YAY for my online Food Log

I think this is going to help A LOT in keeping me on track or, rather, keeping me from letting getting off track last longer. I have been sick for the last week and a half. Between horrific menstrual pain and a bout of food poisoning, I just did not do well. And my food log shows it. I didn't keep it correctly, didn't even go back and try to at least guess at what I ate. It was grim.

Now, had this been a paper log, it would be under a couch or bed at this time and I wouldn't have the energy to find it. So I would just lapse back into not paying attention to my diet and how I feel. But because my food log is online, accessible from anywhere I can get on a computer, I have been able to drag myself back to keeping it . . .and to thinking about the consequences of eating bad stuff. (I'm pretty sure the food poisoning was not at all helped by eating junk food last weekend because I was still feeling crappy from my period.)

Anyway, I feel quite hopeful that this is the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship that helps me completely change my lifestyle!

Food and Emotion

A poem I wrote many years ago.

I am a baby in my crib
crying
I'm cold, I'm lonely
Hold me, love me. . .
and you give me a bottle.

I am a child, locked in my room,
crying
I'm hurt, I'm lonely,
Hold me, love. . .
and you give me cookies.

I am a adolescent, imprisoned in my fears
crying
I'm afraid, I'm lonely,
Hold me, love me. . .
and you give me pizza and the TV Guide.

I am a woman, trapped in self
crying
I'm lost, I'm lonely
Hold me, love me. . .
and it's too late.

Feeding your love hunger

by Joan Dickinson

I'm binge shopping for groceries and cooking up a storm. My daughter is coming home for a visit, so I best be true to our family motto: Food is Love.

Now of course we laugh at that motto, know deep down inside it isn't true. But like many jokes, there is an element of truth. I like to think that my grandmother's and mother's recipes are fun ways of remembering their nourishment of our lives, but is it really necessary to fix the 1,000-calorie caramel cinnamon rolls?

All of this is food for thought.

We're told there is an epidemic of obesity in our nation. Do we eat to nourish our hearts and souls, to nurture and comfort ourselves, to soothe away anxiety? Is this emotional eating, meant to heal our hearts, the wrong cure for the wrong organ? Our stomachs really need small amounts of food. Our hearts and souls need love.

OK. If you buy this idea, how can we feed love to our hearts? Where does nourishing love come from? How can we fill up on high-test love? What's the recipe for just the right amount?

Hmm. There's a lot to ponder here.

Read more . . . .

Emotional Eating

A lot of women say they overeat when they are upset. I've tried to watch for patterns of that in myself, but I find that I don't consistantly overeat when I am angry or sad. I have a lot of reasons to be sad lately, what with getting a divorce from my third husband, who I love more than I've loved anyone before, and getting older and the dead of my second husband. So I've tried to track if any of this effects my eating.

What I've found is that I am likely to eat unwisely when I am lonely. When I miss my husband I really wish he was with me and loved and desired me. I eat when I want to be touched and held. Does anyone else experience weight gain when they don't get and want sex?

This week I posted another loss. I'm quite excited. That's at least a month of losses. So obviously I'm not succumbing to eating when I'm lonely. I've been trying to decide what my affirmation for this week should be and I'm drawing a blank. I suppose I could recycle an old one. Maybe I'll do I accept myself the way I am again