Losing and Gaining: Finding Freedom from Food Addiction

By Misty Sherman

If you struggle with food, you may likely have experienced the same ups and downs as I did when you try to gain control over your eating. You diet to lose weight and may even find some success. However, getting off the diet leads to gaining all of the weight back and then some. Then you try another diet only to go through the same cycle. But wha

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bluebird Press, LLC
• Release date: Sep 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780997685657

Misty Sherman

MISTY SHERMAN has a heart for teaching women God's Word and encouraging them to draw close to Jesus. She is an imperfect woman who is grateful to be used by a perfect God to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Misty resides in East Texas with her husband and five children.

Book preview

Losing & Gaining: Finding Freedom From Food Addiction

Copyright © 2021 by Misty Sherman

Cover design by Misty Sherman © 2021

Published by Bluebird Press, LLC, 15891 County Road 3110,

Gladewater, TX 75647.

Bluebird Press presents this title in partnership with the author. The views expressed or implied in this work are those of the author. Bluebird Press provides our imprint seal representing design excellence, creative content, and high quality production.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV®

Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.

All rights reserved.

All italics, underlines, or parenthesis in quotations of Scripture have been added by the author.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021916455

ISBN 978-0-9976856-4-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-0-9976856-5-7 (ePub)

To Wes - my love, my best friend,

and my biggest encourager.

Table of Contents

How to Use This Book

Let’s Start Here (Survey)

Chapter 1: Feeling the Pain

The Hurt Can Lead To Healing

Chapter 2: Admitting the Problem

It’s Time to Face the Truth

Chapter 3: Discovering the Hope

He Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Chapter 4: Knowing the Goal

It’s Not What I Eat, It’s Who I Serve

Chapter 5: Embracing the Path

God Knows What Is Best for Me

Chapter 6: Doing the Work

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

Chapter 7: Enjoying the Results

I’ve Gained More than I’ve Lost

My Triggers, My Boundaries Worksheets

Bibliography

How to Use This Book:

You Get Out of It What You Put into It!

I have written this book to be used as a 7-week study, so I recommend focusing on one chapter per week in order to be able to get the most out of it. Trying to go through this book at a faster pace may keep you from really digging deep and processing as much.

With each chapter you will find the lesson content and then three days of Make It Personal pages. The Make It Personal pages are made up of two important parts. The first part includes two to three personal questions designed to help you dig deeply into why you do what you do with food. The second part has one or two questions about a particular Scripture. This is a chance for you to let the Lord speak to you through His Word. I encourage you to write the verse(s) on an index card or a mirror or somewhere you will see them regularly. Memorize them so that you can think and pray about them often. I truly believe focusing on God’s Word brings about the most effective change in our hearts. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that God’s Word is alive and active, and Isaiah 55:11 tells us His Word does not return void, that it will accomplish what He wants it to accomplish. God’s Word is POWERFUL! So let’s get into it and let it work in us! My prayer is that you will be amazed at what He has done in you by the end of this study!

For Small Group Bible Study

If you are going through this as a small group and you haven’t already done so, go ahead and choose someone to facilitate or lead discussion at your meetings. Here are some basic suggestions for the facilitator on how to conduct meetings:

Meeting 1: Open with a short prayer. Then, personally, I like to start the first meeting with an ice breaker.* This will help people begin to feel more comfortable talking and sharing with the group. You might also want to ask everyone to share why they decided to do this study. Next, allow time for group members to take the survey found in the Let’s Start Here section. Talk about the results as a group, and read the rest of the Let’s Start Here section that follows the survey. After that, ask for prayer requests and then pray together. Finally, remind everyone to read chapter one and answer the questions in the Make It Personal section before the next meeting.

Meetings 2-8: Open with a short prayer. Ask group members to discuss what hit home with them in the chapter they read for that week. Next, lead a discussion through the Make It Personal questions. If you are running short on time, choose certain questions to focus on instead of trying to answer them all. Try to not let one or two people dominate your discussions, and encourage everyone to answer at least some of the questions. Finally, ask for prayer requests and pray together.

* My go-to ice breaker: Type or write out a list of get-to-know-you questions, making sure to leave enough space between questions to cut them each out separately. Feel free to search online for get to know you questions. There are several websites that offer lists like these that you can use. Cut out your questions, fold them up, and place them all in a bag. Let each person blindly pick a random question out of the bag and answer it. If someone is uncomfortable with the question they drew, they can pick another.

Let’s Start Here

ARE YOU ADDICTED TO FOOD?

This is not a scientific survey, but rather, it is meant to help you look at your eating habits much more closely than you may ever do on your own. These questions reflect common behaviors of a food addict. Be as truthful as you can in your answers.

I know those questions can be hard to answer truthfully. At one time or another I could answer yes to all of them. As hard as it was to acknowledge my problem as an addiction, I’m thankful that I did. We will only find solutions to our problems if we are able to admit we have a problem in the first place. It is hard to take an in-depth look at unhealthy habits, but it is necessary so that we can find freedom from them. And have hope, because the truth is there IS freedom!

Maybe you know you struggle with food but you are uncomfortable with the term addiction. I want to encourage you with a couple of truths I’ve had to learn myself.

1. It’s called food addiction because of the severity of the struggle. For a while I would only admit I had food issues, because that comfortable term let me convince myself it wasn’t that bad. There is power in calling something what it is.

2. Food addiction describes my behavior, not my identity. My identity is found in Jesus Christ, which is also where I find the power to overcome my food addiction.

FINDING FREEDOM

I have known Jesus since I was 15, and I’ve seen Him move and work in me and around me. But it’s only been in the last decade or so that I’ve begun to learn that I don’t have to walk the path He has me on in my own strength. I’m far too familiar with how to put on my church mask and pretend to be ok, but that is not what God desires for us. In fact, it hindered my spiritual growth for a long time.

After meeting Jesus, for many years I either lived in denial of my sin, was oblivious to it, or simply tried to manage it. I tried to keep it under control just enough to hopefully make it look like I had it all together. That wasn’t true, of course. I had many struggles. I just learned how to hide them, although I’m fairly certain I did not hide them as well as I had hoped. Even as I began the process of addressing my struggles, I didn’t necessarily know how to overcome them. This was especially true of my struggle with food.

I have journaled since my teens, and every now and then I like