by Barbara Berkeley, MD
It's the day after Father's Day and I'm in my office seeing patients. I'm halfway through the morning, but the damage is already clear: celebrating has taken its inevitable toll. Many of my regulars are up in weight because of what they ate yesterday.
The day after Father's Day is generally bad news. But so is the day after Memorial Day, the day after the Fourth of July, the day after Mother's Day, and the day after Valentine's Day (don't even ask about the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas!). Then there is the post birthday day, the day after the anniversary, the day following the wedding, the day after the christening, the day following the Bar Mitzvah, the day after the bad news, the day after the good news, the day after the business trip, the day the cruise ended...and so many other days that....well, there basically are no days left.
I would like to propose a radical and very unpopular idea: WE NEED TO STOP CELEBRATING WITH FOOD.
But, you say, celebrating with food is part of every culture. It's a human need. It's love, it's family, it's the very essence of who we are. And I would agree with you. Up until now, that has been true. But I believe things have changed.
I believe that two major shifts have occurred that suggest we should rethink our attitude toward food for the fun of it. The first is that most of us have elements of food addiction. The second is that most of us (at least in my opinion) have developed dysfunction in our food balancing mechanisms. Essentially, I believe that lifelong exposure to the SAD has taken away our ability to celebrate with food as we used to.
If you are reading this blog, you are someone who has gotten into trouble because of food. This means that you are particularly sensitive to the SAD, a sensitivity that developed over many years. I blame our diet for this, not some arcane metabolic defect, not some willpower flaw, not some endocrine malfunction. Having said this though, the sensitivity you've developed seems to be permanent, kind of like an allergy that popped up late in life. If strawberries cause you to swell up like the Michelin Tire Man, you'd better not be putting them on your plate. If SAD foods cause you to gain weight rapidly, remain hungry afterwards and fall off your preferred eating plan, you'd be wise not to use them as a celebratory tool.
As with all things related to maintenance, the avoidance of food celebration relies on a clearly defined vision. What is it you are trying to achieve? What is your goal for the future? What body do you want to create? What is your plan? And most importantly, are you serious enough about changing to reconsider things that have always been sacrosanct? This is probably the biggest question. It's easy to long for some vague, perfect body. It's much harder to give up the pumpkin pie and your Aunt Ida's special gravy.
I know I am probably boring you with my analogies to the Gulf disaster, but when we celebrate with food, we are also often allowing major corporations to take over our eating. Like the oil companies, we can be pretty sure that they don't particularly have our best interests at heart. Ribs! Tacos! Cheesecake! Pasta! It all sounds good and looks luscious. The food sea around us is all chocalatey velvet...until it turns out that the brown stuff is really oil: toxic.
In years past, when our bodies were unencumbered by the damage of the SAD and foods were still cooked at home, we could afford the fun of periodic feasting. Today, we are under assault with bodies that have already been weakened by food's persistent attack. Hold the line and stay steady if you want to win the war. That means sticking to plan, even when it's time to celebrate!
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