MORE Revealing Responses to the Phrase … Food is …

GREAT response from people about this! So here’s more …

Food is … Complicated.
AMEN to this. Food and preparing food is so interwoven into our very being that it’s almost impossible to unwind its aspects and meanings. And here’s the first inkling that food’s not always the positive experience and the Pollyanna that many people labeled it in the last blog.

For sure food is definitely complicated. A blessing and a curse. Necessary but scary. Wonderful but terrible. When food ceases to become your friend a healing has to take place. A healing to eradicate food as comfort. And replace it with ways to soothe without food, which can be difficult for some of us because food is so readily available and those of us who have been soothing our lives with it have been doing it so … so long. But let’s replace it instead with a better way to balance your life.

If you’re not happy with the way you eat, you might want to begin to ask yourself why you do what you do with food. It’s the only way to make it less complicated. Put that in your cereal bowl and chomp on it.

Food is … my enemy.
This made me sad. Because lots more than a few people said it. And because I’ve worked with eating-disordered individuals for years … not only anorexics and bulimics but also compulsive overeaters. I also have first-hand knowledge of it. It’s excruciating, disheartening and downright wrong to treat food … a nurturing, life-giving substance … as an enemy.

Part of the issue, I think, is the way we set up diets. I don’t know why we do but most of us don’t confine our eating to little boxes and foods we must eat on a certain day in a certain order. It’s an indication that we don’t trust our bodies or ourselves that we must confine ourselves as such. It’s a recipe for failure, which is probably why most people fail at diets. Instead, let’s change our thought to …

Food is … NOT my enemy.
A food experience can also be expansive as well as ultimate satiation. Especially if you eat what you want when you want it until just satisfied and stop. The confusion begins when you use food for other reasons.

Years ago, I read somewhere “If you’re not in the body you were meant to have, you’re eating for some other reason than hunger.” Such a profound statement! It not only advocates only eating to your hunger … a novel concept. It also hints at the fact that we all have bodies that are ideal for us alone. Bodies that don’t necessarily conform to computer-generated ideals of slimness or buffness but ones that we’re happy with no matter what shape or size we’re in.

Food is … at the shop … so I need to go shopping.
I laughed out loud when I read TB’s response. Because haven’t you ever been in this situation? More than once I’m sure. When my book, “Gluten-Free in 5 Days”, launched a couple of weeks ago, I sat in my jammies at my computer for four days, did laundry three days late, and ordered in for a week. Because I had absolutely nothing in the house. Including my coffee, which is almost unheard of … I even bought a Keurig, lots of those little pods, and an attractive black-iron stand to house them that sits happily upon my kitchen table. And all I had left in it was cappuccino and chai tea.

So lately I’ve been making my fave Gluten-Free recipes like meatballs and sauce for pasta and … last night … the absolute BEST crock-pot split-pea soup and freezing them. As a matter of fact, I have to go shopping and get more freezer containers. I prefer glass.

Food is … free (grow your own).
I love BH’s response. That would be ideal … nurturing your body from the ground up. Watching something flower and fruit that eventually nourishes you may be the ultimate in feeding. But most of us can’t do that. I myself have a purple thumb. And trying to grow things scares me because they seem to ultimately die. My girlfriend says that plants speak to her. Not so me. The only thing I’ve been able to grow … fortunately … is the money tree in my therapy room. I count each sprout as a new monetary adventure. That particular plant doesn’t scare me. Perhaps that’s why it grows so unabated.

Food is … chocolate.
More laughing and love … and it’s a fact that most women ADORE chocolate. It’s also a fact that there are antioxidants in it called polyphenols and flavonoids that can actually make you feel good by triggering natural endorphins and tiny amounts of anandamide, a marijuana-like brain chemical.

Chocolate has many other benefits. It can also increase blood flow to the brain, thus improving IQ and memory, lower blood pressure and stroke risk up to 20 percent, and even reduce food cravings. Research has also indicated that regular chocolate eaters were slimmer than those who abstained altogether.

Chocolate obviously is good for you. So don’t make it the enemy … not all candy is a bad thing. I’m a real advocate that all foods are good for you if you don’t use them in excess for comfort or punishment. So just don’t eat that one-pound box all at once.

Leave Your Comments About The “Food is …” Project Below

Please finish the phrase … “Food is …” below and include your name and any other pertinent information you’d like to share. I’d love to have you as part of my eBook!