's MOTD Thurs. Sept 28, 2006

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's Daily Message ThursdaySeptember 28, 2006STRUGGLERS AND SMUGGLERS!

Even today, I struggle a little bit with my weight. You know, I`m still tempted by the same foods that I`ve always struggled with. Growing up, my kitchen was a haven for food, starchy foods. There were shelves in the refrigerator completely devoted to starches, and cupboards, too. I struggled with all the bread and flour products in the house – French bread, English muffins, white butter bread, donuts, cakes, cookies, pancakes, waffles, and boxes of dried spaghetti. I struggled with the chips. There was a company in New Orleans back in the 50`s called "Dicky`s Potato Chips," and may I tell you, they were the crispiest, saltiest, biggest chips out there!

I struggled with fried foods. I woke up to the aroma of bacon, ham, or sausage frying away in a hot pan of grease. Many times in elementary school, I would skip out and head to Virginia`s Kitchen, where I`d order a Fried Shrimp Po` Boy or a Fried Oyster Po` Boy or a Fried Crab Claw Po' Boy, or a combo. At night, I`d have a hard time with fried chicken, fried fish, trout almandine, fried potatoes, and beer battered onion rings.

Sometimes I would do great at staying away from all of these foods for days and sometimes weeks. Sometimes I would step on the scale and see the numbers go down, and all the times I got on the scale and it was the same or I had gained a little for some reason, I would get so upset and would just forget about the whole weight thing and become a SMUGGLER! I would smuggle food and hide it in my bedroom or the backyard under a camellia bush. I`d smuggle out of the house donuts, candy, potato chips, and any leftover that was fried, and I`d eat it all when I was all alone, sometimes to the point where I`d make myself sick.

I struggled like that for years. Then I`d question why I struggled so much, and after many talks with myself, I found out that my problem was not facing my struggles. I was reacting to them and burying them under food! Makes sense, doesn`t it?

Please face the reasons you may still be struggling, and your days of smuggling food will be over.

Love,