Emotional Roller Coasters

My friends, let me tell you that these last few weeks have been some of the most emotional weeks I have had to endure.  We have gone through some changes this past week and my emotions have been on a very wild roller coaster because of it.

Emotions are a hard thing for me to handle.  It is not like I am a woman who sees crying as weak, because I don't!  I believe that it is important to let your emotions show when the time is right.  It is okay to cry in the comfort of someone you love or to be angry (as long as your anger is controlled) or, best of all, to be happy and excited!  Yet for me, emotional roller coasters trigger something in my mind and body that makes it seem like it is okay to eat.  It is okay to reach for those "comfort foods" and it is okay to indulge in things that I know are not okay for me.

I will admit, it was comforting to eat whatever I wanted and when I wanted . . . . at the time.  Yet here I sit finding no comfort in the guilt that I am feeling or in the way my clothes are fitting.

The worst part about it all, is the fact that when you eat "comfort foods" your body tends to turn around and want those all the time.  It doesn't matter how much you try and push them away, all your body can do is crazy those foods that you have allowed yourself to indulge in for a period of time.  And let me tell you first hand, those cravings SUCK!

Trying to turn emotional eating into a healthy eating habit has been one of the hardest steps in my mountain that I am having to face.  I have been an emotional eater for quite some time and I have a feeling that it will be the one thing that Satan will throw at me again and again to make me feel off the path that I am trying to build.

I must admit, I find myself becoming easily discouraged at this point in my life.  I have said to my husband that I feel like once I am finally starting to walk with one foot in front of the other there is something that comes along that knocks me back down.

Yet I am not here for a pity party.  I am not here to write to have you all say "Poor Laura!"  The point of my writing is to be a sounding board for those of you that could possibly be going through the same things I am.  I write because I enjoy it.  I write because it is a release for me.  I write because when I am distracted with writing to each and every one of you, my mind is off of food and focused on something more powerful then the hold that food has over me.

Please understand that my life is not a complicated one.  It is just a life where I can faithfully admit that I have a problem.  Like most problems it is not going to go away in the blink of an eye.  I can't snap my fingers and be the perfect, size 8, woman that I dream to be.  I can, however, walk hand in hand with my heavenly Father as I go through my struggles and know that, despite my shortcomings and despite my earthly tumbles, he loves me more then even I can fathom.

Take heart, dear friends.  We are not making this journey alone.  We have the strength of a Father who carries us when we stumble.  We have the power of a loving God who wants us to succeed and who wants us to have a life fulfilled in Him.