IS FOOD OBSESSION RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR CONSTANT STRUGGLE WITH WEIGHT?

We are more informed about good, bad and even superfoods yet, we struggle more than any generation before us. Have we been brainwashed into constantly thinking about food whether good or bad?

I had a bit for a rough year which brought about lifestyle changes coupled with emotional eating and it led to gaining about 10lbs. As a petite 5’3 that makes a lot of difference and while the weight is not so bad, that feeling of not being able to wear some clothes cos they are downright uncomfortable and don’t fit is very annoying.

So I set out to lose the weight and ended up on a yo-yo rollercoaster which has been very frustrating. I feel like I've read so many books and tried so many diets but none of them works even though they all seemed promising at the start.  Something else I noticed on this journey was how each diet had a cult-like following with the founder of the diet as a cult leader where people hang on their every word and take it as gospel. 

My latest obsession was a diet called f- factor, it focused on eating a very high fibre diet and was discovered after a clinical dietician prescribed this eating style for some heart patients and they lost a lot of weight as a result. The writer of the book was a perfect skinny 40 something-year-old mum of 3 with a rich husband and her own business, luxury holidays and mansion on the upper east side of Manhattan, inspirational.  She had regular Instagram live videos to courage her followers to live a healthy lifestyle and teach them easy recipes that you could do with a protein powder she created. Well, everything was all fun and games till I found myself getting constantly obsessed with how many healthy recipes I could try out and ended up eating more and not losing the weight. Arrg another one bites the dust!!! 

 I learnt that going on a diet puts you in the guilt cycle which puts you in this frame of mind where you are either winning and happy or losing and feeling like a failure which is generally not good for one's mental health and tends to make you eat more. Oh Shit!

Over time I started realising that dieting is not the issue, the issue for me was the constant thinking about food. Whether it's intermittent fasting and I'm watching the clock planning my next meal or  thinking of the next delicious “plant-based healthy" recipe that I can try out OR  how to incorporate that new superfood into my diet and my personal favourite, using ‘myfitnesspal' to track what I am going to have for my next meal. Basically, my mind was just food food food food.

I believe there is a place for diets as a healing regiment to help combat illnesses and diseases but for weight loss, diets have the opposite effect, they might work temporarily but the long-term damage to one's metabolism and mental health is not worth the restriction. So what is the best way to lose the extra chub? I believe the best way to get rid of the extra chub is to shift your focus from constantly obsessing about food whether good or bad.

This is a secret that most natural skinny people have, yes genes may play a part in being naturally skinny but I have found that most naturally slim people do not constantly obsess about food. They eat whatever is put in front of them without thinking so much about it and sometimes when they are very busy they forget to eat. Which is a strange concept for me right now but I remember years ago, I would have a  have a cup of milky tea for dinner just because I didn't feel like anything or cos I had a big lunch but now that sounds like such an obscene idea.