At least now I know why I ate that extra cookie and why I chose to update my blog rather than go out for a bike ride (actually, it's because I'm sick---but I think I can blame that on the devil, too).

The review of this book from 1977 over at The Pitch says the following:

"The idea of being starved didn't originate with your stomach. It came from your MIND. It was SATAN'S IDEA. How do we know? A healthy body doesn't begin to starve until it has gone 40 days without food." (page 37)

"Everywhere you look you see fat Christians," C.S. Lovett complains in Help Lord -- The Devil Wants Me Fat!, the rare diet book to deploy prayers, visualization exercises, and reckless use of the caps lock in a war against Satan. "We have Christians who wouldn't think of lying or stealing or committing adultery unabashedly going around with bulging bellies," he writes, somewhat insensitively. 

And, while humorous, I'd like to say there is some truth here.  While I want to say that being overweight (which I am) is an issue of personal responsibility and impulse control, temptation plays a big role in it...along with immediate gratification.  And so, I think I can give the devil his due for the state of my physical body.  That said, I have to want to change enough to change enough.

Onward and downward.  (I have lost about 20 lbs this year but I have a lot more I should lose)