Friday, June 27, 2014

Comfort Food

One of the hardest things I think for  people who are trying to lose weight to do is to stop feeding their emotions.  We eat when we are happy & celebrating. We eat because some guy broke up w/ us or because a friend stabbed us in the back.  We eat because we're frustrated with dieting, depressed or because we have low self esteem.  We are all under a delusion that this is ok because everyone does it.   Even food network has shows about peoples favorite comfort foods.  Everyone is very accepting of it and the fact that people soothe pain with food. Announce you've had a bad day people respond with you need a drink, have some chocolate you'll feel better.

To comfort means "to ease grief or distressed or two improve the mood of or restore a sense of well being".   I have been a comfort eater for most of my life.  When I was younger it was always for celebration or because you were happy.  But as you get older life starts to change. When your heart gets broke your friends come over w/ ice cream to cheer you up. Then you pull an all nighter for studying or a project and you find if you have snacks they help you stay awake. I believe this could possibly be where most people start getting the mindless boredom eating.  But if we are all honest with our selves we know that comfort eating is like putting a band-aid on something that needs stitches.  Yeah, it makes you feel better in the moment because you temporarily forget about the real problem but the wound only festers.  This is why on all weight loss shows you see the trainers get into peoples heads. You need to treat what is really causing you to turn back to the food that really isn't a comforting you it is keeping you uncomfortable. The food your putting in your mouth to numb you of what ever is bothering you is not fixing anything.  Some people have horrible things that happen to them that made them turn to food and I am fortunate enough that I don't have any of those reasons. Mine is all to do with my self esteem and depression I've fought for years.
For those of us who don't have our eating under control or that need to lose weight, comfort food is just part of the viscous cycle that keeps us where we are or slowly over the years moves the number on the scale higher.  We eat for that temporary endorphin high.  I've read that when it comes to comfort eating most of us can't change the triggers. We can't always remove the reasons in our lives that can cause us to turn to the food. So because we can't remove the triggers that make us crave that high. We need to change the action that gets used to the endorphin high.  For example:  I had a horrible day at work, someone asked if I was pregnant(nope just fat), you get the picture, anything that triggers that need for the high. Instead of reaching for a snickers, tell your self you must first go for a 10 min walk or listen to 3 songs you know always boost your spirits.  Both of these increase endorphins. So in the end you then feel the same as you would have if you ate the Snickers but w/o the calories.  This is the easiest way to retrain our brains because they are still getting the same results w/ the same triggers but the action we are using to get there is different. 

My weigh in yesterday was a 2 lb gain. I expected a gain from lack of tracking and then I also went to the eye dr and they take your blood pressure and it was a little higher than I am used to and this seems to be the trend as of late.  When I go to the walk in for something I've been thinking oh it's just cause I have white coat syndrome but then they had me sign forms that I haven't been diagnosed w/ pre diabetes or diabetes. I told them officially no, but at my last physical, about 3 years ago I think, I had just found out my Dad has type 2 diabetes and they wanted to have me get a blood test for pre diabetes.  Out of fear of the results I have yet to have this test.  I am sure it will show I am pre diabetic because apparently EVERYONE on my Dad's side has type 2.  So after my eye apt I googled normal blood pressure to find out my numbers are in the Prehypertension range, they say it is still fine but.  Making me both potentially Pre Diabetic and Prehypertension.  I am scared by both of these facts and that even though I am still considered healthy because these are not actual issues yet just the "pre" stages meaning it is possible I could develop the real problems. Do you wait for these to become problems or do you act.  If you see your child playing with scissors do you think we'll wait and see if they cut them selves or do you get up and take the scissors from them? These health problems are so common and accepted and we treat with medication instead of the real way to fix it. Both of these health problems are easily fixed with diet and exercise. And yet what do you think the first instinctive thing I wanted to do after soaking this all in today????? Thats right I wanted to be comforted by food.  This is an instinct I will conquer! 

2 comments:

  1. When I was pregnant and I couldn't eat fat, and couldn't drink alcohol, I had a lot of sex. ;) Way better than a snickers bar!

    ReplyDelete