While many people do lack the knowledge to make the right nutritional choices, the observation from my own experience with past overeating habits is that the greatest challenge most overeaters face is simply to stop eating once they start. Sometimes it’s a matter of the individual ignoring the hunger/full response and at other times it’s a matter of the response not working properly due to unhealthy lifestyles. One goal is to retrain your body to control its own hunger/full response in a healthy manner.

The goal is to avoid temptation but even when temptation cannot be avoided, it can certainly be outsmarted. Let’s start with something as simple as preparing your meals and then your plate. When you are preparing your plate or planning your meals, rather than just selecting items and quantities that “look” good at the moment, stop and think about what would look good to someone you perceive to be a healthy person. If it helps, imagine that I am coming to dinner and you are preparing my plate. What would I like to eat and how much? You know that I like to eat healthy and that I am not on a starvation diet. Now take that information and use it to plan meals and to prepare your plate. The goal is to not let your appetite or what “looks” good to determine the portion size but rather your awareness of what you know about health.

Something else you can do is to take a few minutes to make a list of your top 10 “to do’s.” Each item on your list should involve an activity that requires getting your mind and your eyes off of food. That, of course, eliminates TV. Also, each “to do” should take about 10 to 20 minutes, although they can take longer. The activity should be productive but not overwhelming. Again, I want to emphasize the impact of small, progressive change.

Finally, you must make the decision that, at the moment of temptation, you will pull from your “to do” list whenever it is possible to do so. This decision must supersede any feelings you might have about whether you want to continue eating or not. The decision has already been made that when you know that you have eaten enough food to satisfy hunger and nutritional needs, you will immediately “escape” your eating environment. Let go of any feelings of deprivation by reminding yourself that you are not on a “diet” and you are free to eat again when you are hungry. You are simply training yourself to exercise control over food by taking action. You are developing the habit of self-control.

When you were born again, God’s Holy Spirit recreated your Spirit and therefore self-control is IN you. You simply have to exercise it by having faith in what God said is good food. Everyone intuitively knows that our bodies are uniquely different but the great news is that God made our bodies and He knows exactly what, when and how much we should eat to lose weight and maintain a healthy body. Consistently eating a balanced diet will set you up for success. Using faith that you CAN do what God says to do, will retrain your thinking.