Where The Love Is; The Kitchen
Reminder that our HEC V kicks off next week, Feb 29th! If you are in Grant Park, your body fat testing is this Wednesday from 4-7pm. Make sure you sign up before tomorrow!
Where The Love Is; The Kitchen
by Shawn Byler
Think about the last party or family event you attended; where did everyone congregate? The kitchen, of course! The kitchen is generally recognized as the center of a home, or the room with all of the “love”. Society often equates food with love, happiness and feeling good, OR confuses it as the case may be! The fact of the matter is, nearly all social and family get-togethers are centered around eating and drinking. And while many a wonderful time has been enjoyed, I’m not sure if this “model” is more of a blessing or a curse!
If the majority of eating during such events were rooted in foods and eating behaviors that encouraged health and wellness, a blessing they might be! However, many of the food oriented events I’ve attended are shrouded in butter, refined sugar, processes food, walking on egg shells, trying to please or just trying too hard, stress and anxiety; especially family events! I’m not encouraging you to eliminate these events, I’m simply encouraging your to take a closer look and perhaps participate differently! I know, it’s taken me years to be able to eat slowly and healthfully and without anxiety around my family group and other social events (even at home at times)! Anxiety or other emotional unrest is why we eat past full and feel like an over-stuffed slug as we unbutton our pants to get in the car to leave. 
Food and eating can be tricky to maneuver, especially in social gatherings. Consider you last couple social gathering, did you eat past full? Did you long after you wanted to? We like to blame over eating on “too much good food”. But the body is wise and knows when to stop and certainly wants you to, it’s the mind and emotions that need reeling in!
Take Action!
Make an effort to orient your next 3 social events around something other than food… Begin equating bonding with other experiences. Allow food to take its proper role, to keep you alive (and to enjoy)! Fun, play, purpose, love and passion are the things worth living for! Food is just food, a portal to survival…
Check out Dr. Byler’s Dieting Be Damned Program @ DietingBeDamned.com to learn more about the obvious and not so obvious roles food plays in your life and how to make peace with food, diet and your body once and for all! This way you can ease into your ideal weight and stay there for good!
