Many years of dieting can breed the “starve-binge-purge” cycle. The purge is an attempt to eliminate from your system the calories that you took in from the binge or food that you have been led to believe is “bad for you” or “too high in fat.” Purging takes many forms. Some examples are vomiting (bulimia), fluid pills (diuretics), laxa- tives, or exercise. Do you not see that all of these actions are the re- sults of your trying to fix everything? Your path is destructive, and with every step you take, you are forced to try to undo what you just did. And what you just did was supposed to have been the solution—instead, every step made it worse!

So what is the root of the problem? It is what your heart is depending on! And purging is not some disease or obsession. It is all a consequence of your lust for food. From that perspective, here is the cycle: You have a passion for food rather than God. That passion for food leads to overeating. Overeating leads to overweight. Overweight leads to dieting. Dieting does not address your misplaced passion, and deprivation while on this diet explodes in a binge. The ensuing guilt can take you in two directions:

1. You can repent (turn back to God), ask for His help, and sim- ply wait until your body empties again. You may feel too full, and it may take a while before you feel hunger again, but do not worry—you will be fine. You must practice being dependent on God. If you call out to God, He can give you the peace you need and the feeling of control you are looking for—with no guilt. In other words, God can make you feel better than purging!
2. Or you can bypass God, try by your own power, and return to your control method—which is actually extremely unhealthy— and purge again. This second option is obviously scary and never-ending, because it does not address or uproot the lust for food, so you need to imagine doing this until you have burned up your esophagus and your teeth with the acid in your stomach. It is a horrible decision and has severe consequences.

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