Written @ 1:50 p.m. on 2007-06-18
Overcoming Overeating
Oh happy! I finally got the documents I need for my biz-snatch! I am now a president, a CEO and a sole proprietress. Where's my power tie????
In celebration I went to Walmart with my darling daughters and bought one hundred dollars worth of groceries. Do you know how many groceries that is, if you don't buy meat, from Walmart (where the prices are low, low, low because the employees don't need silly things like health insurance)? The cart was overflowing!
I got myself a special treat of POM pomegranate juice. It comes in a fancy bottle and is SO yummy. Its been trendy lately to add pomegranate to different things, and I am thoroughly enjoying that trend. Pomegranate for everybody!
I decided to make tacos with the fake Garden Burger meat, and sent N. to run and pick up some iceberg lettuce. She came back with mixed greens in a bag. I told my sweetpea, no, the regular round kind. She came back a second time with baby arugala. Sometimes I feel like I have failed my children nutritionally, but today I felt redeemed. My kid doesn't even know what iceberg lettuce is! Why, when I was a kid, that WAS lettuce.
I was doing some reading last night about compulsive eating. I have definately learned that I use food as a tranquilizer. If I feel anxiety, I eat, and I feel soothed. Apparently there is this thing called Overcoming Overeating, and they tell you to put all of the bad foods in your house in large quantities, and eat them! This lady was saying,"I bought a pound of chocolate, and I thought that was a ton! And I ate it!" and the O.O. person said,"Well, buy six pounds." The idea of having six pounds of chocolate in my house is scary. You just can't keep "danger" foods around like that. They have so much power! They are so lethal!
The idea is to take this power away from these foods. They are just foods. All of the foods are just foods. We build up these ideas about certain foods, that they are dangerous, evil and instant fatteners. If we put things back in perspective, we will naturally choose the foods that nourish. If there is no big deal about chocolate, you won't feel a thrill when you eat it. Just like I feel no thrill when I eat, I don't know...cheerios. Cheerios are an ok food. They don't have that power. If you remove that "badness" from chocolate, you would eat a little chocolate, and move on to something else.
I was thinking about this last night, and thinking about the people that I know that are healthy eaters without hangups. I know plenty of skinny people who are riddled with hangups, my parents being prime examples. My best friend, though, has a really healthy attitude about food. She is mostly a vegetarian, but she eats a little of a lot of things. She doesn't eat a whole gallon of icecream, but she doesn't think icecream is a terrible thing either. When I thought about her, I truly saw that she has taken that power away from what I would consider "bad" foods. So maybe there is something to this approach.
I don't know yet, but I've lost two pounds! : )