Courting disaster

I've seen many theories about how food controls us, or how it has no power, or how we can best practice an avoidance. I'm coming to a deeper understanding that, there are a million ways to get this wrong, and a few ways to do this right. I'm starting to see the same vein appear through most of the persons posts whom I respect.

It's hard for me to imagine that I could have kept it all mentally organized, had I not been able to discard most of what I heard and read early on.

But the intake of excessive food was only a symptom of a much bigger problem that was the main trigger to eat, for some sort of satiation I would never be able to achieve anyway. Because I had yet to deal with the underlying issue. I had yet to understand the paradigm shifts when I tell it to do so. I allowed every other factor to determine my outward behavior towards and regarding food.

FOOD DOES HAVE THE POWER!!! Food has rich friends, billion dollar ad campaigns, huge neon signs on every street in the U.S. We tell ourselves that food has no power to change our belief system toward it's obvious power in our lives. We changed it's meaning, not the other way around. 

The one thing that everyone here has in common is that we all at one time or another were BRAVE enough to face the biggest threat to us and those around us. And that threat was NOT food! The threat was we had a misunderstanding of the power that food does have. We all tested those outer limits of, "how much energy can I ingest?"  And were swiftly and horribly rejected by the things that accompany this, i.e diabetes, gerd, etc...

My "all in all" is this. I changed my paradigm today. I will have to decide again tomorrow to do the same. And every day after for the rest of my time. I tested those limits, and learned those are waters in which I do not belong. I cannot imagine doing this alone though. Peace.

Well said - food does have powerful friends. Look at the corn industry in the US, it is in everything/everywhere.  We are constantly being marketed at.  Good to look at it for what it is.

Sometimes I feel like an alcoholic in "The Days of Wine & Roses" - just substitute food images.

That's so true.

I've seen many theories about how food controls us, or how it has no power, or how we can best practice an avoidance. I'm coming to a deeper understanding that, there are a million ways to get this wrong, and a few ways to do this right. I'm starting to see the same vein appear through most of the persons posts whom I respect.

It's hard for me to imagine that I could have kept it all mentally organized, had I not been able to discard most of what I heard and read early on.

But the intake of excessive food was only a symptom of a much bigger problem that was the main trigger to eat, for some sort of satiation I would never be able to achieve anyway. Because I had yet to deal with the underlying issue. I had yet to understand the paradigm shifts when I tell it to do so. I allowed every other factor to determine my outward behavior towards and regarding food.

FOOD DOES HAVE THE POWER!!! Food has rich friends, billion dollar ad campaigns, huge neon signs on every street in the U.S. We tell ourselves that food has no power to change our belief system toward it's obvious power in our lives. We changed it's meaning, not the other way around. 

The one thing that everyone here has in common is that we all at one time or another were BRAVE enough to face the biggest threat to us and those around us. And that threat was NOT food! The threat was we had a misunderstanding of the power that food does have. We all tested those outer limits of, "how much energy can I ingest?"  And were swiftly and horribly rejected by the things that accompany this, i.e diabetes, gerd, etc...

My "all in all" is this. I changed my paradigm today. I will have to decide again tomorrow to do the same. And every day after for the rest of my time. I tested those limits when I was 395 pounds, and learned those are waters in which I do not belong. I cannot imagine doing this alone though. Peace.

How did this happen? I edited one sentence on mine, and yours changed to mine. Weird.

I recently watched the documentary "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan and it lays it out so clearly much of what you just said.  It's about just how rich the food industry really is!  It's the industry that's the problem - not simply the food.  It has perverted so much of our perceptions of food and has perverted the food itself!  If you can find it (it is on my PBS "On Demand" on my comast cable).   This is the struggle of our lives! How can we make food just simply enjoyable fuel and separate it from the millions of emotional ties that we have developed (or have been spoon fed to us via advertising)?   We are all in this together and every day we are blessed to have the choice to choose to eat to live rather than live to eat.  It's all in the day to day struggles of making if happen.  That's the tough part and right now I suck at it.   I can hardly wait for my surgery so that I have this extra tool in my aresenal to fight with 'cause the methods I've tried (again, many are part of the food industry) just have not worked.  It's a complicated subject that we've just gotta tackle a bite at a time.

My 14 year old son is constantly reminding me to " let the lifestyle win out". It's such a helpful reminder that helps me stick to the long view of health. That is, I want to remain healthy and fit for the rest of my life, so temperance is always the key to that.

I found it!! - I'll watch it and let you know what I think.

Gary -- I'm beginning to think you're one of the smartest people I know.

You're right -- food never was the disease, it was the symptom.  For me it was all about feeling anxious and inadequate and "less than".  And I always saw an "all you can eat buffet" as some kind of twisted challenge.  

I know that for me food became my drug of choice -- to feel something, to feel nothing, to shut up the "you can't", "you won't" "you're ugly and stupid and useless" voices in my head for five minutes.  And unlike those who pick up the whiskey bottle or the crack pipe, I can never get away from the cause of my addiction -- I still have to eat if I want to be alive for very long.

And food does have the power -- endless advertisements of "suggested servings" that would feed a third-world family for a week, happy people gathered at restaurants laughing and joking and having a great time.  Please note no one in these ads is picking away at a salad and drinking lemon water for its fat-burning qualities.

Over time in Western culture food has become central to our perception of a celebration.  Name me one holiday -- Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, birthdays, anniversaries -- that doesn't involve some obscene amount of one kind of food or another.  You invite people over for dinner, for brunch (just a way to get a fourth meal in on weekends, if you ask me), not for a couple of celery sticks and a jug of Perrier.  

And for today, like you, I have chosen to live and be healthy and give food its proper place in my life.  I will eat to live and not live to eat -- and there is a lifetime of pain and limit-testing -- and FREEDOM -- in that statement.  However hackneyed a cliche it might be, in my case it was absolutely true.

I'm glad that this might help realign someones thoughts towards fighting the onslaught of 'information overload' that is now the norm. Thanks for the nice words.(smiling emoji). I don't do emoji.