Are you willing to be fully satisfied by the Word of God and His love rather than the pleasures of the world? Did you know that food becomes an idol when you allow it to become an obsession that replaces God in your life?

show notes:

In this episode, Heidi explains how to spend more time with God abiding and feasting on His Word and worshiping Him so that He alone satisfies and comforts you. Listen in to learn the importance of being obedient and disciplined to be prepared for your future glory. 

“Through Christ, we gain strength for everything and the Holy Spirit supernaturally empowers us to live as we cannot on our own.” ~Heidi Bramm

Top Takeaways:

• Understanding that food will never ever fully satisfy you and only God can do so. 
• How to pray to God to awaken your appetite for Him and to feel a strong desire for His manifestations. 
• Ask God to fill you with His love each morning, so you don’t have any holes to fill with food. 
• Free from the idol of self-will and instead let God do it for you.
• Turn to worship God and admit that He’s enough to satisfy you even without food. 
• Keep a journal to take notes and action and take care of what you’re noticing.
• Repent for the actions you’re taking if they’re not in alignment with the way God thinks. 

What you will learn:

• Psalm 90:14. How to ask God to satisfy you with Himself so as to release food to its proper place. 
• The questions you need to ask yourself when triggered to turn to food for the comforting effect. 
• The food, behavioral, emotional, and environmental food triggers types. 
• Four tips to help you overcome and be free of your food obsessive thoughts. 

Relevant Links:

• Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction by Asheritah Ciuciu
• Biblical Weight Loss Facebook group:  facebook.com/groups/biblicalweightlossblueprint/
• Register for the Food Freedom Workshop, Nov 28 at 7:30pm CST: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pzoN6QIpSsyDiNy6sJQLdA

Detailed Transcript:

Hey beloved, Welcome back to the show! In today’s episode we are covering Chapter 7 in the Full book: by Asherita Ciuciu. Food, Jesus and the battle for satisfaction. I’m going to share key highlights from this chapter on Knowing Your Food Triggers and How God Alone Satisfies + Comforts PLUS Top Tips To Avoid The Empty Pleasures Of The World. 

Are you willing to be fully satisfied by the Word of God and His love rather than the pleasures of the world? Did you know that food becomes an idol when you allow it to become an obsession that replaces God in your life?

“Through Christ, we gain strength for everything and the Holy Spirit supernaturally empowers us to live as we cannot on our own.” – Heidi Bramm

In this episode, Heidi explains how to spend more time with God abiding and feasting on His Word and worshipping Him so that He alone satisfies and comforts you. Listen in to learn the importance of being obedient and disciplined to be prepared for your future glory. 

I will also be sharing my personal takeaways from when I went through this book in 2019. This POWERFUL book changed my life so much that I chose it for the 12 week curriculum for my breakthrough program, the Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint. To truly give you weapons for weight loss that work for lasting freedom. To help you renew your mind, to make you wise to the enemy’s tactics so you can armor up and stand against schemes, and to help you trade guilt for grace in your relationship with food. 

I am on a mission to bring a whole new level of health and wellness to your home and help women of faith heal their relationship with food, restore their identity in Christ, and lose toxic weight for good so they can finally become the healthy, whole mom God created them to be.

My story and my struggles with emotional eating and weight gain started when I was about 9 years old when my parents separated. I share about my journey of gaining and losing the same 40-60lbs on episode #52. This healing process and this journey toward freedom with food is not an overnight gig. Some pieces take years to heal and then some after years of struggle are healed and delivered in an instant, like my come to Jesus moment in the bathtub with alcohol which I shared in episode #57. 

But first, I want to let you know what’s coming on November 28th, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and also what’s launching in Jan 2022.  

Do you feel overwhelmed when it comes to food? 

Have you ever felt stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of overeating, yo-yo dieting, and obsessive thoughts about food or your body image? 

Do you look to the scale to determine your self-worth?

Oh my gosh, I’m so excited beloved! I’m doing a “Food Freedom Workshop” and you’re invited! We’re going to spend 1 hr together unpacking what it really takes to break free from bondages to food and struggles with weight — w/o exercise and even if you’ve struggled your entire life!  

For many of us, food has become an increasingly complex issue that causes us to feel guilty, overwhelmed, or even hopeless. If you feel defeated by your lack of self-control or overwhelmed by your weight, and thoughts and longings for food, then come join us in the Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint Facebook group on FB Sunday, Nov 28th at 7:30pm CST as we dig into Scripture and reveal the path to freedom. 

I’ll be covering the top 3 mistakes that I see people make when trying to lose weight and this workshop will also give you a glimpse into the food-freedom curriculum that we use in my Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint, which is my 12 week signature program that I’m launching January 2022. It’s a faith-based format, and it’s comprehensive, it’s holistic in nature. We are body, spirit, soul so in this program we address all three with a guided fast and detox for the physical weight loss portion, a biblically based food freedom curriculum for the spiritual piece, and finally personal inner healing sessions for the heart & soul work that’s so crucial for lasting freedom. A strand of 3 cords is not easily broken and this program has it all! 

Weight is just a symptom. It’s not about the weight, and yet it’s not NOT about the weight. It’s about so much more than weight but we know that the weight is “in the way” so to speak of us truly living our lives to the full. 

Losing the weight is really just the icing on the cake in this program since yes you will be losing between 10-15% of your body weight, which for most people is about 20-25lbs, but more importantly you will discover the joy of living free from food fixation by experiencing deeper satisfaction in Christ, you will find healing from the inside out and that you no longer NEED to carry this extra weight around because you’ve found true healing, and you will finally feel comfortable + confident in your own skin and be able to step into the fullness of what God has for you. So come join me for this totally free “Food-Freedom workshop” that I am doing for you. This is a spiritual battle y’all. We need to overcome the lies with truth. I will even have a special guest join us to share her experiences from the 12 week program so you can hear first hand her results and her takeaways. AND workshop attendees will get first dibs on applying for the beta version of this program that launches in Jan.

If you are ashamed to workout in front of others…

Can’t stop obsessing about food…

Or can’t stop binge eating or drinking…

If you avoid the mirror because of what you see in the reflection…

If you are stuck in a cycle of shame and self hatred with your body, or overcome by fear and anxiety in social settings…

Or using food to cope and numb the pain of the past, or when you can’t handle the everyday..

And your soul yearning to be set free from the bondage of food fixation, binge eating, loneliness, and isolation…

Then please come join us in the Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint Facebook group for the upcoming “Food Freedom Workshop” Sunday Nov 28 at 7:30pm CST. 

I can’t wait to see you in there!

I know a biblical approach is needed because when we aren’t in alignment with who God says we are, we are susceptible to the enemy’s lies. Either God is shaping our minds or the world is. And so I want to keep planting seeds that will open your heart to the idea that the Lord wants to fight this battle for you. And victory is found in Jesus. 

So today we’re talking about knowing your food triggers and how God alone satisfies and comforts, plus top tips to avoid the empty pleasures of the world. So in Psalm 90:14, it says, “satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” And so when we ask God to satisfy us with himself every morning and fill us up, so that we may release food to its proper place, right, so that food doesn’t have to emotionally fill us up, or meet our needs. We’re resisting the urge to seek comfort in something that will never ever satisfy us. 

And I’m going to share a cycle with you in a minute that’s keeping you stuck when you’re turning to food to comfort or to solve your problems. When we begin to believe that we need a certain food or anything else, besides God to satisfy us, it can quickly become an idol. And so during this week, when I was going through the book, in chapter seven, I prayed for God to awaken my appetite for him. I fasted for that. That was what I was seeking for. A greater appetite and awakening in my appetite. 

“If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied, it is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world, your soul is stuffed with small things, and there’s no room for the great.” – John Piper

God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God, and it can be awakened. So let’s get into the different types of triggers. Because this could be foods. This could be behavioral, emotional, or even environmental. And so I encourage you, as I’m going through these, you might want to grab a notebook and pen just to jot down the different types and then take it even a step further and keep a log just for today. Okay, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Don’t try to do this for a month, just today. 

Today, keep a log of triggers to help identify and overcome them. And I want you to ask some questions. So I’m going to get into the different types of triggers in a minute. But I want you to ask yourself, when triggered to turn to food and you’re realizing that you’re doing it for this comforting effect, right? Here’s a good question: what is going on that’s making me want to eat? Actually, I’m going to talk about this in a different episode, kind of like the four signs of emotional eating. But I’ll let you in on a secret one right now. Emotional Eating becomes this urgent sense of needing to get food, like it’s very urgent, and it demands the closest processed, pre-packaged form of food that you can find. 

So as you’re going through this process, and you’re noticing that you’re doing it and you’re writing this down, what is going on that’s making me want to eat?

What just happened?

What thought did you just have?

What episode just happened?

What emotion was just triggered?

Okay, what emotion am I experiencing? That’s another great question.

Will eating this solve my problems? That’s a good question.

Will eating this create any new problems?

What do my boundaries protect me from?

Do I need protection today? What is God trying to teach me through this experience?

And what can I thank God for in this situation?

Okay, so those are questions I want you to write down if you need to listen to them again, back it up 30 seconds and write those down. But as you’re trusting God’s heart to get you past and through the temptation, ask Him to reveal and provide the way out. Scripture gives us this as a promise. Thank Him in faith for providing a way out so you can endure it which builds your strength in the spirit realm, believe it or not. Praise Him and thank Him for the way out because giving into the temptation is a trap into idol worship, which we don’t want. 

I thank God for removing the idol of food and alcohol in my life. 2 Corinthians 317 says “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Praise God! 

Okay, let’s go over each of the trigger types. 

1. FOOD TRIGGERS

This could be smells, sights, sounds, senses of food. The actual food itself, okay, that could be one trigger type is the actual food itself. Most often, that’s not the trigger. Most often it’s behavioral, environmental or emotional. 

2. BEHAVIORAL TRIGGERS

So the second one is behavioral and that can be activities, habits or external cues. So if you always come home, reach for a certain item in the cabinet, you know, that’s behavioral. That is a habit. If you always swing through a certain drive thru on your way home from work because you take a specific way, and you’re eating in your car before getting home maybe anticipating the stress or overwhelm of walking into your home environment. That is a behavioral trigger. 

3. EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS

Okay, then we have emotional triggers. So it’s comfort seeking, numbing, and this is more of an internal cue. So it’s coming from the inside versus the outside. Unike external with behavioral, emotional comes from the inside. So this could be you just had a fight with your spouse and so now you’re in the cabinet. Or something came up in your business, and you’re feeling insecure. And so you’re not sure what to do about it. You’re getting overwhelmed emotionally. And so this eating of comfort food releases that pressure that you’re feeling internally. 

4. ENVIRONMENTAL TRIGGERS

And then we have the fourth type of trigger, which is environmental. And this could be time of day, it could be location, expectation of others. This is kind of like behavioral but a little bit different. It’s when you’re in a specific environment. And so this does have external cues as well. So as we’re going through this series, and just on things we’ve touched on and discussed, whenever we turn to food to soothe us, rather than going to God, we only exacerbate our problems, right?  Food is not actually solving our problems. It is in fact, creating more problems. And we’re essentially making food our idol. 

And so when you think about that trigger, here are the two different ways you could go down this route, right? Two different scenarios here. Whenever we eat to resolve or solve our emotional issues, again, we only exacerbate our problems. What happens is, we have that trigger that emotion with that thought, that creates an emotion that triggers a reaction that creates a behavior, the behavior is going to food which is only a temporary fix. It’s a temporary soother, it’s a counterfeit comfort, and it creates and exacerbates that food fixation that we need, we need, we need in order to solve our problems. 

And then we know that pleasure of eating wears off because it’s only temporary, and then we feel guilt and shame and disappointment. We spiral downward. You guys know what I’m talking about. And we feel terrible about ourselves. And that’s not solving our problems, it’s actually creating more problems. And it’s keeping us stuck in this shame spiral. 

Whereas the alternate route is that when you have a food trigger, you immediately turn to God, and you get that lasting satisfaction because you’re continually being filled with the Spirit. It’s actually going to someone that can comfort and satisfy. And we can find that in the Lord, because that’s what we were created for. God is the only one big enough to handle our problems, and the only one who can set us free. When we start thinking that our problems are too big for God, that’s putting God in a box. God is the only one big enough to handle our problems. 

So here’s what you can do. 

HERE ARE A FEW TIPS TO AVOID THE EMPTY PLEASURES OF THE WORLD:

1. ASK GOD TO FILL YOU

Ask God to fill you each morning with his love so you don’t have any holes to fill. Whether it’s a need or excess, just joyfully bring it to God to meet our praise for provision. 

2. FLEEING FROM THE IDOL OF SELF WILL

Self will or our own willpower leads to more rules and legalism and restriction, and our flesh is very limited. We only have so much willpower and just like a battery, it drains as the day goes on. And so, do you ever notice how you’re more motivated in the morning and you tend to do really well? And then as the day goes on, you just get willpower fatigue and you are weaker and weaker and weaker? And then by late at night, you’re binging right because you’ve depleted your reserves of willpower? 

3. LEARNING TO WORSHIP GOD

Worship is coming before God and admitting to Him, “you are enough!” “Even if I never got to taste my favorite foods ever again or have them for comfort, Lord, You are enough. I need you and you can satisfy me.” There’s that song I need you Lord, I need you. And I just love starting my morning with worship time. We can’t NOT worship. It was a built in us by design. And so the question is: What or who will you choose to worship? Scripture tells us the answer: Jesus Christ our Lord. Celebrate God’s involvement in the details of your own life and let him satisfy your thirsty soul. 

4. KEEP A JOURNAL

And then one more number four, is keeping a journal so you can take notes and take action, and then take care on what you are noticing. So people often say the first step to conquering any bad habit is recognizing that there is a problem and what you can do to change yourself, and that behavior. In order to do that, we have to take notes and we have to realize where the patterns are coming from. Take those thoughts captive and combat them with truth in Scripture. And then take them and release them to the Lord. So one really effective way to find out the what, where and when of emotional eating is to begin to process them out loud, like writing them out, right? Keeping a journal. 

Much of the drive to engage in emotional eating, much of that is subconscious. So keeping a journal again will create this awareness and that can be a very powerful tool in discovering what the circumstances or experiences may be that lead to this session or binge eating or emotional eating. So write down every time you decide what to eat the details of that. Go back to those questions earlier in this episode and ask yourself those questions. 

You can also ask how hungry were you on a scale of one to 10? You know, 10 being full, one being starving. Were you actually hungry or was it an urgent hunger and emotional hunger? Was there something that triggered that? Were you with friends? Were you with loved ones? Were you with co-workers? Were you alone? You might be surprised to find that there are subtle, but yet visible patterns as you keep track. 

And then once you’ve written it down, you can take time looking at your notes, compiling the information, asking Holy Spirit, asking yourself those questions. And then finding that those things that are triggering to those major events might need some healing underneath. You can book a prophetic heart healing session with me, an inner healing modality that I learned from Elise and truck Trango by completing their official mentorship program. 

And so looking down at those behaviors that are subconscious or below the surface, you don’t even realize that you’re doing it, and you’re not even quite sure why. But anyway, you can take action on that, whether it be physical, spiritual, or emotional. And then finally, take care. Deep breathing, I like to use essential oils under my tongue to just kind of interrupt the pattern. If I can just buy myself a couple seconds, and do something in the natural and the physical to stop the reactive and automatic behavior, then I can give myself that breathing room.  I’ve created that margin to just lower my stress a little bit, journal out what’s going on and process it out with the Lord. 

Okay, beloved, I just want to encourage you that through Christ, we gain strength for everything and the Holy Spirit supernaturally empowers us to live as we could not on our own. Repent for the actions that you’re taking that are not in alignment with the way God thinks and receive by faith what you already positionally have in heavenly places. Our obedience and discipline prepares us for our future glory. So just like scripture says that discipline in the moment does not feel very good, but it’s always for your good and it’s always for your greater and future glory. We are currently moving at the speed of our obedience. And so how long does it take for you to recognize God’s voice, and listen and take action? 

So I just encourage you to spend more time with God abiding, feasting on his word, praying, seeking, asking, and worshiping Him. Again, be sure to join us in the Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint Facebook group for the upcoming workshop, November 28. It’s a Sunday, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, at 7:30pm, central time, all are invited. It’s open to everyone. 

And in the meantime, beloved, I just pray that you prosper in your health, just as your soul prospers. And as you’re disciplining yourself as you’re becoming aware of habits, that you have expectations of hope. That by not letting the old thoughts get more in your mind and not letting them trip you up, that you’re thanking God for the work being done in you. And that spirit of self-control is just growing in your heart and that all glory goes to God, and that the Holy Spirit just like those rivers of living water that flow from within, continually fills you up and that you have everything you need. Rest assured you can find everything in Jesus, no matter how deep the issue. That you find satisfaction in Him. That only He is our bread of life. That only He is the daily sustenance that will keep us full, never to hunger again and just as you take a moment to breathe Him in, you just repeat, “you are enough, and thank you Jesus.” We pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.