{"id":1973,"date":"2013-06-15T09:23:41","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T13:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/?p=1973"},"modified":"2013-05-29T12:01:29","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T16:01:29","slug":"spiritual-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/06\/spiritual-obesity.html","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Obesity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The trend of obesity has been broken down analytically. Although it appears to be a stubborn problem, most people admit an attitude change, a lifestyle change, and hard work, can reverse the epidemic.<\/p>\n<p>That one extra bite at a meal can turn into one less bite at meals.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, some people don\u2019t even know they are overweight. The added weight makes them feel bigger, more substantial.<\/p>\n<p>Binge eating is also problematic. The habit wreaks havoc with minds and bodies.<\/p>\n<p>Doctors have even theorized about socially contagious <a href=\"http:\/\/healingsciencetoday.wordpress.com\/2013\/01\/16\/gods-diet-turning-to-god-to-battle-obesity\/\">obesity<\/a>. Unwittingly, a group of people eat too much together, as if it\u2019s acceptable or normal, when in fact everybody becomes lethargic, unable to get around as well, or unable to do as much. Their minds are on food, not work.<\/p>\n<p>It struck me to see a parallel between physical obesity and spiritual obesity.<\/p>\n<p>Whether through words, books, pictures, prayer, or meditation, we take in spiritual truths.<\/p>\n<p>Am I burning the spiritual truths I take in?<\/p>\n<p>Am I<a href=\"http:\/\/healingsciencetoday.wordpress.com\/2012\/10\/28\/take-the-steps\/\"> using the spiritual truths <\/a>I absorb?<\/p>\n<p>Or, do I savor one, or two, or three, too many bites of spiritual truths, as if they are delicious bites of chocolate cake, and do nothing with them?<\/p>\n<p>Am I socializing with a clique of people who adore and relish words, books, pictures, prayer, or meditation?<\/p>\n<p>Where is my mind? On food, or some lifestyle routine, or on living God?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The trend of obesity has been broken down analytically. Although it appears to be a stubborn problem, most people admit an attitude change, a lifestyle change, and hard work, can reverse the epidemic. That one extra bite at a meal can turn into one less bite at meals. Sadly, some people don\u2019t even know they&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[993,992,990,991,109],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","category-smorgasbord","tag-balanced-prayer","tag-how-to-lose-weight-with-god","tag-weight-gain","tag-weight-loss","tag-what-is-christian-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Spiritual Obesity - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/06\/spiritual-obesity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spiritual Obesity - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The trend of obesity has been broken down analytically. Although it appears to be a stubborn problem, most people admit an attitude change, a lifestyle change, and hard work, can reverse the epidemic. That one extra bite at a meal can turn into one less bite at meals. Sadly, some people don\u2019t even know they&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/06\/spiritual-obesity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-15T13:23:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-29T16:01:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spiritual Obesity - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/06\/spiritual-obesity.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Spiritual Obesity - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"The trend of obesity has been broken down analytically. 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