My relationship with food has been bittersweet. We all need food for nourishment. It is our body’s fuel. I was born in Argentina. They say that Argentines live to eat. We do not eat to live. In Buenos Aires, everything revolves around food and wine, this is not a bad thing though.
The problem arises when you are out of control and morbidly obese. In my family, you ate HUGE portions. It did not help that the food was delicious and expertly prepared. My dad was an excellent chef. My family was all born in Argentina, but we are also Armenian, Spanish and Italian. Can you imagine the variety of foods and the aroma of all the different spices?
My family believed that if you were sad you ate. If you were happy, you celebrated and of course you ate. The list goes on and on, but the key was you always had a reason to eat.
During my weight-loss journey, I have found that food is neither good nor bad. It has to do with numbers or calories. Some foods have more calories than others. You could choose to have a huge bowl of cherries or a big slice of chocolate cake. We all know that the cherries will have a much lower number of calories, but do we want to eat them or have the chocolate cake?
When we eat, we should be eating because it is time to fuel our bodies. We should not be eating because we are angry, sad, lonely, depressed or for whatever other reason. We must learn to separate how we feel, from what we eat.
When we are foodaholics, we need to learn to jot down what we are eating, how we are feeling, what made us lose control? It is a great idea to set a timer to try and think and delay our reaction. So many times, we do not think and we absent-mindedly reach for the refridgerator. We at times, eat so much without realizing what we have done.
Get a journal and think before you eat! Ask yourself; am I really hungry or am I eating to mask a problem?
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