolate. I have often picked restaurants where I can get my favorite chocolate treat, and Olive Garden chocolate tuxedo cake is my favorite!!
As personal as this is, I hope that you see that we all struggle somewhere with food, and I cannot wait to see how God resolves my struggles. I have no doubt He will. Feel free to comment with your own answer to Lysa TerKeurst question about our cravings. Sometimes, writing, or typing in this circumstance, is the best release, and we can really begin to address our food issues!
B
