How to fight gluttony? Obedience?

[in_servitude]

But when you see people who are a hundred pounds or more overweight, and who just keep eating and eating, surely, SURELY the logical conclusion is that there is something wrong with that person’s eat-o-meter! They are “broken”, as you put it so well. It HURTS to be 100 pounds overweight. I can kind of imagine how painful it must feel to be 200 or 300pounds overweight. The joints, the stomach, the bowels, the constant headaches, the aching muscles, the painful feet, the swollen ankles and calves (often they will leak in large people), the swollen fingers–how tragic.

Yes - this is all true. The interesting thing for me is that food is where I go haywire. There are times when I KNOW that I should NOT eat whatever it is at the moment, but I somehow figure I can make it up elsewhere at some other time. But, the time doesn’t come until I get on a long term kick to push the weight back down.

People who are overweight show their brokenness physically. Even though everyone has some kind of issue - the other issues tend to be less visible. It is for this reason that I feel great sadness (NOT contempt) when I see someone who is 100+ lbs overweight - and I pray for their spiritual healing.

I’ve been working on this for a long time - years, in fact. I’m much better now. But, I think the most progress has come NOT as a result of going to doctors/nutritionist/psychologist - but instead of going to daily mass and doing more prayer. But, then again - who knows. Maybe it was all those professionals that gave me the basic knowledge that I needed, and then the spiritual world gave me the strength to do what I learned was right.

 

[TimothyH]

Yes - this is all true. The interesting thing for me is that food is where I go haywire. There are times when I KNOW that I should NOT eat whatever it is at the moment, but I somehow figure I can make it up elsewhere at some other time. But, the time doesn’t come until I get on a long term kick to push the weight back down.

People who are overweight show their brokenness physically. Even though everyone has some kind of issue - the other issues tend to be less visible. It is for this reason that I feel great sadness (NOT contempt) when I see someone who is 100+ lbs overweight - and I pray for their spiritual healing.

I’ve been working on this for a long time - years, in fact. I’m much better now. But, I think the most progress has come NOT as a result of going to doctors/nutritionist/psychologist - but instead of going to daily mass and doing more prayer. But, then again - who knows. Maybe it was all those professionals that gave me the basic knowledge that I needed, and then the spiritual world gave me the strength to do what I learned was right.

I don’t doubt that daily Mass, prayer, and surrounding yourself with things of God has helped.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

I don’t doubt for one minute that Jesus can take our troubles away. Sometimes all we have to do is ask, and then be really patient. Not always, but sometimes. I don’t doubt it at all.

Saturate your life with things of God.

-Tim-

 

[in_servitude]

Saturate your life with things of God.

The graces have been flowing tremendously as result of filling my life with God. So, I agree tremendously.

 

[floresco]

I don’t see that obeying hunger is any better than obeying one’s knowledge of nutrition. Either could be a form of mortification to combat gluttony. It would probably depend on the individual’s personal history.

Because our society has such odd attitudes to body weight and diet, it is difficult to fast with pure motives. Ideally one would fast solely for spiritual growth and to please God. However, the knowledge that fasting might lead to being the “ideal weight” could interfere with this. Any sort of mortification needs to be immersed in prayer. but fasting is especially difficult because of this situation. It might be good to work on a less complicated form of mortification before attempting this one. The discipline of waking up consistently and promptly is one that I often see recommended.