Giving Up My Favorite Foods: SparkPeople Series #3

Giving Up My Favorite Foods (January 19, 2009)

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about my health lately. That's what lead me to becoming more active on this site. I joined back on August 14, 2008. That's all I did other than look around a little. A buddy of mine mentioned it while we were having a beer at our favorite hangout. He knew that I was interested in that kind of thing since we both entered Weight Watchers at about the same time a few years ago. I went to meetings. He did it all on line. We both lost weight. He kept it off. Any way, in looking over my "health life" recently, I decided to start a fresh battle with my weight (a final skirmish, if you will) to finally get myself healthier. That's what brought me back here.

I have come to the realization that, just like everyone else, I have to give up my favorite foods if I am going to be successful this time around. After a lot of deep self analysis, I have identified what they are. Unfortunately, I am one of those unlucky people who eats his grief, eats his boredom, eats his stress, and eats his worry. My life has been so affected by these meals, that they must be my favorite foods. I need to try and give them up.

I've mentioned in one of my earlier blogs how I hired a personal trainer for 13 personal sessions. The week after they ended, just when I was mentally and physically prepared to continue a great workout regimen on my own, my nephew died when my sister's house burned down. It was like having the rug pulled out from under me. I stopped working out completely, and spent the rest of 2007 eating my grief. I put on almost 40 pounds in the process.

My mother passed away unexpectedly on August 27th of last year. Even though I was actively training to walk a half-marathon in November (which I did), I ate enough grief to undo any weight loss that the three months of intense marathon training should have given me. In fact, I actually put on 20 pounds. We threw a party for Mom on December 27th and spread her ashes at a beautiful ranch in Llano, Texas. It gave me the closure that I needed. I still miss her terribly, but I am no longer going to eat my grief because I am on a diet now. You don't eat your favorite foods when you are on a diet.

In a very similar fashion, I am going to work myself out of eating my boredom, stress, and worry. It will be hard giving them up, but I'll learn to eat other things to take their place.

Do you have favorite foods getting in your way?