Devotion #51 (Emotional vs. Physical Hunger)

Hi, Everyone.
I trust you had a great weekend, and you're ready for another week. Today's devotion, from my personal journal dated May 29, 2007, is probably the most practical information that the Lord gave me and led me to, during the several months He taught me daily. I hope you enjoy it, and, remember, I love hearing from you. It encourages me.

     After coming home from my friend's pool this morning, I found myself opening up the refrigerator and the cupboard, just looking.
     The Lord asked, "Are you hungry?"
     "I don't know, Lord. What is true hunger? I'm not sure I've ever felt true hunger. Would You help me know the difference?"
     I spent the next hour or so pondering the difference between true hunger and emotional hunger. This is what I came up with, with the Lord's help and the Internet.

Emotional Hunger	Physical Hunger
1. Is sudden. One minute you’re not thinking about food, the next minute you’re starving. Your hunger goes from 0-60 within a short period of time.	Is gradual. Your stomach rumbles. One hour later, it growls. Physical hunger gives you steadily progressive clues that it’s time to eat.
2. Is for a specific food. Your cravings are for one specific type of food, such as chocolate, pasta, or a cheeseburger. With emotional eating, you feel you need to eat that particular food. No substitute will do!	Is open to different foods. With physical hunger, you may have food preferences, but they are flexible. You are open to alternative choices.
3. Is “above the neck.” An emotionally-based craving begins in the mouth and mind. Your mouth wants to taste that pizza or chocolate donut. Your mind whirls with thoughts about your desired food.	Is based in the stomach. Physical hunger is recognizable by stomach sensations. You feel gnawing, rumbling, emptiness, and even pain in your stomach, with physical hunger.
4. Is urgent. Emotional hunger urges you to eat NOW! There is a desire to instantly ease emotional pain with food.	Is patient. Physical hunger would prefer that you ate soon, but doesn’t command you to eat right at that instant.
5. Is paired with an upsetting emotion. Your boss yells at you. Your child is in trouble at school. Your spouse is in a bad mood. Emotional hunger occurs in conjunction with an upsetting situation.	Occurs out of physical need. Physical hunger occurs because it has been 4 or 5 hours since your last meal. You may experience light-headedness or low energy, if overly hungry.
6. Involves automatic or absent-minded eating. Emotional eating can feel as if someone else’s hand is scooping up the ice cream and putting it into your mouth (automatic eating). You may not notice that you’ve just eaten a whole bag of cookies (absent-minded eating).	Involves deliberate choices and awareness of the eating. With physical hunger, you are aware of the food on your fork, in your mouth, and in your stomach. You consciously choose whether to eat half your sandwich or the whole thing.
7. Does not notice or stop eating, in response to fullness. Emotional overeating stems from a desire to cover up painful feelings. The person stuffs herself to deaden her troubling emotions and will eat 2nd and 3rd helpings, even though her stomach may hurt from over fullness.	Stops when pleasantly full. Physical hunger stems from a desire to fuel and nourish the body. As soon as that intention is fulfilled, the person stops eating.
8. Feels guilty about eating. The paradox of emotional overeating is that the person eats to feel better and ends up berating herself for eating cookies, cakes, or cheeseburgers. She promises atonements to herself (“Tomorrow I’ll exercise, diet, skip meals, etc.”)	Realizes eating is necessary. When the intent behind eating is based in physical hunger, there’s no guilt or shame. The person realizes that eating, like breathing oxygen, is a necessary behavior.

    
     After compiling this Emotional vs. Physical Hunger list, I went to the Word, to see what God has to say.
     Isaiah 29:8 gives a good picture of the person who has not found nourishment in the Lord, "It shall even be as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty [Amplified version says 'craving is not satisfied']: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite [Amplified says 'thirst is not quenched']..."
     Hebrews 13:9 says, "...It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats..." The heart is meant to be fed by grace. It cannot be fed with food. Wisdom and the awareness to discern what is true hunger and what is the soul craving to be fed by the Word and the Spirit can only come from the Word and the Spirit. It is paramount that one be in the Word, meditate on it, be a hearer AND a doer of it, and abide in the Lord all day long.

Today, whenever you feel hungry, compare your hunger to the chart above, to see if it's emotional hunger or true physical hunger. Choose to eat only in response to true hunger. When you recognize that you are emotionally hungry, go to the Lord, in prayer, and He will meet your need. Listen to this sweet girl (I don't even know her name) singing "Hungry."
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=a99934c294bc87 8b289d

Blessings,
Mary

Thank you Mary for sharing that...that is what I needed to see
LaDetra

Hi, LaDetra.
Thanks for reading and replying. I normally post the devotional on the Main and Christianity forums, but I was encouraged today to post on this forum and the VSG forum, as well, due to the practicality of the information.
Blessings,
Mary

what you wrote is taught at OWLO....

Hi, Pattye.
What is OWLO? I've seen that acronym on other posts, but I haven't a clue. I'm often clueless. ;)
Blessings,
Mary

Oh OH OH (remember Horshack?  I loved him)...I know I know I know

Oklahoma Weight Loss Options.....I know because every time I call 411 I ask for Oklahoma Weight Loss Associates, which does not exist and we have to figure it out from there. 

Hi, Debra.
Who's Horshack? Again, clueless me here. OWLO stands for "Oklahoma Weight Loss Options." Now, I know. Is it a support group with a diet, like Weigh****chers? I've never heard of it, but I'll claim ignorance, since I'm a Kansas girl (actually a transplanted South Carolinian). :)
Blessings,
Mary

No, it's a bariatric practice, like Weight Wise, only with a different set of Dr.s  (Keith and Nelson).

Horshack was a character on the TV series Welcome Back Kotter, in the early 70's.  I guess television hand't made it to Kansas at that time. 

Oh, I see. Thanks, Debra. I remember when Welcome Back Kotter was on. We didn'****ch it. Not sure why. Well, Dad always had control of the remote. I'm sure that's why.  Thanks for the info.
Blessings,
Mary