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[00:00:00] Welcome back to the I Hear You podcast. I've given today's topic quite a bit of thought over the years because it's something that I still struggle with on a daily basis. As my friends and family can attest, I have quite a sweet tooth and I'm also a sucker for Pringles and a few other specific snack items. And while I generally make healthy choices, to be fair, when it comes to my actual meals, I definitely struggle at times like when I'm tired or stressed or whatever to actually prepare a meal and eat that versus just grazing and snacking all day.

[00:00:37] But why is Michael talking about his eating habits? Well, it's because a couple of years ago I had one particularly indulgent Saturday night where I just wanted to escape reality for the evening. I don't remember what it was, probably just a stressful week at work and everything. And I thought, okay, here we go. Time to just relax, unwind, and so I bought a bunch of my guilty pleasures, plopped down in front of the TV and binged my way into a sugary, salty, Netflixy coma.

[00:01:06] And it felt great, in the moment. Because the next morning I woke up in a total funk. I felt depressed, disconnected, lonely. I didn't want to do anything, I didn't want to eat anything. I didn't really want to talk to or get together with anyone, I didn't want to go to church. I felt full, yet I felt completely undernourished. And I still wanted something, but I just didn't feel good.

[00:01:36] Then in that moment, it hit me. I mean, it's no secret that the vast majority of our processed foods fill us with calories that might satiate us in the moment, yet they provide virtually zero nutrition. So it's not no secret that that's not good for us. And I fully expected to feel the way that I did because of the way that I ate.

[00:01:57] And yet in that moment, I realized that what I was feeling was actually more than just a result of the actual food I had eaten. I realized that my recent emotional and spiritual diet was actually impacting me just as much as my physical diet.

[00:02:13] Think about it for a moment. Social media, television, gaming, pornography, addictive working, you name it. A lot of these things that we have in front of us in the world, they all taste great in the moment and they promise to fill our bellies, so to speak. Yet they provide little to no actual nutrition at best, and it can even be downright poisonous at the worst. And on top of all that, they're designed to be addictive, just like those Pringles, just like my chocolate covered cinnamon bears, whatever it was. There's a lot at play in our world right now, there's a lot available, I should say, in our world that feels great in the moment that might make us think that we're having certain real needs met when actually in reality isn't. In fact, when in real...