For the Love of Food

Hello my name is Kristen and yes, I’m an emotional eater.

This is the revelation I recently realized about myself. I’m currently enrolled in Leadership Social Services and we visited a few agencies that “seemed” to have bigger issues than I did as many of them were recovering alcoholics and drug users. But then I soon realized after listening to their stories that my issues weren’t too far off from the things they deal with. I just use food to cope sometimes instead of alcohol or drugs.

[sws_pullquote_right]I’m on a journey to not be emotionally attached to anything unnecessarily. And I’m not afraid to talk about it. [/sws_pullquote_right]

Let’s rewind. I used to drink too much and that was accompanied with what I’d like to term “social smoking”. Then, I had the transforming experience of not wanting to drink too much or smoke and stopped them both cold turkey. Then, I used all of my energy that was formerly used drinking into working out. When I got pregnant, the working out all of the time stopped and I began working my job a lot. I dedicated all of my time and efforts to working over time, all the time.

Then, when I wasn’t working as much anymore, I turned to food. Food to feed the happy emotion, the sad emotion, the “had a good day” emotion, the “had a bad day” emotion.

What am I getting at in all of this?  Plain and simple: many of us have gone through seasons of life where we were emotionally attached to a behavior pattern and when we realized that the thing we were attached to wasn’t necessarily the best, we stopped – but then just attached ourselves to something else.

I’m on a journey to not be emotionally attached to anything unnecessarily. And I’m not afraid to talk about it. So THIS time around, when it came time to start the year off with healthy eating and working out, after understanding the root of where I am, here’s what I did differently:

Accountability

If you have a wonderful husband like mine, he is really happy with me the way that I am. But I had to tell him that I was truly serious and that I had this certain weight loss/health goal and that I didn’t mind him saying, “Babe, that’s enough” in order to help me remain accountable. It’s your husband’s worst nightmare to have to say anything about your weight, but empower them to know that it’s okay. Build your community of people who will genuinely help you reach your goals.

Track Your Progress

Use an app or system that can help you monitor and track what you eat and how much you work out daily. I am in love with the My Fitness Pal app and have friends who are using it too and it’s helped to see what they’re doing and to know that they can see what I’m doing, too. I know the Weight Watchers community has been successful for their tracking methods as well.

Scales Don’t Lie

I used to be one of those who said, “Well, I just know how I want my clothes to fit, and I don’t want to weigh myself.” Listen, truth is the scale doesn’t lie. And don’t be too hard on yourself. I’ve had two babies and can no longer lose five pounds in a week like I used to; however, I can congratulate myself for seeing progress over a time period and be happy with what I see. It takes work, and it’s worth the weight and the wait for you to be honest with where you are.

Enjoy the Process

I have had terribly funny stories already of this process and it’s only been three weeks. Like, for instance when I actually went to buy the scale. It took me an hour in Walmart to choose from the very small selection of scales that they had and another 24 hours for me to even open the thing! All of that “hoopla” to come and find out that I’d already lost six pounds in two weeks. Lesson learned: it’s not always as bad as it seems. Or the time that I wish I had a video camera when I was doing crunches at home and my four year old and three year old joined in with me.

So, my beautiful Rocket City Mom family, YOU are a part of my accountability family now. Took a lot for me to own up to this and write it publicly. It’s been a work in progress for months now. But with your help, we can do this together. In three weeks, I’ve lost 7.2 pounds. I’ll be updating you every month regardless of what my post is about. And I’m broadcasting it here so that my community of Rocket City Moms can comment, discuss what’s hard for you, and help each other on this journey. So here’s to a new you!