"Food was the first thing to love me back"

I once read something, and I wonder how many of you can relate to this statement. Stop and think about it, you might be surprised at your reaction.

"FOOD WAS THE FIRST THING THAT LOVED ME BACK."

How easy it is to eat our feelings, well it is easier than having to deal with them. Food is love. Below the surface it is also hate - the self-loathing that enables us to focus on how "fat, ugly, disgusting and depressed" we feel so that we don't have to look at our own behaviours. What part we have played in being rejected, being a failure or not achieving our dreams.

Food is love. Go past the cliché and think about what these words really mean. Is this the only source of love, does food really love us? No food is love, but it does give us that quick fix, but there again so do drugs, alcohol. Do we turn to these in our hour of weakness and need. No we know the harm they do or have the power to do. But is the same thing true of food. Yes it is. Food can also be abused. We need food to live day by day.
You will not die if you don't eat for a short period.

But what happens when you overeat. Yes you gain weight, but it is much more than that. Your self-esteem goes downhill, you believe you are fat, you are useless and many other negatives. You lose mobility; you put extra pressure on all your major organs. You then enter a downward spiral. You hate yourself for what you are doing to your body, but the only quick fix is to eat more. Now what happens, you start to be depressed because of all the negatives you see with you life. Time will come when your life is rule by fear and anxiety. Fear of going out because someone might see you and see how little control you have over your life. Fear about starting to exercise because you are too big to get into suitable clothing.

Many of these thoughts are in your mind, not in the people around you. Remember you are the only one who can make a difference. You are the only one who says enough is enough. You need to hate how you look today, your fat body so much that you have to change. It is like an alcoholic, however many times they are told they have a problem, until they decide to do something about it nothing will happen. Once they make that choice, they are then on the road to recovery.
 
Yes it is a long road; it will take time and effort. You didn't wake up one morning and find that you went from 120 lbs to 220 lbs. It took time to gain that weight and it will take time to lose it. You may say you don't have time to cook healthy food. I would say rubbish. Healthy food takes less time and effort to cook.

Challenge for the next 24 hours. Take a sample menu of what you would eat if you were not eating healthily. Now work out how long it take to prepare. Remember to include that bacon butty. How long did it take to cook that bacon? Those burgers and chips for lunch, again how long. See what it is at the end of the day. If you had to go to the stores to buy cream cakes or chocolate on a daily basis, add it all in. Now you know how long you spend.

Now take a healthy menu for the day. How long to prepare these foods. Well the mid-morning snack is simple. Go to the fruit bowl and grab an apple. 20 seconds at the most. Get the picture. See which takes the longest. I guarantee it is the unhealthy menu.

Now you know how many extra minutes you have in a day, guess what you are going to do to use them up. EXERCISE.