Americans love to eat. The love of food is not just relegated to America anymore because food has become a hit sensation around the world. However, travel to other countries and you will still see that the majority of people that are overweight are Americans vacationing in other countries.
I learned that Dallas has more restaurants per capita than any other cities. Texas is in the top three states.
Why do we love food so much? People say they live to eat not eat to live. Unfortunately in this day and age, living to eat will allow you to die a slow painful death as your body slowly breaks down over the years.
Food represents celebration. Win something and out to a restaurant everyone goes. Birthdays are celebrated at a dinner out. Many holidays are now celebrated in restaurants instead of at home. Food become treats and rewards for good behavior. I can see where food is associated with pleasure, but more important, food is associated with the feeling of being good enough.
If we win something, are rewarded, or celebrated, we are being reinforced with the rare message that we are good enough. It is far too often in this world that people tell us the opposite or we have the tape running in our heads telling us we are not good enough, not pretty enough, our body shape is not ideal, not smart enough, and not lovable. We do not live in a supportive society. We live in a society where it is easier to point out everyone’s flaws than to tell them how great they are.
Food offers us unconditional love and acceptance. Food doesn’t reject us. Food allows us to tap into the memory of feeling good and feeling good enough. Our cellular memory equates food with personal accomplishment and success.
The majority of people are emotional eaters no matter what shape or size their body is. Often, overweight people are the ones associated with emotional eating but skinny people can be emotional eaters too. Emotions do not need a certain percentage of body fat to be expressed.
Recognizing why you are eating is the majority of the battle. I always say that the truth may not be fun or pretty, in fact, it really sucks a lot of the time, but only for a moment. Out of truth comes new awareness and growth. It’s okay that you need food in order to feel good enough. That doesn’t mean that you are bad, wrong or damaged. It means you have repressed emotional issues like everyone else. The key to being and feeling different is in emotional release therapy.
In the next blog post, I will discuss what we should be eating and how we should be eating.