The MOMENT

I believe we are building an army of empowered women who know the truth and can stand strong when the moment arrives.
Actually, the moment arrives constantly.
We are making choices all the time. When we have weight issues, we can get fooled into thinking we're choosing whether to eat or not, or what to eat. But really, it's not about food at all. It's about staying or escaping the moment.
Let's take stress eating, for example. The morning is going OK and then your boss-spouse-client-child-principal-crazy driver-girlfriend-plumber-Starbucks drive thru line-flat tire-bad hair day- ___ (insert stressor here) throws your stress hormones into a frenzy. Suddenly you are angry and your mind is racing. All you want is your peace of mind back.
There's your moment.
You can (A) work through the stress to get to a place of authentic peace or (B) escape to a place of counterfeit peace.
(A) takes longer and involves more effort. All (B) takes is a spoon and some ice cream.
This is not a choice about food. There are many other ways to escape. If I am suddenly stressed or angry or terrified, there are many means I can use to escape. Food is a big one because it is quick, easy and cheap. And it works. You absolutely leave your frenzied mind and go to your happy place. But only as long as there is ice cream on the spoon.
When you choose to run away, it is no different than if you shot up heroin. Your brain takes you just as far away from the issue you were only a moment ago standing in the middle of. But just like the junkie, the issues are still there once the high is gone and the emotions still need to be dealt with. If we keep putting them off, it's like going into emotional debt. We keep spending and shifting amounts around on different credit cards, but eventually we have to pay. We have to face what we were escaping.
And if we were escaping for a long time, now we have to face our original issue plus the feelings that come with being overweight and using food.
The moment of choice when you are HUNGRY is what to eat and how much. This is where your strategies come in, your awareness and your knowledge.
The moment of choice when you are not hungry but are FEELING SOMETHING UNCOMFORTABLE is to eat comfort food, shoot up heroin, or deal with the issue. It takes a lot of strength to deal with the issue. It may mean telling someone no and feeling afraid they will disapprove. It may mean finding your voice and telling someone what you need. It may mean taking some time to just sit with your fear to let God do some healing work in you.
Even if you choose to eat carrot sticks, if you do it to escape, you are still escaping. That is why it is not about food and why a diet will never fix this.
So, what can you do? You can get strong; physically, emotionally and spiritually strong. Because when you are in that moment and those feelings get uncomfortable, you must be empowered to stand against that discomfort and fear! You must stay put. You must know who you are, and that you are ENOUGH. You must know that there is a Power at work in your life that is stronger than anything that might come at you. You must know that you are connected to other women who encourage and support you being fully real in those moments.
Then, as that automatic tendency to escape yourself heals, you will find that the issues that were the result of that; the weight, the food, the scale, the clothes, the health scares...they all begin to heal as well. You find that food is just food, and peace is actual peace, and real comfort is way better than the counterfeit version ever was.