Society has built this trap. When we think about the possibility of being hungry, we over analyze everything that we put in our body. If we go out to eat and treat ourselves, our subconscious ends up telling us that we didn’t deserve it and that we threw ourselves off track of all the progress that we have made. It is a straight out lie, but it is a lie that we tell ourselves everytime we want to order the fries, the dessert or the extra cheese on the sandwich. Society has forced us into this inedible fear of food, the thing that keeps us alive, that gives us the nutrients we need in order to survive and yet we are afraid to eat it.
I am not talking as if I am all high and mighty, as if I have never fallen into the trap. Of course I have, of course, your brain automatically regrets putting something in your mouth, because that is what society has ingrained in our thought process. For example, last night I was in bed and my partner was out with some friends, they came home and brought me back a little Mcdonald’s sandwich and some fries. It was the middle of the night and I feel a tap on my shoulder, “I brought you Mcdonald’s.” We then sat at the table, at some ungodly hour at night, more like morning, and ate Mcdonald’s and talked about their night out with friends. It is probably going to be one of my favourite memories, yet I still woke up this morning and for a brief moment, automatically regretted eating the Mcdonald’s. It is high in fat, high in sodium and it probably doesn’t have nutrients that my body particularly needs, or could have gotten from something else, but it was a memory and the food will eventually digest. Even though I went to bed happy, and grateful for my little family and my life, I still woke up to regret, even though it was brief, it was still there. Here is where I am asking myself why? Why are we consciously or subconsciously afraid of food?
I thought about it all day. I can come up with one strong theory that leads me into a direction that makes sense. The diet culture and body image putdowns have been around for a long time. In magazines, advertisements, now social media. It is there, in your face, every day, what society thinks that you should look like and what you should eat to get there. It is in the comments of influencers that you follow, someone saying that they are “too fat to be a role model” and you look down at yourself and think the same. We then feel negatively about ourselves, and possibly express that outloud, for others in our household to hear. Now for a partner to hear, that’s one thing. For the young daughter that is looking up to you, because you are her role model, that’s another. That little girl has watched you put your self-worth on your body, and watches you do it every day, so she turns around and does it to herself. It’s an endless loop. Then, when we feel self-conscious about our bodies, we have a tendency to watch what we eat. Now there is a difference in making sure that the household is eating nutritious food, or creating an enemy with food. When we call food “bad” or “junk”, we are reflecting that negative persona to food. We then become terrified about how many calories we are eating, or how much cheese is allowed, or treating ourselves to “junk” food. In this loop, there are only two exits; one, is to realize that it is a hoax, that we can eat the cookie, just don’t eat high sugar foods every day, all the time, and that we have control of our life, but we need to make sure that we are still living one. Two, we become so scared that a cracker is going to make the number on the scale go up that we become sick. The majority of women in society end up in exit two; however, there is a way to get out and drive through exit one.
Why are we so afraid of food? Because a group of people sat down and told us we should be. There is no fact, there is no research, just a trend that has lasted for decades. We need food. We need the nutrients that it gives us, we need the energy that it allows us to have. Have the fries, don’t worry about how many miles you have to run to burn them off, just have them. A healthy, happy life isn’t about how you never eat out; a healthy, happy life is about taking care of you, inside and out.
I always look at the 80-20 rule. Eighty percent of the time, I eat well, I drink enough water, I exercise. The nutrients I put in my body are high and healthy; twenty percent of the time, I have fun with my food, I go out with my friends, I have a few glasses of wine. I don’t do it every day, but I do it twenty percent of the time, because we have this life that is worth living, not worth counting every calorie, or percentage of fat that we are putting into our bodies.