Is eating right all the time causing you stress

Stress can stop your weight loss goals about as much as eating

a family size bag of Nacho chips and a 2-Liter bottle of pop

can.

My approach to weight loss was in gaining my health. Losing

300 pounds was not the first thing that occurred to me, but

rather “what could I do to get healthy and eat right”. It was

a very strange approach given that I was obviously clinically

obese and immediately needed some quick weight loss.

I had no idea that our body used food in a very specific manor

and that we could improve our energy levels by working with

the body, not against it. There were some very specific rules

to follow, so being the good student I followed them. It

became a religion for me and as I preached it, I made many

people quite crazy. I became an outcast because I had to

prepare my food differently and would not eat with the gang at

meal times. My food was prepared differently, eaten

differently and eventually I even came to ask food servers to

use different spatulas to flip my “veggie burger” from the

grill.

I followed the rules and I increased my energy. I began eating

better and my energy levels increased enough that my weight

loss began and I started to become lean and healthy.

Then the stuff hit the fan

Well, it hit their fan, not mine.

Friends began to talk behind my back about wanting the old Rob

back. In one instance, I was held down on a couch while cola

was poured into my mouth against my will. They wanted their

old funny, fat, life of the party friend back, not this health

nut with all these food rules.

I think I first became aware of being stressed about food at a

birthday party I was asked to attend. It was a time of

celebration, but do you want to know what I was thinking?

“Do I or don’t I have a piece of cake?”

“This is totally processed, unnatural food. No fiber, no

wholeness and it contained sugars, lard and all kinds of other

crap”.

I had a whole bunch of thoughts about how this would affect my

weight loss goals, my health and my eating habits.

I was weighing the thoughts of being socially acceptable

against the health choice of having this one little piece of

cake. I thought about losing them as friends if I did not

accept the cake and weighed it against the impact this poor

food choice was going to have on my body. I had already lost

friends because of my food choices and I really did not want

to lose more.

I’m sure you’ve been there yourself, having to make a decision

based on your social status vs your health. It’s a very quick

thought process, but you notice that your blood pressure goes

up, your heart begins to beat faster, you begin to sweat… you

know what I mean?

I ate the cake.

I felt like crap.

I felt like crap on many levels and I was stressing about this

excessively. I felt bad that I had to make that choice in this

manner. I felt bad because the sugar was surging into my

blood and I felt bad because I “thought about this way too

much”

At some point, you need to let go of it all.

There is energy in food; in the love and people around you

that prepared the food and the circumstances in which it’s

eaten. Never eat a meal when you are upset or sad because you

should be enjoying the meal and taking in all the goodness in

what the earth has brought to your body. Take in all that

goodness and let go of all the stress.

Eat naturally as much as you can and increase the amount of

whole foods in your diet. Make a choice to remove processed

foods and beverages such as cola’s, fruit juices, coffee and

traditional teas. Eat with a smile on your face and give

thanks to everyone involved in bringing the meal, the

nutrition and that energy into your body.

Then when the time is right, have fun and enjoy the health

you’ve created.

There was a very dramatic shift in my life, my health and my

weight loss when I made the choice to enjoy some foods again.

I began to break my own rules and live my life. I began to

have fun with food and fun came back into my life.

Let go.