Food is the master of our lives. It drives celebration, commitments, tables of joy and tears of sorrow. It can lift you up higher than you have ever been, and in a swift moment have you crashing lower than you have ever felt before.
Food has this innate ability to replicate stories and memories that, at one point, filled our hearts with love and happiness.
From the takeout that mum would bring home on Friday nights, to the sweet treats you and your best friend would munch on while walking home from school. And it’s not just the emotional or routine aspects of food; it has a powerful ability to change the chemistry of our brains and our bodies.
Of all foods, I would have to say coffee has perhaps the most prominence in our routines; let’s face it, if it’s not there in the mornings it’s totally acceptable to not go to work, right?
Food allows us to dissolve into a pleasure state, and it’s no wonder that breaking the cycle and eliminating foods that have been by our side through out our entire life is extremely difficult. Many of us carry excess weight, and as society has painted such a grim description of overweight people that we can find ourselves constantly searching for the quickest fix, the new super diet, and reasons to be drastically thin.
However, what these campaigns fail to recognise, is that excess weight is so much more than an individual issue. It’s environmental, what and who we are surrounded by, metabolic, spiritual, and physiological.
Which brings us to the crux of this article: What is more toxic to our weight and selves? Eating foods that induce ridiculous chemical pleasure, but assist in gaining weight with the help of a personal trainer, or depriving ourselves of all fat and sugar rich foods, but succeeding in quick and sometimes extreme weight loss?
Letting Go of the Yo-yo
The culture that we’re living in is failing us. Too many of us have a moral judgment against somebody with excess weight, which is slowly leading people to the silent epidemic of social hate, disconnection, apathy and depression when it comes to our bodies. Confusion surrounding weight loss plans and diets has lead many of us into this ongoing lifestyle of short and long-term dieting, self-sabotage, and utter disregard for our actual health.
Living day to day or week to week on a roller coaster through the peaks and troughs of self-worth is a reality for many of us. Certainly for myself, deprivation of foods has sent my body into a metabolic catastrophe in the past.
Excess weight is not only an issue of metabolism and nutrition. It can be connected to deeper and more profound issues of the soul, such as relationships, loving ourselves, humility and forgiveness for somebody else or yourself. It is so very important to remember through out your journey of healthier living, the main focus should always remain how we feel, how we function and how our food can sustain our mind, body and soul.
