Debunking the Food Myths - Part 2

Myth #2 - FOOD IS A MEDICINE THAT MAKES ME FEEL BETTER

Comfort food - it's supposed to make me feel better. But I can honestly say - never, not one single time, have I ever felt as good after eating something as I wanted to feel, or as I thought I would feel. I strongly suspect that eating for comfort probably stems back to my childhood. Cookies and milk - after school - talking about my day with my Mom. In reality it was most likely the talking with my Mom that made me feel better, coupled with the fact that she was all mine for a little while. But somehow, the food became associated with that feeling. And like any drug, eventually the amount I ate wasn't enough. So I would cram more in, hoping to find that comfort.

But for years, food hasn't made me feel better - at all. If I had just stopped for a minute to think about it BEFORE I started stuffing it into my face - I would have realized that. But I looked for that good feeling - that "all is right with the world" high. And it never came.

The weight loss surgery makes it impossible to stuff food in until I feel "good." But, I'm happy to say, that I was making changes in this area before I ever had my surgery. I know that it is a downward spiral - I feel bad, I eat and eat, then I feel worse, which makes me eat more...but finally, it dawned on me that I didn't feel better. In fact, I almost always felt worse - with a huge helping of guilt on top of everything. After being diagnosed with heart failure - I could easily tie how I felt physically to how much salt I had eaten. Cutting out salt, meant cutting out at least half of the comfort foods I usually ate, and being diagnosed as a diabetic cut out a large portion of the rest of my comfort foods. In the six months immediately prior to surgery, I lost 60 pounds, so I was making better choices.

Now, though, those "uncomfort" foods create an even bigger problem. My new stomach just doesn't tolerate either the kinds of food or the quantities of food that I used to use for comfort. And the effect is immediate - anywhere from a few minutes of extreme discomfort to a few hours of moderate discomfort - and the change I started before surgery is growing into a permanent change. Food absolutely WILL NOT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER, and many, many times will make me feel worse.

This doesn't mean that everything is right in my life - far from it. I still have the same hurts, disappointments, betrayals that everyone has. But I'm learning, slowly and surely, to deal with it in ways that does not involve food.

OH, and HAPPY DANCE OF JOY today - 100 pounds since surgery!!!