I don’t talk a lot about emotional overeating here, despite the fact I am really the poster child for compulsive overeating or binge eating disorder or food addiction. Part of that is my experience treating my weight “emotionally” took lots of years of therapy and probably tens of thousands of dollars and only had a marginal impact.
All that said, part of me is that cliche of a woman who may have been fat in part to deflect unwanted attention (let’s just say I have more in common with Bette Midler than initials!). I don’t have severe trauma or abuse in my past, but being teased starting in 6th grade definitely left a mark.
Fast forward to today. I haven’t set foot outside my office in over a year because of my back issues. Today, I’m celebrating my ability to finally walk a bit of distance by walking around my building (my route wasn’t even 1/3 of a mile) at lunchtime.
As I round a corner, I see a guy approaching me make a comment that I didn’t hear. I don’t recognize him, but I work with 2000 people or so and it’s happened before that a co-worker I don’t know comments on my weight loss.
I say something like “Sorry?” and hear back:
Stop what you’re doing right now and go to lunch with me.
Ummm, no.
Anyways, thanks to some or all of neurofeedback, a paleo diet, and/or meditation, I walked away seeing the irony of this … literally my first day out and getting unwanted attention from Joe Stranger on the street.
What are the odds? But hooray, no triggers!
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health & food policy. And cats!
Congratulations! On feeling well enough to go for a walk and for brushing off unwanted attention.
As a compulsive eater myself, I’d like to hear more about how you are doing with that. I have mixed feelings about Paleo after being following it 80/20 for 6 months. When I’m eating Paleo I feel great but when I fall off the wagon I fall pretty hard.
Thanks! I am going to do a post on this soon (I fell hard after the holidays interestingly enough!
:-) well done! keep up the good work!
Wow. I can relate. It’s hard to feel compassion for those who treat me like a thing (when they suggest, for instance, that they *know* what I should do). It’s easier, though, if I realize that they don’t see me, they only see a fantasy projection. They don’t see a real human being. That’s sad. It means they have lost something precious-the power to be truly connected as humans. Their need to dominate reveals their own powerlessness. When I identify that human foible, I feel less compulsion to react. Great post. Thanks.