Rowland and I joined a couple of friends of ours last Monday night and signed up for Weight Watchers. None of us have much weight to lose, but we thought it’d be fun to do it together. We did have a good time at the meeting. We giggled and trired to come up with ways to “cheat” before we even started! Rowland came up with a great marketing idea for getting more men to sign up for the program since he and our friend were the only men present. Rowland’s great idea - On the average, men get more “points” (points = food, basically) than women. Rowland felt sorry for me (right!) because I had almost half of the points that he had. His generous solution - “I’ll trade you points for sex!” Genius marketing plan! You can imagine how many times I’ve been offered extra points in the last few days!!!

Since I did WW a few years ago, I know how the program works. I have basically tried to live within a maintenance plan for the last three years. Most days, I only a few more points than I have allowed for the weight-loss segment of the plan. You’d think those few points were liquid gold! Now that I don’t have those extra points, all I can think about is how freakin’ hungry I am, how weak I feel, how I need sooooo much more food! Last night, I had a dream that I was at the Olympics. I was watching this amazing helicopter racing event. (I have a feeling that it’s not going to be in the Olympics any time soon!) Throughout the race, I was obsessed with the cinnamon rolls that were being sold only a few feet away from where I was sitting. I kept trying to calculate the points for those ENORMOUS, dripping-with-icing, melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon rolls. I woke up looking for the cinnamon rolls, but alas, all I could find was my morning Power Bar!

It’s amazing! I go on a diet, and all I can think about it what I can’t eat! (or actually what I don’t have enough points to eat!) Fortunately, I only have seven more pounds to lose so it won’t be too longterm.

I’ve discovered in life that those “forbidden fruits” are the same way for me. As soon as I taste them (even mentally), I am obsessed with them. They consume my thoughts and take over my very life. Not until I throw myself on my face before God, beg for His forgiveness, and place myself back in His loving arms, am I able to see that “forbidden fruit” for what it truly is, consequences and even death.

I need to continually remind myself when I’m “starving,” that only my God can satisfy that hunger and remove the desire for all of those “extra points!”