Prayer Replaced Pounds

COMFORT FOOD

When Jackie, now 54, was a teenager, she started to put on weight.

“Back then, there weren’t many choices for diets,” Jackie said.

Using the Ayds weight loss caramels and drinking tea, Jackie started the frustrating roller coaster ride of fad dieting.

“I kept losing a few pounds, but kept putting them back on,” Jackie said.

An emotional eater, Jackie found comfort in food.

“I had a spiritual hole in my heart and I tried to fill it with food but never felt satisfied,” Jackie said.

Gorging on cookies when she was sad, Jackie was on a destructive path to obesity.

In 2002, Jackie found herself at 245 pounds. As a neo-natal intensive care nurse, Jackie knew she was unhealthy. Then a friend told her about Light Weigh, a 12-week video Bible study weight-loss program at her church. Church was one of the last places she thought she’d go to lose weight. The message of the program was simple: seek comfort in God, not food.

“That’s what hit home for me,” Jackie said.

Through the video and classes, Jackie figured out that she needed to eat in moderation and needed to feel at peace with her food.

“I turned to prayer,” she said.

When tempted to eat an extra pancake, Jackie would pray for her children instead. Jackie thinks of giving up excess food as a sacrifice.

“Cutting portions is easier when it’s an act of love,” Jackie said.

PORTION CONTROL WITH A PURPOSE

With the program, Jackie learned to eat when she was hungry and stop when she was full.

“It’s portion control with purpose,” Jackie said.

She used to think if she was eating a salad, she was good. If she ate ice cream, she was bad. Now, food is simply food. There are no more moral consequences to eating.

“I made peace with food,” Jackie said.

In the neo-natal unit, Jackie watches the newborn babies sleep, wake up, cry, eat and then fall asleep.

“They eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full,” Jackie said. “Don’t override the signals God gave us when we were babies.”

Within 18 months, Jackie dropped 100 pounds and has kept it off ever since. She went from size 24 to size 10/12.