What I've Learned

I just came through the most stressful couple of days that I've had in a very long time.  To my surprise, some old feelings that I thought were pretty much gone roared back as I found myself almost overwhelmed with wanting to eat a lot of comfort food - and I do mean a lot of comfort food.

That feeling really shocked me, because I thought that I had gotten past the whole emotional eating thing a long time ago.  When things get stressful, running to food just isn't something I normally even think of.  Until the past couple of days.  That long-buried monster roared to life and the battle was on.

What was different this time was that I remembered what I learned when I was on 5&1, and that made all the difference.  Even as the battle inside me raged, I kept telling myself two important things:

1.  Food won't fix this.  It never had and it never will.  I learned a long time ago that food only temporarily masks the emotions, but it never fixes the issue.  In the past, once the emotional eating was over, I always - always - regretted it.  The remorse and shame was then piled on top of all of the other emotions I had been trying to mask, making me feel even worse than before. 

2.  The second thing I had to keep reminding myself was what was I really wanted and keep my eyes fixed straight ahead.  What I want is to be as healthy as I can possibly be, living at a healthy weight and comfortably zipping up my size 6 jeans.  Diving fork-first into a pile of comfort food doesn't support what I really want.

I reminded myself of these two important things, but I also had to make some choices.

While on 5&1, I learned to run to the true Source of my comfort, my Heavenly Father, and that's what I kept doing over these past couple of days.  Every time I felt overwhelmed by things out of my control, I prayed, choosing to leave them at the feet of Jesus.  That was something I had to choose to do over and over again.

I also chose to eat Medifast meals and have a simple lean and green.  We keep a very clean kitchen, so even if I had decided to stuff my face, I would have had to go to the grocery store and buy the junk food.  We went out for dinner, but I opted for lean protein, a small salad and some steamed veggies and asked that the waitress not bring rolls.  I made a conscious decision to avoid any potential trigger foods and to eat small meals every 2.5-3 hours to keep my blood sugar stable.  This wasn't what I particularly FELT like doing, but I did it anyway because I knew that keeping my blood sugar stable would help me better fight off the cravings and keep me in control of my eating.

This time on 5&1 may seem long for some of you, but this is a time when you are learning important lessons and incorporating new, healthier habits that will help you be successful for the long term.  This is about so much more than eating Medifast meals.  It's about so much more than weighing out a proper portion of a lean meat and fixing a salad. 

You are making lots of choices right now that will impact your long-term success.  Choose wisely :-)