From 100 MORE Days of Weight Loss, Day 42
When your life is stressful or unhappy, food makes the world more bearable. Later, when the painful realities of your life return, you simply eat again.
You also may need to invent new ways to manage transitions in your day.
Here are my answers to the three questions at the end of the lesson.
1. Identify places or times when food provides your main source of fun or entertainment.
Family gatherings! It’s how we entertain ourselves. It goes back to growing up on a farm with lots of hard work (and often being poor) where food was the fun and the respite from it all.
2. Make a list of creative, non-food ways to have fun. Do one of them today.
Get outside and take a walk. (Take the dogs for a walk.)
Play cards and board games in the evenings or with family members.
Work on crafts or projects.
3. For situations where food provides a transition, invent ways to shake up your routine and follow a healthier pattern.
We still slide into having ice cream in the evenings. It seems to indicate that we’re slowing down and moving toward bedtime.
In the past, we’ve listened to music or had a cup of herbal tea to serve that purpose.