How to grow in temperance?

[jason3477]

How can I grow in temprance as related to food/eating?

I’ve struggled with gluttony/bad eating habbits=but I go to confession regulary too…

 

[Paul_Infirdigno]

i would suggest fasting. and praying for the grace to fight this sin.

 

[willofgods]

I have the same problem and my “can’t say no to grandma’s homemade cooking” attitude doesn’t help! To answer your question well, it depends on your eating habits.

are you gluttonous during the “common” three meals of the day? if so start off by taking just one of those daily meals and preparing it beforehand, i.e, after you prepare it you don’t get seconds. You can make it as big as you want to start and reduce it little by little. Only apply it to that one meal; you can even “make up” for what you didn’t eat in the other meals of the day (avoid snacking but I’ll get to that). Remember that the word “temperance” can find roots in the word for “proportional division”. Don’t make it about reducing your amounts; make it about “saving some for later” (and by extension “I had some earlier”).

I personally snack too much. what I do is I take my intended snack and look at the clock “In fifteen minutes” and then I come back to it 15 minutes later. If you start out like I did though you’ll last ten seconds. No problem. Make the sign of the cross and say “Bless us, O Lord, in these thy gifts which I am about to receive through thy bounty and Christ Our Lord. Amen.” Then enjoy the food! Once you get used to that, say the Our Father; later add a Glory Be to that Our Father, then a Hail Mary, the Creed, a decade of the Divine Mercy chaplet, then another decade, etc.; eventually you’ll be able to say “it’s been 15 minutes, maybe I’ll wait another fifteen…” The next week or month or liturgical season you can say “in 30 minutes” until one day your saying “tomorrow” or even “after my fast is over”!

Just divide what you eat in regards to time. You mention going to the sacrament of confession frequently. maybe to curb what you are eating you need to eat of the Bread of Life more. Add another day of Mass if you ever can, maybe just one extra for the Advent Season. Then each liturgical season you might increase that goal. Little by little!

one last point, if food is too tough, start out with another aspect of your life. shorter showers, less tv, whatever!

I’ll say “no” to the last handful of tortilla chips I will want to eat today and offer it to God for you

 

[fred_conty]

How can I grow in temprance as related to food/eating?

I’ve struggled with gluttony/bad eating habbits=but I go to confession regulary too…

Your suffering from discouragement. I can’t promise any magic
to help but I can tell you what will help.

Just keep saying “Lord, help me to WANT to change.”
Do not try to change yourself, it usually won’t work in your condition.
Just keep saying over and over whenever you have a moment,
“Lord, help me to WANT to change.” Even tho you know your going
to continue in your present pattern, still say that prayer no matter
how you feel, or even if you feel like your lying in saying the prayer.
Keep at it for days, weeks, months, as long as it takes for Jesus
to answer that prayer.

One day you will snap out of it and suddenly will be asking yourself
“what am I doing?” And then you will change. He will turn
on a light inside of you and suddenly you see it. And then
things will appear different. It will be all over and you will find
the self you want. The worst thing you could do is to quit.
The temptation to quit will be strongest when you fail.
Then you will think, what good is it to pray this silly prayer?
Then you think its not doing any good and not working.
Don’t you believe it. Keep saying that short prayer over and over.

That prayer tells Him how dependent you are on Him and how weak
you are and in great need for his assistenance. You are admitting
that you need His help and without him you are helpless. That is
a strong prayer. He loves that kind of prayer. He now has your
attention and will answer you with a shower of his mercy.

Caveat. The prayer is not “Lord help me to change.”
The prayer is “Lord help me to WANT to change.”
This will cure in His time. It works if you trust Him.
Remind Him, “Lord you PROMISED to answer our prayers.”
“I’m trusting in Your own words.” “Lord help me to want to change.”

“The Lord is my strength.” - Old testiment. And He is
Just keep saying “Lord help me to want to change” with trust.
We have the best souce of power in the whole world if we don’t neglect Him.

 

[Langdell]

Your suffering from discouragement. I can’t promise any magic
to help but I can tell you what will help.

Just keep saying “Lord, help me to WANT to change.”
Do not try to change yourself, it usually won’t work in your condition.
Just keep saying over and over whenever you have a moment,
“Lord, help me to WANT to change.” Even tho you know your going
to continue in your present pattern, still say that prayer no matter
how you feel, or even if you feel like your lying in saying the prayer.
Keep at it for days, weeks, months, as long as it takes for Jesus
to answer that prayer.

One day you will snap out of it and suddenly will be asking yourself
“what am I doing?” And then you will change. He will turn
on a light inside of you and suddenly you see it. And then
things will appear different. It will be all over and you will find
the self you want. The worst thing you could do is to quit.
The temptation to quit will be strongest when you fail.
Then you will think, what good is it to pray this silly prayer?
Then you think its not doing any good and not working.
Don’t you believe it. Keep saying that short prayer over and over.

That prayer tells Him how dependent you are on Him and how weak
you are and in great need for his assistenance. You are admitting
that you need His help and without him you are helpless. That is
a strong prayer. He loves that kind of prayer. He now has your
attention and will answer you with a shower of his mercy.

Caveat. The prayer is not “Lord help me to change.”
The prayer is “Lord help me to WANT to change.”
This will cure in His time. It works if you trust Him.
Remind Him, “Lord you PROMISED to answer our prayers.”
“I’m trusting in Your own words.” “Lord help me to want to change.”

“The Lord is my strength.” - Old testiment. And He is
Just keep saying “Lord help me to want to change” with trust.
We have the best souce of power in the whole world if we don’t neglect Him.

Fred, I really like this! I learned something similar from a sermon by Andrew Murray (who was an Evangelical minister in the early 1900s) – I tell the Lord that “I am willing to be made willing.”

 

[puzzleannie]

How can I grow in temprance as related to food/eating?

I’ve struggled with gluttony/bad eating habbits=but I go to confession regulary too…

pray for and work for an increase in the virtue of charity
before you eat anything, pray in thanksgiving, and give conscious thought to what you eat, why you eat, the time and place you eat, from whom you received the gift of that food, and the purpose to which God is using the body nourished by this food. this is the classic monastic response to “the food thought”.