Weight loss success in 20 days: day 16

Consider two minutes verses 2000 minutes. We enjoy a dessert for a minute or two. Is eating a dessert bad. No! But eating too much will decrease our pleasure over the next 2000 minutes. With every dessert determine to have maximum pleasure over the next 1958 minutes. When we learn to have disdain for short term pleasure we will increase our long term happiness.

One way to disdain short term pleasure is to have only 1 cheat day per week. If you just can’t stop once you start with desserts, this is your only option. This works because you are not triggering yourself Monday through Saturday. And it’s okay to trigger yourself on your cheat day.

Thomas Horvath in his book Sex, Drugs, Gambling and Chocolate said the following: “Addiction can be thought of as a bad habit. If you eliminate this bad habit, you will be creating a vacuum, an empty spot in your life. Nature abhors a vacuum. If you do not fill this vacuum with something new (like a good habit, a positive addiction), there is a significant risk that the addiction will return.

Imagine that your ultimate goal, as you understand yourself, is to serve others. You believe that serving others will give you the best happiness you can imagine. This goal is related to your value that human life is more important than anything else you can think of. In order to serve others, you will need to have something of value to them. Based on your natural talents, suppose that you decide to become a teacher. In order to become a good teacher, one who truly can serve others, you will need a variety of good habits. These good habits will assure that your preparation to become a teacher and your efforts as a teacher will be effective.”

What goals and habits can you develop to help to use up the time vacuum created by quitting food addiction?

What person can you watch who lives in a way that you would like to live?
How can you arrange to spend more time talking to that person?

What routine can you start that will help you fight addiction. Such as reading a page or two each day of a quitting addiction book. Or getting involved in your church or helping with your favorite charity.

Youth is a time when our passions are strongest. Death seems far away, and to enjoy ourselves in this life sometimes seems to be everything. Many people over time place pleasure on a pedestal. Time would not permit me to tell you all the fruits this love of pleasure produces, and all the ways in which it may harm you. All things that give a feeling of excitement for the time, all things that drown thought and keep the mind in a constant whirl, and all things that please the senses and delight the flesh, these are the sort of things that have mighty power over your life. They owe their power to the love of pleasure. There is no surer way to get a seared conscience and a hard heart toward the things of God than to give way to the desires of the flesh and mind.

Every day we need to pray that we will increase our love of people and caring about how we can learn to be a soul winner instead of a lover of pleasure. Pleasure is great when it is not sinful, when it is done in the right way, at the right time. The ultimate pleasure for me is to see a sinner set free from their bondage and to see then now helping other people. Seek this first, then seek clean pleasure and you will be amazed at how the simple things in life will give you pleasure and how you will start to find fullness of joy in your life.

Read Proverbs 13

Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life

Say this morning noon and night: “This temptation will go away if I don’t act on it. If I give in it will return and it may be even stronger next time. If I don’t give in it will go away and someday it will go away for good. I have the self control to change”.

Church is often an important factor in overcoming addiction. The right Pastor or Priest is even more important. We need to attend a Church that will consistently help us to learn discipline. A Church that will help us to focus on important things so that we can overcome our addictions. A Church that has a leader who will help us to increase our learning about how to conquer addiction until we are expert at it. A Church that has wise counsel so that we can learn rapidly. Many of you have attended Church for years but you will be shocked to hear me say that the Bible says about 90 times that we are to fear the Lord. A great Church teaches what the Bible teaches. They will teach you to obey the commandments because of a fear of the Lord.

Study the Bible books of Matthew and 1 Corinthians. Then make it a priority to find a great Church. A Church that teaches obedience. Make a list of Churches you want to try. After you visit each one make an appointment with the Pastor or Priest to meet with them to see how much help they can give you with your addiction.

So what Churches are good? Sometimes the Assembly of God or the Nazarine Churches are good, sometimes they are not. Ask people that you know; what Churches around here really help people change for the better? Then try them and see if they are good for you. The only Christ following Churches that I would avoid are the Jehovah’s Witness (who subtract multiple verses from the Bible saying they are not true) and the Mormons (Who add multiple verses to the Bible from the writings of a very mixed up man). Avoid Churches that give you a guaranteed ticket to Heaven. If it sounds too good to be true it is. However, sometimes these Churches are great at helping you with your addiction. You can attend their and believe and follow what the Bible says and be just fine.

Believing the Bible allows you to live in the light. It allows you to fight your way to joy through a relationship with Jesus. Find a Church that believes every verse in the Bible because it will be led by a Pastor who has real answers for you.

This week make it your written goal to find a great Church that can help you. Lastly keep working on your own to seek out help about addiction from experts, groups, books, web sites and everything else we can get help from.

Read Proverbs 11

Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life

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Thank you for reading day 16 of this program:

Index

Day 1: Cravings
Day 2: Develop positive addictions
Day 3: Start an overcoming addiction journal
Day 4: Controlling emotions
Day 5: Don’t sell your pleasure backwards
Day 6: With the Spirit we have liberty
Day 7: You have some self control
Day 8: Have coping statements
Day 9: Living water
Day 10: Learning from Genesis
Day 11: Consequences in Genesis
Day 12: Self control
Day 13: What leads to setbacks
Day 14: Learn toughness and learn how prayer helps with addiction
Day 15: What prayers does God answer