Day Forty One!!

Food is about self-love!
Tonight I am looking forward to going out to dinner for my parents anniversary. I didn’t want to eat lunch because I know I am going to be eating some carbohydrates tonight. Yesterday we talked about fasting, so today I wanted to talk about starvation. 


Starvation is also a diet, the starvation diet. Unfortunately with starvation this sends serious signals to our brain that tells us that we are in a precarious position. So after a period of time of not eating the brain becomes afraid that we are in fatal jeopardy. When it is that we do give ourselves permission to eat then what happens is that the brain sends signals that tells us that we need to totally overcompensate and sets up the need to binge. 


Starvation and hunger symbolizes both a physical and emotional lack of fulfilment, lack of direction, and lack of control in a persons life, says Dr. Laurie. Because we need consistency of food intake on a daily basis, so that we always know that we are safe and therefore not in fatal jeopardy; starvation and hunger on the other hand unearths our sense of survival. 


Food is a classic image to connect people together, it’s about both fulfillment and can be the opposite, lack of fulfilment. Food is a means of communication and when there’s no communication there’s no intimacy. When we think about times of our greatest connections or times of celebration, food is involved. It is a means of social connection, represents love, and can become a passion. We need to know ourselves, keep in contact with ourselves (which is talking to ourselves) and therefore we need to intimately know ourselves. 


Good food is good for us and eating appropriately is a means of self care. When a person starves themselves, that is actually self harm, and then when a person binges, that is also self harm. So the key is, that when you are hungry you need to eat. So when I am hungry, like I am right now, I need to eat.


So the goal for me is to arrive at the restaurant tonight not starving myself and saying that I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse. No. Instead I’m going to make sure that I have a little snack before I go so that my brain isn’t worried about the need for survival and therefore I can remain in control and enjoy my meal and not binge.