Monday, January 28, 2008

Spiritual Nutrients

This last week has been really hard. I was having a hard time controlling my eating and I was doing a lot of emotional eating as a way to protest the start of another hectic semester of never seeing my husband. So on Sunday I decided to fast. I didn't fast about losing weight, I prayed instead that I would be able to reign in my emotions, which seemed to be swallowing my reason lately. Then when we went to Mom and Dad's for dinner, Tyler and Dad gave me a blessing. I know it's only Monday, but this has been the easiest day by far since I started this weight loss quest. AND I even started my period today (which may explain the eating and the emotions). I know that when I eat my emotions, it's usually to fill a void. When you stay close to the Lord, and ask for his help, those voids seem to grow smaller and you see your options for filling them a little better. Thus the title of this post. A few general conferences ago, Pres. Faust gave a talk entitled "Spiritual Nutrients" about how there are certain spiritually nourishing activities that can keep us spiritually strong. And when we are spiritually strong we are better equipped to meet the challenges we face, such as learning a healthy lifestyle that will allow us better quality of life and longevity. It just struck me how true this is when I finally was forced into humility at my utter inability to solve this problem on my own. When I added the spiritual nutrients of fasting and prayer, my challenges became much more do-able. So this is my challenge to all of you: What "Spiritual Nutrients" are you missing? Work on one and see if your weight loss challenge gets any easier. Even if it's as simple as quiet time for reflection on things you're grateful for, work on it. It's worked for me way better than my hypnosis CDs ever did!

2 comments:

Kyla said...

Great blog. There is truth to what you say. I used to get up and read my scriptures before I would exercise. It was hard, getting up at 5am is never easy, but it made my whole day run so much more smoothly.

I can think of a whole bunch of spiritual nutrients that I'm horribly deficient in. I will definitely make this part of my workout routine.

Thanks again for the great blog.

Anbolyn said...

I really enjoyed your comments. I've had really negative feelings about the church lately and have not read my scriptures or prayed in a while and January has been horrible for me. I have my second cold of the month and I have eaten like a pig. There really is a correlation between spiritual well-being and physical well-being. Holistic -- is that the word? Thanks Sybil for reminding us of that.