My weekend with Our Lady of Weight Loss
Yes, I have joined the Kick in the Tush Club. I spent a fabulous weekend with 16 other women who want to have a new relationship with food and Janice Taylor, author of Our Lady of Weight Loss. We spent time talking about our views on food - our views of our "fat" selves - and how we sabotage ourselves and how to find ways to do other things - rather than obsess on our oral fixations! 
Yep! Actually, I think I made an interesting observation about myself. I am now exploring how my eating habits might be associated with any feelings I might have about scarcity. I am taking a look at my buying habits - okay confession time here ....
My pantry is so full - there is no way one other thing could fit in it. My fridge is also so full, one is in danger of having their toes crushed with what might fall out. Why do I have so much food in my house? Why do I continue to over buy - over shop? Do I need that much in my house? Would I not be better off learning how to shop and maybe make and adventure out of it - go to the store each day and shop for only 24 hours worth of meals?
That would mean that only staples remain and all the rest is a daily creation. I haven't done it yet - scares me - think there is a message in that? Yep - I do! I did clean out the fridge but I also filled it again yesterday with veggies. All chips are gone - so - I guess I am still only letting go in bits and pieces - but - pat on the back - I am letting go!
I am into week 4 of eating "near" vegetarian. Yesterday I found the first vegetable that I think is horrible tasting. Chinese okra. I put it in my soup and had a taste once it was cooked - YUCK! It was really bitter! So I took as much as I could find out of my veggie soup but it did leave a taste in my soup that I am not sure I can deal with! I will try it again today.
I am discovering all sorts of great ways to prepare eggplant and that was a veggie I used to dislike!
Mostly what I hope to achieve here is to eat only healthy choices - right now I am making that transition and once established with the right foods, then I will look at quantities. Extra weight really does equal eating too much - plain and simple. So I will gradually reduce the quantity and add exercise - oops - did I say that word? Add walking and other good for my body movement - and together I hope to see a healthier me. That really should include weight loss as a by-product - don't you think?
Good job, Deanne,
Good for you for starting to look at your buying habits, and questioning what messages you give yourself as you over-buy, or, even as you challenge yourself to only buy what you need.
We learn those food messages so early, and even when they aren't logical, they can still be VERY powerful. Your workshop sounds fun.
Cynthia
**********
Cynthia McKenna, LPC, NCC
Creating Healthy Relationships
http://www.cynthiamckennacounseling.com
Reply to this
Your comments Deanne remind me of my shopping habits. And what you mused about on why we do this, perhaps it is a fear that if we don't stock up, one day we will go the store and the shelves will be bare. Or, which is common up here, the weather will keep you housebound for a day or two. Don't have the problem yet this winter.
Interesting about the Chinese Okra - but then I don't like Okra at all. I have trouble getting it into my mouth because of the experience of trying to harvest it in the garden as a child. My hands were full of prickly little needles. And eggplant is another veggie which brings back a bad memory... my brother and I, for whatever reason I don't know, ruined a neighbor's eggplant one year a very long time ago. I can still see the broken eggplant insides laying out on the ground. We were punished by having to go out into the pine stand behind the house and selected switches with which we would be switched with. If we didn't get nice sturdy ones yet limber too, we had to go back again. Then we were switched on the backs of our upper bare thighs. Ouch! After that we had to weed the neighbor's garden for a month. Sigh.. So the sight of eggplant makes me feel sad.
Love reading about your adventures into this new world of Veggism. I go in and out of that world frequently.
Sobeit
Reply to this