Appetites Revisited

As many of you who read my blog know, I have been in pursuit of a healthier lifestyle for the last four months. I have been exercising more. Also, I have been on a diet of one form or another. I started out with the Dr. Phil "Ultimate Weight Loss Solution". Most of last year I had watched the wt. loss stuff on my day off, many times while eating nachos or drinking a Mountain Dew. Slowly I have converted to wheat bread, tortillas, and recently pasta as well. Also, I have cut out candy bars, fast food, and only drink one pop a week on Sundays (ok sometimes two--but very rarely). After Dr. Phil, my dietary person at the doctor's office I go to has me on Phentrimine and an 1800 calorie a day diet. There is more to my wt loss journey...but that is not what I am wanting to talk about here.

I have noticed while on this wt loss journey that while I subject my eating habits to more discipline, that other appetites grow in return. As I started the first couple of weeks, I had women on my mind 24-7 (yes even more than usual). Then, I really was always wanting to go shopping. I went on a book trading spree. Now it seems I am working a lot of very long days--even when I do not have to. Whats up with all this?

It reminds me a little bit of the desert fathers. It reminds me more of the passage in Luke about demons:

When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places
seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house
I left.' 25When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.
26Then itgoes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and
they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than
the first.

Now do I think I am demon-possesed? No. Do I think healthier living and/or wt. loss is a spiritual battle. Yes. And it seems that somehow these appetites are telling me something about something I need to deal with. What, I am not sure.

Any thoughts......?????