Grocery trip Monday night
Food is fuel, energy for us to function and live by. It’s not our crutch, companion, or way to solve problems or situations in our lives.
It only complicates them.
If we have a bad day at work, a few chocolate chip cookies when we get home isn’t going to go back in time and stop our boss from yelling at us. Sitting in traffic for twenty extra minutes and opting for fast food instead of a home cooked meal isn’t going to earn back that time we sat in traffic. Sure, the fast food may save us an additional 10 minutes as don’t have to cook anything, as well as provide a few minutes of joy as we scarf it down, but at what cost to our health?
Next time you pull up to the drive thru, know that it will take a day or two of work to gain back what you just gave away in a few minutes of temporary enjoyment. It should be enough to stop you from doing it often.
Food is fuel, not a fix or remedy to the following problems:
- Bad days at work
- Traffic delays
- Busy days
- Romantic breakups
- Lazy, rainy days
…or any other excuse we have for opting for fast, fattening food, or for being lazy and not preparing a nutritious, healthy meal. There are always times to celebrate and socialize around food, but not every day. And neither are the “fake holidays,” you know, Columbus Day, Groundhog Day, etc.
If you don’t get off work, don’t get off your healthy lifestyle.
We need to stop looking at food like it’s something more than just fuel, energy to live by. Once you’re hungry, eat until you’re no longer hungry (NOT stuffed!), and keep moving along. Next time you’re hungry, eat.
Food is fuel. Eat to live, don’t live to eat.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
I know but sometimes, just sometimes I really want to live to eat lol.
Why does all the bad for you food taste so good?
you’re so right, food is fuel to live… EAT TO LIVE, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. I’ve heard it before, truer words haven’t been spoken.
I wrote a post about this on your forum a couple months back:
http://www.344pounds.com/community/showthread.php/188-How-do-you-eat-when-trying-to-lose-weight?p=1356#post1356
(Scroll down to “honeyblondie’s” response; that’s me. I don’t know if it will “jump” there automatically when you click on the link.)
I just clicked the link; it does “jump” so no scrolling required. :)
Your post is so true. Thanks for sharing.
This is something I’ve had to learn the hard way. But you know what? NOT using food for all the other stuff isn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be. When I realized I would have to let go of using food as an emotional “buffer” to keep me from feeling the emotions I was trying to escape, I was terrified. I think some small part of me thought I wouldn’t be able to handle those emotions without my buffer. I was wrong. It’s a little more uncomfortable to go through tough stuff, but the freedom FROM that food addiction is worth far more than I EVER gained by using food as an emotional buffer!
My mother gave me a full fledged membership to the “clean plate club” when I was a small child. Food left on plate the night before was put in front of me the morning after. I learned to pile it on and then shove it in.
37 years later I am finally leaving the club. What was learned can be unlearned. What was habit can be replaced. Food can become part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
Ok – I am wondering as I was thinking about going scaleless for awhile. Are you really not weighing or just not posting? I think it would drive me mad after my 3x a day weight regiment when I drop the bulk of the weight. Come clean with it! If you really are not weight I am SUPER IMPRRESSED!!!
You aren’t weighing yourself 3x/day, are you?
Oh and the basket? Where are the chicken breasts, tuna, 96% lean burger, the fat free cheese, cottage cheese, super lean ham, egg beaters? Salmon, shrimp? Looks a little carby for my taste. Gotta feed toes muscles!
I’m thinking maybe he already had toes items at home, and maybe toes items that you saw in the basket were just toes things that you pick up during a quick trip to the grocery store.
Don’t you mean “toes tings”?
toes/ hahahaha ….laughing my butt off……………
wow – i really, really needed to hear that! would have been better if I had heard it *before* my trip thru the drive-thru! don’t know what hit me today … and i guess it doesn’t matter, b/c all it amounts to is me justifying a bad choice. i had been doing a much better job of grocery shopping and keeping good food in the house, but have not really done that over the past few days. i have to remember that this is a full-time, always-on thing, and that my choices DO matter. thanks again for the post.
im just now understanding the food is fuel.
I literally have had to reteach myself how to eat and when to stop when I feel full.
So true!! If I use anything as a crutch it is exercise. If I am angry about something I take it out on the weight bench or the treadmill. Not so much since my surgery but before I really used exercise and music as my outlet. All my exercise equipment is now in my fathers garage so when I work out I am alone, free to yell while I am pushing hard for those extra seconds and be angry if that’s what I need to. It’s a release for me at times. It took me a while to put the food down when I was sad, confused, hurt or whatever the case may be but when I did it felt great and even greater when I found that exercise could replace those foods I was eating.
Ok wow…. so true!!! What a great way to look at food… I’m going to try to remember this when the cookie is in my hand!
I’m still hoping someone will come up with a beneficial reason for me to eat Skittles.