A Problem: The people who love me

One of the major problems with my diet is the people who love me. Always offering me something out of love, but which compromises my diet. This is a problem of an extra special nature for me.

FIRST - I grew up with parents and grand parents who lived through the depression. Food was important to them. It was a marker of their love and their success. “Clean your plate.” … “Don’t let the food go to waste.” … “Eat this, eat that, eat everything.” I heard that over and over again while growing up and it’s hard to break the habit learned as a child which says I must not let food go to waste!

SECOND - When I was young, food was equated with love in many ways. Good food, tasty food, LOTS of food was always a sign of love. Rejecting food hurt people’s feelings. I still find it hard to say NO when someone offers me something out of love.

It’s so easy to say YES. It makes people happy. It makes my conscience comfortable … EXCEPT … it opens up a buried feeling that I ’shouldn’t oughta’. I know I need to lose weight, but unless I give it conscious thought, I can easily lose my way.

A key for me is to keep my head in gear and keep my focus on the goal. I know how much weight I want to lose, but it’s not something I think about every moment. I DO need to keep it more in mind though whenever I’m offered something that I know I shouldn’t have.

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