Is your body giving you signals that you’re not as healthy as you used to be? If you’re getting winded when you climb up a flight of stairs or feeling aches and pain in your joints, you may be tempted to think that you’re getting old, but your body is probably responding to years of habits that haven’t been serving you.
Andrea Amador, The Juicy Woman, Body Respect, love your body, health, emotional eating, compulsive, depression, hungry,
Is your body giving you signals that you’re not as healthy as you used to be? If you’re getting winded when you climb up a flight of stairs or feeling aches and pain in your joints, you may be tempted to think that you’re getting old, but your body is probably responding to years of habits that haven’t been serving you.
The health scare that pushed me to change my eating habits
Last year I had a really big health scare that pushed me to recognize that I needed to make some serious lifestyle changes.
I had been very depressed for months because both of my kids were leaving for college and it was time to begin downsizing. When my husband retired, he went into a deep depression and his sadness and frustration was more than I could bear, so I avoided facing him every chance I could. Trying to avoid dealing with his depression, make me depressed.
The prospect of being an emptynester and selling my house and perhaps also getting a divorce was completely overwhelming. Because I had spent so many years juggling running a business and trying to be the perfect mother, I knew that my marriage had gotten the shorter end of the stick. All those years of putting everything else first, I knew I had lost touch with my husband.
I was filled with fears that he and I had fallen out of love with one another and our once happy 24 year marriage was at a dead end. Feeling all those hurt and fear-filled feelings was so overwhelming to me that I just couldn’t deal with them. To numb myself, I binged on sugary treats and carb loaded foods until I fell asleep on the sofa in a food coma. The days and months passed and I was lost to my depression.
By the time I turned 51 last December, I was having trouble getting up and down the stairs, I had constant pain in my feet and intense leg cramps. But when I started getting chest pains, that’s when I knew that something was not right. It’s been a long road back to health.
I’m not dieting, but I’m respecting my body more than ever
Since then I’ve made some big changes in my eating and activity and with the help of a friend who’s a nutritionist, I now eat to manage my sugar levels. I’m not dieting, but I am respecting my body more than I ever did before. I’ve even changed my completely sedentary ways to include going to the gym or doing Tae Bo almost daily. Why? Because I realized how peaceful, energized and happy I feel after a workout. There’s nothing quite like the natural high you get when you do something that feels good and is good for you.
I still have a lot of stress in my life because I’m still facing a lot of unknowns. Since I’ve changed my priorities and made more time to be with my husband, my marriage is a lot happier, but I don’t know if that will change in the future. He still goes through long bouts of depression and I know there’s nothing I can do to help him. He’s not yet ready. I can only manage my own emotions.
Happiness is a choice
I know now that by blaming other people for our misery, we are inadvertently giving away our power. Happiness is a choice. If you believe that your happiness is contingent upon certain circumstances or people, then you’ll always be trying to catch the elusive butterfly. Happiness is a choice. Choose wisely.
All I’m certain of is that I’m worthy of being healthy, strong and happy, and you are too. I fell into my depression because I believed I was a victim and helpless to change my circumstances so I ate to numb my pain. Now I realize that it was my lack of self-respect and self-nurturing that led me to act like a victim.
Are you respecting your body? Are the foods you’re eating giving you energy or leaving you exhausted and ready to take a nap? Making changes at any pace is really difficult, but if you’ve got a lot on your emotional plate, it’s even harder because all your body wants to do is feel safe and be happy. If food makes you feel safe and happy, then you’ll continue to compulsively eat, seeking relief from the pain.
When I wrote my book, “Lovin’ the Skin You’re In” I talked about the importance of listening to your body and being willing to make changes to what you’re eating in response to how your body feels. I never thought that I would be able to cut down on wheat and avoid sugar in my foods, without feeling hugely deprived. Today I realize that the candy bars and cookies that I was using to numb myself and to soften the blow of facing the reality of my crumbling marriage and kids leaving for school, were part of the problem. Eating huge amounts of sugar and carbs were causing my body’s blood sugar levels to go out of control and that was making me moody, anxious and depressed.
I’m no doctor and I can’t begin to tell you what to eat, because I don’t know. The best advice that I can give you is this. Respect your body. When I realized that my body was rebelling against the foods that I was eating, I knew that I had to stop hurting myself and take a stand and deal with what was bugging me without using the old crutch of food.
How ’bout you? Are you hurting and using food to soothe the pain? Please share your thoughts and your story. I’d love to hear from you.