Food

Hello! Happy New Year!  I know...I'm late!  I have really good excuses though!  *smile*

Yesterday I tried to post some Project Life pages, but Blogger was being bad, so maybe I'll try again today.  But for now I have something else on my mind.  I've been comtemplating for a long, long time whether I want to "go there" about this subject on my blog.  I feel so strongly about this right now, so I'm going to step onto my soap box for a moment and share what's on my heart.  This is probably the first time I have "gone there" and it may be the last--who knows!

Anyway, here it goes...

I am so tired of all of the dieting mentalities and opinions out there on food.  There are SO many opinions on what food is good, bad, will make you live longer, will make you healther, will make you stronger, will fill you up, bring you down, cheer you up, make you fatter, make you thin, make you feel like you have more energy--and blah, blah, blah.  I feel like my mind and eyes have been poisoned by all of it. 

People, it's just food!  Sure, food has healing components (if that's even the word), but it's NOT our healer.  Sure, you will probably feel better after eating a grilled chicken salad instead of a juicy burger with fries (although you may still be hungry after the salad--that's just my experience). 

I feel like my head hurts at times from all of the confusing information out there about food. 

Why am I even talking about this?  Because lately I have been struggling with it.  Again.  Again?  Yes, years ago I really struggled with food stuff.  I wasted SO much time reading and researching about eating, dieting, losing weight, yada, yada.  And finally I realized that what I needed was to listen to my body and also be aware of portion.  Oh, and to exercise--which just means movement.  But recently I have allowed myself to go down that path of worrying about food again.  It's been actually a miserable experience.  So today I have decided to let it all go...again. 

I have seen countless people go on diets, only to gain all of the weight back.  You know what my theory is?  They weren't eating what they really enjoyed, so that's why the diet failed.  It won't last.  Deprivation kicks in and then when you are around that food you start to go crazy.  I've been there.  I've done that.  Over the years I have given myself permission to eat all sorts of foods.  Nothing is bad.  Sometimes I even eat pie/cake for breakfast.  Sometimes I even make pie for dinner.  I'm not kidding! 

As soon as people start labeling food as "good" and "bad" I just want to plug my ears and run.  You can certainly eat what you enjoy, but what it comes down to is portions.  I do track what I eat.  I need to visualize it.  I need to see it.  It's just how I am and it works for me.

I don't even know how to tie this into what I have talked about on this blog before.  I could tie it to the fact that you have to be you and like what YOU like to eat and not allow the unwavering opinions throw you off course.  I could tie it to the fact that everyone is different (I'm talking body size/composition) and how comparing ourselves is only destructive. 

I do like to feel good about myself.  So I track what I eat and I exercise.  I like that.  But I don't like when I start to dig too deep and find myself lost in the dieting mentality.  So I'm climbing my way back up through and finding air again.  Thank you, LORD!

So here I go...back to being balanced, back to enjoying ALL foods, and back to being ME!