When I was in middle and high school, I had an eating disorder. I was underweight for a few years (when I didn't really eat much at all) and then slightly overweight for a few more years (when I binged and purged food with regularity). That unhealthy approach toward food caused mental, physical and emotional pain for myself and the people closest to me for nearly a decade.
God delivered me from that snare little by little, but I turned a major corner my junior year at N.C. State when I took a human nutrition course. I'll never forget Dr. Sarah Ash coming in on the first day of class with a pack of Lance peanuts and a can of Coke. She said, "This is my breakfast. See, even nutrition professors don't get it right all the time."
I don't remember much of the biochemical depths that I was taught that semester, but it doesn't matter. What changed my life was learning to approach food as fuel, instead of something to control, fear or use to soothe my mind or emotions. Dr. Ash's mantra, "All things in moderation and variety in all things," has governed my food choices ever since I took her class.
After having a baby, it's been tempting to get down on myself because my body doesn't look or feel the way that it once did. I started a running program about a week ago to jump-start my weight loss goal, but even with that going on, I've looked at the scale or in the mirror and gotten discouraged lately. I've been tempted to try to control what I'm eating in an effort to slim down faster. But that mindset doesn't lead me into gratitude and freedom. It points me back in the direction that I came from. So today, I'm grateful that food is for the body, and that God provides great variety for me to enjoy and to give me the strength and energy I need to do His work today.
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