STARVED
Identify Your Focus
Freedom from an eating disorder is your goal, but that
shouldn't be your focus. When you focus on the
problem, you
can't see the solution. God is the answer to the freedom you are
seeking, and He should be your main focus.
When an eating disorder is all that you have known, setting
your focus on God rather than food is not something that
comes easily. Begin by choosing to focus your thoughts on God
every morning when you wake up. This may feel unnatural, so
use some resources to help you. Read God's Word, and listen to
some praise and worship music; praise God for who He is. Go
outside and admire His creation.
Identifying your focus first thing each day is a great start, but
maintaining your focus throughout
the day may be difficult.
Sporadically during the day, you may need to purposefully
refocus your thoughts, attitudes, and out-of-comrol emotions
back onto God. Take a moment to do this, as often as you
need, until it becomes a normal reaction to keep your thoughts
centered on Him. Thoughts of the eating disorder will eventually
lose their power to control your actions and will become less
overwhelming.
Philippians 4:8 says, "Whatever things are true, whatever
things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things
are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of
good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy-meditate
on these things" (NKJV). Meditating
on things that are true, just, pure, lovely, and of good report
may require some change in your lifestyle. The movies and
television shows you watch affect your mind. Magazines that
50