I'm overweight. I'm working on it and I'm making progress, but I'm overweight. I don't think it's a coincidence that weight issues are exceedingly common among foster parents, and also among foster children. Whether overweight or underweight, eating too much or eating disorders. It is sooo hard to treat food as fuel, not as the enemy, not as the friend, not as the feared, not as the comfort. Fuel, just that, nothing more. They say that the nicotine in smoking is addictive. I don't smoke, but I think for some of us, food is every bit as addictive, and every bit as hard a habit to control.
Even now, I feel that baking a batch of cookies or brownies is doing something nice for my kids. I make an amazing peanut butter/chocolate homemade fudge. People's eyes light up when I bring it to the church fair, or to a sick friend, or mail it to a child at college. My kiddos literally jump for joy when they see me gathering the ingredients for fudge. I know when I make fudge they will be excited and happy. I admit sitting down to a family board game or going for a walk together doesn't give me that same feeling. I don't think it gives them the same feeling either. Maybe it does. I hope it does. It would be nice to break the cycle of using food for comfort.
Posts
This is a tough one. My most recent tactic is to put things off until "tomorrow." If I'm in line at the grocery store and thinking about grabbing a candy bar, I'll say to myself, "not today... but maybe tomorrow." Then the next day, I'm at the coffee shop and thinking about a second cup of hot chocolate... and I'll use the same routine. It works for a bit until you get a few weeks in and you think, "Alright already! I've waited enough and now it's time to have a treat." That's the real test. If you can get to "tomorrow," it does get easier. But you have to be willing to change your mentality while you change your habits. Meaning that instead of thinking that you deserve a "reward" for being so good and eventually bingeing on something not-so-good for you/restarting those bad habits- you realize that a small sweet every so often is a nice accompaniament to a good dinner or the company of friends and not something you do several times a day.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the idea Salty! Reminds me of when I was pregnant with my fourth daughter and craved Pepperidge Farm Raspberry Turnovers. They take 40 minutes to bake so I would just keep putting off turning on the oven, for 15 minutes, then another 15, etc. until finally there wasn't time to cook them before bedtime. I'll give your strategy a try...thanks again!
ReplyDelete