Week 22
Weight: 18st 7lb.
Loss this week: 3.5lb.
Total lost: 60.5lb
If the purpose of food is merely to fuel our body, how do we end up in a situation where we use it to celebrate, to commiserate, to party, to grieve, to show love, to mourn lost love, to accompany a film and to break up the bordeom of a long car journey?
Oh, just me? Oops!
No, I know it isn't just me because I've shared all the above food moments with friends and family.
On my travels around the blogosphere, I've seen a few comments that relate to the "Eat less calories, exercise more" school of thought and I've wondered how I can explain to such people why it just isn't that simple. OK yes, the actual equation is that simple, no question. But the cold mathematics of it all ignores the sheer overwhelming fact that in our society food is most certainly not merely fuel. Who hasn't eaten Ben & Jerry's straight from the tub when they've been dumped, or even done the dumping? (No, it is NOT just me, stop it!) My nana used to insist on feeding us a cheese sandwich, piece of cake and cup of tea in a china cup whenever we went round, regardless of the time of day, and whether or not we were hungry. Bless her, she made every single visit an occasion - and we only lived round the corner, so we visited a lot! So visiting my nana taught me to associate food with socialising, and comfort. My grandad was a wine buff and gourmet, and he taught me to love fine food and fine wine. It might be best if I don't tell you at what age my education began..... ;-)
My point, so laboriously made, is that to lose weight can never just be about eating less calories and exercising more because we are conditioned to see food in certain ways. Breaking associations and bad habits is what takes the hard work. And doing it without making ourselves and everyone around us utterly bloody miserable is a daily challenge that we should celebrate achieving.
But not by eating cake. Obviously.
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2 comments:
spot on . . .
and some of us have had relationships where food was the only way we were shown care and nuturing
food as reward, things as treats, . . . I still even after these 8/9 months of SW still use treat myself on occasions . . . I don't suppose we will ever stop doing that - we just need to reward ourselves less often and more healthily LOL
I think what you said is so true--food is so much more than calories and a mathematical equation. We're not robots--which is why weight loss is so tricky.
And I'm so sorry to hear about your dog! That must be really tough.
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