I have a confession to make. No, I’m not the one who’s been stealing your newspapers. Your, um, digital newspapers, since no one except Grandma gets real newspapers anymore.
No, my confession is that I’m a secret eater. It’s a shameful thing, and this is as much a confession to myself as to you all. Up until recently, I didn’t know I was a secret eater. It was only after careful review of my eating habits that I realized I was a secret eater.
Secret eating, also known as grazing, is eating done without people knowing, possibly including yourself. It’s not limited to sleep eating, which occurs when you eat mashed potatos hidden under your pillow while you sleep. It does include that though.
The more usual cases of secret eating include:
- Opening the fridge for no reason and grabbing the first thing you see
- Grabbing, opening, and eating NutriGrain bars in a single fluid motion (and single bite)
- Popping off sweet potato fries that are stuck to the cookie tray on the stove, and didn’t make it into the leftover container in the fridge.
- Eating things alone that are usually reserved as condiments or ingredients, like baco-bits, croutons, French’s fried onions, chocolate chips, chicken broth, and/or flour.
- And such as.
Secret eating can also involve hiding food (like the aforementioned mashed-potato-pillow), but that’s a whole other level of dysfunction that I won’t get into here. (seriously, if you’re hiding cans of SPAM in the toilet tank, please leave my blog.)
The funny thing about my extra-meal eating is that I didn’t realize I was doing it until I started using this tracking program on my phone to keep a food diary. Then I realized that my secret eating was routinely involving 500-600 extra calories per day! Talk about fourthmeal.
Sin is like this too, especially with me. There’s normal, three-squares-a-day sin that you recognize you struggle with. And then there’s secret sin, which creeps into your life when you’re not expecting it, and weighs you down without you even knowing. I was reading about some sins that God hates in Colossians 3: anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. And luckily, I don’t do any of that stuff, so I’m good.
Except, wait, yeah I do. With the exception of Rage (i think), those are all secret sins that were revealed as I took a few moments to think about it:
- I’ve gotten angry at people for letting me down just in the last 2 days. This morning even.
- Our postdoc inconsiderately left a sample in the glovebox antechamber for 3 days, and I accidentally opened the door, ruining it; I kinda knew it was in there, and didn’t care because the rest of us needed to get in . That’s malicious behavior.
- I recently called someone’s sincerity into question in a conversation with another friend. Pure slander.
- I’ve gotten caught up in conversations I should have walked away from at work. Not foul, but not edifying either. Dirty language.
Wow, there you go. I’m a secret sinner. But I’m also forgiven, and now I know what to look for. Join the awesome club and take some time to track down your secret sins — they could be weighing you down in ways you don’t recognize.
What are your secret eating habits? Or, if you dare, your secret sinning habits?
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No lie: I woke up at 2 AM and ate half a bag of Peanut Butter M&M’s last night.
Haha! Thanks for the real LOL
chips. like, whole bag, just… gone. I dont even cut them with anything remotely healthy, like salsa or cucumber dip ;)
secret sins. Anger is my big, nasty, glaring sin. It’s a constant struggle, but giving in to all the little ones that lead up to a big Angry scene? yeah, those I’m not so good at keeping after
Building anger can be a real silent killer. I had anger issues when I was in college. I feel like Jesus really released me from a lot of that.
I love the photo. Homer is awesome. I like the part when he eats a donut that was in the garbage. Hilarious.
I just love to eat cookies. Only chocolate chip. They are so good.
As for sin, Yikes… where to begin. Pride issues, anger issues. Oh Lord!
Your post reminded me of David when he said, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults” – Ps. 19:12
That’s a perfect verse…great call Moe!
I definitely graze. Mostly when I’m not doing something that requires my full attention. And with my budding ADHD, that’s always.
I will NOT tell you about my secret sin. Not because I’m ashamed or that I think you will judge me. But because then it won’t be secret. Wait…maybe that was the point…I just got an email notification so I’m not sure.
That was definitely the point. Don’t worry, your love of Michael Bolton is safe with me.
I could have sworn his true love artist was Barry Manilowe
Dang, I graze on things all the time at work. Notoriously its almost always Twizzlers. Those blasted red strips of manufactured goodness are so enticing every single time…
Sins? Pride. No doubt.
Work is the worst for me bc the vending machines are filled with all kinds of secret delights.
Eating something quietly so that my 2 year old doesn’t hear me, barge into the kitchen, and beg for it.
Hahaha…that’s some serious secret eating :)
It’s so bad in my house that my kids don’t even ask if they can have some Swedish Fish anymore. They just see the bag and say “that’s Daddy’s.”
Smart kids. My wife loves those things. We’ll have to train Elias the way you have trained your kids.
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I used to do the grazing thing and still do to some degree, but I once I realized what I was doing, it was easier to deal with. It’s the mindless stuff (eating or sin) that gets me, like you said. Great post, Mo. I need more grace–it’s good for me.
I had put a stop to late grazing at one point, bit it’s back with a vengeance .(
I rage… typically only at myself. I get easily frustrated with my self… oddly enough I am very patient with others.
Yeah I know folks who are way harder on themselves than others. Praying for you, friend :)
I am a late night secret eater and normally it is nacho’s with a variety of things. I have put some crazy stuff on’em. I have recently tried to go a little healthier and now eat peanut butter, raisins, honey, and banana sandwiches.
You need to try a nacho sandwich.
Do tell – how do I make one????
Hmm…I guess my secret sins would include the anger and even bitterness towards others (the bitterness is not always, but it does creep in).
Well, since you’re not home tonight I decided not to tell you that I ate half the box of animal crackers.
Insecurity. which IS pride. It sucks.
Secret eating… hmmm donuts, krispy kreme from the gas station. Sometimes I don’t even know how they end up in my hand as I walk out to pump my gas…
Secret sinning… frustration at people who need to be loved on.