I use to think a slice (or 2…or 5 if I’m honest) use to make me happy. It just made me fatter. The weight started coming off after I changed my relationship with food. Image courtesy of Witthaya Phonsawat and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

One of my favorite bloggers, Diane Carbonnel at Fit to Finish, has a great post about overeating creating a false sense of happiness.  I read the post and it triggered a lot of bad memories.

For me, food was my salvation when my job annoyed me or stressed me out.  Bad meeting, hit the vending machines (Doritos makes the pain go away, right?!?); last-minute project, suck back 2-3 cans of Coca-Cola to deal with stress; ticked off about working late, just run out (ha, more like waddle) to grab some fast food to ease my mind.

I thought all that crap I was shoving into my mouth was a slice of fried gold in my otherwise miserable day.

But the truth is I fell into a miserable Pavlovian cycle. I still hated my job after eating all that crap. So I ate more junk to make me feel better. Then I felt horrible about my weight. So naturally I comforted myself with carb-heavy comfort food. I did this for 10 years and all it got me was 100+ pounds of extra junk in my trunk.

In reality, I was stuck in my own glass case of emotion trying to find happiness.

Then there were all those holidays with family or get togethers with friends. I’d always looked forward to the food at those events, even though the events were really about hanging out with folks I love.  Ugh!

Thankfully I’m much wiser now. Sure, I love a good meal, but it doesn’t make me happy. What makes me happy is spending time with friends and family. Oh, and losing that 100+ pounds ain’t so bad either!