ObesityHelp

As I sometimes must do, I am putting out the warning that this inspiration is drawn from my experience in the Christian faith.  If you’re not down with that…that’s cool but you may want to stop reading here.

Last Sunday at church my pastor said something that took me aback.  He was talking about people who are ill and who pray.  He said he always advises them that when praying they should not focus on telling God about their illness but to focus on telling their illness about the awesome God they serve. 

Wow.

Being a life-long food addict with all the behaviors and sensibilities of an addict, I wondered how that concept could fit into my life.  Do you ever exhibit addict behavior?  Don’t know?  Here’s some examples:

• You go to visit a friend…you just ate lunch before you went…you get there and she has cookies.  You say to yourself, “I know I shouldn’t have one but they look so good…” you reach out your hand and then pull back, reminding yourself you just ate.  You proceed to block out all of what your friend says to you because the cookie remains in the room with you.  Finally, you reach out and take one.
• You vow never to eat a tortilla chip again…but you buy them “for the kids” and end up taking a couple each time you give them some.
• You faithfully fill out your food journal every day but omit that little bowl of ice cream or the scone you had.

The problem lies not in the actions but the thought processes associated with addict behavior.  So how could speaking my God to my addictive behavior change that.

Well the other day I was at Whole Foods.  I love Whole Foods by the way.  They had samples of potato chips.  I took one, thinking “I’ll just have one.”  Ate it…immediately reached for another.  And another.  Then I thought to myself, “why am I doing this?”  And I paused, remembering what my pastor said.  I looked at that tray of chips and it smelled good.  It looked good.  I already knew it tasted good and I wanted another one!  But you know what?  My God is an awesome God and he delivered me through major surgery to have a new life.  He gave me a new body and is working a change in my heart and mind so that I can hopefully maintain my health to be around to serve His purposes.  How irresponsible of me to put that in jeopardy by giving in to my addict behavior!

I don’t want you to take away from this that potato chips are the devil.  Remember, it is the *behavior* we are concerned with…not the food…not the action of eating it.  If I was able to eat one chip and leave it at that, it would be an equal glory to God’s deliverance because chips are truly my trigger food.  But since I am powerless over my compulsion to eat them, I had to speak the power of my God to my addiction…and my addiction backed down.  I reached into my pocket, extracted a 5 calorie piece of sugar free gum and started a-chewing…the bible says about God “no weapon formed against me shall prosper.”  This is so true.  Even if you are not religious, no weapon formed against good can truly conquer it.  It can bruise it physically, wear it out mentally, but it cannot kill it.

Remember that as you walk your journey and next time you find yourself in a situation where your inner “addict/compulsive eater/whatever you want to call it” comes out speak the power of YOUR higher power to the compulsion and see if it doesn’t back down.

Have a great week!

Sorry about the lag folks…it’s been one of those weeks for me.  But today I have a good one so I hope it was worth the wait…

People often ask me about my screen name.  Cleopatra_Nik.  What an interesting name…how did you choose it?  I am inspired in many ways by the ancient Egyptian queen and so I thought I’d share with you some reasons why.  This one is long-ish so if you don’t have a minute right now, you might wanna save this one for later.

Queen Cleopatra is of the line of Egyptian nobility known as the Ptolemies.  The Ptolemies actually are more Mediterranean/European than African and so, despite the fact that us black folk try to claim her, she probably didn’t look very much like us (she would have called most black folks “Nubian”).  Anyhoo…Egyptian nobility blood lines run through the women in the family which created some persnickety situations for Egyptian royalty.  For instance, if your mom and dad died and you and your brother survive, you and your brother have to marry to keep the blood line going (ok say it…ewwwww).  Such was the situation that Cleopatra found herself.  Married to her little brother Ptolemy who she could not stand.  He didn’t have any love loss for her either.  In truth, he was a child when he had to marry his sister and it wasn’t long before the two had engaged in sibling rivalry of epic proportions – a civil war.

Enter Rome.  Egypt provided grain to Rome so if there was conflict which disrupted the grain shipments, Romans didn’t eat.  Rome was then what the U.S. is now, so of course they had to get that situation straightened out.  A delegation from Rome went to Egypt and during that time Cleopatra was liberated, Ptolemy deposed, and Cleo installed as queen of Egypt.  Cleo, even though a teenager, was a smart cookie.  She knew Rome held all the power and her title was kinda just a figurehead kinda thing.  The real power lay in being a Roman citizen.  She could not be one, though because…well she was the queen of Egypt.  So she did the next best thing…she had a baby by a Roman…notably Julius Caesar.

But that didn’t exactly work out so well.  There was a lot of babymama drama.  Caesar was climbing the political ranks and he had a wife and a daughter in the public eye and he sort of winked and nodded at the whisperings of his bastard child with Cleopatra.  So my girl did what any sensible babymama would do…she went to Rome to face down her babydaddy and demand legitimacy for her child.  But that didn’t go so well either.  Caesar was named the Emperor of Rome but then came the Ides of March (without the “et tu Brute” thankyouverymuch Mr. Shakespeare) and babydaddy was gone. 

So she went back to Egypt and licked her wounds and looked for her next opportunity to advance herself.  It came some time later through triumvirate leader Marc Antony.  Their affair was the talk of the ancient world and it inspired a play and many movies.  But, again, it didn’t turn out so well.  She and Antony got cocky…Antony because he was trying to trump the other two in the triumvirate, Cleo just because the power turned her on.  They started denying Rome its grain and when you try to strike down the empire…the Empire Strikes back!  Rome came to invade Egypt and take care of their little problem but they were too late.  They found Cleopatra dead from a snake bite.

Now…how does all this inspire me?

A couple of things stand out.  First, Cleopatra, despite unbelievably inaccurate depictions of her, was not a gorgeous woman.  Aside from the fact that she was bald, as all Egyptian women tended to be (hair is hot, Egypt is hot…most of the hair you see on Cleopatra pictures would have been a wig worn only for official events), but she was sort of dowdy looking by all accounts.  But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  You notice she never had a problem getting a man?  She used what she had and she worked it!

Second, and this is the more important one to me, she lived her life until she died.  Granted I wouldn’t want to meet the same fate as her, but you cannot accuse her of having an uneventful life.  She was always looking for opportunities to advance her life, her country, her blood line.  And she was brazen for a woman of her time, even for a queen. 

So by naming myself after her in some small way I hope to tap into my inner Cleopatra and live life like it’s golden. 

Usually I end these things with some challenge to you all but this week I think I’ll leave it at that.  And, yes, there will be a pop quiz!