Step 4: I Stopped Celebrating with Food

In my last post I covered step 3 of 10 steps that I took to get to where I am today. I will cover step 4 in this post. I stopped celebrating with food. This is probably going to strike a nerve with everyone! Every culture and social group out there uses food to celebrate gatherings, so let’s talk about it!

Food, it is a big part of us. Food gives us comfort, and a sense of togetherness. Every holiday out there is centered around food. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter….it seems there is a reason to over indulge around every corner. We take friends and family out to eat for their birthday. We sit down to watch a movie together, and we make movie food! When out of town family visits, we go out to eat or we prepare a feast….and we don’t just eat to nourish our bodies, we eat until we are stuffed and can’t function!

I had struggled with my weight since I started having kids. I had a very hard time loosing any baby weight because I was sabotaging any possible progress every time there was a gathering because I ate to celebrate. Loose 5 pounds, gain 7 pounds for Christmas, loose 10 pounds, gain 11 for Thanksgiving….and then there was the chocolate for Valentines day, and any though of weight loss went out the window!

When I made the lifestyle change to Paleo, I started to change my thinking. I didn’t have food cravings any more, so I wasn’t really feeling like over indulging on the holidays any longer. Then I started watching people, and how controlled they were by food. The look in someones eyes when they see that pie, and their inability to resist eating it. So why has food become such an important part of our lives, and why do we use it every chance we get to feel good? Food controls people….let’s evaluate why.

According to research, sugar is addictive. It is even more addictive than cocaine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23719144  The neurobiological rewards of sugar, combined with the rewards of gathering in a group are a recipe for overeating disaster. And the food industry is responsible for this. Sugar used to be a rare find in food, but today, 75% of packaged foods have sugar. With the standard American diet, each person consumes a quarter to a half pound of sugar a day! This over consumption of sugar is contributing to obesity, diabetes, and many other preventable diseases. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/opinion/sugar-season-its-everywhere-and-addictive.html

Gluten and dairy are addictive. Dairy contains casomorphin, while gluten contains gluten exorphin, and gliadorphin/gluteomorphin. When peptides from either gluten or casein react with opiate receptors in the brain, they produce effects similar to opiate drugs, such as heroin and morphine.  https://www.celiac.com/articles/23434/1/Are-Gluten-and-Dairy-Physically-Addictive/Page1.html So eating dairy and gluten not only make us feel good, but they are physically addictive. And you will definitely experience withdrawal symptoms if you give them up. The first three weeks was kind of hard for me. The cravings were intense, and I was moody and irritable.

Now, add the addictive quality of the food we eat to the fact that we all grow up associating food with family, friends and gatherings, and you get caught in a viscous cycle of overeating. Many cultures use food as a very important part of their existence. Many offer food as a way to make people feel welcome, and it’s very rude to not accept that food offering.

I decided to try to break that cycle. I first chose not to let my kids take me out to eat for my birthday, which was a big deal. I told them that I had changed my thinking…food was fuel, not for celebrating. I also stopped overeating on holidays….I just ate normal like I do any other day. Every chance that came up to celebrate with food, I made a conscious effort to not use food as a way to make myself feel good. Instead of focusing on the food, I focus on the company, the family, the friends. Time has become more important than food. Friends and family have become more important than food.

Now, I hardly ever eat out. Any food that enters my body better have a purpose. I train every day, and my body requires the proper fuel, every day. My stomach has become quite picky, and varying from my usual way of eating wreaks havoc on my stomach, so it’s not even worth it! I no longer waste my energy on my previous food addictions. Food no longer controls me. I watch people all around me overtaken my their unbearable desire to consume food that is so bad for them, and I am so grateful to have broken my addiction. I am also grateful to be teaching this way of thinking to my children. It is possible to stop the cycle, but is does take hard work, and it does take some time.