Feeding the Hunger, NOT the Hurt

I have to begin by admitting that I am crazy-super-behind-the-times here because I just finished watching Super Size Me.  When this film first came out, I was interested, but not enough to ever sit down and watch it...probably because I knew it would make me feel bad about eating fast food, and man....did I ever LOVE fast food!  This is a lady who took part in a torrid love affair with Taco Bell since age 12...

In Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock ate 3 meals a day from McDonald's for 30 days.  Spurlock, who ultimately gained 25 pounds in addition to all other sorts of yucky side effects, discussed that many of us respond to food like an addict would to his or her drug of choice.  We are addicted to food.  I know I certainly was (and I still struggle)!  Why are we addicted to food?  How could this happen?  Because eating it makes us FEEL good, in the moment, at least.

One of the many great things I have learned from joining weight watchers is to stop and think about WHY I am putting something in my mouth.  It seems like common sense, but for people who are addicted to food, this is a difficult issue to tackle.

My grandmother passed away several weeks ago and between the trips to go see her during her last days and the traveling and business associated with the traveling to her viewing and funeral, we had a lot of excuses to eat crappy food.  When I really thought about it, my family and I were all going to dinner and indulging because we were trying to feed, and thereby, alleviate, our hurt. We were not eating because we were hungry, we were eating because we were hurting.

Most of us have grown up in situations where food is ever-present.  It's your birthday? FOOD.  Someone died? FOOD.  New job/promotion?  FOOD.  Catching up with friends? FOOD.  Something good happens?  FOOD.  Something bad happens?  FOOD.  The list could literally go on and on.  I know for me it was Chinese food and Taco Bell.  If I had a bad day, the sweet, sweet comfort of a nacho cheese chalupa and a double decker taco supreme were in order!  If I managed to make it through the work week, I rewarded myself with sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, lo mein, an egg roll, and crab rangoons....mmmmm....crab rangoons.....

All this time, I thought I was comforting and rewarding myself with these foods...when in reality, I was slowly building habits that caused me to gain 30 pounds!  The hardest part about emotional eating is that it's so much like sin... I do something wrong (taco bell) because it feels good, but then I feel guilty, so to make myself feel better I go back to that sin (King Buffet), which only further perpetuates this endless cycle of pleasure and guilt.  Do you have trigger foods like these?  Every time my weight watchers leader would ask the question, "What brought you through that door to weight watchers?", I would lean over to my mom and whisper "sweet and sour chicken!"


Re-learning how to take care of and nourish my body in the middle of a culture filled with fast, easy, cheap and delicious food options is difficult!  But I am slowly learning to pay attention to feeding my hunger, and not my hurt...