Day by Day

Sometimes it feels hard to believe that we will ever get a handle on our food addiction. For many of us, shoving down emotions with food has been a habit for so long it seems impossible to change the behaviour. Snacking as soon as we get home from work, or picking something up and eating while we travel is so common it has become our normal. The workday is done and we are hungry. So why don't we munch on a fruit until we get to dinner? Why is it most of us go for sugary or salty snacks? We promise ourselves no more chips, as we sneak into the convenience store, hoping we're not seen. We know chips are high calorie, nutritionally inferior food and contribute to the extra weight we carry, yet we seem unable to stop ourselves. What is it in that moment that we really need? The crunch, the distraction of mindlessly chomping while we drive home. What is that we feel? Overwhelmed? Tired? Bored? Sad? Angry?
Do the chips help with those feelings? Probably or we wouldn't keep doing it. But there is a cost. We know there is a spiritual, emotional and physical cost to being overweight.
Can we learn to take a moment and sit with ourselves and figure out what we are feeling? Label it and decide what it is we truly need. There is nothing inherently wrong with enjoying some chips once in awhile. Eating mindlessly as we drive home, shoving down our leftover feelings from the day is the problem. Eating more than we need on a regular basis is what makes us fat. Eating to manage emotion instead of eating for health, enjoyment and the love of food, (bingeing is not about loving food!) is what makes us fat. Is the cost of overeating starting to outweigh the benefit?