Do you label your food?

Aside from the obvious food packing labels, I am wondering how many people, aside from myself, label food as either "good" or "bad".

Over the past week in an effort to change my thinking from, "My arse looks like a snow plough", or "The new tyres on the car could come from my waist", I have been trying to recognise how completely destructive this way of thinking is, and change it.  I've also been trying to identify what things trigger my moods and therefore, my 'self-talk'.  Food as I have come to realise, is certainly something that can lead to thoughts and feelings regarding the size of my butt.

I have known for some time (and have perhaps been unwilling to admit), that I have an unhealthy relationship with food. Don't get me wrong, I love food; I love how it smells when I am cooking, I love how it tastes when I am eating it, I love mixing it with wine, and trying new flavours and spices in my cooking.  I love how food looks -especially if it contains blue veins or double-cream mould.  I love how food brings my family together, and how weekly we share good laughs, memories, and stories over food.  What I don't love is how I feel after eating certain foods.

If you are anything like me, it is possible you may have an "all" or "nothing" mentality.  For me this means that like so many things in my life, I lack balance when it comes to food.  All to often I have set out to eat one chocolate biscuit and have shamefully stopped somewhere around the fifth.  The thing is, more often that not I only enjoyed the first one or two, and after that I was purely binging out of a sense of guilt, and a lack of control.

This I have decided is possibly because I view certain foods as "good" and "bad".  Good foods I eat guilt free - however, I probably eat larger serves of these foods than I actually need to due to my belief they are good.  Whereas so called bad foods I mostly try and avoid, and perhaps it is for this reason that when I do eat them I tend to binge on them. I have the warped, and rather sad view that "Oh well, Alfie, you have let yourself down now, may as well eat the entire packet and go for broke with the chips aswell".

This week I have decided that in order to get myself back to my 'most comfortable and happy weight' I am going to focus on some realistic, and achievable, goals. With my all-or-nothing way of thinking there tends to come the desire to see significant changes overnight (oh I wish), yet I know logically this is not possible, and is not a healthy way of thinking. 

My goal for this week is to think about food as 'neutral'.  Not good or bad, but simply food.  Granted we all recognise some foods are going to be more nutritionally sound than others, but we also know that the key to a healthy lifestyle is moderation. This week I am aiming to make a few small changes in the way I think about food.

My motto for this week is: 'Yes, I can eat this if I want to, but is it what I really want?" If my answer is yes, than great I am going to eat it an enjoy it.  If however I am just eating it because it's available, I am bored, irritable, emotional - whatever, then perhaps that is the time to stop and think about my actions. 

Till next time, Alfie x

* I recommend getting your hands on a copy of 'If Not Dieting, Then What" By Dr Rick Kausman if, like me, you have these attitudes towards food.