Full-disclosure: this will reference my relationship with God in relation to eating, I don't want to offend anyone, feel free not to read this, but I do want to share this as it might encourage someone else.
I am a binge eater. I start eating one thing and then I go completely out of control and I feel powerless to stop it. When I finally do stop because my stomach literally can't hold anything more and I feel like I'm going to burst I am completely ashamed of my eating. This is not a one time instance with me as it might be, for example, for some people on Thanksgiving, etc., it is habitual. This is why I am a yo-yo dieter because one week I do really well and lose and then I go on a complete binge and gain 3 or 4 lbs in a day gaining what I had lost and then some.
I do not feel like this habit of binge eating, the biblical word for it would be gluttony, is honoring to God. I do not feel it pleases Him one bit. I have tried stopping on my own but it is useless. I have been praying about this because I know it's something I should change but can only change with God's help. It is not really about weight loss or weight gain. It's about food controlling me which it should not do.
Two nights ago, after a binge, I decided to look again at my book about intermittent fasting. IF is basically only allowing yourself to eat within a certain number of hours a day. Many people do 16:8 (16 hours of not eating, 8 hours within which you can eat - not eating FOR 8 hours!) or 18:6 (18 hours not eating, 6 within which you can eat). I have tried this half heartedly before and have not gotten very far because I have no self-control. Well, that same night I decided to try it again. I have to do something! I really feel as if God directed me toward this. Yesterday was my first day of IF or as some people call it 8 hour eating.
I did not struggle with eating too much in the morning because I didn't eat anything. When I did eat, between the hours of noon and 8 PM, I asked God to give me a craving for what He wanted me to eat. I know there are probably many whoh would say He doesn't care what I eat, but I happen to think He does. Anyway, I have to tell you, I had two of the most satisfying meals I have had in quite a while. They were nothing grand. At noon I had a piece of egg casserole, some bread with butter and some beans. At 4:30, when I was finally hungry again, I had rice, mango and chicken sauce with beans and a salad. Around 7 I had some coffee with milk and splenda and a sprinkling of chocoate powder and then around 7:45 because I had a small dessert bowl of fruit at someone's house. All in all I ate about 1,350 calories. I did not feel at all ashamed of what I ate which is also kind of a first. I was not left wanting more. I followed my eating window and when 8:00 (20h) came I stopped. I did not go on a late-night binge as I often do because I wasn't allowed to eat anyting. One cannot binge on nothing. Having the 8 hour eating window was completely freeing as it gave me some boundaries. It was also really freeing to believe that I had eaten what God gave me a craving for. All in all it was a good first day of change.