Stress eating causes us to over-eat, or eat foods we should not eat, due to stress we may or may not feel. I find that not realizing I am stressed actually encourages me to stress eat far more than when I realize I am stressed, especially if I do not acknowledge I am very, very upset. Some of this mindless, stress-eating may happen infrequently, and I may catch myself after a few nuts I toss into my mouth after my last meal of the day. I am fine with eating a handful of nuts, and they don’t impact my blood sugar. But if I eat far too many nuts (or sugar free chocolate), I gain weight, and this happens when I am stressed, especially when don’t realize how stressed I am.
I suspect demonic attacks behind some of my mindless, behavior. I don’t mean that a demon has tricked me every time I do something mindless. Sheer fatigue can dull our minds, and this is no sin. I mean that there are times when my mind is clouded, and I am not aware of what I am feeling, and I even feel a bit unsure of what I should do. At those times, when I slide into wrong behavior, whether I get grouchy and snap at my sweet girls, or I stress eat, somehow I am numb to what I truly need to think, and what I am feeling. Only after I do whatever I should not have done do I realize I am upset, and this upset feeling (and thought) drove me to do the wrong thing. I know Paul talked about this in Romans 7:15, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead I do what I hate.” This kind of mindlessness (whether stress eating or snapping in unrighteous anger) is a sin I fall into. The clouded thinking is not of God. God promised us a sound mind (2Tim1:7.) I am not sinning when I become confused. I am also not sinning if I am at a celebration where we are feasting. We all have times when we mindfully feast and are very grateful for that food. Even if it is more than we normally would eat, we know we will eat less in the following days. Feeling stressed is not a sin. The sin is in trying to assuage feelings with food instead of letting God calm my spirit.
Satan (or his demons) can confuse us and distract us from what is best. When I eat food out of stress, and not out of need, I consume more than I need, and it is not a thankful feast. It is a stress session that only makes me feel worse, since I still have all the upset feelings, and now I feel uncomfortably over-full. It is only then that I realize I have been eating out of stress instead of hunger; I was duped!
I should not be amazed by how pervasive this sneaky warfare is. If Satan’s demons can confuse me so I do not recognize my true feelings, then I rely on myself instead of God. The world encourages this lie by saying, “Follow your heart, and your dreams will come true.” Jeremiah warned against this foolish idea in 11:8, “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.” In fact, Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is “desperately wicked.”
My heart needs to be directed by the divine will of God. Proverbs 3:5 says,” Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” I am thankful I have surrendered my heart to God, but my sin nature still lives inside me. That sinful flesh is more than happy to hide my worries from God and then over eat instead. My flesh tries to justify stress eating too much food by telling me I am at a decent weight and it does not matter. My flesh tries to convince me I need the extra food. But I don’t want to eat mindlessly without even savoring my food but just stuffing it in with stress eating. And when I have given in to frequent stress eating, I began to gain weight. I eventually caught myself and then ate less for a few weeks to lose that extra weight. But I don’t want to yo-you by overeating and then dieting. Most of all, I don’t want to use food to comfort myself.
When I realize I’m stressed, I tell God how I feel. If I’m not sure, I spend some time quietly considering what I am thinking and how I feel. I’ve learned to not disregard what I am thinking. In the past I might deny uncomfortable thoughts like this one, “I resent Mr. So-and-so making so many demands, and I resent giving in to his demands.” I would tell myself, “It’s no problem meeting his demands. I’ll just ignore this feeling.” But I would have to stuff the thought and its stressed feeling. Disregarding my thoughts and resulting feelings always led to trouble.
So even if I question my thoughts such as this one: “I feel left out,” I still tell God what I am thinking and how I feel about those thoughts. If I feel left out (or any other feelings) God never laughs at my thoughts and especially not at my feelings. I may even cry as I tell God how I feel (if I am alone.) If I am quietly talking to God while washing dishes, but family is near, I don’t reveal my tears. There are so many things I can just bring right to God without burdening my family with all of them. Once I bring these thoughts and feelings to God, I feel so much better. If my idea or thought was not based in truth, God helps me come to the right conclusion. If I am right I sense God justifying me. I love having God justify me, because people who hurt me may become vindictive if I express how they have hurt me, perhaps by falsely accusing me. Often I do not need to justify myself before them, because I sense God justifying me already. If I am wrong, I sense God lovingly but firmly directing me to repent and also to see the truth.
My thoughts and feelings come into alignment with God, and I experience peace. I never feel peace when I ignore my feelings and instead stress eat. So when I recognize I am stressed, I will be careful to not eat mindlessly. This is why Satan (his demons) tricked me on the day I did not realize I was stressed. Since I have learned to not overeat when I am stressed, Satan likes to hide my feelings and thoughts with confusion or a clouded mind. I have heard other women say Satan deceived them with this confusion too. They may not have stress eaten. But they did not pray and seek God, because they felt confused. So whether I stress eat, or my friend neglects prayer, Satan uses confusion to either cause us to do wrong by acting poorly or by neglecting to do the right thing.
So I am now paying attention to my eating. If I think I’m very, very hungry and need to eat way more food, I stop to consider my thoughts first and then the ensuing feelings. I want to contrast the difference between me and a young person who may need more calories on certain days. As a woman past menopause, I don’t have the need for extra food on certain days or weeks, due to menstruation or from youthful and extreme exertion. I am mellow now and don’t participate in intense outings (back packing, scuba diving, etc.) So my need for food is more consistent from day to day. This is why I can more readily catch myself if I eat too much food, even when it is healthy food like nuts. I know I have done nothing to cause myself to need more food. This fake hunger coming from stress is not a true need.
Confusion may be Satan’s biggest ploy against Christian gals who have learned to bring their emotions to God. Wise gals who know they need to share their thoughts and feelings with God threaten Satan’s kingdom. We are a huge threat to the evil one.
So when Satan clouds our thinking, we can’t bring our thoughts and feelings to God, because we don’t know them. But Satan cannot keep winning that battle. We can now recognize this tired lack of mental or emotional clarity. Then we can quiet ourselves and ask God to guide us to know what we are thinking and feeling. God will rescue us from this confusion, because (2Tim.1:7) “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity but power and love and a sound mind.” Also in Romans 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” We have to recognize the attack, though. We do not need to be victims of confused thinking, whether it causes us to stress eat, snap at our children, or neglect to pray or neglect other good things. We might begin to do the wrong thing, like starting to toss too many nuts in our mouths or starting to snap at our family. But we can catch ourselves and stop before we continue.
Recognizing stress eating took me time. I got much better at dealing with my stress and not gobbling up too many nuts, nut butter or sugar-free chocolates (all of which are very, very high in calories in small servings.) But this confusion is a new trick Satan used on me, and now I need to watch for it. I may even fall again, because my flesh wants to get its way. But God will keep working with me to recognize my feelings so I can bring them to him for comfort. I find comfort in Proverbs4:16a, “For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.” Until I go to heaven, I will sometimes fall for some trick of Satan or some lure of my greedy flesh. But as I mature in Christ I can fall less often and get back to God more quickly.
I am so thankful for his love and forgiveness. He is always the safe one for me to come crying to. He always listens and cares. I also find this in Scripture, such as David’s words in 2Sam.22:7, “But in my distress I cried out to the Lord. Yes, I cried to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears.”
If you are an unbeliever or a new Christian, please don’t fear telling God what you are thinking and feeling (even doubts about him.) He is always kind and welcoming. He wants the best for you (Jeremiah29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” ) We have to get our thoughts sorted out. We need to welcome and then understand our feelings, especially in how they are often influenced by what we think. God is the kindest one to help us figure out what we think and feel and then to offer us the best comfort.
Thank you for joining us in this post. Like I trust God, I trusted you, my readers, to be kind as I shared this flaw. You need never feel ashamed of your flaws too, because I will never judge you either. I know I’m very flawed, and thus I offer you grace. I’m also offering you the comfort I have received from God, (2Cor.1:3-4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”) As always, please let me know what you think about this post and ask me any questions you might have. May the Lord bless you this week!