One day I was at a friend’s house and she was wanting a snack. She went to the kitchen and grabbed a small snack sized bag of chips. As she opened them on her way back to the living room, one of her kids asked for one.
I watched as she put one in her mouth then handed on to the child. That action, of course, caught the attention of the rest of the kids in the room. They were like a pack of hyenas that just caught a glimpse of a downed animal. They all now wanted a chip. As she put one in her mouth then handed each child a chip, I watched in amazement.
One chip for her, one for each child (there were probably 3-4 kids begging for a chip). Then she put one more in her mouth and handed the bag to one of the children to share with the rest.
All of this out of a SNACK-SIZE bag. My mind was blown.
I griped in my mind for her, “No, get your own bag. These are mine. There are only 7 chips in here to begin with, I’m not sharing.”
And it was in that moment that I realized that I had an issue.
She had a craving and with 2 bites, it was gone. She had absolutely no issue with sharing. It didn’t even occur to her to be upset over a tiny bag of chips. She never had any intention of eating the whole bag anyway.
I’ve had several instances like this over the years. Many times that I noted how others reacted to food.
When I read Waist Away: The Chanel Ray Way, it started making sense. She gives the rules for “eating like a naturally thin” person and the light bulb came on. This is one of the “rules”.
Naturally thin people very seldom eat their whole meal or snack. They start eating when they are hungry, they stop when they aren’t. Notice I didn’t say that they stop when they are full. They stop when they are satisfied.
There is no emotional attachment to the food.
At that moment in time, 2 chips satisfied her craving for a chip (or something salty or crunchy, I’m not sure what she was craving haha).
She knew that at any time she could go and get more chips if she wanted, but she wasn’t obsessed with it.
I don’t have any idea where it came from, but for some reason, I have a scarcity mindset regarding food. I’ve NEVER gone hungry. I’ve never been truly hungry to the point that it affected my body. I have never had to fight for food.
It’s like I haven’t lived my entire life with continual access to food. It’s like I am terrified to be hungry.
Why?
Honestly, I have no idea. I really don’t know when it started or why. I knew that something was going on in that chip situation (there have been many, many more since then), but I didn’t know what. I didn’t realize how crazy addicted to food I was.
The last few months, I’ve been dabbling in different ways of eating to find the best combination of what works with MY body. One of the things I have been experimenting with is intermittent fasting.
The very 1st day I started IF, I called my sister and told her that I had a new appreciation for people that battle addiction. I seriously felt like I was addicted to food. The fact that I couldn’t have it made me want it more. It was all I was could think about. I honestly didn’t know how long I’d dabble in IF. It seriously felt like torture to me. Dramatic, I know.
That was a serious wake-up call for me. There is, and never has been, a reason for me to be scared of not having enough food. I live in one of the riches countries in the world. For the most part, our food is safe. I can have as much as I want. I have been blessed enough to be able to pretty much buy whatever I want to eat. There is absolutely no reason for me to eat every time I *think* I want something or *think* that I’m hungry.
That led to a major mindset shift.
I no longer eat because it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner time. I eat when my stomach growls.
I no longer don’t eat a certain food because it is “bad”. I can take a few bites and move on, or decide that at that time, I really don’t need to feed the craving and re-direct my focus to something else.
I no longer eat out of boredom…..you know that no healthy eating comes out of boredom lol
These are a few of the things that have changed as I find my very best way of eating. I’m not that girl anymore who can’t figure out how you could possibly share your dessert. It’s just not that big of a deal. If it really came down to it, you could get another dessert……it’s not that serious.
Food is fuel, nothing else.
I realize that food can be a big part of a culture or can be very social but that is a whole different post. The baseline of food as fuel still applies, even then.
Did my chip story spark anything in you?
Would you be flabbergasted and irritated if someone shared something so yummy or are you someone that doesn’t really care about food outside of fuel and you’d definitely share if someone asked (without being secretly mad about it)?
Have you ever considered being addicted to food? How does that notion make you feel?
I’d love to continue the discussion about this in the comments! Feel free to message me as well if you have questions that are too personal.
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