Hiding Makes Weight Control Harder

[Rita Hancock]

After they sinned, Adam and Eve felt shame, and that's why they hid from God. Much in the same way, we feel shame (due to our weight problems and other things, like lies that we believe about ourselves from childhood, shame from our past sins, etc), so we hide, in a way, too, through denial. 

Not only do we hide from God; we hide from ourselves. We bury our painful memories like ostriches that bury their heads in the sand. We think that if we don't consciously acknowledge the deep-down things that bother us, we feel safer. But it doesn't usually work out to bury those hurts indefinitely. Eventually, they surface in one way or another, such as by triggering us to overeat and engage in other self-destructive, compulsive behaviors, which, in turn, make us feel even worse. 

That's why, in this battle with weight control, you shouldn't just try to control the food (by following some rigid, pre-set "diet"). You have to dig under the food and try to discover the reasons you over-eat in the first place. Otherwise, you're just covering the symptoms of the disease without actually getting to the root cause of it. 

While it's okay to temporarily suppress painful memories, it's better to find healthy ways to bring them to the surface so you can deal with them more definitively. Depending on the severity of your trauma or the degree of your pain, you might wish to invoke the help of a Christian counselor or psychologist in this quest. To find a counselor in your area, contact the American Association of Christian Counselors via an Internet search.