Eat for your body not your emotions

Since birth we have been conditioned to eat emotionally.  This is the American way, eat for your birthday, eat to celebrate your job promotion, eat when you are sad, eat when you are happy.  Eat, eat, eat, eat for every reason imaginable except for nutrition.  

We are all guilty of this, myself included which is half of the reason why the entire country is overweight. We reward our children with snacks for good grades, potty training, behaving at the grocery store and countless other things that should be expected of us in normal life.  Which then spills over into our eating habits our entire lives.  There is nothing wrong with enjoying our food or getting excited over food but we should not choose what to eat based on how we are feeling or occurrences in our every day lives.  

Throughout this journey that has been one of my biggest challenges.  For example, this Friday I am attending a birthday party for a great aunt, she is 83 years old and the party will have all of the evil pleasures associated with parties.  Cake, cookies, pasta salads, casseroles, wine, crackers and three different kinds of cheese balls to name a few.  Most if not all of the attendees will partake in all of these snacks and then some until they are bursting at the seams.  This is going to be a huge struggle for me even six months into this whole lifestyle change.  I will eat out of my Tupperware in the car before arriving and be asked a gazillion times do I want (fill in the blank) and then I will be silently judged for not accepting.  Meanwhile my subconscious will be screaming at me to just eat whatever I want, even though I know I can't, shouldn't and will over do it.  

The major shift in the way I am now retraining my body, brain and emotions to think about food is not that I cannot enjoy what I eat because I honestly do but to enjoy what I eat not only because it tastes good but because I am eating only what my body needs to function, grow and maintain itself.  If I give in to the pressure and eat the cake, cheese ball, wine and crackers not only will I disappoint myself but I will see it in the mirror and feel it in my body almost immediately after.  Once your body has become accustomed to not over indulging it quite literally rejects poor food choices and makes you feel gross.  Not to say that any of these things stop me every time but when I give in I definitely pay the price emotionally and physically.  

It really is not our fault that we are programmed this way but it is our fault that we continue to make the choices that keep us on that path.  The next time you go to a party and can't help but eat some of each thing on the buffet table or have that second and third piece of cake.  Stop and think for 5 minutes about why you want to eat it.  Do you want to eat it because you are caught up in the excitement, because you are hungry, because you had a bad day, because your body needs that to function or just because?  Then make the decision, to eat or not to eat.  

Our emotional state is often our own worst enemy when dieting.  Even when you are having the worst day imaginable and you want to cry eating that pint of ice cream is only going to make you feel worse about it in the end.  Find something to substitute as a healthy comfort food.  It sounds so lame but it exists and can be done. I love eating white cheddar rice cakes with one wedge of Laughing Cow Cinnamon Cream Cheese spread.  It is not only low cal, low fat but it is sweet and delicious!  Take small steps and eat an individual sized 1 cup container or ice cream instead of the whole pint and go from there.  Think before you eat.