How Are You Going to Fit in Your Life?

I like to eat and feel full which is why restrictive dieting never worked for me, even though I insisted on trying to control my weight for forty years.

A salad could only take me so far toward feeling satiated. And, if I’m being honest, I learned to really, really dislike salads, all low-cal foods, and dieting in general. Which begs the question, when you don’t like something, if it brings forward feelings of loathing, why are you continuing to engage? Well, for me, it boiled down to that size six dress in my closet. Or maybe it was the pants that absolutely needed me to eat salads for lunch and dinner in order to fit.

Truly, this is no way to eat nor is it any way to live.

Having a relationship with food is no different than other kinds of relationships. If you’re in a relationship with another person and it’s no longer healthy for you, you don’t suck it up and stay with it as it is. You either find a way to mutually improve the relationship or you move on.

The same is true with food. Eating a restrictive diet, which is trying to control your body to look a certain way, is not being in relationship, it’s not nourishing.

We need to eat. We need to eat to support life. Your life.

Eating is a form of self-care like movement, getting a good night’s sleep, working at a job that’s satisfying, and having healthy relationships. Healthy eating is one way toward nourishing yourself.

It took me for freaking ever to realize that dieting was at odds with how I wanted to live my life. The fact that I like to eat real food is what saved me from the clutches of trying to control my body to be something it’s not. I’m not a natural size six. I’m whatever size a clothing item is that fits comfortably. Realizing that I didn’t have to be something I wasn’t was very liberating.

What you choose to eat impacts more than how you’re going to fit in your clothes. In reality it’s asking, how are you going to fit in your life? Is that going to be in a restricted way or in a full, robust, and healthy way?

Reflection