A Life Centered Around Food Is Leading To Obsession

Sure, we all need to food to live, but when you are a mother of four to pre-teens and teenagers, your life is centered and obsession over the next meal. Every day, all day, I think about food.

Preparing three meals a day for 6 people.
Getting snacks for the kids
Figuring out my own nutritional timing
Planning dinner with the family every 10 days
Grocery shopping multiple times a week
Remembering what snacks and drinks my kids had
Making sure everyone drinks enough water
Asking myself if I am bored or actually hungry

It’s no wonder I’ve become obsessed. From that list above, I am living and breathing food even when I’m not fueling myself. It’s everywhere.

Food- The Life Centered Obsession

There are so many recipes, videos and pictures of people’s food all over the internet. We showcase food when truly it’s supposed fuel for keeping us alive.

It has become the centerpiece for our get togethers. The main concern when throwing a party is food. Family gatherings typically contain major parts of the day when you are planning your next meal while eating your current meal.

I’m all for preparedness but our society as a whole has an obsession with food.

I’m no exception.

Putting Food On A Silver Platter of Obsession

It’s nice to know that I’m not alone in my skewed relationship with food. Food has started to possess human qualities and is idolize by humans on a pedestal.

If food didn’t taste so good I would be happy eating the same thing everyday. With so many flavor combinations, it’s hard to resist trying new things.

The problem is not food itself but the over consumption and eating to deal with emotions.

Treating Food as Fuel

I get why little kids eat the same thing everyday and are okay not having a ton of variety. They are still in the stage of life where food is sustenance and nothing else.

They eat because they are hungry and for no other reason. When they become exposed to media and views of their inner circle is when food becomes more than fuel.

My youngest can leave almost an entire plate of food because he wants to play.

For him, there are more important things to take care of than eating. He doesn’t even think about eating after dinner unless he is truly hungry. 99% of the time, he is satisfied with what he ate and is good till breakfast or even longer.

Listening To Your Body’s Hunger Cues

He listens to his body tell him when he needs to eat, not his brain.

The problem occurs when other people (like me, guilty as charged) give him snacks as a way to cure boredom while at a sibling’s sports game instead of letting him be bored.

I do this with all the kids.

They are not hungry. It’s more about keeping them entertained with food so they will be quiet.

And I wonder why our family has an addictive love of food. I do things out of what is convenient for me, instead of being truly intentional about food with my family.

Conclusion

Surrounding yourself with food for reasons other than hunger creep up as we age. If, as adults, we could live like children and eat when we were hungry, then this obsession with food could go by the wayside.

What if we truly enjoyed our food when we ate it and didn’t scarf it down like it was our last meal? We could become obsessed with food in a different way. Really listening to the ways it interacts with our body and how we feel when we eat it.

We live in a world where life is centered around food; idolized and a problem to our solutions. Food is weighing us down as society in more ways than one. Having weight issues as a child has really opened me up to looking at the root of my ongoing food obsession. This is not a trait I want to pass along to my kids.

Even though, they are older now, there is still time to come up with ways to deal with emotions and boredom than heading straight to the kitchen.

Time for another change, kiddos! Mom is really waking up here!