{"id":2316,"date":"2013-01-17T08:30:48","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T13:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?p=2316"},"modified":"2013-01-17T09:29:51","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T14:29:51","slug":"praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/","title":{"rendered":"Praying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Christopher Closeup Podcast \u2013 Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust<\/a><\/p>\n

(This post is part of Mary DeTurris Poust\u2019s \u201cCravings<\/a>\u201d blog tour.) <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Like a lot of people, Mary DeTurris Poust<\/a> was a multitasker, used to mindlessly eating breakfast while reading emails on her laptop or focusing on the New York Times crossword puzzle. Then, while on a retreat that didn\u2019t allow reading, writing, or talking, she was confronted by the mealtime dilemma, \u201cIt\u2019s just me and my corn chowder. I\u2019ve got to figure out what to do here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That incident forced Mary to eat mindfully, even prayerfully, paying attention to each bite of food and how it tasted. It also helped lead to her new book, \u201cCravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image, and God.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Mary initially fell back into her old habits when she returned home, she made a conscious effort to follow through on what she learned. As she explained to me on Christopher Closeup<\/em>, \u201cI took everything off the table, lit a candle, and started to pray before I ate oatmeal. And so now I talk about it as my \u2018mindful oatmeal.\u2019 And I still try to do that practice every day\u2026to do everything with that sense of reverence\u2026It makes you full, not just in a physical way, but in a spiritual way.\u201d<\/p>\n

That spiritual approach led Mary to ask herself some hard questions about her own self-image and how it was tied to snacking, even when she wasn\u2019t hungry. Despite the fact that she leads a fulfilling life as a wife, mother, author and award-winning newspaper columnist, she would still find herself looking in the mirror sometimes and thinking, \u201cI\u2019m not good enough\u201d because of a couple of extra pounds.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cI\u2019ve struggled with food, and I\u2019ve struggled with my own view of myself in terms of whether I\u2019m worthy enough or good enough. It is connected to God in a deep way. When you start diving down deep, we use [food] to fill a void in our lives. It\u2019s usually a hunger for something deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The knowledge proclaimed in Psalm 139, that we are all loved and \u201cwonderfully made\u201d by God, made a profound difference in Mary\u2019s understanding of herself. She said, \u201cYou hear about these New Age-y affirmations where you\u2019re supposed to tell yourself how good you are. I have a really hard time with that. But when I get back to the Scripture, that resonates a little bit more with me\u2014because it\u2019s not just me saying I\u2019m great; it\u2019s God speaking that to me. And that was sort of a moment for me\u2026coming to terms with the fact that we are loved just as we are. That doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t try to improve and eat healthier and exercise and things like that, but that we are loved whether we are ten pounds heavier than we want to be right now or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary acknowledges that Catholics themselves have contributed to the problem by sometimes treating healthy self-esteem and concern with your appearance as the sin of pride. During her childhood, she absorbed the view that she wasn\u2019t supposed to care too much about her body because that\u2019s an obstacle to spiritual health. The reality of Catholic teaching, Mary later discovered, was very different.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cThe Catechism talks about taking care of your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit\u2026I was on a retreat with a priest who was saying that we have this Incarnational faith. God became human, and therefore the body can\u2019t be bad because it\u2019s at the center of this. We often shy away from that idea \u2013 that mind, body, spirit connection \u2013 because it seems not of our faith. And yet, it is. We can own it and not have to fear that it\u2019s something sort of New Age-y. Mind, body, and spirit are all connected and we have to go to God with our whole self, and not just a piece of us. \u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mary is well aware that this is an important message to pass down to her own daughter who, two years ago at the age of 10, put on a coat and asked, \u201cDoes this make me look fat?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary was shocked because her daughter only weighed about 60 pounds at the time: \u201cYet somewhere in her brain, she\u2019s already got that [insecurity] because there are all of these TV shows and magazines that make everybody look so glamorous and thin\u2026.But even the most beautiful people on the magazine have been airbrushed or photo shopped to make them thinner, to make them more perfect. So I think we do have to talk, especially to our girls, about the fact that they\u2019re beautiful just the way they are. Yet oftentimes, it will be my husband who reminds me when I say something about myself, that that is probably the more powerful message she\u2019s gonna hear. If she hears me saying I don\u2019t like the way I look in something, do I look fat in this, that\u2019s gonna be really powerful. And sometimes I forget that. The magazines are really bad, but mothers also have to be careful of the messages they\u2019re giving to their daughters by the way we live.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the books\u2019 subtitle suggests, \u201cCravings<\/a>\u201d will leave you with helpful messages about \u201cfood, self-image, and God\u201d that can influence every aspect of your life. So take the time to do some thoughtful reading about mindful eating. <\/p>\n

(ENTER TO WIN A $100 WILLIAMS-SONOMA GIFT CARD AT THIS LINK<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

To listen to my full interview with Mary DeTurris Poust, click the podcast link:
\nChristopher Closeup Podcast \u2013 Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher Closeup Podcast \u2013 Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust (This post is part of Mary DeTurris Poust\u2019s \u201cCravings\u201d blog tour.) Like a lot of people, Mary DeTurris Poust was a multitasker, used to mindlessly eating breakfast while reading emails on her laptop or focusing on the New York Times crossword puzzle. Then, while on a retreat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":488,"featured_media":2319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,44,13],"tags":[99,113,92],"class_list":["post-2316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-catholic","category-women","tag-books","tag-catholic","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nPraying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christopher Closeup Podcast - Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust (This post is part of Mary DeTurris Poust's "Cravings" blog tour.) Like a lot of people, Mary\" \/>\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.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Praying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christopher Closeup Podcast - Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust (This post is part of Mary DeTurris Poust's "Cravings" blog tour.) Like a lot of people, Mary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christopher Closeup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-17T13:30:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-17T14:29:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/121\/2013\/01\/MPoust-2-1024x996.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"996\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Rossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Rossi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/\",\"name\":\"Praying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-17T13:30:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-17T14:29:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d\"},\"description\":\"Christopher Closeup Podcast - Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust (This post is part of Mary DeTurris Poust's \\\"Cravings\\\" blog tour.) Like a lot of people, Mary\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Praying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/\",\"name\":\"Christopher Closeup\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d\",\"name\":\"Tony Rossi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tony Rossi\"},\"description\":\"After graduating from St. John's University in New York with degrees in Communications and English, Tony Rossi found a job at the Catholic media organization, The Christophers, that allowed him to indulge his interest in religion, media, and pop culture. He served as The Christophers' TV producer for 11 years, and is currently the host and producer of the organization's radio show\/podcast Christopher Closeup, writer and editor of their syndicated Light One Candle column, and producer\/scriptwriter of the annual Christopher Awards ceremony.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/author\/tonyrossi\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Praying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust","description":"Christopher Closeup Podcast - Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust (This post is part of Mary DeTurris Poust's \"Cravings\" blog tour.) Like a lot of people, Mary","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.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Praying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust","og_description":"Christopher Closeup Podcast - Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust (This post is part of Mary DeTurris Poust's \"Cravings\" blog tour.) Like a lot of people, Mary","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/","og_site_name":"Christopher Closeup","article_published_time":"2013-01-17T13:30:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-17T14:29:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"1024","height":"996","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/121\/2013\/01\/MPoust-2-1024x996.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tony Rossi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tony Rossi","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/","name":"Praying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-17T13:30:48+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-17T14:29:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d"},"description":"Christopher Closeup Podcast - Guest: Mary DeTurris Poust (This post is part of Mary DeTurris Poust's \"Cravings\" blog tour.) Like a lot of people, Mary","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/01\/praying-before-oatmeal-a-catholic-perspective-on-food-self-image-and-god-with-mary-deturris-poust\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Praying Before Oatmeal: A Catholic Perspective on Food, Self-Image and God with Mary DeTurris Poust"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/","name":"Christopher Closeup","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d","name":"Tony Rossi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tony Rossi"},"description":"After graduating from St. John's University in New York with degrees in Communications and English, Tony Rossi found a job at the Catholic media organization, The Christophers, that allowed him to indulge his interest in religion, media, and pop culture. He served as The Christophers' TV producer for 11 years, and is currently the host and producer of the organization's radio show\/podcast Christopher Closeup, writer and editor of their syndicated Light One Candle column, and producer\/scriptwriter of the annual Christopher Awards ceremony.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/author\/tonyrossi\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}