WFG Workshop Week 2:About God

Week 2 of Geneen Roth's 15 week workshop on Oprah's website. I'm trying to catch up since they seem to be a little ahead of me. If you want to follow along...go here to find the list of workbooks. If you are doing this too...and blogging about it, I'd love to read your answers.

1. On page 22, author Geneen Roth writes that she turned to Hostess Sno Balls the same year she gave up on God. Do you turn to food for comfort, sweetness and the feeling that you matter?

My Sno Balls were butter cookies....but now they are M and M candies.  Or a pan of brownies. I think I've always associated food with comfort.  I recently remembered that when I was a kid my Dad would stop to buy a newspaper on the way home from work everyday and he'd bring me a candy bar. Every. Single Day.  I know he was trying to show that he loved me or was thinking about me....but I still associate feelings of being loved with sweets. 

2. What does going on a diet mean to you? Does it give you a feeling of taking control and doing something for yourself? If you have been on many diets, do you honestly believe this one is different, or do you diet because you are discouraged and don't know what else to do?

Going on a diet means depriving myself and controlling everything that goes into my mouth. I'm excellent at keeping track of my calories and I've been on so many diets that I've lost count.  hCG Diet was different for me because it actually worked!   Plus, I grew up watching my Mom diet and her weight fluctuate up and down. 

3. On page 23, Geneen describes dieting like praying and that "making the decision to stop dieting was like committing heresy, like breaking a vow that was never supposed to be broken." Are you ready to stop dieting? What feelings does thinking about this bring up for you?


I'm pretty sure that I've been dieting so long that I can't quit.  The idea of not being on a diet makes me feel uneasy.


4. From page 25: Geneen writes: "I don't believe in the God that most people call God, but I do know that the only definition of God that makes sense is one that uses this human life and its suffering—the very things we believe we need to hide or fix—as a path to the heart of love itself. Which is why the relationship with food is so important." What do you believe about God, love and your life?

I believe that God loves me no matter what size I am.  But I believe that I must be thin for other's to love me...including myself.   



5. Do you believe you deserve kindness and beauty? If other people deserve it—if your children deserve it—why not you? Why is it so hard to treat yourself lovingly?

I have just recently realized that by eating food that is fattening or not healhty is treating myself badly. I used to think that I was *treating* myself and I deserved what I was eating.  Now I know that giving these things to myself...and my children isn't doing anyone any favors.



6. In Women, Food and God, Geneen says your relationship to food is a doorway to your true nature, your deepest self. Do you believe you have a true nature and a higher self? Are you willing to use your relationship with food as the doorway to that?

I think that as I approach my 40th birthday...I'm am as true to my nature as I'm going to get. I like myself so much more now than I did 10 years ago. If there is more to me...I'd love to find out.