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Making food a friend (or at least less than an enemy)


Something weird has been happening… through the publicity process, through all the interview questions I’ve been answering and short-form pieces I’ve been writing and conversations I’ve been having with strangers who have read my book, I’ve come to understand myself a little better, and maybe cut myself some slack.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had a body meltdown – for the past six+ months my nerves have been too overloaded with book stuff and work to even consider making room for self-image – and I’ve even begun to realize that a lot of the things I talk about aiming for in the book are already beginning to happen, some in more pronounced ways than others.  Most notable: I think I’m starting to have a normal relationship with food.

Now, of course, the first thing we have to do is define our terms, right?  By a ‘normal’ relationship with food, I mean that I’m not obsessed with it, and it doesn’t control me.  The GB has done its job in a lot of ways, making me feel queasy at the mere sight (not to mention the smell) of fried foods or milkshakes, but I still indulge in more flavorful fats like cheeses and meat, and I still enjoy baking and eating sweets – I just try to make sure I have enough to share with the whole office so I can get it out of the house quickly!  I eat a lot of veggies, because I enjoy them, and I also eat a lot of protein, because it’s delicious and also because I’m pretty badly anemic and tired most of the time and I’m told protein helps with that.

I don’t eat everything I want all the time, but nothing is really forbidden.  That is to say, I try not to eat certain things – especially processed foods and packaged sweets (it’s hard to justify buying cookies when I make such good ones myself with fresh ingredients) – but it’s not the end of the world if I have some Walker’s shortbread on a train, or eat a piece of Sainsbury’s cake that one of my coworkers has brought in as a teatime treat.

I think I finally have a healthy relationship with food, and I can’t begin to express how happy this realization has made me.  For decades I was tormented by food, obsessed with what I should and shouldn’t (and later, could and couldn’t) eat, and that’s by and large in the past now.  Of course I go through phases where I worry about my sugar consumption (often rightly so, from a health standpoint) or try to cut down on the red meat (usually made much easier by replacing beef mince with turkey in everything I make), but who doesn’t examine her eating habits every now and again and try to do better?

Seems pretty normal to me.

Comments

Unknown said…
Hi, I just read your article in Cosmo and wanted to say congrats on how far you've come! And now I've seen your most recent post I'd like add a congrats on your engagement! It must have been hard for you to speak about your journey but it's great that you have done and you look great in the recent pictures in Cosmo! Just wanted to let you know :)
Anne said…
Hi Jodie,

Thank you so much for both congrats! It's so kind of you to come by and leave me a note, and I'm glad you liked the Cosmo pics (I still recoil at posed photos of myself so it's hard for me to be objective).

Your blog is great, too! I'm totally lusting after that cozy biker jacket from Next... might have to do some shopping next payday.

~A x

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