Thursday, March 02, 2006

Fascination

Thursday, March 2, 2006
As my thighs become reacquainted with each other and make that reunion swishing sound, I have a renewed fascination with our relationship to food. Over at the Yahoo group, we have a lively conversation going about using food to escape - and other links between food and emotions. Once you go on a cleanse with no food for 10 or more days, you learn just how often you think about food. A thin and healthy coworker even found himself surprised over impulse food habits that he'd developed over the years. One member of the board posted a most interesting theory:
Its funny how weight gain actually manifests itself into an emotional disorder. A period of short term stress with long hours and little sleep can cause a person to adopt unhealthy eating habits in order to cope with the stress. As the unhealthy eating causes a person to gain weight, they begin to feel sluggish and lazy and begin to reduce any physical activities previously enjoyed.

This in turn leads to more weight gain. When the gain has reached a point where it is readibly noticeable by the person and their peers, then self esteem issues begin to surface generating stress leading to more unhealthy eating habits. Also, most unhealthy eating habits involve large amounts of bad carbs which I personally know to be addictive.
Looking back over the past several years, I can't remember a lonely, stressful, angry, or sad moment that I didn't stuff with a comfort food. Sadly enough, commercials are openly promoting the strategy of stuffing an emotional issue with crappy food.

So I'm actively searching for a replacement. I'm firing comfort food on the spot, and hanging the "help wanted" sign. Who or what should apply for the job? Use the comments feature to share your answers, and I'll post my responses to your suggestions.

I have a few ideas of my own, and I am on a serious personal mission to win a battle that many people lose. Besides missing the mark God established for the body-as-temple, I realize that I don't look or feel like the "me" I know and love. I have plans for a long and prosperous life. Now only if I could get my thighs to cooperate...

2 comments:

Blu Jewel said...

What an intensely revealing and insightful look at your eating habits. Your approach to helping yourself is an inspirational one because you blame no one, which is unlike most other people who gain weight. You recognized that you ate "comfort" foods, you recognized the weight gain, and you took steps to fix the situation. While many of us will always struggle with our weight, body image and/or self-esteem, we should never allow anyone else to define who we are or how we should look. Though you may not be a size 8, being a size 12 can be more healthy. Continue to walk the road to better and sustained health and well being because from what I see and read, you're doing a great job.

Hawa Bond said...

Thanks for your comment, BluJewel! I've been thru the blaming, and at some point you get sick of hearing yourself. LOL! I can be angry that I wasn't taught about proper nutrition. I can talk about the long history of "soul food" in the family. I can even dig out childhood hardships. By my 20's, I realized that none of that worked, because it was an excuse. The best definition of "excuse" that I ever heard was "a fact wrapped in a lie." Realizing that changes everything.