Concious vs obsessive

Earlier this year, I really became concious of what I was eating. I mean REALLY.

I know many people who eat healthily. They shop at health food stores and eat organic foods etc. I was like that as well. For the past few years I (and my family) went through a transition. We went from a non-organic, wheat and dairy based diet, to a mostly organic diet based on fruits, some veggies, gluten-free grains and natural meat products. But I still wasn't eating conciously. I ate all day long. Whatever I wanted (within reason), I ate. I ate all the kids leftovers. I didn't really think too much about food because I thought I was eating mostly the right stuff.

As I read and learned more, I decided to really think about what I was eating. I ate only raw food for a while. But in this transition to concious eating, I became obsessive. Almost evey moment of the day, I was thinking about what I was going to eat and what I was not going to eat. I was thinking of how I was going to explain not eating at restaurants and other social situations. I was stressing out about throwing away my children's leftovers. Then I was thinking of what other people were eating and how disgusting it was. It seemed my whole life was centered on eating. Then I was obsessing about why I was obsessing about food so much.

Then, I came to a simple conclusion. I had spent over 30 years of my life NOT obsessing about food. In fact, I had barely thought about it at all. So I decided that it was OKAY to be obsessive about food for a little while. I gave myself a few months to let myself be obsessive. After all, I used to be a SAD food eater, which is an addiction in itself. Isn't the best way of getting rid of an addition to find a substitute behavior? I think I read somewhere that it takes a minimum of 3 weeks to reprogram a behavior.

Once I accepted that I would go through an obsessive phase, my obsessive phase actually started to fade. Of course, I made a few modifications. I do eat one cooked meal a day. Some days I eat two and some days I eat none, but usually one. When I am ready to eat or I'm feeling hungry (or if I'm at the grocery store), I start to ponder about what I am going to eat -is it healthy?, am I combining properly?, etc. But I actually don't obsess about food at other times anymore.

It's very freeing, to be eating consiously but not obsessively.

Some days I decide to eat "whatever I want", a "cheat day" most people call it. Every now and then I think, I am going to buy myself a nice pastry from the French bakery. You know what, when I go in, I look at the options and mostof the time, I decide that nothing really looks apealling and I walk out empty-handed. Then I go home and feast on the fresh fruit of the season and I am satisfied.

Tina. Tweet