and you want to lean on your Catholic faith as your path to a new way of eating?
Check out the free intro to my course
Theology of the Body for Food Addicts.
1: You binge big-time on Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Fastnacht Day/Pancake Day/Whatever because that’s the only way to gear up for fasting on Ash Wednesday
If the lead-up to Lent is an exercise in gluttony because you’ll “be good tomorrow,” you’re losing sight of the fact that you’re already good. Fasting doesn’t make you better.
2: Your penances are mostly if not all food-related
If you focus your Lenten penances on “making my food good” or “eating better” or “fixing my relationship with food” to the exclusion of penances that help you grow in self-control (rather than food-control), you might be treating Lent like a 40-day fix-it program.
3: You’re relying on the scale to evaluate whether or not you’re being “good”
If your Lenten penances are about making yourself weigh a certain number and not about God’s redemptive power to save, you might be missing the point of these 40 days.
4: When you slip on your Lenten penance, you go overboard, thinking, “Well, I’ve already messed up. I might as well enjoy myself.”
This is a big one, and it’s common. It’s also the spiritual equivalent of, “Well, I’ve broken one of my bones. I may as well go break the rest of them.” If all your slips become slides, you might be treating Lent like a diet.
5: You try to “balance” your slips with even more restriction, which is even more difficult, so you slip again, so you try to “balance,” so you slip again…
There’s balance, and then there’s putting ourselves on a roller coaster. We may climb aboard that roller coaster unconsciously or compulsively, but it’s still intentionally. The intention is to make space in our lives for gluttony rather than making space in our hearts and souls for relationship with God and with God through other persons.
Did I skip any?
If you are sick to death of this cycle, there is hope. One option: a free download of my webinar, “Fast Food: Finding Food Freedom for Lent and Beyond.”
In this talk, I go into ways to identify unhealthy patterns disguised as “penance,” and I offer tools to and alternatives to use Lent less as a diet and more as an invitation into deeper relationship with the God of our restoration.
That download access also includes a $40 discount on my 6-week Catholic food freedom course Filled with Good: Theology of the Body for Food Addicts . That discount expires at midnight on the First Sunday of Lent 2023, so:
and you want to lean on your Catholic faith as your path to a new way of eating?
Check out the free intro to
Self-care is so badly explained, especially in Catholic circles.
Our secular culture tells us that self-care is mani-pedis, lush meals, expensive vacations.
Our Catholic faith tells us not to be greedy or gluttonous or neglect the poor.
Real self-care is less about self-indulgence and more about self-preservation. It’s the bare minimum of stuff we do and don’t do to keep ourselves functioning virtuously.
My experience tells me that authentic Catholic self-care manifests in three ways.
[Disclosure: This is a super-fast summary of a webinar I gave for the members of Catholic in Recovery+ in November of 2022.]
#1: Inclusive Self-care
Inclusive self-care is the stuff we do to keep ourselves living in virtue: hygiene, nourishing ourselves with food rather than numbing, regular reception of the sacraments, exercise not to punish ourselves but to live fully in the bodies God gave us.
#2: Exclusive Self-care
Exclusive self-care is the stuff we avoid in order to keep ourselves living in virtue: overindulgence, self-destructive thoughts, people who treat us badly and show no sign of repentence.
#3 Trinitarian Self-care
Trinitarian self-care is the stuff we do to cultivate nourishing relationships in our lives. God is a Trinity. God is infinite relationship. If we are made in God’s image and likeness, we can only thrive in thriving relationships. Pope Saint John Paul II put it best when he said, “Man becomes the image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion.”
Which of these types of self-care is most difficult for you?
If you’ve been searching for a Catholic diet plan, Catholic spiritual weight loss program, or just been growing increasingly desperate for relief from emotional eating and compulsive food behaviors and want to lean on your Catholic faith as your path to a new way of eating with peace and joy, check out my course Filled with Good: Theology of the Body for Food Addicts.
It helped me lose 100 pounds… but maybe not prayer in the way that you think.
“Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts,” right?
Well, it was a little more than that
It also was a little simpler. A little more interactive. A little more conversational between me and God.
It’s called the POUR Tool. It’s the skill I teach at the heart of my course Filled with Good: Theology of the Body for Food Addicts.
Here’s a demo of how this conversational prayer tool works in the moment to derail my cravings for food that isn’t part of God’s plan for my physical reality.
If you’ve been searching for a Catholic diet plan, Catholic spiritual weight loss program, or just been growing increasingly desperate for relief from emotional eating and compulsive food behaviors and want to lean on your Catholic faith as your path to a new way of eating with peace and joy, check out my course Filled with Good: Theology of the Body for Food Addicts.
It still works.
Here’s the plain text of “The Get Hungry Prayer” we use in Filled with Good: Theology of the Body for Food Addicts.
Mary, gentle mother, you who have known nothing but total communion with the God of our beginning, our middle, and our end, we ask you to take us under your mantle. We pray the words you said to all of us through St. Luke the Evangelist: The hungry he has filled with good things. Mary, teach us how to be hungry as you knew how to be, so that we may be filled, as you are, with good things. In your precious son’s holy name, we pray. Amen
If you’ve been searching for a Catholic diet plan, Catholic spiritual weight loss program, or just been growing increasingly desperate for relief from emotional eating and compulsive food behaviors and want to lean on your Catholic faith as your path to a new way of eating with peace and joy, check out my course Filled with Good: Theology of the Body for Food Addicts.
->New haircut!
->New job! I get to work with @catholicinrecovery to share God’s good news for food addicts!
->17Nov 7:30pm Eastern I’m giving a CIR webinar: holiday self-care plan for food addicts
FILLED WITH GOOD: THEOLOGY OF THE BODY FOR FOOD ADDICTS!
->Computer in the shop=providential course launch delay
->FWG launching 5Jan2023; webinar cohort starts 12Jan 7:30pm Eastern. Sign up for updates at bio link
->FOOD ADDICTS: watch this space for pop-up free binge trigger processing tool demo
QUESTION!
->What do you need today to help you detach from food & body image obsession?
Folks. I’m back. It’s a Erin McCole Cupp. I’m filled with good. And so are you. And I have missed interacting with you guys.
My computer was literally in the shop, which put the release of filled with good on hold, but computer’s back and it’s working.
So here’s an update on what you’ve missed.
I joined on the content team for Catholic in Recovery. You can visit them at catholicinrecovery.com.
It is an organization that unites 12 step recovery from addiction with the sacramental understanding of God’s mercy in the Catholic Church. And I’m really, really on fire
for the work I get to do for them.
You’ll get to see blog posts from me as well as eventually a video series specifically for food addicts in 12 Step Recovery that uses the principles of Catholic spirituality.
You can also just be for people who are 12 step curious. Uou should be able to get that on their forthcoming platform called CIR+. You can find out more about that
at catholicinrecovery.com.
Also on that note November 17th, mark your calendars, with Catholic in Recovery, I’m going to be leading a live event webinar specifically for food addicts focusing
on issues of self-care through the holidays.
So that we can not just treat ourselves but treat ourselves well.
On to Filled With Food: the stuff that’s, that’s mine that I’m working on.
I have the delay in the October launch. I have reworked the launch trajectory.
We’re looking at a January 5th 2023 release date for a cohort that starts meeting on January 12th.
For our live webinars, we’re going to meet for six weeks and then do a follow up three weeks after that.
So we will be starting our year filled with good and then using those tools getting into the beginning of Lent.
So I think the timing for that is actually: God had that in mind.
In the meantime, I’m going to be making some blog posts and videos that will provide you with validation from my experience as someone who has struggled and still struggles with compulsive food behaviors.
You’ll also get to see some behind the scenes stuff of my working on the course, including body image issues, because here I am on video as somebody who has a lot of body image insecurity.
So I’m looking forward to sharing those tools and that work with you.
You’ll also keep an eye out because I’m going to be doing pop up lives on all of my socials in the coming weeks, especially leading up to the release, of Filled With Good, where you will get to see me work through my eating triggers live, using the tools that I offer in Filled With Good.
So a schedule is on the way for where you’ll find me popping up on socials each day of the week.
I’ll also be offering all sorts of freebies and discounts.
So mark your calendars.
January 5th, we’re also going to do the intro webinar that you would pay for January 12th as part of the Filled With Good Package.
I’m actually going to do that live on January 5th for free for so you can kind of see what you’re getting into.
I know I’m missing something and that’s where you come in.
If you are someone who struggles with food and body image, what is your biggest pain point today?
Where are you hurting the most?
Can you pick just one area?
I’m here to tell you that there’s hope and healing, but for me, first, I needed to heal the lie that my pain isn’t getting seen, heard and believed.
Because until I experienced having my pain received and mattering to someone, there was no diet, restriction, or spiritual weight loss plan that was going to break through the hold that food had on me.
So what’s your pain today?
What’s inside of you that’s crying out to be heard?
Because I know the Lord hears the cry of the poor.
I know that now I’ve experienced it myself.
And the amazing thing about my recovery is that through it and through sharing it with others, I experience the spirit of the Lord being upon me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.
I am looking forward to sharing and experiencing this acceptance and this freedom with you
Comment below with your pain points.
Comment with what you need.
Let’s get in conversation.
I’m really looking forward to serving you.
God bless.
Filled With Good: Theology of the Body for Food Addicts is not a Catholic diet or even a spiritual weight loss plan. Filled With Good offers tools from St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to connect us with God’s compassionate love as we seek freedom from binge eating, compulsive overeating and other compulsive food behaviors. Find out more at the Filled With Good course page.
I promised I would never make my kids responsible for a disproportionate amount of the housekeeping. Yes, I gave them chores, but the chores that were more triggering to me (namely, dishes and bathroom cleaning), I kept overwhelmingly to myself. I also cleaned up after messes they made way longer than I should have for their developmental ages.
As a result… I’ve continued my own scapegoat role to a certain extent in my current family, and I’ve trained some humans to be someone’s really crappy future roommates
I promised I would never overshare. I’d never spousify my kids by sharing with them too much of my own childhood trauma and the difficulties that was causing me in my relationships. I’d definitely never use it as an excuse to hurt them. Now, I have apologized to them on occasion by saying, “I’m sorry. This is a way I learned to behave from my own [mother/father] here, and I should not be acting this way, AND it’s not your fault.”
However, I didn’t learn how to model developmentally appropriate emotional connection in relationships in time for them to pick up a good example from me, so I accidentally taught them instead that we don’t talk about our emotional lives. That sucks.
On apologies, I promised I would never NOT apologize to my kids. If I did something wrong, I would own up to it and tell them it wasn’t their fault.
Noble plan, but again, having been a well-trained family scapegoat, I overshot. I apologized to them for things that THEY did, and I made myself the family toilet in this family, too, perpetuating the dynamic that, as long as there’s someone else to do the apologizing, most people can avoid that kind of discomfort.
I promised I’d never make my kids touch anyone. I told them from a very young age, “You don’t have to hug me if you don’t want to. You don’t have to let anyone touch you if you don’t want to be touched.” Hooray for bodily autonomy, right?
Again, I overshot. I didn’t model asking for healthy touch, and so now there’s a disconnect not just emotionally but physically as humans in need of healthy touch.
On that note…
I promised I’d guard my children’s Theology of the Body-based dignity and safety. I’d never sexualize my children the way I had been as a child. I wouldn’t leave explicit material out for my kids to pick up. I wouldn’t make constant dirty jokes, especially not at their expense. I wouldn’t even expose them to the relational chaos so poorly modeled on soap operas. How did I overshoot this one?
I accidentally made sexuality a taboo topic, something we can’t talk about around mom, and for all my Theology of the Body fangirling, I have no idea how to undo that knot.
Can you relate?
Inclusion does not equal endorsement of concept, source, writer, etc.
Update: My Domestic Church has taken over the weekly 7 Quick Takes. I’ll try linking up there.
This week’s AV: do a little bit of nature meditation with me. Here’s a video of the header image from Great Falls National Park, just outside of Washington, DC.
Thanks for reading, listening & watching, fellow image-bearers. Now give My Domestic Church a look-see.
Carolyn Astfalk has a first Wednesday of the month book review linkup, shared also at Catholic Mom!
Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
From Amazon:
A young adult edition of the best-selling classic about the Holocaust and finding meaning in suffering, with a photo insert, a glossary of terms, a chronology of Frankl’s life, and supplementary letters and speeches
Viktor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is a classic work of Holocaust literature that has riveted generations of readers. Like Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl and Elie Wiesel’s Night, Frankl’s masterpiece is a timeless examination of life in the Nazi death camps. At the same time, Frankl’s universal lessons for coping with suffering and finding one’s purpose in life offer an unforgettable message for readers seeking solace and guidance. This young adult edition features the entirety of Frankl’s Holocaust memoir and an abridged version of his writing on psychology, supplemented with photographs, a map of the concentration camps, a glossary of terms, a selection of Frankl’s letters and speeches, and a timeline of his life and of important events in the Holocaust. These supplementary materials vividly bring Frankl’s story to life, serving as valuable teaching and learning tools. A foreword by renowned novelist John Boyne provides a stirring testament to the lasting power of Frankl’s moral vision.
My Thoughts:
Not sure how I ended up with the young adult adaptation from the library, but maybe that was God protecting me. Either way, this was a pretty transformative read. Logotherapy, or the value of finding meaning in one’s life as the key to mental health, is a concept I’ve wanted to explore for quite some time, and this was at last my opportunity. In addition to his description of life (and death) in concentration camps, Frankl makes strong arguments for promoting “mental hygiene” among self and others by searching for the meanings of our prayers, works, joys, and sufferings. 6/5
Inclusion does not equal endorsement of concept, source, writer, etc.
Update: My Domestic Church has taken over the weekly 7 Quick Takes. I’ll try linking up there.
This week’s AV: my experience with the overturn of Roe v. Wade
Thanks for reading, listening & watching, fellow image-bearers. Now give My Domestic Church a look-see.
Erin McCole Cupp 