I am one of those people who loves to eat, and it’s not the good stuff. We are talking cookies, chips, french fries, burgers, hoagies, pasta. Pretty much anything that is not a fruit or veggie.
I am also one of those people that looks for any occasion to eat. “Oh, it’s the weekend, lets celebrate!” “Your birthday is coming up, what shall I cook?” “Only 4 more months till Thanksgiving, lets work on the menu, I will make cookies while we do that!”
And, even the not so good occasions. “Let me cook you something nice, you had a bad day at work” “Oh, bad grade on your test, I can make you a sandwich?” “You broke up with your boyfriend, lets go to dinner”
and even one I am not so proud of….car breaks down, and all I care about is if we are still able to go to Red Robbin.
I have struggled with bulimia (did not take a genius to figure that one out, huh?) It is not an easy disease. it takes over everything. One day I will talk about it more in detail, but not just yet.
Anyway, that is the habit I need to change. The way I look at food. The way I can take any emotion. Happy, sad, anger, depressed, and assume that one way or another food will help. Sometimes it does. I wont lie, but it helps for the wrong reasons.
Doing low carb has helped me tremendously. Also, about once every two weeks I “allow” myself to eat whatever I want to eat….with no guilt.
But, it’s still there. I am learning, I am a work in progress.
So, when I see my bad habit wanting to come out and play, I distract myself (and no, not with a candy bar!)
I am learning to re train myself on how I see food.
Now, vodka, that’s a different story.
Writing prompt from Mama Kat’s Writers Workshop
“A bad habit you would like to break”
Wow. I'm sure it is hard. Not easy at all. So sorry you have that struggle, and I sincerely send you my best wishes in success. One day at a time… Visiting you from MamaKat's!
So many women, myself included, have weight and eating issues. I'm sorry that you have had the added burden of Bulimia!
I totally get what you're saying here. I have used food as a reward, a distraction, whatever, my whole life. Over the past three years I think I've gotten closer to figuring it out. I'm not there yet, but I'm closer. Keep fighting the good fight!
My husband pointed out one day that everything I eat has a bar code (meaning no fresh fruits or vegetables). I've been struggling with a 10 pound weight gain due to meds I am on. I have found that using a phone app helps me a lot. I use Lose It, but there are several out there. I always THINK I know how many calories I've consumed in a day, but I grossly underestimate it. By using Lose It, it's right there in front of me. And I sometimes don't eat things because I don't want to go to the trouble of looking it up and entering it, so I guess that's a win! Good luck to you!
I've been struggling with looking at food differently too. My husband recently got into cross fit and Paleo eating and I've learned a lot from him about food and it's forced me to change the way I cook a bit. Which is good. Although he'll never get me in a cross fit gym. 🙂 And I agree with Dyanne, I use My Fitness Pal app and it has really opened my eyes to the food I'm eating.